Saturday, March 07, 2009

My little Young Author

Olivia's teacher invited her to participate in a event sponsored by the school district to honor young authors called the Young Writer's Exposition. Her and her teacher took one of her stories and published it by adding a cover page, dedication page, illustrations, and binding it. Then Olivia got to go share it with others on a saturday and even meet a real published author.

Here she is holding her book at the event.



And sharing it with the group



Well, yes, of course I know you are dying to check out her book now, aren't you? Here is the front cover. It's called The Day I Went On My Favorite Ride by Olivia Jones 2009. The illustration gives a hint as to what that favorite ride turns out to be.



Inside the front cover there is even an About the Author section. It says "My name is Olivia Jones. I was born in California. I live with my brother, Noah, age 4, my mom and my dad. I want to be an author when I grow up. I like to do art. I like to play a lot of things. I like to write and read." Then it restates the title and is even dedicated to "My Grammy." Quite the honor.



And here we go with the story. Should I retype the whole thing? I guess so, below each page is the print on each...



One nice vacation, I went to Disneyland. I was scared to go on "It's a Small World." But, my mom made me. When it was over, it was my favorite ride!



After awhile, we were going to go on the next ride. It was the Jungle ride. I wasn't too sure about that. I said, "Daddy and Noah can go on it and if they like it I will go too."



After awhile they came back. I asked, "Did you like it?" They said, "Yes! There was a part of the ride where a waterfall landed on our heads!" So I said, "No, I won't go."



But daddy made me go on the ride. When it was done, I liked it!



That day at Disneyland, I learned that sometimes mommy and daddy know what I will like even if I'm not sure.



And that was the best day of my life!

I remember that day vividly. You can imagine my retelling might have had some different emotions involved. I definitely prefer Olivia's version. And it was well worth it for how proud I am of my Young Author! Quite the illustrator too, isn't she?

Winchester Mystery House

The Winchester Mystery House is a historic home a few miles away from our house. It's unique for many reasons, and I could talk about it all day, but I'll let you read the link to satisfy your own curiosities instead of boring you to death. I'll just show you the pictures from our tour one rainy day last month.

Among the interesting architectures include a staircase to nowhere



and a doorway to a solid wall



But I guess that happens when you are constantly constructing a home for 38 years straight. It still wasn't finished though...



But it included beauty as well as idiosyncrasies, such as the stained glass



We all really enjoyed the tour, but I think I enjoyed it the most even though Olivia as the one who had begged to go on it.





Well worth the price of admission if you ask me!

Signs of spring

I had daffodils blooming last month which just made my rain filled days. I'm so glad the sun is out now, I even have the good cheer to update my blog. What's even better is that these were planted two years ago, nothing like daffodils blooming that I didn't have to do anything for. Olivia and I even planted some more bulbs this year for the future returns.