Le Petite Labrinthe

Today we went to a big park that took all the stops on the train. When we got there there were all these cafes that Mom said we would go to later. When we got there the first thing we saw was a sign that pointed to a labrinth. We found out that it was just bushes with holes in them for children to climb through, but boy was it fun! We played there for an hour, but Elliott got too many scratches plus bumped his head on a rock. We had to leave anyway, because I was getting hungry. We went to a pizza restraunt and ordered a chicken-and-egg pizza. Cool! Then we went to a bookstore and got Elliott a book. Not me though, because I needed to go to the bathroom. We found one, but it was out of order. Then we found another that had a faucet so we could wash our hands. Mom said we should go to a playground but it had construction in it. We found another one, played for a while, and went home...

Arc De Triomph

Today we walked down a street that had stores on stores on stores! We didn't go in any of them except two. The first one was a Disney Store which had Toy Story 3 stuff. The second one was just a huge toy store that had an upstairs too. The first floor was pretty packed, though. I saw video games, samples of games that were out so you could play with them, but the most fun part was seeing a whole aisle filled with toy dragons. My dream come true!!! But unfortunately we did not buy any. Boo Hoo! Mom saw an IPhone store, but she didn't tell me about it until we were past it, because she didn't want me to beg to go in there and play the sample video games. She thinks I could live the rest of my life without video games BUT I CAN'T! We kept walking at at the end of the street we saw the Arc de Triomph! It looked to me like a big rectangle on legs with big carvings all over it. And guess what! we got to walk UNDER the street to get over there, so we didn't have to dodge all the cars and speeding motorcycles.

A Real Rest

Today we finally had a nice,quiet,rest day. But first we went to a pharmacy to get ointment and band aids for all our scratches. We also got a clay mask for me. But when we got home and I put it on, it stung my face so I had to take it off real quick! Mom finished her delicious lasagna. Guess what, it took 2 days to make, but it was worth it, because it was so yummy.

Children's Museum

Today we went to the biggest playground EVER!!!!!!! A children's museum! We had to take 2 trains to get there, but we did it. When we got there the line was real long to get tickets. We survived and got our tickets to go in. To our dissappointment, we found out that we could only stay for 90 minutes. When we got in first thing I saw was a little garden exhibit. I went in and saw ANTS! a real ant hill! and it was glass so I could see the ants doing their work inside. There was even a cemetery where they put all the dead ants. And I learned that a worker and a queen rub antennas to see if they are from the same colony. If they are, then the worker can feed the queen. And I learned that all the food scraps go into one big compost pile. They have different rooms for different types of food too, like grain, fruit and meat. There was a butterfly room with butterflies everywhere! And flowers and plants that butterflies like to suck on. Then we heard some rock music so we went through a little door and there was a stage where you could pretend that you were playing the instruments and it filmed you and looked like you were professional rock bands singing old songs. There were lots of other things, but it would probably take up all of my blog space if I wrote it all down here. I HAVE to go to bed.

Notre Dame

Today when we woke up there was no sitting around and hanging out. It was just get up and go. To...Notre Dame! We had to take a train 10 stops. When we got there, there was a big line, but luckily it went by fast. I was surprised at how fast it went by, because there were alot of people inside. Inside there was this LOUD organ music. I liked it a little, but I thought it was too loud. The ceiling seemed to me like a mile high. Then we came to a model of the whole Notre Dame. It was HUGE even in model form. Then there was another model that showed little people building the Notre Dame. We didn't go to the top though, since being in the Eiffel Tower and the hot air balloon we just didn't want to. After that we went to a big park called Luxembourg and in the center there was a little lake where you could rent mini-sailboats and sail them around the lake. We got one, of course, and we played with it. It got stuck once on a little duck house in the middle of the pond, but the wind blew it loose. When it got stuck a second time it didn't come loose for 10 or 15 minutes. We had to ask the lady to help us. To our surprise, she jumped in with her long waterproof boots and got the boat free. She helped some other boats too while she was in there.

Le Tour!

Today we saw the most famous bike riding race in the whole world! But first we stopped at a really great playground. We played there for a while then went to the river to watch the parade and bike race. First came the parade where all these advertisement trucks and yelling people and police cars and motorcycles and stuff like that came by. We waited until the parade was over then there were a few cars making sure the road was clear. A few motorcycles, trucks with loud music and buses full of people. It took longer than we thought it should have been, but when we got home we figured out why. It's a really silly excuse so try not to laugh---they had to delay the start of the race because the riders couldn't figure out what to wear!!!!! Ha! Ha! Ha! When I saw them, I was like "Phewf! They are finally here!" But when I saw how fast they went by and how quickly it was over, I wanted to go right back to the playground! Mom let us play for a LOOONNNNNNGG time. We found another patisserie on the way back and I got, of course, a lemon pie, two actually, a petit one and a grande one.

Playgrounds

We had a very relaxing morning today. Mom said we should go out and play soccer to get some exercise. We found a playground but the guard said NO SOCCER BALLS!!! There was plenty more to do though. At the playground I ate my little cake that I got from a pattiserrie along the way. It was good, but it had some almond flavor in it so I couldn't share with Elliott. Then we saw another park across the street. We went over and guess what. It was a sandy park. We took our socks and shoes off and ran in to play. Then a girl that spoke English (not very good though) asked "What are you playing" we said "tag" and she asked if she could play with us. We said yes, and everyone had to chase me. No one could catch me, though! I'm a fast runner, I should tell you that! We chose that park, because Mom wanted to go to the Monet museum and see Water Lilies. We didn't go though, because we were having so much fun in the park. My new friend and I talked about our personalities while Elliott tried to find some friends too. He didn't though. He played tag with us some more.

Mona Lisa

Today we went to the museum with Mona Lisa in it! It didn't look great, but Mom liked it. We saw lots of other stuff too, like real mummies, statues so old they had holes in them, 80000000000 paintings of numerous subjects, old egyption clay objects, there were even pictures on the ceiling! At the entrance there was a mall with all these gift shops. As soon as we saw them we were like Mom can we go in here, can we can we canwe? ! but she didn't let us buy anything because SHE thought things would be too heavy to carry around in the museum. But when we came back out, she let me get a notebook with the Mona Lisa painting on it. I wanted that notebook because then on every page I could draw one of my cartoon characters looking at the painting. I've already done 6 pages!

Jardin d'Accllimatation

Today was AWSOME! We went to a park with not only playgrounds, but rides too! And to get there we had to go on a little train. It is so tiny! When we got there the first things we saw were 100000000 playgrounds. But Mom said we should go on the rides first so we don't forget while we are playing. The first ride (a roller coaster!) was great, except there was a part where I thought I was falling! The second ride, the pirate ships, went really fast and went foward and backward. The third is where you sit in a swing and it spins you so fast that you go outward a little. This is SO MUCH BETTER than Atlanta! But there was one ride that really irritated me because it was so short and it cost 2 tickets plus it wasn't fun at all. I've been having so much fun here I forgot about school! It feels like I've just started summer, but HEY, it's only 2 weeks until everybody else finds out who their teachers are and goes back to school. But I've got one more month here. I feel like my insides are having a party and throwing confetti and dancing around and having pie. I learned alot of French today too, like: I am, petit, train, motorcycle, please, push me hard (on the zip line!). And in our apartment there is this weird picture of a woman putting her arm up and it shows some arm hair and her eyes are not on quite right. Her nose is too big, her mouth is too small her feet are too big, she has no clothes on. Mom says it's a Picasso, and there's a whole museum about that. I want to go to that museum so badly! Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! Done!!!!

A Rest?

Today when I woke up I decided we should stay home. Elliott said yes, but Mom wanted to see the market. We turned on the tv for a while, then Mom BEGGED US to go to the market. We finally said yes but when we got there they were packing up! We found a shoe stand and Mom got a nice little pair of shoes that she could actually walk in. Elliott wanted some ice cream but they didn't have any there. We found a book store and went inside. In the back they had kids' books. I flipped through the books in French and I could understand pretty well, because they had good pictures. Then Mom found the Asterix comics! I was so happy I got two books! Elliott got a little baby book called "Vroum! Vehicules!" Mom suggested we go down a street we haven't gone down before. At first it was pretty boring, but then we found a patisserie and a toy store. I was excited when I saw the toy store, because I thought maybe there would be some Gooby Guys in there. There weren't, but there were other cool things like stuffed dragons, pink swords, plastic animals etc.etc. We walked back up our street to go to the grocery store to get pizza supplies. We went back up in our apartment and while Mom made pizza we turned the tv back on. Then it started raining for a while and after it ended, mom said "Pizza's ready!" Then she went outside and saw a RAINBOW!!! She called us out and it was only half of one, but as we stood there longer it kept getting bigger and bigger and BIGGER! Then we saw a faint shadow of ANOTHER rainbow! a DOUBLE! As they started to fade away I went back inside and found 3 plates of pizza on the table. I sat down and started to eat and then Elliott's voice floated to me "Mom when will the pizza be ready?" Then I said "ELLIOTT! I've started eating minutes ago!" We all went to the kitchen and ate dinner.

MY FEET ARE DYING!

Today we walked 5 miles! The first place we stopped at was a park that had a huge air balloon. As we went up I saw the fountains, the Eiffel Tower and the Labyrinth. After that, we went to the fountain that we saw. We didn't bring any swim suits so we just had to get our clothes wet. The Labyrinth was funny, because when we were there I didn't think it was a labyrinth, it was just so easy! When we left the park there were some big firecrackers that scared us all. I had this idea that we could buy a little Eiffel Tower souvenir and a Gooby Guy (a squishy ball with eyes and hair!) and put on a show for Mom "Gooby Guy Attacks Eiffel Tower". So we decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower and buy a miniature tower. But we didn't see any Gooby Guys! Mom said since the line was so short we should just go on up into the Eiffel Tower anyway. I thought I was going to die of boredom before we even got to the gate, but guess what! We got in and got to go up to the very top of the Eiffel Tower!!!!!!!! We skipped the first floor, but when we got to the second floor it was so high up that I really wanted to go all the way up to the top. But we HAD to stop and get a snack first. Mom didn't get anything, but I got cracker sticks with Nutella dip, and Elliott had chicken flavored potato chips (Yummy!). Later we got to the very, very top. When we got there there were, of course, windows that we could all look out on and see all the pretty town of Paris. Yay! The first thing I saw was just tops of buildings and little bitty people and cars and motorcycles. Then we went to the other side and I saw the balloon we went up on, and it looked so tiny! As we were about to go Mom said she wanted to hug me at the top of the Eiffel Tower before we went back down in that ginormic elevator. As we were about to leave I said "Let's go to the bathroom" and they have one up there! It was tiny so we all had to squeeze in and there are only 2 stalls. It was getting very late so we left. After we got outside, we still couldn't find any Gooby Guys so we just gave up and walked back toward home. The walk home was SO LONG, when we got in the apartment I had to walk on my hands because my feet were dead. Mom cooked a nice healthy dinner for us and now I am going to bed.

Aquaboulevard

Today we went to Aquaboulevard! It's a waterpark. When we got in, there were little sprayers just to get you used to the water. I liked it a lot. The first thing we saw was a big pool that had waves in it every once in a while. Further back there was a big whale that had a waterslide inside and it let out of his left eye. It was gentle, though, and it didn't have any obstacles. Elliott liked it. Then we went outside where there were lots and lots of water slides. There were a few inside, too, but these were much more complicated. Mom said I could go down little racing ones, because I was old enough to do that. Then she said I could go down the big slide that was so steep I felt like I was falling! But when I came out, a lady said I was too short to do that anymore. Darn on my height! I went on the little racing slide a few more times then we went inside again because I was getting a little cold. We found some more waterslides down there. There were only two, but both of them were very fun. The one that Elliott liked was really gentle and really long. The one that I liked was a big wide slide that you needed a tube to go down. It was super fast and very wavy. But the bad thing was that when you got off, you had to give your tube to the next person in line. On the walk home, we walked over a bridge over the Seine and we could see the whole Eiffel Tower from the top to the bottom PLUS the big air balloon that doesn't go anywhere except up and down. When we got home we watched some more french cartoons. The thing I like about french cartoons is not the language, it's the way the characters are drawn. They are so funny it makes me laugh everytime I see them. My favorite characters were these weird alien monsters that crash landed on earth and they live in a little house on a quiet street. (Pssst. I think it was really an English show, because their mouths didn't move quite right. Ha ha!)

The Eiffel Tower

I LOVE THIS PLACE SO MUCH!! Today we went to the Eiffel Tower. It was a 35 minute walk, but I did it. When we got there they had all these souvenirs for sale. There were mini eiffel towers, gooby guys, wind up birds that really fly. And SO much more. But the real Eiffel tower was so huge I almost fell over looking at it! But then we saw the line. It was so long we waited in it for an hour and Mom said it would probably take 2 more to get up into the tower. So I just suggested we give up and come back later. Then Elliott had a huge meltdown, so we had to go anyway. On the way back we found a carousel and there was a hot air balloon in it. We rode it and got real dizzy because it spun around. Then we got hungry so we found a cafe and stopped to eat. Mom had a salad. Elliott had pieces of chicken and a plain crepe. I on the otherhand, had a chocolate nutella crepe. It was real good! Then we had to go back. We found a patisserie which is a sweets shop. We went inside and there were so many choices! Mom didn't get anything but Elliott got a fruit popsicle and I got a mini lemon pie (tarte au citron). After that we had to walk the rest of the way home. When we got home we FINALLY, FINALLY figured out the TV so we watched some French shows before Mom and Elliott fell asleep. I think I fell asleep at the kitchen table, but then I got into the bed. After the nap we had to get dinner. we went to a restaurant that had good food. Mom got another salad. I got a ceasar salad, and Elliott got chicken and green beans. I feel like Paris is the exact same thing as our town except people speak a different language, and they have cooler structures and buildings and water parks.

Moving In

Today we moved into the apartment in France! It's tiny and we don't have a laundry room. Just a washer in the bathroom. Here's a description: When you come in the front door you can see a little living room with a puny TV and 2 remote controls. If you turn to the right you'll see a kitchen that is about as small as a box! If you keep going forward you'll come to a bedroom with one bed and a little desk for putting your computer on. There are two nightstands, one on each side of the bed. I put Edward on one and Ashes on the other. If you go to the right again you'll come to a door which is a closet. We have a vaccuum cleaner, brooms, and an iron in there. Just past that is the bathroom. It has a REALLY DEEP bathtub which Mom thinks I could swim in. That's about it--told you it was tiny! And one more thing: There are two balconies and if you look into the distance you can see the top half of the Eiffel Tower!! When I saw that Eiffel tower I felt like screaming! And guess what! At night all its lights come on and search lights go round and round. And every time in turns ten o'clock it sparkles like people are taking millions of flash pictures.

Amsterdam!

First thing in the morning we ate breakfast and went on a train ride straight to Amsterdam. We explored every bit we could. The first thing we did was get hot dogs from the train station. They had too much ketchup on them. The first place we found was a little playground which was very lop-sided (or so I thought). We kept walking and found a nice little toy shop which had this cool thing where you walk on wheels. Then I said I needed to go to the bathroom, so we stopped at a coffee shop and Mom got a cappiccino and Elliott kept asking for a coke. We walked on and eventually stopped at the Anne Frank house that was turned into a museum. They had the REAL Secret Annex--real thing, not pretend, but all the furniture was taken out. There was a bookshelf in front of the door to the Annex so it was a real secret hiding place. Her room had old pictures all over the walls. The thing that didn't seem right is that Peter's room was as small as our laundry room at home! The only thing they had in the gift shop was Anne Frank diaries and I already have two, so we didn't stay there long. We finally stopped at a quick snack bar and got some coke. I had some too. After that we just sort of walked around aimlessly. I found a stick that looked like a monster so we played with that while we walked. Then we found another playground. I asked Mom to guard my stick while we played but she said she was NOT going to touch my Germ Monster (I invented it myself). It started raining a little so we stopped at a restaurant where we ordered a lot of food. I had spring rolls, tomato soup, hot chocolate and a milkshake. It was getting late, so we decided to go back home. Now this is the really funny part! Mom got on the right train but we missed the stop and I was like "Hey Mom, that's our stop. That's our stop!" because I had memorized the WHOLE train station every time we went there. Then she realized that we did miss the stop so we had to get off at the next stop and go back. Grandma Betty already had dinner ready for us, but I didn't need any. The end. Whew!

Danny Dragonsbreath

Today when I woke up, I went straight into Grandma Betty's office, hugged her, and started drawing my sheep herd. When I was finished with that we worked on the rest of the rabbit, the legs and the tail, and then...IT WAS FINISHED!!!!!!! Then I went back to my drawing. Then Elliott popped his balloon, so Mom said we could walk to the store to get some more. Grandma Betty needed to get some stuff too, so we went out. I got mad at Mom, because she wouldn't let me wear my wooden shoes. It was bad enough I had to come, since I wanted to stay home and finish my drawing. But I cheered up because we got some ice cream while we were out. When we got home, I ate A LOT of bread and butter and read a book called "Danny Dragonsbreath". I became so interested in how the characters were drawn, I started drawing dragons like that too. When Dad Skyped us, I showed him my new dragon picture.

Two Days

Oh, no! I must've fell asleep before I got a chance to get on the website! So this time I've got to write for two days. SoI'll start with yesterday. Yesterday morning I had to wait a lot and stay at home because the grown ups were cleaning and Mom was on the computer getting our tickets to Paris. After that Grandma Betty said we needed to "air out" a little, so she took us on a walk to the playground. I wore my wooden shoes all the way there! When we got there I had to take them off, because they were bothering my feet. We played Bats on the playground. As we walked back we saw some ducks, so we fed some bread crumbs to them. Then we walked down an unfamiliar street and saw a big pile of stray ducks that were starving. We just dumped our whole bag of bread on the ground and they had it eaten up in five minutes. One was really aggressive, so I named it "Willy". He kept following us until we got to the corner, then he went back to his fellow ducks to try to pick up some more of the bread crumbs. After that, we went home to drop off our wooden shoes, and then Grandma took us to another playground to see if my friend Soofa was there. She wasn't, so we went back home and went to bed.

Today we had breakfast and then went to a children's museum called NEMO! There were lots of cool things there, and as you went higher up the steps the experiments were designed for older kids. My favorite one was the second floor, because they had a real cool ball machine and people work at different stations to make the balls go through the machine. But my favorite part was a place where you take a bucket and you go to different stations making the water cleaner at each step starting from rain water! And on the first floor, my favorite part was the bubble section. There was a platform in the middle of a circle filled with bubble liquid and you could ask somebody to trap you in a huge bubble. There was another one where you could take little rings and dip them in bubbles so you could blow out HUGE bubbles that floated for some time before they popped.

And I'm still working on my rabbit--we're on the tail now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shoes and Cheese

Today when we woke up I said I didn't want to go anywhere today, but fortunately we went to a surprise place. The place was a wooden shoe store where they made shoes out of real wood and they painted them with pretty designs. I got a pair. They were a little big but the lady said if you get them just your size they will hurt the tops of your feet when you walk, so I got size 20. I plan to use my new shoes when I get home and go into the backyard to feed the chickens. They will be real handy so I don't get chicken poo on my feet. Right next door, there was a cheese factory where we bought 3 different kinds of cheeses. Two were goat cheese and one was sheep cheese. After that, we went back home and I wore my wooden clogs to the car and practiced walking all around the apartment building. At home Elliott and I were running and jumping all over the house, so Grandma Betty took us to the playground for a while. We heard the soccer horns at the playground. We stayed there for a while, There were also some very nice Dutch kids there. One of them was really nice. She must have been the oldest because she was the tallest. She taught me how to do a flip on the bars with a skirt on, and to jump off the slide. It was getting so late that we had to finally go back home to watch the rest of the soccer game, and guess what...Spain won. So I'm not really that interested in soccer anyway, especially since Spain won.

Bouncin' off the walls

Today was a real bouncin' fun day! This morning I ate toast with cheese spread on it. Then we went to a windmill to tour the inside. It was fun because we got to go up on the deck and see the big blades turning fast. It gave me some cool air! The inside had special doors in the floors that you could open up to drop bags of milled flour to the ground floor. There was also a miniature of the whole thing inside, and the people there were wearing wooden shoes. After that, we went to a big line of stores. First we went to a kids clothes shop where they had wierd entertainments that were for 2-year-olds! Second, we went to a mall where we had lunch in the cafe. I had a hot dog and some tea. The hot dog looked sort of like a corn dog with an opening on one side. It was really a baguette that was hollowed out and cut open on one end. Third, we went to a toy store. There was a big play place with mats and climbing places all over. We played there for an hour. We almost ran out of water! Then outside of a Burger King there was a big jumping place where we jumped until we couldn't stand up straight and fell into the walls. Then we had to go back and get some more water.

Giant Adventure!

Today was the most fun day ever. Today we went to a place where you could see the whole country of Holland in miniature form. We pretended we were giants taking over the city. There were places where you put a coin in and a little truck goes through a candy factory and brings a piece of candy when it comes out. There was also another playground there, which was more fun because it had a tunnel slide that was really fast! After that Ajoba drove us to the beach. It also showed that beach in the miniature country! There were so many shells on the beach. Most of them were old crab shells, but some of them had really interesting striped patterns. The water was shallow so I could get far away from everybody else! After I played in the water for a while, I got hungry so we went to a pizza place where I got pineapple and ham pizza. We got some ice cream for dessert from an Italian ice cream shop. I got Smurf flavor with sprinkles--it was really good!

Walking Day

Hi! Today we walked all the way across the town (of Weesp) and back! On the way we went to two playgrounds and a big canal. The first playground we went to we had never beeen to before and it had lots of fantastic stuff. The second playground we went to was the same zipline playground except there were a lot of kids there today and I didn't speak their language, so Elliott and I played on the see-saw and only went on the zipline 5 times. We ate our picnic lunch there.

The canal was HUGE and we saw some big luggage boats. One was was a really cool hotel boat where you can sign up and stay in a boat hotel for as long as you want! There was even a swimming pool on top of the boat with a diving board. After that, we went to an ice cream place where I got some mango ice cream, and I think it was better than any ice cream shop in Atlanta! After we went to the craft shop we went back home, and I made a body, teeth, and google eyes for my stuffed rabbit. Today was a really busy day, so I think I'll go to bed now. Hope you enjoyed reading this. Bye!

Zoo Commotion

Today I did the most fun thing ever...We went to the zoo! It's not like our zoo. It's much better. There were even pelicans! My favorite was the porcupine. There were also camels, oxen, and lamas. When we went back, we rode the Tram. It was fun because I got to look out at all of the city. Then we went home. I had tortillini, carrots, and a croissant for dinner. After that, I went to the pond and learned how to knit. Now I am finishing up my post!

Bye! Maya

Packed Day

Today I got up and went to the market. They had a place that had little bags of gummies with different shapes, sizes, and colors. In the middle of town in the market, they have church bells that play a tune every 15 minutes. There was also a little shop that sells cheese, and I could smell it from many meters away! It smelled good. There was another shop that sold fish, and I am telling you, it did not smell sweet! Then we went to a great park with a zipline. It also had some wierd swings and a little playhouse. After that, we hung out at home for a while before we went back to the pond that I fell in. I fought some more of the scum with a stick. Before I went home for the night, we stopped at another little playground for a couple minutes. A little while later we went back home. That's it for today. Bye!

First Day in Europe

This is it! My first day in Amsterdam. I'm staying with my Grandparents in their apartment. The first thing I want to tell you about is "The Pond Scum Incident"!

I grabbed a stick at the pond outside the apartment and stuck it into the water. It got all scummy, so I started to spin around to try and get the scum to fall off. I heard Grandma Betty yelling "Watch out!", but it was too late. I splashed right into the scum. I doggie-paddled to the bank and Grandma pulled me out. My skirt was ruined and my whole body was covered in green scum. I had to come inside and take a shower. Then I ate some popcorn and watched a movie.

Now I want to tell you about this rabbit that my Grandma is making for me. She is going to knit a rabbit and I am going to stuff it.

My Grandma has a tomato that she pokes her needles in. I drew a face on the tomato and poked some long needles for legs. I call it the tomato monster. I named it Eddy.

The plane ride was very fun. They had little TVs in the back of each seat and your own remote control. I watched the Princess and the Frog and 101 Dalmations. The food wasn't that good, though. I ate it anyway.

I'm too tired to write anymore right now, so that's all for my first entry. Make some comments!

Bye!

Introduction

Welcome to my blog! My name is Maya. I'm getting ready to take a 2 month trip to Europe. I'm inviting you to read about my days in Europe. I'll write about every day I can, but sometimes I might just get so tired that I have to go to bed. I hope you have fun reading all of my entries and you can make comments if you like, but you don't have to. Just have fun reading!

See ya in Europe!
Maya