Spring Break

It is Spring Break for me.  The first few days I hung out with my cousins.  Then just me and my brother went to my grandparents.  Yesterday we went to see hop.  And today we are going out to lunch and then, we will see our cousins and go to see baby lambs with them.  On Monday night me and my brother found out we were getting picked up early from my grandparents on Thursday to go to... CHICAGO!   I am so exited.  We are staying at the hotel my uncles staying at.  We are going to the Series tower and to the American Girl Doll store!  we are going to the aquarium to. 
I will tell you more as the week goes on.

Amelia Earhart and Me

Note from Maxine's Mom:
Mrs. B-W's 4th grade class at Symons Elementary in Milan, Michigan studied famous people in history. Each student researched one person, dressed in costume and gave a presentation. The students then wrote comparative biographies about their historical subject and themselves. Maxine's comparative biography, Amelia Earhart and Me, follows.

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Maxine as Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart was born July 24th 1897 in Atchison Kansas.  Her parents were Amy and Edwin Earhart. She had a little sister too her name was Muriel.  Amelia took vacations to her grandmothers.

She was a little bit of a tom-boy but not all of her was a tom-boy. She saw her first plane when she was 11; ever since she saw it she was fascinated.  In high school her family had to move a lot so before she could graduate she had gone to 6 different high schools. Later on she became a pilot.  She married Gorge Putnam also a pilot. On her flight around the world her plane crashed and she was never seen again.  Her plane crashed in 1937.

Maxine Tewsley was born on November 12th 2001 in Ann Arbor Michigan. It had been over a century since Amelia was born. Maxine moved when she was 2 years old she moved from a small green house with a large backyard to a big purple house with a small backyard and large stone driveway.  When she was 2 she went to Milan's children nursery.  It was a small school right above of a park. When she was there she met some of her best friends. Soon she started dance.  In 2005 her brother was born her parents named him Alden. Not long after in 2006 her grandpa died.  She is now a competitive dancer.  Her 2010 2011 numbers are Martian hop, Barefoot-en, and Itty Bitty Pretty One.

Both girls had been on a plane but the plane Maxine was on did not take off, however Amelia flew so much.  Amelia's  trips were long and high but Maxine's life took place on the ground not the sky. Amelia's family gave her the money to fly they bought Amelia her first plane. One of Amelia's planes was called lock head Vega.

Both girls had siblings. Maxine had a brother and Amelia had a sister.  Maxine's brother is kind of crazy.  And people don't know about Amelia's sister Muriel.  When Amelia got her plane she gave her sister a big hug.  Maxine's best Christmas present from her family was her DSI. 

Maxine and Amelia had different lifestyles, talents, toys, siblings and parents they had some of the same interests like reading, history and fashion. They would probably love to meet each other.  Both girls had some of the same likes and dislikes. 

A lot of famous people showed up that day....

The Whole Gang

Gertrude Ederle

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Thomas Edison

Alexander Graham Bell

Albert Einstein

Queen Elizzbeth I

Henry Ford

Milton Hershey

Michael Jackson

John Lennon

Abraham Lincoln

Rosa Parks

General George S. Patton

Molly Pitcher

Squanto

Shirley Temple

Sir William Wallace

Martha Washington

Benjamin Franklin

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Betsy Ross

Lucille Ball

Louis Armstrong

School and History

Me as Amelia Earhart

Recently my class did a thing called the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is where each individual in my class chooses a famous person and studies about him or her. After studying we write speeches and dress up in costumes.  Then the whole school comes and listens to us and we stand and give our speeches.  I played Amelia Earhart . Some of the other people who came were, Louie Armstrong, Gertrude Ederle, Squanto, Albert Einstein and Betsy Ross. 

I was watching the News this morning and discovered that people in a different country claim to have found Amelia Earhart's plane in a a cave 250 feet underwater.  

 

My friend Sophie (Gertrude Ederle) & me 

On Friday author Laurie Keller came to my school.  She taught us how to draw some of her favorite characters that she drew in her books.  She taught us how to draw otters from her book, Do Unto Otters and a doughnut from her book Arnie the Doughnut. 

On March 24th  my class is doing a dessert theater for that we will be reading Laurie Keller's Scrambled States of America.  We are doing the Dessert Theater as a fundraiser to raise money for our spring trip to Greenfield Village, where we will spend the day in a school building there and imagine that we are students from along time ago.  You can dress up to look like a pioneer kid.  I am very excited.

It has been a fun school year.

The Legend of the Mississippi River

Long ago, when the world was new the creator made a man and a woman. They married and had 5 kids.  They named them Eda, Sacajawea, Swantee, Sqanto and Sonton. They loved each other very much. They also loved their parents.

One day Swantee got very sick. Everyone was very sad. Espeshilly Eda.

One night Eda heard a wail. It came from Edas moms and dads room. She dashed in and discovered Swantee was dead. The next morning Eda snuck out to the hill by her home. She climed to the top and began to cry.

Her tears got bigger and flowed down the hill side. As they got bigger they flowed farther down the land. The water got wider and wider. Finally Eda knew she didn’t have any tears left. So she got up and walked away

Legend has it that people still see Swantee floating down the river and all the children swimming after him.

People now call the river the Mississippi river

The Mystery of Anastasia Romanov

I watched a television program about the Grand Duchess Anastasia.  She was a princess in Russia in the 1900s.  Her parents were the Tsar and Tsarina.  Their names were Nicolas and Alexandra.  She had three older sisters and a younger brother.  They lived in Russia in a palace.  It was huge.  Her brother had hemophilia, a health condition where the blood does not clot normally.

Anastasia loved the outdoors.

Russia was fighting in World War 1 (1914 -1918).  Even though Russia had a huge army, they didn't have modern guns like other countries had. Tsar Nicolas took charge of the Army and he went to the frontlines in 1915 and fought with the army.   Anastasia missed him so much.  She wrote him letters often.

Not everyone liked Nicolas.  The War was really hard on the Russians because most of the farmers were at war.  All of food they had went to soldiers.  People at home were very hungry and began to blame all of their problems on Nicolas.  They started a revolution.  Nicolas resigned as Tsar.  He didn't want his country to fall apart.

After the Tsar resigned his family was under house arrest.  They lived that way for a year.  The Bolsheviks did not like Anastasia and her family. In the middle of the night in July of 1918 soldiers told Anastasia and her family to get dressed for a photograph.  But then the guards said, "you have been sentenced to death,"  In seconds the room was filled with smoke from the guns.  The entire was killed.

Now the mystery part kicks in.  A few years later a woman showed up in the hospital.  She wouldn't tell them anything about herself, including her name.  She was covered in cuts and bruises.  Doctors gave her a name.  It was Anna Anderson.  About a year after that, she began to say she was Princess Anastasia.  Some people didn't take her seriously.  But others did.  The believed that she could be Anastasia, because she had a scar on her forehead just like Anastasia and the same problem with her foot that Anastasia had.  She also seemed to know things that only the REAL princess could know.

For many years there was a rumor going around that one of the Romanov girls had escaped from the basement where the family had been shot.  People claimed it had to be Anastasia.  Anastasia was a great prankster. She had a vest that she always wore inside her jacket.  People think that she hid the families jewels inside the vest in her jacket and that when the bullets hit her they ricocheted off the jewelry sparing her her life.  No one  was sure that Anastasia's family was killed because they had a hard time finding the bodies.  It took them over 70 years to find the bodies.  But two of the bodies were missing.  They weren't sure if one of the missing bodies was Anastasia or one of her sisters.  But in 2007 another grave was found.  DNA tests proved it was Alexi and Marie (Anastasia's brother and sister).

But, who was Anna Anderson?  If she wasn't Anastasia who was she?  People think she was a polish factory worker pretending to be the royal princess.  She swore she was Anastasia until the day she died.  DNA tests after her death proved she was not Anastasia.  But they are pretty sure she was the polish factory worker.

People wanted to believe that Anna Anderson was really Anastasia because it is a sad story knowing that a bunch of people died because someone hated their father.  They had no right to kill anyone  I wanted to believe the story.  I really want to believe it because if Anastasia has survived I would have been really happy.  And that is why I think other people wanted to believe it too.

Taking a Trip Through History

I just got back from a vacation to Western New York.  We went there to see my family and have a good time.  I like it there because it is pretty.  It is right next to the Niagara River and Lake Ontario.  On a clear day, you can see Toronto across the lake.  We go there every summer, but this time my friend Jacob was also going to be there because he was going to visit his great grandma's house in Lockport, NY.  We visited Lockport last summer and saw the Erie Canal.

We left on a Friday night and arrived around 1:30 in the morning.  It takes longer to get there than before because we don't have passports and now you need passports to go through Canada.  Instead we go through Ohio and Pennsylvania to get to New York.

On Saturday we went to Fort Niagara and Niagara Falls with my friend Jacob. 

Fort Niagara was having a reenactment of the French and Indian War.  This war is also known as the sevens years war.  It was fought mostly in Canada, but since Fort Niagara was so close to Canada it part of the war too.  The French held control of Fort Niagara until July of 1759 when the British attacked with cannons for several days.  In the end, the British won and the French surrendered.

Sunday was the Fourth of July.  We had a party at my Aunt and Uncle's house.  It was cool.  We went swimming a lot.  That night, we went to the fireworks.  It was awesome.  We got ice cream to eat while we watched the fireworks.  It was a fun day.

July 5th is my dad's birthday.  It was Monday. We went to lunch and the food was horrible.  Then we went on a ride and stopped at my dads friend's house.  His name was Lenny.  Lenny's wife was my grandma's best friend.  Her name was Rose.  I was really tired and didn't feel good. We went back to my Uncle Kenny's house and I fell asleep like twice.  

On Tuesday, I was feeling better.  We went to lunch at Apple Granny's with grandma.  Then we dropped my grandma off at Uncle Kenny's and me, mommy, daddy and Alden rode the Trolley around Niagara Falls.  It was really, really, really, HOT!

We learned about "The Point of No Return."  At this spot in the rapids, if you were in the water you would not be able to get out of the water.  You would go over the Falls in three minutes or less.  A lot of daredevils have tried to go over the falls in a barrel or have tried to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope over the Falls.  The first person to go over the falls in a barrel was a women named Annie.  She did in 1901.  She thought she would become famous but she died poor.  The first man to go over the falls survived his attempt but died years later after a slip on an orange peel. NO KIDDING!  In 2003, a man from Michigan went over the falls in nothing but the clothes on his back.  He survived, but he was banned from Canada for the rest of his life.

On Wednesday, we went to the water park.  It was really hot outside so the water felt cold.  That night, we went to watch my cousin Julia's softball game.  It was still hot.  Me, Alden and my cousin Jack played around the soccer field.  We played at the little park and went on the tennis court.  We found a tennis ball and buried in the sand on the volley ball court.

Thursday, it was still hot.  We went to Murphy's Orchard in Burt, NY.  

The orchard was a stop on the Underground Railroad.  In the barn there was a secret room underneath the floor.  Slaves hid in the secret room until they were taken to Lewiston, NY where they could escape to Canada by crossing the Niagara River.  In Lewiston there is a house known to have seven basements.  The house was owned by Josiah Tryon  He helped many slaves escape to Canada from that house and across the River. 

That afternoon, we picked up my Aunt Dawn.  She is my grandma's sister.  Grandma, Aunt Dawn, Alden and I went to the cemetery where my Grandpa and my Great Grandpa are buried.  We planted flowers at their grave.  It was hot and the ground was hard.  But we planted them anyways.  Aunt Dawn treated us to ice cream after we were done at the cemetery. 

Friday it rained.  We drove around the Falls again, but mainly we stayed inside.  Uncle Kenny got a new car that day. 

Saturday is was time to go home.  We had to say good-bye to Uncle Kenny. 

On our way home we drove Buffalo and visited Forest Lawn Cemetery.

A lot of important people are buried there.  We went to find the grave of Millard Fillmore.  He was the 13th President of the United States.  Fillmore was born very poor.  His father sold him to work as an indentured servant.  He taught himself to read by stealing books.  He eventually earned enough money, thirty dollars, to buy his freedom.  He got married and became president.  He only served on term because he supported the fugitive slave law.  He and his wife attended the inauguration of the Franklin Pierce.  His wife caught a chill during that event, caught pneumonia and died.  She is buried there too.

We left the cemetery and drove the rest of the way home.  We stopped for dinner in Cleveland and got home around 8 at night.  I was glad that I got to see all of the historic places, and spend time with my family and friends too.

Before dance Compition

I can't wait, my compition is on Wendsday and I am SOOOO exited! I am in one number it is called Cajon Stomp.  If I make it in the top five, I'll Have to go back and preform again on Friday.  I dance at Dance Explosion.  Next year I will be in 3 compition dances.  I'll tell you more on Wendsday.
Wish me luck.                                             Maxine.