Category: Talia

Talia’s 8th grade award’s ceremony was held tonight. Here’s a list of the awards she received:

•Technology Award for her work on SBS TV.

•Gold Cord for making honor roll all three trimesters of 8th grade. It was presented to her by her father, who also received one when he graduated from St. Bonaventure.

•The Mayors Award for making honor roll every trimester for the past 5 years, presented to her by the Mayor of Huntington Beach.

One of Talia’s best friends since kindergarten also received a Mayors Award.

• 11 Academic Pins for: Religion, Altar Serving, Literature, Spanish, Social Studies, Computer, English, Science, Citizenship, Service and Perfect Attendance

After the ceremony, everyone went over to the hall for the first dance of the evening. The boys danced with their mother and the girls danced with their fathers.

After the first dance, the parents were kicked out and the kids had their dance.

We took a few pictures before the ceremony. Here’s Talia with her friend Kate.

and Talia, Kate and Anais.

Here’s a few of my favorite shots from the portrait session I did for Talia’s 8th grade graduation.

Talia spent the last week back east on her 8th grade trip. She had so much fun! They were gone from May 22nd to May 30th. Here’s a list of where they went and what they saw.

In DC they went to:

FDR and Jefferson Memorials
Capital Hill tour
Supreme Court
Library of Congress
Union Station
Mount Vernon
Home of George Washington
Old Town Alexandria Ghost Tour
Wreath laying at WWII Memorial
Spy Museum
Mass at The Shrine
Smithsonian Museum
Smithsonian American History Museum
National Archives
Lincoln, Vietnam and Korean War Memorials
Iwo Jima Marine Corps Memorial
Arlington National Cemetery
National Cathedral Tour
Fords Theater tickets
Potomac River Cruise Dinner

Then they went to Pennsylvania:

Gettysburg visitors center
Dobbins House and Underground Railroad
Battlefield Tour
Amish Country Experience Tour
Independence Hall
Congress Hall
Liberty Bell
National Constitution Center
Franklin Court
Christ Church
Elfreth’s Alley

Then on to New York:

Empire State Building
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Times Square
Rockefeller Center
NBC Studio Tours
Broadway Show – Wicked
Ellis Island
Statue of Liberty
Wall Street
Ground Zero
China Town
Little Italy
Greenwich Village

Here’s a few of the hundreds of photos taken during the trip.

We celebrated Talia’s birthday yesterday with a family dinner party. Dan’s parents were there and Aunt Samantha was able to make it too. Here’s a few more pictures.

Talia had a slumber party with her best friends last night to celebrate her birthday. The girls were all very well behaved and they all had a great time.

Today Talia turns 14! It is hard to believe that she could be 14. I can’t believe that next year she will be be learning to drive. In a few months she will graduate from 8th grade and be headed off to high school. She is such a smart, caring and beautiful person, both inside and out. For her birthday, she had a sleepover last night with her best friends. Tonight her grandparents and Aunt Samantha are coming over for dinner.

Here’s some portraits I did of Talia for her 14 birthday:

Last month Talia entered the Library Time Warp contest being held by the Huntington Beach Library. The contest was to write a story about either 100 years in the future or 100 years in the past at the library. She got a call last week informing her that she won an Outstanding Merit award. The award’s ceremony was held today. She won a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card.

You can watch her getting her award in this video.

Here’s her story:

Books? What Books?

I was walking home, reading, when I looked up. I was at the library. I thought I’d stop by. But at the moment I opened the door, I knew something was wrong. There was a heavy mist inside the library, definitely not usual. I decided to investigate, starting on the left. Here, the mist was clearer. The library looked old, an ornate, 1900’s old. “Odd.” I said aloud. Moving to the right, I noticed the mist was really thick here. Something was moving toward me. It definitely wasn’t a person, it was a robot! I’ve always wanted to see one. I could put two things together. Past or Future? With no hesitation, I threw my science fiction book aside and headed to the future!

The mist closed in, and then cleared. There was nothing where I was standing, but skyscrapers everywhere else. There was a fluorescent blue street – no cars, just people and robots. I really needed to learn about the future. I stepped on the street and started moving. No, the street was moving! It stopped at an info center and I walked in. A robot there named Bot (Total cliché!) handed me an “eRec” (that’s what it said on the top) and wheeled off. I opened the eRec and read the first page that came up.

“Following the banning of books, the government has made it possible to attain information by mass producing these eRecs…” At this point, I had to back up. Banning of books? As if the eRec had read my thoughts, another page popped up. “In 2070, the government officially banned books because they were poisoning the minds of the people.” This confused me even more. Books aren’t bad! (Except in some cases when a hardback gets in the hands of an angry librarian.) I had to sort this problem out, and fix it. I left some money on the steel table and walked out, taking the eRec with me.

-later-

After finding out where the town hall was (and where they first banned books), I hatched a plan. I was going to talk to the man in charge and attempt to convince him to un-ban books. Stepping off the street moments later I walked in and asked another robot (Named Rob, this time) to take me to the head. I was lead down the hall, to a jolly, but firm man. “Can I ask you a question, and be given a fair hearing and answer?” “No problem.” He said with a confused look on his face. “Why did you ban books?” I demanded. “Bad ideas were spreading. People were getting false hope from false things. Eventually all of the anxiety peaked and I had to ban the books. Every government official in the county agreed with me, so it happened.” he answered. “All of that’s not true!” I yelled. “SECUR-” He stopped. “I promised, didn’t I.” I nodded and continued. “Bad ideas spreading? False hope? You don’t have to believe what you read. False things? Fiction books are great! You can put yourself in a place you’ve never been or will be. You can experience things and sensations while sitting, reading!” I exclaimed.
The man sat there, thinking. After a few minutes of nothing but that, he replied, “I see your point. I’ll bring this up at the next meeting. Perhaps books will be unbanned after all.” “Thanks!” I shouted, as I left. I walked back to where the library should be. The mist rolled in, then cleared again. I found myself back in the time I belonged, where books actually existed.

Talia had her first day of 8th grade today. This is such a big year! It marks the last year she will be at the school she has gone too since Kindergarten. Next year it is off to High School. There is so much that goes on during this year, science fair, frog dissection, the big Constitution testing, dances and graduation. There is so much this year that they have a special parent meeting in October to go over it all. That combined with all the Kindergarten activities for the twins and the First Communion activities for Aidan, makes this an unusually busy year for us.

Since this is the 9th and final year for Talia at this school, I dug up and scanned in the first day of school pics that I didn’t already have online and put together a mosaic of the first day of school pictures from Kindergarten through 8th grade. Here it is:

I thought I had a picture of Talia with her friend Chloe on the first day of Kindergarten, but I couldn’t find it. I did find one of them on the first day of 1st grade.

Here’s a picture of them from today.

It was so much fun to see how much they have grown over the years.

Here’s more of the pictures taken from this morning.

It was also the twins first day of Kindergarten, here’s a picture of all three of them at school.