Alexis - A New York Times Best Selling Author?

Everyday in Alexis' 3rd-grade class they spend a few minutes in Writer's Workshop.  The point is to encourage the kids to use their imaginations and just write.  They are given very few limitations and/or guidelines.  Alexis always has some interesting writings but this one is worth sharing.  As you will see, Alexis' imagination needs very little encouragement.  This story started out as a short activity page and has blossomed into a novel.  According to Alexis, the story isn't finished. We are looking forward to reading more.  I have attached the activity page as a picture and have written out the rest of the story below it, exactly as Alexis has written it.  Enjoy - we hope it makes you laugh!

The Prom

"Only 1 week before the prom Drake!" Christy said excitedly. "I can't wait." Drake said grumpily.

Drake was a camel, but Christy didn't know that.  A very nice camel who is blind.

Drake does not know Christy is not a camel.  Christy does not know Jake is not a human being.

Christy was also blind.  Just before the prom they found out the truth.  But since they were both blind they thought they were perfect for each other.

When they were getting ready for the prom Drake called Christy and said, "Should I wear black or blue?" Christy answered "I prefer black." Drake said "Thank you." and hung up.

When they were entering the prom, Mr. Truffles called them to the his office.

Mr. Truffles was the princaple of the school.

No one liked to go there because of Mr. Truffles pet tiger Tigress, the spanish-speaking tiger.

Mr. Truffles said "Christy why are you dating a camel?" Christy answered "Because he's blind and I'm blind." Drake said "After prom I was going to take her to my house so she could meet my pets." "Who exactly are your pets?" Mr. Truffles asked unsure he wanted an answer.

Drake replied "Bruce my talking dog and Stickers my very sticky bear." "All right then. Go ahead. You told me your reasons. Now get back to the prom and enjoy yourselves." Mr. Truffles said happily.

After the prom at 10:00 o'clock at night Drake took Christy to his house.

Christy knew about Drake's pets and didn't know how they would react, but she didn't want to be rude.

Bruce ran right up to Christy and started sniffing her then he said "It's alright Stickers she's clean." Then he looked at Christy and said "Stickers is a sticky bear, a very sticky bear. You'll see why when she comes out." Christy could see why they called her that.  She was covered with dry stickers.

After Christy said good-bye to Drake she went home to swim in the pool.

She heard a strange gurgling and swam over to where it was and dove down to see what was down there.  It was a CAT! She brougt it to the surface.

She got out of her pool and brougt the cat to a bench.  She started pushing its stomache and then water came out of the cat's mouth.

Then the cat did the strangest thing. It talked to her in french.

Christy said "Excuse me!" Then the cat said "I'm sorry I didn't know you speak english." Christy called Drake and said "I found a french-speaking cat in my pool!" Drake said "I would believe it if we could see it." "How could you tell it was a cat Christy" Christy simply answered "Cats are fluffy and she was really fluffy."  The cat chimed in "My name is Fluffy." Drake said "That's just great, my girlfriend found a car names Fluffy at the bottom of her pool and the cat speaks french!" Christy said "Don't worry too much. I'll take care of it."Drake said "I'm going to bed." and hung up. Christy asked the cat "Do you have any friends or family? Because I need to send you there right now." The car answered "Yes I have a friend named Fluff."" Where does he live????" Christy asked. "France." the cat answered calmly.

Julee - Pilot Extraordinaire

A few days ago we took Julee to The Dome so she could take her new remote controlled airplane for a test run. She loves flying these airplanes and she is really good at it.  She can fly very close to the ceiling or jsut above the ground.  The guys in the flying club that were there with her tell us that she's a natural and has amazing control of the airplane.  We, her totally unbiased parents, agree.

This is Julee's plane - the Ember 2

Flying right through the center of the picture

Skimming the ceiling

Coming in for a landing

A smooth landing

Julee and her fan club

Some of the other club members fly helicopters

This was a brand new helicopter that one of the guys had.

It was the most popular flight of the day.

Brrrrr........

What do you even say about this?

I Wear My Sunglasses at Night......

If you look closely behind those dark glasses you will see that Alexis really IS sleeping.  Rick just went in to check on her and this is what he found.  She is such a funny girl!

(Mom, that's the pillowcase I made for her over the holidays.)

A Dunklee Family Christmas

Welcome to a Dunklee Family Christmoose!

Christmas 2009 was a fun time for our family! We started new traditions and revisited old ones. Most of December was spent playing with friends and getting ready for the big day. As always, Santa was on top of everything and everybody got exactly what they wanted. Unless of course you're Julee and you ask for a laptop (last time we checked Santa did not have money trees growing in the North Pole); but she still made out okay. Overall, we are very blessed and grateful to spend time together as a family and with great friends. The only thing missing was all of you!

Making gingerbread houses is a sometimes tradition. We had so much fun I'm sure we'll do it again next year!

Alexis hard at work on her gingerbread house

Julee working on her thatched roof look

The chaos that was gingerbread houses

All the finished products

A new tradition was the Capital Holiday Lights in Washington Park. It is a huge light display sponsored by different businesses around the city. After you drive through to see the lights you can buy treats and crafts in Santa's Workshop. This is a definite must for next year!
A gingerbread house

An enchanted castle

Santa's Toy Land

And the craziest thing ever - they had these 2 rides operating by Santa's Workshop. One was a carousel and the other this lift that circles you around in the air. Daredevil Lekkis just HAD to go on it. Keep in mind that it's pitch black and all of 14 degrees outside, probably less with the wind chill! Poor thing was a popsicle by the time she was finished but she said it was definitely worth it.

It's just not Christmas unless we make Grandma's famous cut-out sugar cookies. The best part of it this year was both girls were big enough to do it themselves. I did not roll or press one bit of dough!

I didn't get off so easy though - I think the girls frosted about 5 cookies and left the rest for mom and dad.

An experimental tradition....Rick wanted to make a Yule Log this year - don't ask me why. So we tried it and it actually turned out pretty good. We are already thinking of ways to perfect it for next year! It tasted yummy too!

And of course, it's just not Christmas Eve unless you get new jammies!

A true personality pose

Cookies and egg nog for Santa (I hope Santa didn't get too sick-that was a big mug of egg nog and lots of cookies)

The final scene after Santa's visit

Christmas morning began with a very excited 9-year old jumping on our bed yelling "Santa came Santa came!" Fortunately it was 8am and not 530. When we went to tell the 12-year old that Santa came, her reply was "Can I get 15 more minutes?" Typical huh?

Checking out the stockings

Lots of candy and fun treats

Opening presents

Julee excited to see she got Twilight on DVD

Sweet! A new MP3 player!

Wait! I think it's.....Legos.

It IS Legos!

A New Moon calendar (do we see a theme here?)

And....more Legos!

Julee sporting her new MP3 player as she slaves (her words not mine)
for her Christmas dinner.

MMMM...let's eat! Notice the good china made it to the table this year. Thanks Rick for doing all the dishes after dinner!

Christmas evening Rick and Alexis set up a Lego Troll vs Knight War on the dining room table, complete with 'water' and 'terrain'. It was quite a battle!

The new troll warship Alexis got on Christmas morning

Preparing for battle

Today's headline: Mom tortures 2 children as she makes them pose for pictures in their church clothes AFTER we got home from church the Sunday after Christmas!

Whine and complain? Not these angelic faces?

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!