Christmas

On Christmas Eve night I got to open one present. It was from my Uncle Jeff who came to spend the night. It was a Ben 10 character. His name is Benwolf. He is really cool. Here's a picture of him.

The next day my Uncle and I opened our stockings. He got a screaming Homer pen that says "Ahhhh This is the greatest day of my life." I got two packs of Skittles and Benwolf ate them all. He said they were yummy.

When it was time to open presents, my mom came. My mom is nice. She's brown but I don't live with her. She lives near Old Town. I love her. I couldn't believe all the presents she brought me. My favorite thing that she gave me is a Block Zone. Here's a picture of my mom. She is very pretty. She also gave me a helicopter that you control to try to pick up little boxes with a hook. I liked having her with us. It was fun.



My favorite present of all is one simple thing--a Boston Red Sox hat from my Uncle Jeff. He loves the Red Sox and so do I. They won the World Series this year in baseball. I like them because they are a good team and I like red. My friend Tyler likes them, too.



My grandparents got me something I really wanted. It is an I-Dog Pup. It does its own tunes, wobbles it head and reacts to music. Like this.......

Isn't he cute?

My tutor in Italy Valentina sent a present for me and one for my gramma and grandpa. When I opened it was a Leonardo da Vinci book. I really like Leonardo da Vinci things because I like to learn how t o make things like with my erector set. I've read 10 pages of it all ready with Yolanda my Italian tutor here. The book is in Italian.




After my Uncle Jeff's friend Sally came with her dog, Bear. It has a medium size body and very short legs. He can sit up on his rump and his front legs sticking up. It's really cute. Sally is very nice. She's fun to be with and so is Bear. When Bear is around, Scratch gets jealous.

When it was time for her to leave, Bear didn't want to leave. He was laying on the grass and didn't move cuz he wanted to stay with me.

My grandma got a game called Mancala. It is so fun. I beat her two times in a row.

It was a fun day and then I had to go to sleep. Then the next day I played with all my toys.

Bye--see you next time.

Extreme Cookie Time

Yesterday me and my friend Hannah baked cookies. They were very good. They were shaped as Christmas trees and candy canes. Christmas trees were green and candy canes were red, of course. We had fun doing them. This is a video of me and her making the cookies.



She has a very tight grip. When she kept grabbing my shirt, it was really hard to get out. We play together a lot. She came over again today and we watched a Christmas movie called "A Fruitcake Christmas."

Sorry--gotta go. I gotta cold and I'm sneezing a lot and sniffling and...you get the picture.

Merry Christmas from me and my doggie, Scratch.

Samaritan's Purse

Sorry I took so long to write a blog entry. I'm just too busy. I have school, football, Italian lesson, friends, karate, church, helping girls in soccer practice and walking Scratch. I'm just way too busy.

All year long I have been saving up my Jesus money and I finally used it for Samaritan's Purse. I bought things that children who don't have anything need. And we put them in shoeboxes and wrapped them up.

We put things like toothpaste, toothbrush, toys like balls, Spiderman disc shooters, little stuffed animals (not as big as my dog), dolls, jump ropes and a few other things. Somethings were for girls and somethings were for boys (for sure the dolls were for girls.) I did two boxes for girls and two boxes for boys.

These were the things for the boys' boxes.

These were for the girls' boxes.

It was fun getting all the stuff with my money. We went to the 99¢ Store. Me and my gramma wrapped the shoe boxes in Christmas wrapping.


I put a note and a picture inside each of the boxes.

This was my note.

After we got it done, we took the shoe boxes to the Mail Boxes Etc. store. They were collecting them so they could mail them to Samaritan's Purse.

Mail Boxes Etc.

Last year I helped Ethiopia and Alaska. Here's a link to what I wrote then The Meaning of Christmas.

I really like Samaritan's Purse. I have a good friend that I have never seen before-Franklin Graham. He is very nice. Please send things to people who need them. Jesus will really like that.

Ho, Ho, Ho--Merry Christmas.

My Exciting Saturday

On Saturday there was a Halloween Carnival at my school. Actually, it was supposed to be on Halloween but since the fires were during Halloween time, they couldn't do it then and changed the name to Fall Festival.

At the Festival there were games, jumpy slide thingies, food, light sticks and there was a fortune teller. A lot of my friends were there and it was fun.

At the end of the carnival, there was a raffle drawing. People bought tickets for a Nintendo DS and a MP3 Player. I really wanted the Nintendo DS but I really thought I was not going to win so I went home.

Later my friend called and in an exciting voice, he said "YOU WON THE NINTENDO DS!" I was so excited, I was jumping up and down and running all over the house because I couldn't believe that I had won. It's much better than a Gameboy. It can use Nintendo DS games in it and Gameboy games. I like that because I have a lot of Gameboy games that I can still play.

The next day my Uncle came to my house and I asked him if he could take me to buy a Nintendo DS game called Pokemon Pearl and we went to Best Buy and it ended up costing more than I thought it would. And I didn't have enough money. So my Uncle used his money and he paid half and I paid half. My Uncle Jeff is really nice and he's the best Uncle in the world. I love him so much.

After I got my game I started playing it right away. I really like it. Here's a picture of me with my Nintendo DS.

Do You Know Who's On First?

Hi, here's a very funny video on You Tube. It "quacked" me up. I hope you like this. Now here it is!

Bye-Bye Scooter, I Got New Wheels

I left my scooter in Italy. I gave it to my good friend Tommi so that he could have it.

My gramma promised me she would get me something in San Diego because I got a very good report card in Italy but she didn't tell me what it was. When we got home, she told me it would be either a skate board or roller blades. I chose roller blades.

The day I got them my Uncle Jeff (the one who has the shrimp finger) took me to Patrick Henry High School to learn how to use my roller blades. My Uncle Jeff is the one who took me to buy them.

I really like them. They are a lot of fun. But, I miss my scooter.

Here's a video of me on my roller blades and a picture of my uncle with his shrimp finger. My uncle is real funny. I was laughing real hard.




This is in the park across the street from my house.

My other friend Ryan

My other friend Ryan I have known since Kindergarten.

He is very good to play with when it comes to football and basketball and baseball. He's just fun, that's it. When we are playing football, he's hard to tackle. He's really good at tackling me. But, I make it. When he's holding on to my legs, I just drag him to the touch down place. Here's a video of me and him.

He's very quiet. He likes to swim when he comes to my house. He is a fish. I always get out of the water first because I keep getting cold. But, he never gets cold, ever, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

He goes to church every Sunday like I do. Also, his dad is a pastor. The church is 5 steps away from his house. His family, also, believes in Jesus.

His little brother is in my class. His name is Cory. He's in my seminar class because my class is a mixture of 3rd and 4th graders.

I might see Ryan tomorrow if school's back in. It's closed today because there are a lot of fires and smoke in San Diego.

My Friend Ryan and Pokemon

My friend Ryan is a really good friend. He is really helpful when it comes to Pokemon. Pokemon are these cute little animals that have powers. Most of them are cute but some of them aren't. It is also a Gameboy game and that is what Ryan helps me with. There is one version called Crystal and that's what he helps me on. He's an expert at that. I'm an expert at Fire Red version which is my favorite. And I have a really strong Pokemon.

My pokemon's name is Charizard and I have another one named Pidgeotto and another one named Mankey. Mankey is a monkey pokemon. His nose is like a pig but his body is like a monkey. Pokemons are like pets but they battle. You don't go to a pet store and buy them. They are wild and you have to catch them. I wish they were real because it would be fun battling my friends. If I found a Pikachu, I would name him Sparky cuz he is a pokemon that looks sort of like a cat but he's yellow and he has red cheeks where electricity comes of and then it shocks you like zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

As I was saying my friend Ryan is really fun but the problem is that when there is one bee outside he does not get in the pool. He is scared of bees a lot. I don't like it when he doesn't get in the pool. I told him we only have honey bees not stinging bees. But it doesn't help. He says that they're drones, no matter what.

We talk on the phone a lot. Sometimes 45 minutes. Other times a half hour. Sometimes we are both playing pokemon at the same time and we tell each other what's happening.

Sometimes when he's helping and I say "I think you should do.........." he says "Stop helping me or I'm going to turn it off without saving it" (you save it so that you don't have to do things over and over again). I don't like it when he does that. But he's still my friend in San Diego.

There are some strange coincidences between me and Ryan. Our moms have the same first name. My middle name is Ryan and his name is Ryan. We were born on the same day and in San Diego. We go to the same school and are in the same classroom. This is weird, isn't it?

Here's a picture of me---Ninja Casey.

More School Pictures

I'm not going to be writing a lot now but here are some pictures of the second week of school. I still like school. On Tuesday I'm having a math test. Next week we're doing a humor fest which means a funny fest. It's not going to be boring. I think it's going to be exciting!!!!!

Here are my pictures.

This is a picture of me and my teacher, Mrs. Henetz. I really like her. She has a twin sister named Mrs. Menetz. She comes in when all the kids are being naughty and she is the exact opposite of Mrs. Henetz. She's mean and yells and goes whack, whack, whack.

This is a picture of me with my favorite backpack. It's my favorite because I got for my birthday at Fattoria Viticcio and my tutor, Valentina--or in other words my BIG sister, gave me this backpack.

tThis is me with some kids in my class. There are 18 in my class altogether.

First Week of School

My first week of school was AWESOME!!! I got my favorite teacher, Mrs. Henetz. My math teacher is Mrs. Johnson. She's really nice too and I like her. But, by the way, I'm in middle school. I know I'm nine years old but I am so smart I skipped 4th and 5th. Do you believe that?

I saw all my friends. Well, actually everybody in my school went to middle school. We are just too smart. Scherzo--(just kidding in Italian.)

This is my friend Ryan.

This is my friend Ryan.

At school yesterday when we did PE, we played baseball but with bouncing balls. It was fun. I got really sweaty. It's mainly kickball but it's like baseball because you kick the ball and someone tries to catch it. In Italy I missed PE. All we did there was run around inside and get very hot.

I really like Mrs. Henetz because she's really nice and she doesn't yell. She told us that if she is angry she will tell us. Last week she read a story called The Chocolate Touch. Have you ever hear of The Golden Touch with King Midas? The Chocolate Touch was very similar because King Midas in The Golden Touch liked a lot of gold. John Midas in The Chocolate Touch liked a lot of chocolate. One time King Midas loved gold so much that he wished that everything he had was gold and a fairy was there and heard what he said and poof everything he touched turned to gold. When his daughter came, he hugged her and she turned to gold.

And with John Midas, one time he was walking along and he saw a silver coin that had his initials on it--JM. And he saw a candy store. He said to the store keeper, "I only have this coin." And the store keeper said "That's the only kind of coin we take." And the store keeper gave John a box of chocolates. Then John went home, tiptoeing in the house and slipped the box under his bed. John felt sort of tired so he went to bed and he grabbed the box of chocolates and opened it. But, there was only one chocolate. He ate it and the next morning when his mother called him down for breakfast, he saw eggs, bacon, orange juice and I think that's all. He didn't like any of those things but when he put the eggs in his mouth, they turned to chocolate and so did his bacon and so did his orange juice. He was very surprised and very excited.

He asked his mother to go outside and play. He went to his friend Susan's house. Susan was a girl that John sort of liked. And Susan showed John a new silver dollar coin. John said "Are you sure that it is a real coin cuz it might be chocolate." And Susan said "No, it's a real coin." And she also said to John, "'Bite it if you think it's chocolate." So he bit it. His teeth went right through it because the coin turned to chocolate because he has chocolate itis. Later the day he was at home. He went over to his mother and kissed her and, guess what, she turned to chocolate.

He went to the store where he bought the chocolate and said to the person "Turn my mother back and get rid of the chocolate touch in my mouth." Then he went home and he was rid of his chocolate touch and his mother was no longer chocolate.

The moral of these two stories is to care about others not just yourself.

In Italy Camilla and I always went to the gelateria for gelato for merenda (snack). But here I get ice cream.

My favorite ice cream is rainbow sherbet.

I still miss Italy. I think about it everyday.

I can't wait until the next week of school cuz I really like school. The best thing about this school is that none of the teachers yell except for Mrs. Murphy. Good thing that I don't have her.

The weird thing about school here in San Diego is that I have never had a man teacher. Actually, I've never had one anyplace.

See you next time which will be in about a week.

Doggy Time

This blog entry is about my dog, Scratch. Right now I'm sitting with my doggy. He is so cute. He really likes to play.


Every morning at 6:30 I take him for a walk down at the park to meet with "my group." My group is a bunch of adults that take their dogs for walks but they get up at 6. My dog is the only dog in the world that doesn't know how to shake hands. That's true!

Sometimes I forget to walk Scratch-O. Then my group misses me and Scratch gets sad. And there's this man who speaks Italian. He isn't part of my group but he is there sometimes. When the italian guy is at the park I talk with him a little in Italian. But then I don't see him for a week or two weeks, actually. There's another guy from Iraq who talks low and slow. He's been here for 50 years. The park's right across the street from my house. Sometimes I just play there or ride my bike.


When school starts I'm going to have to get up at 5:45 and walk him. School starts the day after Labor Day.

Scratch is the cutest dog in the whole world.

This is a movie of me riding my bike in the cul-de-sac. You can see the park across the street.

Ciao Ciao

Here and There

I really miss Italy but I'm having a good time here in San Diego too. I really miss Camilla and Pimpi and Nicoletta and Alessandro and Signoria Franca and Beatrice and Arianna and Tommi and.... I think you got the point of it.

This is Me and Signoria Franca--Camilla's Nonna. I like her because she is nice and she makes VERY good lasagna and pizza. And she is taking care of my cactus for me.

What I really miss about Italy is seeing the pretty blue skies and being able to run around by myself and take walks by myself. If I did that here, I would get run over. I miss the piazza, all my friends, the Grog Shop. And I really, really miss Bruno cuz everytime I went into his shop he gave me a hug and kiss on the head and a free piece of bread or something like that. Here's a picture of io e Bruno.

My Friend Bruno

I really miss my school and my teachers but I'm also having fun here.

I went to Zoo Camp this week. We saw a lot of animals like a python and a milk snake. They call that snake a milk snake because when they first saw that kind of snake in a barn with the cattle, they thought that it was there for the milk. But it actually was there to eat the rats. And the milk snake is not poisonous. It's colors are red and then black and gold.

This is a meercat.

This is an ant eater

Here's a picture of my counselors at camp.

I went to soccer camp two weeks ago and I don't know what I am going to do next week. That's a hard question. But on Tuesday Ryan one of my best friends in San Diego, is coming over. I wish my sister could come over tomorrow. She can't come because she's in Italy--actually, she's going to Elba.

But the most exciting thing about being home in San Diego is going to Sunday school. I really missed it while we were gone. In Sunday School I learn a lot about Jesus' travels and miracles. Last week I learned about Daniel and then about forgiveness.

Well, at least I get to go back to Italy next summer but I can have fun here, too.

My Friend Valentina

Valentina was my tutor, my friend and my big sister. She is my big sister because she calls me her little brother. The reason I learned Italian so good and did so well in school in Greve was because of Valentina, or should I say my "big sister."

This is Valentina and me studying.

She came two times a week and she was a good teacher. In Italy we have a lot of homework to do and gramma and papa couldn't help me so I had to have a tutor and one of my teachers, Maestra Annamarie, recommended Valentina for a good tutor. And now, I speak very good Italian. Gramma just put on Craig's List for a tutor here.

I really liked her because when we were working we had fun. We laughed a lot. She helped me with the language (lingua) , science (scienze), math (matematica), geography (geografia), history (storia) and everything else.

One time she took me inside the ambulance to look at it. She was a volunteer ambulance driver. But now she works for the Red Cross.

The last week with her she took us out to dinner. Her boyfriend was with her--named Ricardo. She took us to a restaurant called Malborghetto which means "bad borgo." Borgo means little village. It's called Malborghetto because a long time ago bad guys used to hide in the little village. This was in the Renaissance times when Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were alive and they were painting.

This is the restaurant with Valentina and Ricardo in the picture.

Across from the restaurant was a park where I got several mosquito (zanzare) bites.

I miss her. But the good thing is that next summer I am going to see her again. I hope I get a good tutor here--just like Valentina.

This is me with Ricardo and Valentina.

I MISS YOU VALENTINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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The Last Time at Cantinetta di Rignana

A week ago was the last time I went to Cantinetta di Rignana. But next year we are going back. I might even work there. Here's a picture of everyone there with me. They let me use the cook's bandanna for a few minutes.


We went there with Brad and Palma, the Skittle lady. When my grandparents and Brad and Palma ate, I was playing in the playground with the boy in the picture. I didn't eat anything. Joke! I had pappardelle al cinghiale.

See you next time when I tell you about Valentina, my friend.

My Newest, Newest Best Friend

Sorry Palma and Judith but you're no longer in first place.

Here's a picture of my newest, newest best friend.

This is Max. I think he is a Golden Labrador. He's Diana's and Micha's doggy. We were at Diana's place in Piemonte for three days.

Diana let me do some work with clay because she makes stuff out of clay. She makes pottery.

Breakfast at their house is spectacular. There is berries, melon, French toast, eggs, cereal, yogurt and bread fresh from the bakery. The plates were made and painted by Diana.

Max was really, really fun. He listens to me very well. Tell him to sit, he sits. Tell him to lay, he lays. Tell him to fetch, he fetches. Tell him to stop, he stops and right away sits down.

Here's a picture of a little monster thing I made with the clay.

And here's a picture of a cup I made.


Next year when we come to Italy, we are going back.
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My Super Cool Sunday

Today was the best Sunday ever--in the pool. Here's three pictures and two movies of me and Camilla in the pool and one of Alessandro and me playing ping pong. Alessandro is il babbo di Camilla (Camilla's daddy.)

Camilla and I have really a lot of fun in the pool together. I am going to miss her when we leave and she's going to miss me. And you're going to miss my blog when I go home.

Here are two videos of us playing in the pool. We had so much fun.

Meet My New Best Friend--Palma

See why she’s my new best friend?

She gave them to me when we went to lunch in Buonconvento. She brought them all the way from California.

Camilla and I really, really, really really, really like them.

Thank you, Palma.

This is Palma and Me.

The Orthodontist and the Madonna

Yesterday when I went in to Florence to go to the orthodontist, I also went to the Uffizi which has the Ognissanti Madonna. Signore Giotto painted it. I wanted to see it because I have a little model of it which you have seen on my blog--here.

I saw also the Tondo by Michaelangelo. It's a circle painting with a picture of Mary, Baby Jesus and Joseph. They don't have very much paintings by Michaelangelo. They are very old and so most of them have been lost.

I saw the La Nascita di Venere and also La Primavera. Those two were painted by Botticelli. I saw several annunciations. One was painted by Leonardo da Vinci--da Vinci means from Vinci and I have been there. An annunciation is when the angel is telling Mary that she is going to have baby Jesus.

We saw hundreds of others and I don't know who they were. I like going to the Uffizi. Lippi knew how to draw very pretty Mary's.

At the end I bought a puzzle block with a lot of the pictures of things. All the ones I talked about already. I also got one little drawing book and a regular size one. One has a picture of David on it and the other is Leonardo di Vinci. I am learning to draw. I also got a book about the Ognissanti Madonna.

Papa also got me a Fiorentina hat. My birthday is tomorrow so these were all birthday presents but I'm allowed to use them now.

Here's a picture of me with my Fiorentina shirt and Fiorentina hat.

Dr. Floria, my orthodontist in Florence, is really nice and here's a picture of him. I'm not going to see him anymore because this was my last time to the orthodontist here. My orthodontist back at home is Dr. Hirsch.

This is Dottore Floria.

I'm going to miss Florence. This is at a little fruit and vegetable store in an alley there.



PS: Today we went to Buonconvento and papa and gramma bought me a nice watch for my birthday.
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Il Mio Compleanno

Il mio compleanno era l'ultimo gioro di scuola e io ho invitato gli amici di scuola a una festa a viticcio.

Io e i miei amica siamo andati in piscina. Abbiamo nuotato e giocato insieme. Dopo il bagno in piscina abbiamo fatto merenda con biscotti, patatine, pizza e bibite. Poi un uccello ha fatto la cacca in el mezzo di quattro pezzi di pizza.



Dopo la merenda é arrivata la torte,, sulla torta c'erano della candelina che si riaccendevano. Poi, io ho aperto i regali che mi hanno portato i mei amici.

Tommaso mi ha regalato un B-Daman. Valentina mi ha regalato uno zaino, un mini astuccio, un appuntalapis, un righello e una penna con tanti colori.

Christian: 3 macchinine; Camilla-un libro sull'Italia e 5 gormiti; Maestra Agata e Maestra Annamaria che me hanno reglato un memory game sull'Italia. C'erano tanti altri.

Poi la festa é finita ed é rimosto con mi solo Tommaso.

E stata una bella festa.

Fine.

My Birthday Party

On the last day of school, June 8, I had my birthday party. I invited all my friends in my class but they couldn't all come. Also, my teachers came at six o'clock. They also brought me a present. It's a memory game of Italy. I really like it.

These are my teachers--Valentina, Maestra Annamaria and Maestra Agata

The first thing we did was go swimming but it was raining so I didn't go in until the rain stopped. But all the other kids were in the pool when it was raining. While we were swimming in the rain, Nicoletta was under the umbrella watching us. It was funny! Also, my gramma was, too.


Tommaso and some other boys tried to peek in while the girls were getting their bathing suits on, in Italian a bathing suit is called a costume. When the girls saw Tommaso and the other boys, they pushed them away and said via via via (shoo, shoo, shoo).

One game that we played was a treasure hunt but my team never found the treasure. It was a jumping rope.

For dinner we had pizza. The pizza man got here just in time.


My gramma made chocolate chip cookies--yummy. It was a treat for my friends. They never have those here. We're able to do it because some people brought us chocolate chips and brown sugar because there's none here in Italy.

The candles on my cake when I blew the flames off went out but 30 seconds later they came back on--all of them. When Camilla's sister picked one up it sparked and went on fire and she dropped it on the table and then it was off. It was really weird.

I got a lot of great presents. Valentina, my tutor, gave me a humongous box, with another box in it, with another box in that one. Then a wrapped up backpack, I thought it was the present but there was even more inside--a mini-pencil case, a pencil sharpener, a ruler and a multi-colored pen. It was fun to open one box after another. One Christmas in San Diego I did that to my papa.

It was fun to be with my friends on the last day of school. That day my friend Tommaso slept over and next Friday I'm going to sleep over at his house.


I'm going to miss my friends when I go back to San Diego. But the good thing is that I am coming back here next summer.

Here's a funny slide show of my friends and my party.

Bye Bye