Volleyball

      This year, I played volleyball for our school team. We had a lot of fun! We had 12 players, which meant just enough people for an A and B team. I was put onto the A team, along with Alyssa, Ashlyn, Delaney, Kat, and Isabel. The B team had Erin, Shae, Caroline, Elle, OJ, and Maria. There were 3 players from 7th grade--Erin, Shae, and me--and there were 9 players from 8th grade--Alyssa, Ashlyn, Kat, Isabel, Delaney, Caroline, Elle, OJ, and Maria.We had many fun times at our games, and we were actually pretty good! We won lots of matches. When we got to the IHSAA tournament at the end of the season, we made it to the championships! We played very hard and took it to 3 games. There were lots of students there to watch us! We ended up losing in 3, but it was a great game. We had played St. Richards. Our volleyball season this year was so fun!

Hunger Games Movie

      Another highlight of my 7th grade year was at the end of the year, when 7 of us went together to go see the movie The Hunger Games. The people who went were Josh, Jackson, Kellen, Kealy, Erin, Lauren, and me. We had a blast! We screamed at the scary parts, and my friends made fun of me for crying during the sad parts! We were also sitting in front of some 6th graders from our school who were Daniel, Eli, AJ, Drew, and Spencer. We all laughed and talked, and we were very excited to see the movie. One of my favorite memories from the movie was when I painted my nails at lunch that said Hunger Games for that evening! We were all super excited to see the movie! Everyone was talking about it all day long! It was a great movie, actually one of my favorite movies ever. And now the movie has gotten me hooked on the books! It was a very fun evening!

Christmas Party

      On December 21, 2011, I had a Christmas party that will never be forgotten. I invited the whole grade over to my house! We rented a 15-passenger-van and rode together in that and our SUV to go to 2 nursing homes and carol to the residents. We sang many songs, like Angels We Have Heard On High, Noel, and many more. We had a blast rehearsing and working on getting everything prepared. We walked down the hallways, singing and praising God with our carols. My favorite part of this whole party was when the residents would sing along with us as we sang our songs. It was amazing to see how many of them still knew all the words to all of the songs! It touched my heart to see them so happy to see us. They were very excited to see some kids! We were all so touched to see them so glad for us to be there. After caroling at both nursing homes, we went back to my house to hang out and party! We played musical chairs, jumped on the trampoline, played hid and seek all around the house, and had much more fun! It was a great party and we had a blast!

Chicago

      This year, our class trip was to Chicago. We were there for 2 days and 1 night. It was very fun! We started off the day bright and early by getting on the bus at 6:30. We took off from the school at 7:00 am, then drove for about 2 hours. We then took a pit stop at a gas station and took a bathroom break, got some fresh air, and got some snacks and drinks. We then kept driving. We drove for another hour. We were so glad when we arrived at the Museum of Science and Industry, because the bus was SO HOT!!!!! We got to the Museum of Science and Industry at about 9:15 Chicago time and the museum opened at 9:30. We got checked in and ready to go around 9:45-10:00, so then we met up all together later for a pre-paid ticket exhibit. It was Mythbusters themed! We looked around in all of the areas that you could participate in, including seeing whether running or walking through rain got you more wet, throwing cards, dodging bullets, and trying to build a house that would stay up in a tornado. Then, as you can see in the video, Isaac Byely got the chance to volunteer to dodge a paintball! He was able to do it! It was very cool! Then, we looked around for a while. After looking around, we went to an exhibit called The Smart Home. It was a completely eco-friendly home designed for people to actually live in! We got a tour around there for a little while longer, then we went to a GINORMOUS planetarium that was a documentary about trains and railroads. We went to lunch and looked around for the rest of the afternoon. We left at closing time, 4:00, and headed for the hotel. We were in the hotel by 5:30, and left for Medieval Times at 6:30. I think this was most everybody's favorite part of the whole trip! We had a blast. We were screaming and cheering for our knight, the green knight. He ended up losing, in the end, but it was still a great time! At 9:45, we left Medieval Times and went back to the hotel. We got back at 10:00, and lights out was at 11:00. We had a great first day, and were prepared to get some rest and be fully energetic for a fun-filled second, and last, day!

      The second day, we woke up at 5:00, and got a funny-voiced wake-up-call at 5:45. We were eating at 6:15 and ready to leave at 6:50. The wheels were rolling at 7:00, and we were officially on our way to Jesus People USA, a church community where we did service. There was a free store for homeless people, so we sorted clothes and shoes, played with little kids, and helped people find the clothes and shoes they needed. We got there at 8:30, and started our project at 9:15. We worked very hard there until 11:30, and then departed for Navy Pier at 12:00 for lunch and a little bit of shopping. And, if you were lucky, some of us got to ride the ferris wheel! My group, aka all five girls in the grade, were lucky enough that we got free tickets from someone! We were very excited! So, we ate Chicago hot dogs for lunch, shopped for our t-shirts/sweatshirts, and rode the ferris wheel, all in an hour and fifteen minutes. Crazy, right? We had the bus departing again at 1:15 and were on our way to the last part of the trip, the Shedd Aquarium. We were there pretty much all evening, and, although we didn't get to go into any pre-paid shows or exhibits, we still had lots of fun looking at all the exhibits!

      All in all, Chicago was my favorite school trip in all of my life. We got to do lots of fun things and it was a good class-bonding trip for every one of us. Chicago was a blast!