Johanna Speaks

We had a party for Simeon last Sunday! And we also went to a Mexican restaurant with everybody last Monday! So we usually go to the grand buffet for people's birthdays or graduations, but apparently, they were closed on Mondays. And everybody was leaving Tuesday morning except Caleb and Risa; they were leaving Monday. So my mom tried looking for really good restaurants and said we could either go to a Mexican restaurant or something else. She did say the name of a different restaurant; I just forgot what it was. And so we chose the Mexican restaurant. My mom chose the Mexican restaurant that she and I have already been to, and it was pretty good! So, everybody left around 11:30 and arrived at the Mexican restaurant at 12:00 for lunch. And I also forgot what the restaurant was called so I am very sorry! 

Sophie, Caleb, Risa, and I all went in one car. And we accidentally arrived at the wrong restaurant. This restaurant had the same name as the one we had to go to, so we got back on the road and headed where we were supposed to go and arrived! Everybody was already there. And what I mean by everybody is my mom and dad, Jonathan, French Jonathan, Caleb, Risa, Noelle, Ezra, Gideon, Opa, Oma, Nicholas, Sophie, Me, and I think that was everybody. Simeon didn't go because he went to Sacermento for something he wanted to go to. And Cameron didn't go either because he had to do work. Julia, Jonathan's girlfriend, came but only till the end. And after everybody was done eating, Noelle brought out of a bag some stroopwafels! There was a coffee-flavored one, a maple-flavored one, and a honey-flavored one! My favorite was the coffee-flavored one! I have never tried coffee ones. I don't think they even sold coffee-flavored ones in Holland! The usual ones are Caramel ones. 

Heh, I forgot I named this post " Simeon Graduated! ". Well, I should probably talk about the party we had last Sunday for him. Well, everybody came for church Sunday, and even Risa played the violin! And so we played together for church and as usual Nicholas also played! It's always a lot of fun playing violin with another person. And everybody came to church in our family except Noelle and Cameron. Cameron had to play music in his church, so that they couldn't make it. But after church, they came over, and so did everybody else. We talked for a little bit, and then it was time to eat lunch. Then, after lunch, everybody went outside, and my dad presented his graduation paper. And each of the brothers told him something that would be useful for the future. And then Simeon had to say to Mom and Dad and the rest of his siblings what he is thankful for to each of them. And then he opened his presents! Caleb and Risa gave him a gift card. Jonathan also gave him a gift card. And then somebody also gave him two gift cards, and then Opa and Oma gave him two brand new dark blue suitcases. One is pretty big, and the other is small. I really wanted the small one so bad! They looked so nice! 

After he opened his presents, my dad said, "You guys can keep talking and hanging around. Later, we might go down to the lake club if people want to. " Noelle, Sophie, and I wanted to go fishing because I had two boxes of worms in the fridge to use. So later, we went fishing while the rest of the people stayed on the deck. Sophie caught at least five fish! I only caught three because later, I discovered that using a huge red hook apparently doesn't work for small fish. After I changed out the hook and put a small one on, I started to catch fish! But by then, we had to leave. After we got back to the house, we played Bang! Bang is kind of a card game but also kind of a board game at the same time. It's a super fun game to play, though, and I recommend buying it!

Well, goodbye! 

Simeon will be graduating in August! Simeon is seventeen. We will have a party for him next Monday! And we are also celebrating our Oma's birthday too! And Gideons! And I will be making a cake! I might actually make cookies instead, but still deciding what I should do. And we will be going to the grand buffet on Monday too! There are so many things happening! I am very excited! And Gideon is coming too, and Risa and Caleb! And everybody is coming to our church too! And, of course, our Opa and Oma are coming! And for those who are asking why we call them Opa and Oma and not Grandpa and Grandma is because Opa and Oma are Dutch ways of saying it, so that's why. And they are Dutch. 

I will take a picture of whatever I make. But do tell me what I should make, either cake or cookies. 

Here's a pic of Simeon, who's graduating! I took it just now! Mwahaha. 

I will be making my mom's birthday cake on Thursday or Friday. My mom and dad will go to the Sante cruise for her birthday this Saturday morning. I will bring her birthday cake to the lake club on Friday because our friends, the Ramerizes, will be there, so I will make the cake this Thursday or Friday to celebrate her birthday! 

This is what I suggested to my mom for her birthday cake:

German chocolate cake with a raspberry filling and chocolate butter frosting with beautiful flowers at the top. She said she liked that idea. So I will make that!

I will be baking four layers of cake because I will have two layers at the bottom of the cake and two at the top, but the two layers at the top will be much smaller than the two layers of cake at the bottom. I don't know if that made sense, but hopefully, it did. :)

I will do another blog post when I have finished the cake. So I hope it will turn out great! I did draw the cake I wanted to have it turn out to look like, but it looks terrible so I won't put it here. Sorry.

My mom is turning fifty-two years old on July 30th! 

So I took a Spanish exam about a week ago. Our Spanish teacher chose Simeon, me, and a girl in our Spanish class! He chose us because he thought we had the most potential to get high scores on a Spanish exam that was pretty hard to take. He asked us if we would like to do it and we all said yes! He said we could do it whenever we wanted to but do it before we started up the 60-hour Spanish classes that we would be doing in August. So my dad sighed us up on a Monday, which was last Monday. 

Our Spanish teacher told us that we were going to be getting speaking prompts for part of the exam and that we had to speak for at least almost four minutes if we could. It's all right if we can't, but four minutes would be great, and we would be getting a high score if we did talk for four minutes. Four minutes is the longest you can be speaking for. So it will stop recording you when it reaches four minutes. Well, when I did the exam, I didn't speak for four minutes on every one. I did for only one of them but for the rest, I spoke for at least two minutes. It would say like you are doing chores at your house, and your mom tells you, you can't go with your friends until you finish your chores. Then it would say, describe three chores you must do and a fun activity you will be doing with your friends afterward. Then I press recording, and it starts recording me. Sometimes I don't like what I said, and it lets me redo the recording again. 

There are also other stuff they have me doing. But after I did the exam, three people will judge me on how well I did. It took a few days before I knew what score I got. But my teacher told me the next day what my score was. By the way, there were three different things I had to do, so three judges judged me on each one. And I know what scores I got, but before I tell you, I will show you what some things mean. 

So novice low is like maybe a year's worth of Spanish, novice med is like a year and a half, and then novice high is about two years and a half. Then there's intermediate. Intermediate low means four years of Spanish. Intermediate mid is about seven years worth, and then intermediate high is like, I think 9 years don't know for sure. Then there's professional, which I don't even know how many years that is! So like I said earlier, three judges judge each person. And also, the Spanish class we have been taking has only been going for a few months. So we would probably get low scores. So here are the results of mine!

So first, I got a novice high, about two years' worth of studying Spanish. Then I got intermediate low, about four years of studying Spanish, and then for my last one, I got intermediate mid! That's about seven years of Spanish!! I was super happy!! I had only taken Spanish classes for a few months! That is how wonderful our Spanish teacher is!! But out of average, I got an intermediate low, which is pretty good! The reason I got intermediate mid was because, in one of the recordings I did, I spoke for four minutes! And that was, again, the only recording that I spoke for four mins.