Halloween

It's been a fun Halloween day!  

This morning I had an ultrasound - baby "Pequeno" is doing great!  Weighs in at 14 oz., Length is 10 inches, heart is pumping and looks perfect, all body structures are looking great, the head and neck measurements were perfect and so the risk of genetic defect is down to very minimal...... and.... John was right (again, 4th time he's called it right)..... It's a boy!  He'll be named John Patrick Denson :o)


Now it's afternoon and the kids are all dressed in their costumes - Grace is a ballerina, Joseph is an Indian, and Katharine is a cowgirl.

Persuasive Essay - Grace 5th Grade

An Australian Visit

By Grace Denson, Age 9

Composition – 5^th grade

Unit 3 – Lesson 6 – Persuasive writing prompt

Prompt:  Your family is planning a vacation.  Think of the place you would most like to visit.  Write an essay in which you convince your family to visit the place you want to go.

A trip to Australia is a dream vacation.  The trip will cost a lot, but it will be worth it!  There is something for everyone to see.  There are many plants, trees, and orchids to see.  Australia has many famous sights: the Sydney Opera House, the beautiful beaches, the Harbour, and the list seems endless.  For animal lovers, there are wombats, kangaroos, koalas, and platypus.  And best of all we have family to visit.  It would be the most memorable vacation ever.

Dad would love all of the plants!  Many plants are native only to Australia.  There are many unique native species and 79% of them can only be found in Australia.  The Australian blackwood tree grows there, as well as Australian sandalwood, and lots of different varieties of pines.  The kangaroo paw, iris, and orchid flowers would be beautiful to see and photograph.  The Royal Botanical Garden is the #3 best place to visit in Sydney with 45,154 species of plants.

Mom, Australia has many sights that you would love to see, like the Sydney Opera House, the clean, clear beaches, and the Fish Market.  Katharine would love the Sydney Aquarium.  And the Great Barrier Reef is something only found in Australia.  I would love to see it.

There are lots of animals unique to Australia that we could see.  There are wombats, koalas, kangaroos, and platypus.  Each and every bird is so different in the way it looks and the sounds it makes.  Featherdale Park, Taronga Zoo, and the Sydney Wildlife World are great places to see all of these animals and more.

Australians really know how to eat.  There are many restaurants in Australia, and many interesting dishes we could try.  We have family to visit in Australia:  Uncle Tom, Aunt Nida, and, of course, Mochi!  Since they know some of these restaurants, they might give us some tasty suggestions and show us how wonderful Sydney, Australia can be to visit. 

The only thing holding this trip back is money, and money is a problem!  But this trip is something that can’t be done in the United States of America.  Australia is very different from anything in the USA.  The trip would be a learning experience for all of us.  We can look for air flight specials online to make the trip cheaper.  Even though it is expensive, it’s the trip of a LIFETIME!