Tag Archives: 5 cousins adventures

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Cagney’s Top Ten Tips on how to be FABULOUS at Halloween

Hopping Mermaid By Tess

Hopping Mermaid By Tess

  1. Do not leave it to the last minute to buy a costume – else you’ll be going as a penguin or even worse, a pumpkin.
  2. Okay, so my friend, Ella, had this mermaid costume that was super cute but she couldn’t actually walk in it and had to hop everywhere. The rule is, if you can’t walk in it, don’t buy it. Nobody wants to be trick-or-treating with a hopping mermaid!
  3. Make sure you have a big enough bag! Make sure the bag has sturdy handles.
  4. Make sure you can be seen in the dark (okay, Lissy made me put this in – but there are some super cute stickers that glow in the dark and let’s face it, getting run over on Halloween would be really annoying).
  5. While we’re talking safety, don’t run (of course if you’re wearing a mermaid costume you won’t have to worry about this). It’s way too easy to trip in the dark – believe me, I know about this.
  6. Don’t bang at the door if the light is off – no candy for you!
  7. If the candy is not wrapped don’t eat it – you never know if anything icky got in it.
  8. Remember, dogs are allergic to chocolate – make sure your pooch is kept well away from all treats.
  9. Make sure you know who is meeting who and where. There’s nothing worse than not being able to find your friends in the dark and no-one wants to trick or treat alone, or worse, with your brother.
  10. No matter how ridiculous they look – do not laugh at adults in costumes – I’ve heard it can get you in serious trouble.
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The Wish List

Meg

As you could probably tell from my post last month, I am REALLY into Eoin Colfer. So I was happy to discover that Mr. Colfer had written other books, including The Wish List. Okay, it is NOT Artemis Fowl, but it is GOOD. Here’s what happens.

Meg Finn is not really bad, she just acts that way. And she’s acting that way when she decides to break into pensioner Lowrie McCall’s apartment with local bad boy, Belch. Things quickly go horribly wrong when, after a freak accident, she finds herself flying down a passageway with two options at the end – heaven or hell.

But Meg is a conundrum – turns out she’s exactly 50% good and 50% bad – unheard of. And, before she knows it, Meg returns to earth in the form of a petulant teenage spirit, sent to help the man she has wronged.

Meg and Lowrie embark on a quest, a wish list, for the dying man. The question is, will they be able to finish it before time runs out?

Definitely worth the read, I’d say Mr. Colfer has done it again.

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CHRONAL ENGINE – FUN SUMMER READING!

6449Hey guys, Aidan here with my latest review on one of the many books I read over the summer.

So, if you’d like to be able to tell your alvarezsaur from your crested hadrosaur, pick up this book – and don’t put it down, as  you realize early on that author, Mr. Greg Leitich-Smith totally knows his stuff and by stuff I mean dinosaurs.

For me, I had no idea there were so many different types of dinosaurs. Sure, I knew my T-Rex from my brontosaurus, but my hadrosaur from my microraptor? Not so much. But the book is not a reference book by any means. What it is, is a rip-roaring adventure through the cretaceous period and all the danger you can imagine that entails.

When Max and his older twin siblings, Kyle and Emma, get dumped at their reclusive grandpa’s house (I’m feeling a connection here) while their mother heads to a remote corner of Mongolia to dig for feathered dinosaurs (even more of a connection), the three Austin siblings are not exactly pleased. Yes there’s a legendary creek bed on the ranch property, containing fossilized dinosaur tracks that Max, a keen amateur paleontologist, is dying to see, but for his older siblings the summer is looking bleak.

Things start to look up when they meet Petra, their Grandfather’s house-keeper’s daughter, but quickly take a turn for the bizarre when their grandfather predicts his own heart-attack, leaving the four with a parting message – go to the creek bed before 8am the following day.

Go they do, becoming instantly plunged into a plot of kidnapping and intrigue as they follow the kidnapper back to the cretaceous period in, of all things, a VW bug using their great-great-grandfather’s time machine.

If you enjoyed Jurassic Park then pick up Chronal Engine for some late summer reading – you won’t be disappointed. Grrrrr!6413

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First Stop – Peru

Llamas

Hello Blog Post Readers. This is Lissy Puddleton, finally writing about our time in Peru.

First of all, as you may remember, this was my first time out of the state, not alone the country. My cousins and I had never boarded a train, never mind a plane. It was all very exciting, albeit slightly terrifying.

To be honest, I barely knew where Peru was before Grandma whisked us off there. True, I knew it was in South America, but finding out exactly where it was (on the Pacific coast, with Ecuador and Columbia to the north, Brazil to the east and Bolivia and Chile to the south – just in case you were wondering), was something I had never given much thought to, until we were on the plane, heading south.

The first thing we found out when arriving was about the invasion of Francisco Pizarro in 1531 and the death of Athualpa, the Inca King, which led to the hiding and losing of the lost treasure of the Inca. To put this in prospective Henry VIII was on the throne of England and had just become the head of the church of England. The story of Pizarro and Athualpa was really fascinating, plus it’s really cool that treasure hunters are still looking for this treasure today, now worth an estimated eight-billion dollars.

Getting to fly across the Nazca Lines was also amazing. Even though I’m sure there must be a logical explanation on how these soil canvases were made, I have to admit, it’s pretty impressive, and does make you wonder how on earth (or not) they did it.

Of course, visiting Machu Picchu was the highlight of our trip. It’s only when you’re standing 8,000 feet above sea-level that you realize what an accomplishment the lost city is. Hiram Bingham’s re-discovery just over a hundred years ago, is also quite unbelievable. Pretty impressive, seeing he wasn’t even looking for Machu Picchu, but another lost city, Vilcabamba.

Having lived my entire life in Texas, I must admit, Peru was a bit of a shock. I never knew a place could smell different – but it did. I never thought I’d be daring enough to try new food – but I did. I also never thought I’d be trekking around the jungle with just my cousins for company – still find this one difficult to believe – but I did.

However, the best thing about Peru was something you can’t read about in books or online – it was the people. From the eccentric Lucila to the enthusiastic Senor Gustavo, I will never forget their friendliness and how welcome they made us feel. Truly, when it comes down to it, it’s the people that really make a country and bring it to life.

Happy travels, my friends.

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Jokes on Tess

Tess for tickles

Tess loves to tell jokes. Here is her current favorite!

There were two nuns driving through Trannsylvania when Dracula appears in the road. The one nun says to the other, “quick, show him your cross.” So, the other nun rolls down the window, leans out and shouts – “Get out of the road, you toothy git!”