The Wizard of Oz

Me - The Wizard of Oz, wow! The Wizard of Oz is one of my favorite movies. I wish that every day I could ask Mom "Can I go watch The Wizard of Oz?" I am reading the whole series of Wizard of Oz books. Right now, I am on the second chapter of the fourth book. I have also seen the show Wicked. My grandparents took me for my 9th birthday. I really liked it a lot although I wish I had seen it when the original cast was still in it. I love Idina Menzel! The books are somewhat confusing. Each book seems to change things from the one before it. So far, I like the movie better than the books. My favorite character from the movie is The Wicked Witch of the West. My favorite character from Wicked is Elphaba who is The Wicked Witch of the West. I even have a Wicked Witch of the West Barbie as well as a complete collection of Wizard of Oz mini dolls. My aunt got them for me because I used to have a little Wicked Witch of the West doll which I loved and took everywhere. When I lost it, I was upset so my Aunt got me the whole set for my birthday. My favorite character from the books is Ozma. I really love the Wizard of Oz.

Mom - My daughter is currently reading The Wizard of Oz books. A lot of people might think there was only one book, The Wizard of Oz, but there were actually a whole set of books about the Wonderful World of Oz written by L. Frank Baum. I read and enjoyed all or most of them when I was young. I am glad to see my daughter reading and enjoying them now. Of course, I've also seen the movie numerous times. When I was young, I loved the movie. I was afraid of the witch not because she was a witch, but because she was green. For some reason that really bothered me. When I was a little older, the movie lost a little bit of it's magic for me and I didn't like it as much. I couldn't stop looking at that man behind the curtain so to speak. When I got married and had kids of my own, watching it again with them and seeing it through their eyes, the magic came back, and I enjoyed it again. I have also seen and enjoyed the musical Wicked which is a different take on The Wizard of Oz story. It was an extremely entertaining show with great songs and a good story. I would highly recommend the show for anybody who has the opportunity to see it. However, I didn't like the book Wicked which the show was based on. It was kind of long, boring and depressing not at all like the show based on it or the original book and movie based on the classic Wizard of Oz story.

And that's all for now. Tune in again for another topic.

Zoos

Me - Zoos, wow! The Popcorn Park Zoo is my favorite zoo. I really wish I could donate money to them to help save the animals. When I was little I went to the Bronx Zoo, but I don't really remember that. I love watching the videos from it though. In the video, we are pretending to be birds in a nest, and praries dogs in a hole among other things. My brother was holding me up to be a prarie dog because I was only 2. At the Essex Zoo one turtle was climbing on top of the other. At the Turtleback Zoo, I went on a really fun train ride. We went to the Baltimore Zoo, but I don't remember much about it. We went to the National Zoo in Washington. I was in pre-k, and I had my class mascot, Freddie the frog with me. He was a stuffed animal and not a real frog.  We got to see regular pandas and red pandas. It took a long time to find the red pandas. We even got lost for a while and started going in circles. I wanted to see baby pandas. There were too many people there, and I couldn't see so my Dad took a picture for me. Over all, I love animals, and I love zoo.

Mom - Everyone in our family loves animals, and we love to go to the zoo. As a family, we have been to zoos in three different states. We have been to the Bronx Zoo in New York. It is big and impossible to see all of in one day unless you start really early in the morning, but there are so many great animals to see. We really enjoyed the petting zoo when we were there, but we haven't been there since Melia was a baby. We hope to go back for Aurella's birthday this September. We have been to the Turtleback Zoo in New Jersey. That is not as big and it was easy to see all in one day. There is a train ride and a nice play area. We went there a couple of times. We went to this little zoo in Essex County, New Jersey where the most memorable things were these cute little prarie dogs and the turtles doing unmentionable things. We have been to the Baltimore Zoo in Maryland where you can feed the giraffes (although we didn't). We have been to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. where we got to see the Pandas. Before marriage and kids I have also been to zoos in three other states. The St. Louis Zoo in Missouri. I don't really remember much about that. At the San Antonio Zoo in Texas, you could feed the hippos (we didn't). One of the nicest zoo of all I have been to is the San Diego Zoo in California. Someday. I hope I get to take my kids there. However,our favorite zoo is the Popcorn Park Zoo in New Jersey. It is not only a zoo, but an animal refuge and not only for wild animals like some other zoos are, but also for dogs and cats. We went there for the first time for Aurella's birthday last year, and we can't wait to go back.

And that's our view. Tune in Monday for another topic.

Mystery Books

Me - Mystery Books, wow! I love a good mystery book. I have read many mystery books. I have read Nancy Drew, The Bobbsey Twins and The Adventures of Mary Kate and Ashley. My favorite are the Mary Kate and Ashley ones. Mysteries are interesting because you can try to predict what is going to happen.  You think you have it all figured out, and then it turns out to be completely different. There are always so many things happening at once. Sometimes, there is even more than one mystery going on at once. In fact, sometimes there are so many mysteries that the group has to split up to solve them all. Sometimes, in mystery books, in the first few chapters if you missed the first few books in the series, it will fill you in on what happened in previous books. Mystery books are so cool!

Mom- I like a good mystery. Sometimes, I like to watch them on televison, and sometimes, I like to read them. When I was young, I liked The Bobbsey Twins, The Happy Hollisters and especially Nancy Drew. I loved Nancy Drew. I would read one a day, and I read almost the entire series. Of course, now they have a new Nancy Drew series in addition to the old one so there are a lot more books. I even read a few Hardy boy books, but I liked the TV series way better than the books because I had a crush on the show's stars, Sean Cassidy and Parker Stevenson. When I was older, I started loving Agatha Christie's mysteries. I started reading them when I was a teenager visiting Greece with my grandmother. I was always reading in my spare time.  I finished all the books I had brought with me. The only English books they had in the hotel gift shop that interested me at all were Agatha Christie's so I bought a few, and I was hooked. I ended up reading almost every book Agatha Christie ever wrote. The only ones I didn't read were the ones I could never find. However, I don't even remember the names of those anymore. Nowadays, I still read the occasional mystery, but not as much as I used to, and I haven't found any mystery writer that I like better than Agatha Christie.

And that's our view. Tune in Monday for another topic.