Victoria+Matapersad

 Birthdays. Everyone alive on Earth has one. Birthdays represent the day you came into this world, full of possibilities. The first day you opened your tiny, delicate eyes, you started life. My birthday was on July 28, 2011. It is the day I will never forget.  I loved my twelfth birthday! It was so exciting and was the best experience of my life. My siblings, Veronica, Valicia, Luke, and I were at my grandparents’ apartment for the week. Outside, the sun shined through the hot window glass. Loud kids were screaming outside riding their multicolored scooters and bikes. Some were even jump roping. Since it was in the summer, everyone was burning up and was searching desperately for something cold to drink or splash on their red cheeks. Compared to the kids outside, we were lucky to be in an apartment with two air conditioners and fans.

Being that I had just taken a shower, I felt very serene, and everything was quiet. Holding my towel underneath my arm and a hanger in the other, I faintly walked in the living room to stand before the sunlight. Before I could reach to the biege couch, I spotted my awesome cousin, Melissa standing next to me.

 “Hey Vicky! Happy Birthday! I haven’t seen you in such a long time.” Melissa admitted with a smile on her face.

 “Thank you! By the way, where’s Randy(her brother)?” I curiously asked.

 “ Oh, he’s in the kitchen with my mom, grandpa, and grandma.”

Walking in the kitchen, I could seet that Melissa was right. Everyone was in the kitchen sitting down waiting for me. When I appeared before their waiting eyes, my family stampeded towards me like a herd of buffalos.

 “Happy Birthday Vicky!!!” they all called out.

I stood there straight waiting for all the hugs and kisses to be over.

 “ Ok! Everybody get out of the way!” Auntie Gai shouted, “ don’t want me to drop this!”

Everyone backed away with grinns on their excited faces. I was so surprised when my aunt was holding a birthday cake in front of me. It had 12 blue and white candles on the top. Rainbow sprinkles danced around the fluffy white cake, like ballerinas in different colored too-toos.

 “ HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BITHDAY DEAR VICKY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!”

The next day, my dad pulled up on the street in front of the building my grandparents’ live in.

 “ Thanks Ma, and Dad for having them! Love you, Bye!” Daddy exclaimed.

 “ Bye Grandma and Grandpa!” I replied.

 “ Yaa! See ya later!” Veronica added.

<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> “ So long old pals! He he he.” Valicia squealed in her cute voice.

<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> “ Daddy, I’m hungry!” Lukey retorted.

<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">We were near the Applebees on Route 1. I looked at my dad and he looked at me. He opened his mouth to speak.

<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> “Umm, tomorrow you’re having a birthday party, so tommorrow we all have to wake up early and clean up,” Daddy explained, “after that, we have to go get groceries and decorations.”

<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">//YAAAAA! I can’t wait til’ tomorrow!// We drove all the way home. Everyone ate the leftover Chinese food for dinner,took showers, and then watched a Steven Seagal movie until 11:46.

<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">In the morning, my dad and I woke up at about 9:30. We ate breakfast, got dressed, and then went outside to clean up the backyard. It was very hot, mosquitos and little flies surrounded us as we were working. My dad and I washed the driveway, blew out the yard, cleaned the pool, mowed the lawn, and got all the leaves and shrubs out of the way. After that, we got the big table and plastic chairs out of the shed. A little while after, Veronica, Valicia, and Lukey woke up. They got dressed, and off we went to Party Fair to get the decorations. When we were done there, we walked instantaneously to Shoprite (it is very close). After getting the food ingredients and decorations, we drove home.

<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> “ Alright! Let’s get started! Veronica and Valicia clean the house and then the pool. I’ll cook, and Vicky set up the tables and help me cook!” Daddy ordered.

<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> Valicia had a curious look on her face, “Daddy, aren’t you forgetting someone?”

<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> “Oh! Lukey can play videogames.”

<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">//Luke doesn’t know to clean up. He loves videogames anyway!I bet Luke loved his job!//So we all started our jobs. //While Daddy cooked, I went in the backyard and decorated the tables. Each table had light blue tableclothes, plastic cups, clear plastic utensils, and napkins. Everything was just perfect. After my dad made the fried rice, chowmein, and macoroni salad inside the house, he barbequed chicken and steak outside on the grill.//

<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> //“Daddy, can we go in the pool now?” Veronica requested.// <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">//I guess she was tired of cleaning the pool and just wanted to have fun now. So her, Valicia, and Luke jumped in the pool. By the way, Luke was playing Spiderman on his Play Station and defeated Venom and the Nightcrawler! Sorry, had a videogame moment there. Anyway, while they were splashing away, people started coming! It was our cousins (not really) Nicholas, Jonathan, and, Amelia. Nick and Johnny had their swimming trunks on, and without hesitation, they dived under the cool, wonderous water of the pool. Amelia is terrified of drowning, so she didn’t want to go in. More and more people started to come, one by one. Soon Brandon, Sarah, and Justin came (cousins). All the kids and adults ate chowmein and fried rice, while the meat was still on the grill. Then we went back in the pool. I was in the pool chasing Sarah and Veronica, when something grabbed my feet and pulled me to the bottom of the pool. Trying to pull myself up, I noticed a familiar hand pulling my arm…..// <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> //“BRANDON!!!!!!”// <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> //“What’s wrong with you Vicky? You still can’t swim?” Brandon questioned.// <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> //“Nooo I’m scared water will go in my ears!” I screamed.// <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">//After an hour, all the kids got out of the pool and changed into dry clothes.//

<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">//My aunt took all the kids to the Lincoln School Playground. They climbed the wobbly monkey bars, and slid down slippery slides. When it was 6:30 we all had a race to see who could home the fastest. It was a little dark when we got back. There were also more mosquitos outside, so we had to go inside and watched __The Water Horse__.// <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> //“Victoria, can you make popcorn?” Justin asked, “Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaase?”// <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> //“Ok, just don’t make a mess.” I agreed.// <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">//I ended up making three bags of popcorn. It finished really fast! That’s kind of not a surprise since there were about twelve kids watching the movie.//

<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">//After our movie was done, the kids went outside to see what the adults were doing (mostly talking and laughing).// <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> //“Everyone, come outside!” Daddy yelled.// <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">//Daddy brought out a huge chocolate cake on the table outside. It had oreo crumbs and bright, red, cherries on the top.// <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> //“I know my baby loves chocolate!”// <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">//Another Birthday cake. Once again….// <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> //“HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR VICKY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!”// <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">//Everyone was cheering, and hugging me, I felt awesome. The best part, was that Daddy was the first to feed me. He looked at me and I looked at him. Daddy kissed me on the cheek.// <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> //“Happy Birthday Vic, love you.”// <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #00e5ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> PSA: Too Much Homework Do you wnat this to be one of your students? Or do you want this to be one of your students?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Most students go to bed late because they are trying to finish up homework. <span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Spending too much time on homework could cause your child more harm than good. <span style="color: #ff66cc; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Children may feel anxious and overwhelmed by homework that makes up a large percentage of their grade. <span style="color: #ff66cc; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">When a student is absent they will hav