About Beavers

The week before school let out for Christmas break I had the opportunity to make a presentation to my house at school. The presentation was about beavers. It was way cool and I had a lot of fun giving a lecture to my class. Check it out.

My First Article

If you don't know me then you may not know that I like to write. I have written *lots* of stories, poems, and songs. I think my mom keeps most of them. This is the first thing that I have written that has been published in the school newspaper, the Blue & Gold. If you can't see it very well here that's because the image was reduced in file size by my blog host, but you can see the article in full size at our website. Check it out here.

School Pictures

This is me. It's my third grade school picture. Mama made me take my glasses off...she said they come down too far on my nose and block my eyes. I think that's because I scrunch them into my face and bend the nose pands so that the glasses don't sit up on my face anymore. The lady at the eye doctor always bends them back. She also said that they reflect during pictures, but I think they're actually too dirty to reflect anything.

Hanging out with my family

We go on a bike ride that takes us by the Ethan Allen Tower and this park is along the route we take so we stop for a little play time.

Halloween with Friends

For Halloween this year I decided to be a fisherman. This is me standing next to my friends' (Craig and Scott) mom. She was Octo-mom, but I don't know who that is.

Carving Pumpkins

This is me and Katherine cleaning the goopy stuff out of our pumpkins.

This is me carving my pumpkin.

This is me with my finished work of pumpkin art.

My Turn with the Leaf Blower

This is me giving Katherine a new hairstyle with the leaf blower. (he he he ha ha ha!)

Silly in Stripes

This is me with my silly sister in our silly striped pajamas.

Wiesn - Stowe

This is me in my Lederhosen at Oktoberfest in Stowe. We go to Oktoberfest almost every year. THIS year we got to go with Oma and Opa because they just moved to Vermont (where they will spend the summers). Below is a picture of me with my dorky little sister, Katherine, in her Dirndl.

My Third Grade Class

Oma's House

At Oma's house I can do lots of fun things. Their Vermont house is on Lake Champlain where I can go fishing. This is one of the biggest fish I have ever caught!


This is a garter snake that I caught in Oma's garden. I wanted to show it to her, but she's afraid of snakes...when she saw that I had a snake in my hand she screamed and slammed the door. After we were done laughing she came out and looked at the snake.

My Backyard Captures

When we were moving logs from the front yard to the side of the house, under the logs we found animals beyond my imagination. First we found this fat toad (two of them!).
This little Red-backed Salamander was quick! He kept trying to bury himself in the rocks when I was trying to dig him out. Eventually he was in my hands and he settled down and we took some pictures.When we were done moving logs everyone went inside, except me who stayed outside looking for more amphibians. That's when I caught him, this little toad. He was almost two inches long. The toad perfectly blended in with the dead crabgrass in the rocks. It was the most animal-filled day I have had in the wild.

I FINALLY got my balloon ride!

When I was six my parents promised me a ride in a hot air balloon after I helped on the ground crew of the Energizer Bunny balloon at the Champlain Valley Balloon Festival. By the time we finished helping the balloon rides were closed and I couldn't get a ride. So we have spent the past three years trying to get a ride. This summer I finally got my ride. AND, I got to take the ride with my friend, Maddie.

Here is Maddie, Maddie's mom, and me (and the pilot) in the basket. We're ready to go.

Here we are...Up, Up, and away!!

After Maddie and I had our ride then it was Papa's turn. Bye Papa!!

In the evening, after the tethered balloon ride, we went to the balloon glow. The balloon glow something that happens after dark; it is when the hot air balloons burn their fires to heat the air in the balloon. When they do this in the dark it makes the balloon glow.

On the First Day of First Grade...

Actually, I'm in third grade now, but it IS the first day...
I wish that I could say I was excited about school starting, and I am in some ways, but mostly I just wish I could stay home and fly my kite, build my zoos (Zoo Tycoon 2...video game) and play with my snakes (no, they're not living snakes). I do look forward to seeing my friends again and maybe making some new ones, and it should be fun to get to know Mrs. Wirsing...maybe third grade won't be so bad. Oh, and this afternoon we get to go to the Fair and watch the Demolition Derby...that'll be cool. And Oma and Opa are arriving this weekend for their move to Vermont! Now *that* is totally cool!

This is Me with Katherine getting ready for Mama to drive us to school.

Last Day of Summer Vacation

It's our last day of summer vacation. After we went to Montessori School to visit Katherine's classroom Mama took us miniature golfing at the cool place with the big waterfall.

This is me taking my out on the 3rd hole.

And this is me standing in front of the big waterfall.
I haven't been mini golfing in a long time so it was really fun.

Flying a Kite

This is me flying a kite in my back yard! (I can't tell you what my little sister is doing on the slide...she's just goofy.)

I can drive!

Today was a great day...well, if you don't mind shoe shopping and going to the grocery store. The rest of the day was great. Mama let me get the lawn mower out and drive around the yard with Katherine in the trailer!!


And when we were done doing that Katherine and I acted out stories that we made up and then Mama said, "How fast can you get your fishing stuff ready?" and I said, "I'll be in the car before you can say 'SHARKBAIT'!". Then she took us to Lake Iroquois. I fished and Katherine played in the water until she was cold. And dinner wasn't yucky! It was a great day.

Pictures of Me

This is a picture of me with a fish I caught.


This is me with my friends from Tae Kwon Do - we went to Ben & Jerry's for ice cream.


This is me with my friend, Frau Schumann, from the International Ladies Group that my Mama goes to. We are discussing some of the flowers at the Shelburne Inn.


This is me doing a guitar concert with Grandpa Widaman.


This is me rowing the raft with Grandpa Widaman on the Yellowstone River.


There are lots of pictures of me from this summer as my family traveled and did many fun things. Check us out at www.mellmann.com!

My Tae Kwon Do Tournament

Yesterday I participated in my second Tae Kwon Do Tournament and I received two second place medals; one for my "forms" and one for sparring.

This is me doing my forms. I had to do it twice. The first time Papa said I did a picture-perfect job, but I lost to the other participant. The second time I hesitated on one of my moves, but I still won. Over all I received a second place finish. The video is from my second round.

I also had to spar. Sparring is when you fight against an actual opponent. Unlike the forms where you are only competing against yourself - whoever does a better job on their chosen form wins - sparring involves actually kicking and punching (and getting kicked and punched). Sparring isn't my favorite part of the sport, but I did okay and managed to take a second place. Here you see me sparring with someone from another school. I was trying score a head-shot (worth two points), but I'm not sure if I made it. The following video is from one of my sparring rounds.

If you would like to see more pictures of the tournament you can go to my family website and see it here.

Tae Kwon Do

I have been doing Tae Kwon Do for about two and a half years. This is me (on the left) sparring with Seth in athlete training class today. This was my second match of the evening. The athlete training class is to help us prepare for a tournament coming up in May.

This is is Me suiting up for sparring.

At the end of class, just before we are let go to get dressed and go home, Master White has us "circle up". He gives us last instructions and reminds us about things we should be working on. Today he reminded us that we should help each other up when we fall. Here I am helping (or getting ready to) demonstrate this lesson. Seconds after Mama took this picture Master White kicked me and I pretended to fall down...well, I did actually fall down, but he barely kicked me so I didn't have to fall, but I did so that he could help me up.

Garter Snake

This is a slide show of the time we found a garter snake by the front door. Okay, Mama found it and took pictures, but *I* got to pick it up. Picking it up is way cooler than taking pictures of it. And even cooler is that it was eating a frog.

My new blog

My name is Patrick. I am in second grade and I am trying to decide if I will be a herpetologist or a wildlife photographer. While I try to figure that out I thought you might like to join me on my adventure of being a boy.