I can remember one snowy day when I was about six years old I had a snowball fight with my mom. We were having lots of fun for a little while. We took turns running after each other and hiding behind things in my yard.

My mom would yell, "I see you behind that tree."

She threw a snowball at the tree. Then I ran after her and she got behind the fence in our yard. I threw a snowball and it made a splat on the side of the fence. We both laughed afterwards.

We came out from behind and I said to her, "Mom let's see if we can hit each other with the snowballs if we don't hide behind something."

Then my mom hit me with a snowball on my head. It was an accident but it made me mad and I threw one back. It hit my mom on the forehead. She fell back in a snowdrift.

I ran over to her and said, "Mom are you hurt? I didn't mean to hurt you I was just mad when you hit me in the head and I wanted to hit you with a snowball too."

She said, "I'll be alright. I know you didn't mean to hurt me but you have a good arm from playing softball." She smiled at me and I felt really bad.

She had to go in the house and put ice on her forehead because a bump swelled up. I felt sad because of what I had done. She didn't get mad or anything. That night she read me a story and I looked at the bump on her head as she read to me.

Mom stopped playing snowball fighting for a few years. We haven't had a lot of snow since that time but when it snows again I'll ask my mom if she will have another snowball fight now that I am older. I think she will say, "Yes, if you promise not to throw so hard and don't toss one at my head."

Once upon a time two monkeys found some clothes that had been left by campers. They began dressing up like little girls. The girls that had been camping return and see the monkeys in their clothes.

"Look at those monkeys wearing our clothes," said one of the little girls, named Brittany.

"How will we get them back?" asked the second little girl named Joy.

At first they are mad with the monkeys for wearing their clothes but then a lion comes along and roars at the whole group. They forget they are mad with the monkeys and they all begin to run.

"Grr," roars the lion, "Why are you two girls in my jungle?"

The whole group runs in different directions into the jungle. The girls ask each other, "Where did the monkeys go?"

The monkeys wonder, "Where did the lion go?"

The two girls hide in a cave and think they are safe. Inside the cave there are bats flying around. Brittany looks at Joy and says, "Did you see all those bats when we came in? I sure hope they don't land on us."

Joy answers, "I would rather be in the cave with the bats than outside with the lion. He was scary!"

The monkeys climb high into the trees. The lion looks for the two girls until he gets tired. The girls look out of the cave and see the monkeys in the trees but don't see the lion.

"I think it's safe to go outside," said Brittany.

"Are you sure," asks Joy, "because I sure wouldn't want to see that lion again?" They begin to come out of the cave.

They did not see him but the lion was still there. He was watching them through the leaves of the trees. The girls suddenly see him and start running away from the lion again but they stop and turn around. The monkeys are in the trees laughing and clapping at the fun.

One of the girls said to the lion, "Pick on somebody your own size."

The lion stops chasing the girls because he really wants to catch one of the monkeys to eat. They are making so much noise he is getting mad at them. He leaves the girls alone. At least for now.

The girls are able to grab their clothes back together after they return to their camping area, except for the clothes the monkeys are still wearing in the trees. Brittany and Joy decide that the monkeys could keep them.

Once upon a time a little girl lived and her name was Ana. She had two cats named Tigger and Pooh. There was a box out in her hall that was supposed to have a present put in it to be mailed to a friend in the jungle. The next door neighbor, Mr. Quezada, had asked Ana to keep the special box at her house until he came home to mail it that night to a friend of his living in the jungle of Africa. That day her two curious cats climbed up to look in the box and fell inside. The top closed on the box and the little cats were caught inside.

Tigger thought, "Oh, my what will happen to us now?"

Pooh looked very sad and thought to himself, "We are missing our dinner and I am very hungry."

No one saw the cats in the box because they went to sleep. The cleaning lady in the house thought that the box needed to be mailed and she taped it and sent it on its way since it was already addressed. Mr. Quezada came over that night and looked for his box. Ana couldn't find it and asked everyone in the house about it. Miss Madelyn, the cleaning lady, told her what she had done. Ana and Mr. Quezada were very upset about the mistake.

When the surprise box was delivered to the jungle a bobcat saw it on the grass under a tree and opened the box with his sharp claws.

The two cats stuck their heads up out of the box and when they saw the bobcat they ran as fast as they could until the bobcat said, "No wait. I'm not going to eat you." He stopped running to catch up with them.

They made friends with each other. They told the bobcat that they were sent to the jungle by mistake.

Tigger said, "We looked over the edge of the box and fell in." Pooh said, "I looked over the edge to look for Tigger and I fell inside too. We fell asleep and the next thing we knew we were being carried here."

They asked him how they could get back. The bobcat didn't know what to tell them. He said they could stay there and be his friends since they looked so much alike.

The girl at home saw that her two cats where missing. She remembered the box had been sitting in the hall to send. She said she had not seen her cats since the box had been mailed. She asked her mom if somebody could go to the jungle to check on the two cats. They asked Mr. Quezada if he would go since it had been his box. Ana gave him a picture of the two cats.

Mr. Quezada went on his way. He found the cats, shortly after he got there, beside a banana tree and called, "Here Tigger and Pooh."

They came to him and he put them in his coat to take back to the airport. He kept them inside his coat even when he got on the airplane because he knew they were scared. The little girl was at the airport when Mr. Quezada's plane came back home and Ana was very happy to have her cats returned.

This is a story about an athletic Ninja named Tifugee. He has to catch the evil Etchygonna, the Chinese emperor's brother. Etchygonna has taken the emperor as a prisoner in his own castle. Etchygonna wants to become the emperor instead of his brother. The people living in China are upset. They had heard of the brave Ninja, Tifugee and they ask for his help. Tifugee battles the evil Etchygonna's warriors to help free the emperor. Tifugee uses his hook grabber and climbs to the top of the emperor's house where he has been put into prison. He sneaks around looking for the place Etchygonna has hidden his brother.

Tifugee meets Etchygonna and when he does, Etchygonna calls for his strongest warrior.

The warrior says, "You are in deep trouble now Tifugee because I'm here. How do you think you can help the emperor?"

Tifugee answers him and says, "I am smarter than you. You may be brave but I can think better than you can, therefore, I will win the battle."

Tifugee escapes from the warrior and leaves a trail of tacks behind him. Etchygonna's warrior comes along behind and does not see the tacks. He steps on them and can not walk and follow Tifugee. When the warrior is not able to follow Tifugee then Etchygonna has to track him all by himself. He does not want Tifugee to return to the emperor's house and free him.

Tifugee makes a trap by digging a hole in the ground and covering it with branches. Etchygonna falls into it. Tifugee pulls him up and puts him in a bamboo cage. He puts the cage in the forest near a cool stream. Etchygonna stays in the bamboo cage until someone comes into the forest and sees him.

A stranger comes along and asks, "Why are you here in the forest inside a cage?"

Etchygonna says to the stranger, "A robber stole my money and put me in this cage so that I couldn't tell anybody about it. Please let me out and I when I get out I will give you a reward."

Etchygonna has learned how powerful Tifugee is and when he is let out of the cage he decides never to go back to China. He hears from other people in China that the emperor returned to his throne and that everyone in China is happy again!

One day there was a terrible snowstorm. The people in the town would not go out because they couldn't see through the blinding snow and everything was slippery. It was also really cold! Some of the animals decided they wanted to go outside and see what the weather was like. The first animal to go outside was the pig.

The messy pig was a troublemaker. The other animal friends following after the pig were a quick cat, a strong horse and a friendly dog. The animals decided to build a snowman. The messy pig did not help the others. He made fun of them saying, "That is the stupidest-looking snowman I've ever seen. Look at him his head is not even on straight." He felt sad that they were getting the snowman built without his help.

Just about the time the pig said this a strong wind blew the snowman's head off. The pig laughed to see the head go rolling across the ground. The horse saw the snowman head roll on the ground.

He said, "We can put his head back on if we all work together."

The cat and the dog decided to help the horse put the head back on. The cat said to the horse, "Lie down and the dog can crawl on your back." The cat crawled on the dog's head and put the snowman's head back on. They were happy that the snowman was back together again.

The messy pig had watched them and didn't like the snowman or the friends working together to make the snowman. When he saw how much fun they were having together he decided to join them but he was too short to build a very tall snowman.

He asked the others, "Will you help me build a snowman too? I am short and my snowman needs to be taller."

His friends help him to build a snowman of his own. They played together every day after that.

My best friend, Alysia, and I went to the beach to swim. We played with a beach ball near the water. The ball rolled towards the water and a wave took it out into the ocean.

"Oh, no," said Alysia, there goes our ball. What will we do now?"

"Don't worry," I said, "the wave is washing it back to us."

We each ate a steaming hot dog and strawberry ice cream cone while we sat on our beach blanket on the sand. We saw a lot of seagulls flying in the blue sky. They flew down to us and tried to peck some of our fries.

"Shoo, pesky seagulls," we shouted waving our hands at them, "you're not getting any of our fries and hot dog."

We brought my dog, Shorty, to swim with us. Shorty is a small white dog that enjoys swimming in the water. Alysia and I decided to go for a swim after we got tired of sitting on the hot beach. We walked out into the shiny ocean and it felt warm and bubbly on our sandy legs. We were having fun jumping up and down in the waves. A strong wave knocked Alysia down and she yelled, "Help me." The wave covered her body and I could hear her coughing.

I tried to help her but she almost drowned. Shorty swam out into the water and pulled Alysia out by her bathing suit straps onto the beach.

The lifeguard ran to her and after he made sure she was alright he said, "That dog sure was brave."

I said, "His name is Shorty."

He turned to Alysia and said, "Don't go out so far in the water because the waves are high today."

It was a scary time but it was also a day that I will always remember when my friend, Alysia, my dog, Shorty and I went to the beach to swim.