Today was SO MUCH FUN! We went to two schools, Snow Hill Middle School in Maryland and Kegotank Elementary School in Virginia.  We had a little sound problem at Snow Hill, but the students were all really great and understanding and we were still able to put on a great show for them. SHOUT OUT to the group of boys up front and thanks to Decklan for ending my song after it got cut off!  You guys were awesome!  And the students at Kegotank Elementary - they had so much energy, they were up on their feet for the whole concert!  After the school concerts, we had to drive a couple of hours to get to our next hotel.  My mom was NOT thrilled to drive over the longest bridge I have ever seen in my life, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Not only was it a very, very long bridge, it also had 2 tunnels to drive through. We made it, but it was nerve racking the whole way! More schools tomorrow!  Hopefully I'll be able to post a video soon!

Maria  

This afternoon we had a concert at the Crown Skate Center in Fruitland, Maryland.  The place was huge!  The concert was great and we all had a great time!  We got to roller skate again - I'm getting a little bit better!  I still fell....but only once!  After the concert, we sold some of our merchandise and had pictures taken with some fans.  Here's one of the pics we took with all the tour artists and some fans that attended the show.  When the show was done we headed over to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  I have to admit, I love these other artists that I am touring with - it's like we've known each other forever!  I don't think I've ever laughed so much!  I finished the night with school work - yep, you heard me, school work.  Three of us attend public school, so we have homework that our teachers sent with us on tour.  We had a little study hall in my room tonight....between laughing and being totally goofy, I was actually able to get some homework done.  My math teacher will be very happy!  Gotta get to bed now - we leave bright and early tomorrow morning for our next school. 

Here I am in a fabulous outfit from Wet Seal!  Wet Seal was kind enough to sponsor me with clothing for the tour!  I got photo bombed by Tristan and Matthew!  This was definitely a night I will never forget!  Later that night, my mom and I went to dinner with Matthew and his mom at Chili's!  We had a blast - we laughed all night!  Matthew even brought his guitar in and he and I did an impromptu concert for the people that were there!  The wait staff was awesome - we have met some really nice people in Delaware so far!!

We ended our first day with a red carpet event and our first full concert at the Milford Skating Center!  Here's a picture of all my tour mates - Beamer Wigley, Matthew Pinkham, Tristan Blaine, Riley Roth, me, and Karoline Rhett.  The concert was a lot of fun and afterwards we got to go roller skating.  That was quite an experience for me because it was my first time ever to roller skate! I got a little bit of help - and I fell a couple of times, but it was really fun!

Our next stop on our first day was Banneker Elementary School.  These kids were CRAZY!!  They were on their feet and dancing for our entire performance!  I had one of my tour mates join me for my "school picture" - this is Matthew Pinkham and he is the most awesome guy ever!  You might want to remember that name - this guy is going to be big some day!  I love all of my tour mates, we have all hit it off so well!  Matthew was like instantly my best friend!  I know I've made friends that I will have for a lifetime!

Today was our first day of the Teen Nation Tour!  We visited two schools today - the first one was Ross Elementary School in Milford, Delaware.  I was really excited to do our first show!  The kids here were awesome!  We got there early and I was able to see how the kids start their day - their principal plays music over the intercom and they all line up in the hallway and dance!  And believe me, these kids could dance!!!  So they were all warmed up for our show!  We sang and had an anti-bullying presentation for them.  After this concert, we packed up and headed for our next school - Banneker Elementary.

Today was exciting but long!  We had a full day of rehearsals and getting to know each other.  We're all so ready to start the tour - all of the artists are so good, it's a great combination of great talent!  This should be fun! I hope you'll follow my blog

And we're off!  We left REALLY early this morning for Delaware, which is our first stop on the Teen Nation Tour!  It was a long car ride, but my mom and I had so much fun!  We listened to a lot of different radio stations along the way - one of our favorite moments was listening to The Trading Post, where people call in and tell what they have for sale! We don't have any stations like that at home!  Evidently, there are quite a few people with aluminum boats for sale.....if you need one, I WOULD tell you where to call, but I can't remember the town we were driving through at the time! (:

I'm really looking forward to getting to Delaware and meeting all my tour mates.  This is going to be a great experience!!  I feel really good about our cause - hopefully we can help inspire kids to stand up and defend against bullying!

Maria

OK everyone who is reading this! Tonight I'm doing a twitcam to release my BRAND NEW VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!! I recorded Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Eva Cassidy's version) and my mom has been working on my video real hard! So I'm SOOO excited for you all to see it tonight! I'm going to post the twitcam link on my fanpage on Facebook for anyone who wants to watch!(: xx

-Maria(: <3

Yesterday I sang at a Chicago White Sox game! It was one of the best nights of my life! Not only did they win, but I also got to meet Olympic Gold Medalist, Conor Dwyer! He was so awesome! One of my best friends, Gabby, went with me and we sang none stop the whole way there and the whole way back, until we crashed for about an hour(; So, in total, we sang for about 5 hours! Which includes singing along to the movie we watched!(: It was a REALLY long trip, but totally worth it! When we got in Chicago, it was SOOOOO hot! Then we got onto the field and there were probably a little more than 26,000 people there! It was a thrill to be there. And it would be an honor to do it again!! I got a hat, a baseball, a jersey, and a shirt from the gift shop and I'm sure you will be seeing some of the items in the pictures I'm going to put up later! Haha! That was pretty much my trip! It was so much fun and I can't wait to do something like that again! :D