Names:
Blaise & Atlas

In what part of town do you live?
Pinecrest

How long have you lived in Pinecrest?
Blaise: Six years

Atlas: And before that, Orlando.

Would you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Blaise: I’m eight years old. I’m in second grade. I go to Alexander Montessori school. I do dance and play with my family. I speak Spanish and French and I like smoothies. I love going on bike rides. I like my birthday. I was born in December. I’m a winter baby. I like gifts. I like vegetables. My favorite vegetables are carrots, celery, potatoes. I love to bake with my mommy, and my brother, and my daddy.

Atlas: I go to school. I’m 10 years old. I like to play soccer. I like to play with my family. I love playing with friends. I’m on a Lego robotics team at school. I like playing sports. I like coding on the computer. I also like art and drawing.

What’s your favorite subject at school?
Blaise: Reading and language arts.

Atlas: Does lunch and PE count? I also like art and math. Last year, I went to the math bowl and competed. I think I got second or third place.

What has it been like staying home instead of going to school?
Blaise: I get to spend more time with my family, but I miss all my friends.

Atlas: I like home learning. I think it’s easier because it takes less time. Usually, I’m kind of bored at school because they’re teaching stuff and it takes a long time. At home, I’m already doing fifth grade math, but I’m only in grade four. But I don’t like not seeing my friends.

Has it been harder or easier to stay at home?
Blaise: Harder. When I am on my computer, my parents are working in there and they’re always making so much noise with their keyboard all the time.

Atlas: The hardest part is I’m not able to see most of my family.

What should we do to make it easier for parents?
Blaise: Get us our own phones and iPads so we can Facetime whenever we want.

Are you using a lot of video to stay in touch with people?
Blaise: I have meetings with my principal and my teacher and my friends on Zoom and I can Skype with my teacher, my grandma, and my friends. I have been Facetiming with five friends.

Blaise, would you tell us about dance?
I dance at Pinecrest Dance Project. The teacher is super nice. Right now, they’re teaching us choreography for the show, but we don’t know if the show is still happening because of all the crazy stuff.

Atlas, would you tell us about Lego robotics?
We use a coding language for the robotics, but we don’t write scripts. There’s blocks and you do a mission. We use the Lego EV3, which is a robot that comes in a kit and you can attach it with Lego techniques to make a big robot. On your computer, you use the Lego Mindstorms app to download and create programs that make the robot do something. For competitions we go to different places, usually high schools or colleges. And we do a robot game, which is different every single year. It is a map with different challenges that you must accomplish. We compete with ages 8 to 14.

What do you like about it?
It’s fun. I make new friends. I learn how to program. It’s really exciting. I also do coding using a thing called Scratch. You get to make different actions, you can make a game or an animation like art. It’s pretty cool.

Atlas, what do you enjoy about playing soccer?
It’s a fast-moving game. Other games are kind of slow. I make a lot of new friends. I have fun working with my team to accomplish a goal. I also learned a lot of stuff about teamwork and responsibility, so you know what to bring to practice.

What advice do you give other kids who are learning how to play soccer?
Never give up. If your coach is telling you something, you should always acknowledge it and try to do what your coach said, because most of the time, they know what they’re doing.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Blaise: A Mommy because you can bring new life to this earth.

Atlas: I don’t know. I’m not sure.

How often do you go to the Pinecrest Farmer’s Market?
Blaise: Mostly every Sunday.

Atlas: Not very often. Usually, I’m playing soccer with my dad at the park, but sometimes I come. My mom usually gets two smoothies, one for Blaise and one for me.

What do you like about the market?
Blaise: It has smoothies.

What other things do you like when you go to the farmer’s market?
Blaise: Smoothies, donuts, and ice cream. And, I used to get the pickles. (A+W: We miss those pickles too)

Atlas: I like seeing all the cool and unique foods and I also like tasting samples. I also like talking to some of the experts. Last time, there were people there teaching about earth stuff and that was fun.

Do you have a favorite smoothie from our stand?
Blaise: The Rainbow. If I had to pick one flavor – Sapodelicious

Atlas: My favorite is Tropikale. It used to be Dragon Passion.

What would make our farmer’s market better?
Blaise: Bigger smoothie stands!

Atlas: A tent over the whole thing. Usually when we go, it’s pretty hot. I also think that the tents should be a little farther apart because they’re all back to back. Also, they need more hand washing stations at the market.

Do you have any favorite stories of anything that’s happened at the farmer’s market?
Blaise: We were getting out of the car and Atlas and I walked off without our mom…and we got lost in the farmer’s market. Luckily somebody found us and said ‘where’s your mom?’ We said, ‘we lost her.’ And then, she asked what color shirt my mom was wearing. My mom found us and that’s how we got to know one of the ladies at the market. She’s not there anymore – she was the one that had the bees and the candles.

Atlas: I had a smoothie and I had a really big brain freeze and it really hurt a lot. I went back to it after a little bit because it’s really good.

What’s your favorite thing to do with your parents?
Blaise: Spending time with them. Doing anything playing and not working on a computer. Frisbee, trampoline, and going in the pool (but mommy will never go in), card games, basketball, hula hooping with them, climbing a tree with them….and showing them how to climb a tree.

Atlas: I like playing with them. I like going out to dinner with them even though my mom hates my eating habits. I like helping my parents do stuff around the yard. I set the table every night for them. I like playing soccer and board games with them. I love watching a show called Lego masters, which is a competition of experts and they build these crazy Lego things.

What are your favorite restaurants to go out to?
Blaise: Fratelli Milano downtown. I like the gnocchi with meat sauce and for dessert the chocolate lava cake. Also, Chicken Kitchen. I like the Bazookah Bowl. And I like anywhere with a good meatball like Pioloas or Anthony’s Pizza.

Atlas: I like to go to a restaurant in Maryland called the Seafood Buffet. I go there for Thanksgiving. In Miami, I don’t go out to eat much. I really like my mom and dad’s home cooked meals. My favorites are their Shepard’s pie, tacos, and vegetable lasagna.

What’s a secret in Miami that everybody should know about?
Blaise: You should plant mangroves to protect your house. They protect you from hurricanes and tornadoes. And they protect the beaches from erosion.

Atlas: There’s a lot of smart people. Also, Daily Bread has curbside delivery right now, so you can call and order your fresh pita, hummus, and olives and pick it up outside the store.

What’s a good rainy-day activity?
Blaise: Playing card games

Atlas: Building Legos and playing games with my family. I also like to read. I’ve finished five books since Saturday.

What question would you like to ask us?
Blaise: Where do you get all that fruit?
(A+W) We get all of the fruit from our farm. We grow it.

Blaise: What fruit is the Sapodelicious made of?
(A+W) It’s a combination of Sapodilla, Mamey, and Passion fruit.

Atlas: What’s in the Tropikale smoothie?
(A+W) Kale, Sapodilla, Bananas, Ginger, and Passion fruit

Atlas: What’s in the red smoothie?
(A+W) BB Rose has Bananas, Beets and Roselle (aka Jamaican Sorrel)

Atlas: Why did you decide to be a farmer?
(A+W) Adena grew up on the farm. She’s been a farmer her whole life. I married a farmer.

Atlas: Why did you start making smoothies?
(A+W) Because we found that it was the easiest way to convince people to try new fruits. It’s much easier to try a Papa Jack smoothie than convince someone to try a large spiky jackfruit for the first time. 

Blaise: What does LNB mean?
(A+W) LNB is short for Adena’s last name: ELLENBY

Do you have any advice for the community?
Blaise: Always go to the smoothie stand.

Atlas: Bring your own bags.

What else is important to you that I haven’t asked you about?
Blaise: I think that people should take sicknesses seriously for the community and when something like this happens don’t go out and make sure to keep yourself as healthy as you can.

Do you think anything good will come of the current challenge we’re all facing?
Atlas: Yes. I think that the air pollution is going down, which is a good thing and I think it will teach people how badly we are polluting our air. We already decreased our air pollution by almost 10% just by staying at home and not driving or flying.