Monday, February 25, 2013

At Least He is Listening to The "Life is Full of Choices" Lecture


Charlie just told me the following:

I am going to marry (a girl in his class).  I told her to choose between me and (a boy in his class). I told her choices, choices. She chose me.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

No More Reading!

One of my students was reading one of those "Weird Fact" books and informed me that dragonflies are fried with onions and served as a delicacy in some countries.

Yes, I am failing him. Thanks for asking.

And I Didn't Even Have to Pay Him

Charlie's Note of The Day:

Charlie says his family is his treasure. 

Best Dessert Ever

Last night, Shawn and I went out to dinner with a group from his fraternity. They were in town for a board meeting that Shawn is on. We went to the Saddle Ranch Chop House in Scottsdale. We walked in and I started laughing. Shawn is not a fan of things country and this place had a mechanical bull right when you walked in the door. But they also had the best ribs ever, and cotton candy for dessert. 

It was really yummy and fun. I never did figure out how to inconspicuously stuff it in my purse, however. 





Five Guys


My brother has been telling me about the awesomeness of Five Guys burgers for years. They finally came to my neck of the woods and I was excited to try it. It was indeed one of the best burgers I have had. 

So let me say here, publicly, that Jeff was right. (Nope, that doesn't get any easier even after 41 years.)

Box Tops



My class has been collecting box tops all year. We won the first contest, and so right after that ended I told my students to keep collecting. The school usually has another contest in the spring, and I wanted a head start. The kids asked if that was cheating. I told them no, we were planning strategically. That's completely different. 

The kids love to know how many we have, but I got sick of recounting each time. So I made this base ten/place value chart to keep track. Once there are ten box tops, they go into the small envelope on the bottom. Then once we have ten small envelops, they all get put into a baggie marked 100. Then, once we have ten of the 100 baggies, they will get put into the large 1,000 envelope. 

I like it because it reenforces place value with something the kids care about. I also love it because when a student asks me how many we have, I can just ask them to look at the chart.

It's not pretty, but it works. 

Heads Up- The World is Ending





It snowed in Phoenix.

This was my windshield of my car when I got out of work on Wednesday night. It was bizarre yet strangely comforting. I have to say though, that I was very nervous about driving home since Arizonians cannot seem to drive in rain well, much less snow. Then I remembered that everyone in Phoenix is from the midwest and I relaxed.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Charlie's Birthday Party

This year we did Charlie's birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. That is the bad news. The good news is that we did it on Super Bowl Sunday, so there was really no one else there, and it was pretty painless, (as far as Chuck E. Cheese goes). 

 The birthday boy.


 We brought AJ's friend Maddy, so that he would have someone to hang out with who was over 4ft tall.


 The mouse.






This was the only hitch in the whole day. Part of the party package was that Charlie got to stand in the ticket booth and grab as many tickets as he could. However, it wasn't really explained to him what would happen and he completely freaked out. We are adding the experience to the list that he will be talking to his future therapist about. 

Science Museum


Where do two teachers go on a playdate? They go to the science museum of course.  We had a fun day with Kelly, Sam and Katie. 






 This display was about building dams and erosion. However, let's be honest.  It was really a bunch of kids playing in the mud. They probably played there for 20 minutes and loved every second of it.



 The giant telescope with a picture of your eyeball as it looks through the telescope.



 AJ begged to go on this bike. It is suspended above a hallway, complete with trapeze net. He peddled backwards, and then forwards about 20 feet above the ground.


 Wheelchair races.

 This was the best part of thew whole museum, as far as the kids were concerned. It was a giant water machine with gears, and tubes and air pressure cannons. The kids could watch the balls travel all over the courtyard as they were moved by the machine.



Friday, February 1, 2013

The Chef

Charlie is doing the shake part of the Shake and Bake. Of course my self-proclaimed vegetarian did not actually eat the meat he helped make, but at least he was helping with dinner!