Random May

It's crazy busy around here as usual, but things are winding down. Things will be much better after June 6 and June 14. Until then, here's what has been going on.

Rally Rags are ready for Sunday's game! We are going to AT&T Park to see the Giants play the A's. It's a Little League day. I am super excited to cheer on the Giants and eat!

Tonight I went to an awards ceremony for one of my students. He entered a poster contest sponsored by the Alameda County Water District, and won! That's his picture above, featured in the 2011/2012 calendar for the month of April. The winners were honored with certificates and Target gift cards (yay!), and the teachers of those students received certificates as well. Three teachers (of the top three winners) won $100 to use as they see fit! Awesome! It was a nice little ceremony, and my student seemed happy that I attended. There were so many teachers who didn't, and I thought that was very sad. It means so much to the kids if their teachers attend their events. It was just an hour of my time, and made him (and his parents) very happy, so it was totally worth it. The best part though was when the "water guy," thanked the teachers for all they (we) do. It was the most appreciated I have felt all year! The things he said were beautiful.

I planted impatiens in my porch planters this weekend. These will get BIG. I will show you when they do.

I must have planted these last year or something. I thought everything had died, but these guys came back!

I made some bracelets this week. The red one is made using red, glass pearls. The green bracelets are dyed freshwater pearls. I am really liking freshwater pearls these days, and that green color is yummy!

If you get the chance, hop on over to my other blog. It's been interesting around here. If you don't have the link, email me juliebeane at yahoo dot com, and I will send you the link.

*BTW, my student who won the contest, he's entered all kinds of contests and has won at least 6 of them this year!

Rally for Education

My friend and I attended the big rally for education in San Francisco on Friday. It was awesome. California's education system is facing huge budget cuts (even more than has already been cut). If tax extensions are not put into place, and a budget is not figured out, schools will be unable to function.

We rallied outside of the city hall building. Such a beautiful day, and a beautiful building too.

It was a great rally, with empowering speakers...

and lots of cool shirts...

and lots of really good signs.

I like this sign. This is the back...

and the front of the same sign. so funny. I did not see Edward on a sign however.

Channel 2 News had a helicopter covering the rally. All other news agencies were represented with their news vans. There were LOTS of people in attendance.

Let's hope it works out for California schools. The results of more budget cuts will be even more detrimental. We are functioning with minimal funding now, and it's ridiculous. Something has to change. The students deserve a top notch education.

After the rally, my friend and I walked down Market Street, heading to Union Square. There was an art fair going on, with a mobile DJ even!

Cool drums huh? The Art Institute was sponsoring the event. There's always something going on in the city.

We finished out the evening with dinner and cocktails at The Burger Bar and a little shoe shopping.

Baseball

Quinn had a baseball game Monday.

Quinn struck out his first time at bat-it's harder now for the kids to hit because we are kid-pitching, no longer using the pitching machines. The innings are LOOOOOONG as the pitchers throw lots of balls and generally walk people. There's a huge strike zone too. Quinn's second time at bat was much better. He hit a beautiful line drive, past the pitcher, past the shortstop and into the grass! It was awesome!!

Here he is on base, after his awesome hit!

Watching the game.

Baseball is interesting this year. More on that later. The season is almost over, and I have to say I am very happy about that.

Check This Out!

Just look at this picture! It's so cute! It's the first day of school, and I am thinking that Riley was going into 4th grade, and Quinn, 1st grade.

I'll be back later tonight with baseball pictures! Aren't you lucky?

Puzzles, Craft Night and Mother's Day

It's been a busy couple of days. Quinn had baseball practice for 2 hours and 45 minutes on Thursday, and then Friday I was prepping for my Crafty Night. Saturday Quinn had a baseball game (I am looking forward to baseball season ending this year, it's been very stressful and not at all fun). My Crafty Night was Saturday night, and then Mother's Day today! Here are some pictures...

My Mother's Day gifts. I got a wireless mouse and a Mickey Mouse-I guess the theme was mice.

The card the boys gave me had this coupon inside. It's good for ALL of us to go have Indian food for dinner. Riley is willing to try it. Quinn, not so much.

This is how Maya spent her Mother's Day. What a life!

These are the projects we did for Crafty Night: we made paper bead bracelets, button bracelets, a brooch, two pendants (one glass and the other a stamped bead), and yarn art-I did that project with my students. I got it from HERE.

I finished my 2,000 piece puzzle of St. Basil's Cathedral. The sky was a big pain in the butt as the shades of blue were so close in color. I worked on this a lot during the week because I wanted it finished before Crafty Night. I didn't want to have to take it apart before it was finished, or lose any pieces if I chose to leave it unfinished. I finished it Friday night. I took it apart this evening.

Tonight I started a new puzzle. I can do a lot of thinking while doing puzzles. It seems I have a lot of thinking to do these days. I can't wait for summer. I need a lot less drama in my life.

I am gearing up for our state tests at school. It's my least favorite time of the year. I really feel 2nd graders have no business taking standardized tests, but legislatures see otherwise. We have mostly worked on the bubbling of answers. They really can't bubble. Taking their time and bubbling in the answers correctly is not high on their priority list. It's a huge struggle. We have practiced a lot, so we'll see how it goes. I told them they were "Elite Bubblers," and their bubbles should reflect that title. Otherwise, they are prepared for the tests. We have two weeks of testing to get through. Fingers crossed that all goes well.

Quinn's Science Fair Project

Now that we are back from spring break, and back into the swing of things, it's time to think science fair projects. I am so sick of science fair projects. Riley is doing and redoing his, and Quinn has to do one for his teacher. Quinn's is a lot less pressure though.

Quinn's project involves quicksand. We made it by mixing cornstarch and water. We got the idea HERE.

We added cornstarch, a little at a time, and then water, and then he/we stirred. It was hard to stir with a spoon.

It was easier to stir by hand, but messing. This mixture becomes both a solid and a liquid, just like real quicksand. It's really strange. Stirring the cornstarch into the water was tricky. Once it all dissolved, it looked very watery. When you put your hand in though, you could pull up chunks but as soon as you pulled your hand out, the chunks would go liquid. It was really really cool.

Quinn did not enjoy putting his hands into the mixture. We first had him push his hand into the mixture and then try to pull it out. His hand would stick in the mixture, and it would make this great sound when he pulled it out. He couldn't move his hand very quickly in the mixture either. He found that it really acts like a paste, or a glue, and that's why people can get stuck in it. The more he moved, the harder it was to move. With real quicksand, the more you struggle, the more you sink.

He pulled out chunks and then the chunks would go liquid.

You can really see the chunks in this picture. It was very interesting to try and pick up. It was like pulling off a piece of clay and then it would go liquid. Really very cool.

Next he tried putting in a toy.

He would drop in the toy and at first it would stay on top of the mixture, but then it would slowly start to sink. The mixture seemed to try and hold the toy, but because it's not real quicksand, it was easy to release the toy.

Quinn has to talk about his experiment in his class on Friday, but he doesn't have to have anything written up until around May 19. We have been so consumed with Riley's project that we hadn't even completed Quinn's until this afternoon.

Legoland 2011

We almost didn't make it to Legoland at all today. We arrived at our hotel yesterday late afternoon. We went to a restaurant called "Islands" for dinner, and then came back to the room. The boys wanted to go swimming so Kevin took them down to the pool. After awhile, Riley comes back up without Kevin and Quinn. Riley says that Kevin and Quinn are looking for Quinn's glasses. It seems he put the glasses on one of the tables in the pool area. Another dad and his son came in (or were already there). They got up and got their things (from around the table where Quinn put his glasses) and left. When it was time for the boys and Kevin to go, they couldn't find Quinn's glasses anywhere. Kevin figured the other dad must have scooped them up with his things. The two of us looked all over the hotel. Kevin talked to the manager on duty, and explained that it had to be this other dad. The manager had an idea of who the guy could be and left messages with two guests about the glasses-both were wrong in the end. Kevin sat down in the lobby for quite awhile, hoping this guy would show up down there, to get water, fruit, or to return the glasses. Nothing. Quinn was super upset, and practically blind. I made phone calls to two Lenscrafters in the area, asking about getting new glasses. I was smart and packed the cards that contain our prescriptions, just in case. The problem was that Quinn's prescription is so high, they couldn't do the glasses last night, it would have to be today. We decided that we would go to Lenscrafters this morning, at 9 when they opened, wait for the glasses and then hope to head to Legoland when the glasses were done. We were not looking forward to shelling out the money to purchase new glasses when we knew they were IN THE HOTEL somewhere. In the meantime, Kevin and I made another trip downstairs to talk to the manager. He knew what the guy looked like (from security cameras), but had no idea what room he was in. He was trying to get word to the housekeeping staff to be on the lookout for glasses that may be mixed in with towels on the floor of someone's room. We decided that Kevin would go down to the breakfast area this morning in the hopes that he could find the man then. We are at a Hampton Inn (our hotel of choice), and they always have a free breakfast, and people love a free breakfast, so we felt that we had a good chance to find the man. Kevin was down there for awhile, and sure enough, the guy and his family come in for breakfast. Kevin asks him about the glasses and the guys says, "Oh yeah, I was going to bring those down." Kevin asked if he would go and get them. The guy was a little hesitant as he was trying to save a table for his family. Kevin saved the table for him while the guy got the glasses. We are very happy to have the glasses back, but do not understand WHY the guy did not return them to the front desk LAST night when he realized he had them???? He knew he had someone's glasses, but just hung onto them until the morning! What kind of idiot is he? Anyway, that almost wrecked the whole day, but we got them back, didn't have to go to Lenscrafters this morning, and we got to Legoland before they opened.

The entrance to Legoland.

We saw Lego Darth Vader this morning, but he was in a hurry, so we couldn't get the boys to pose with him. He must have a Death star to run or something.

Riley in the Land of Adventure.

Oh no! Riley was swallowed whole by a great white shark!

Kevin and Quinn rode the Splash Battle ride in Pirate Shores. The boats go around and the people try to squirt people in other boats. Plus there are guns for the observers (outside of the ride) to use to get the riders wet, but beware because the riders can squirt back! They had a blast.

This is probably the best ride in the whole park! Both boys got to drive their own Lego vehicle. They had to obey the rules of the road-staying to the right, stopping at stop signs and red lights. It looked like so much fun. Both boys loved it. They will be good drivers one day too!

Here's Quinn taking his car for a drive.

Quinn liked the belly button on this surfer man.

There's a new attraction in Miniland: Star Wars! This was a highlight for both boys! Look at that Millennium Falcon!

San Francisco in Miniland USA.

New York City in Miniland USA. We loved Miniland! It was awesome. I took tons of pictures and when I get home tomorrow night, I will post them to Flickr.

The boys and Lego Chewbacca.

In the gift shop at the end of the day. Why is it that boys always make their way to the swords and gun?

We've had a nice mini vacation. We head back home tomorrow, and back to school for six and a half more weeks!