Mid-Terms...

Todays post covers that most basic of students fears, writing the essay portion of the mid-term exam. Rest assured, if you stick to your training and keep a clear head about you, things will come out all right! I wish all of you the best of luck on the Mid-Term Exams (those of you who need luck!) and encourage you to swing for the fence!
P



Here is the Junior Photo writing assignment as well, have fun guys!

Lunchbags are fun....

I found this link and thought that you might appreciate it!


http://lunchbagart.tumblr.com/

This dad draws a new piece of "art work" on his kids lunch bag every day. It's pretty good work. I bet the food even tastes better.
P.

Romeo and Juliet Geometric Design Project

I thought that this project would be a nice way to wind down the semester. The directions are pretty straight forward, if you have questions let me know. P.

One Page Assignment-A Painted House

Hey folks! Here is the One Page Assignment that I want you to apply to The Painted House. You are to use Chapters 20-30 as the filter for this project. Use those events as the basis for the work.



If you have questions, let me know.
Perez

The Magic Kingdom...day 3 (a much belated post!)

O.K. When I orginally wrote this post, I was in between park time at Disneyland. I was unable to post because my laptop crapped out on me! Oh well. Here is where I have been, and the stuff after the elipise is how it all worked out for the week.

What a great day! We are all pretty tired. I have to carry a 5 or 7 year old to the car each night. They go until it is time to get on the tram but then, blamo, put a fork in 'em ladies and gentle...they are done! Seven year olds go "boneless" when they are asleep, and some how they seem to weigh a heck of alot more. Well, we spent today in the California Adventure section of Disneyland. We got on the new ride, "Toy Story Midway Mania". It is basically like a giant video game. Needless to say I really liked it and destroyed the scores of everyone else that came with us. I topped out at 174,000 points. Yeah video games and rollercoaster rides! Their combination is a fantastic pairing!...

All in all, our time in the Magic Kingdom was pretty fantastic. Are we tired? Absolutely. But a happy tired. Some of the highlights were seeing the nightly fireworks show on different nights from different places in the park...Riding the Haunted Mansion ride that gets redone for the holiday season as The Nightmare Before Christmas ride with Jack Skelingtons and all...Breakfast Churros...Finding "hidden Mickey's" on Pirates of the Carribean ride...getting to ride California Screaming, their boardwalk style rollercoaster, with my 7 year old Gabby. It was her first BIG coaster and she rode it several times, hands up, all the way...going into the park at night, in the rain when droves of people are leaving because of the rain...spending time with my wife and kids just playing and having fun...Seeing the castle all lit up with Christmas lights everywhere; all very cool things. The low lights on the other hand were all horribly annoying...Driving in the fog for 4 hours their...46 milies in 3 hours going over the grape vine...breaking our borrowed stroller before we ever got to the park...aches and pains of not being that young anymore...knowing that your children are getting further away from being children everyday. Yeah, with the good stuff comes a bit of seriousness too. So in retrospect, we had fun, Thanks Mickey & Walt!!!

From the Magic Kingdom...

Hey, I thought that it would be fun to continue updating the blog site for those of you that just happen to venture online over the holiday break...as a matter of fact, I am going to make a one time offer of xtra credit to those of you who leave a posted response attached to this blog entry! Not bad for minor amount of work. So let me know what class you are from and your name by the end of your post so that proper credit can be given to those who have happened upon it.
On to the blog...
This year my family and I decide to throw a bunch of money away on getting annual passes for the Disneyland Theme Park in Anaheim. Honestly, in spite of it being a significant amount to drop for going to a very touristy place, it has been a good time. The kids get all freaked out about the trip whenever we bring it up and that in and of itself is a fantastic thing. Our journey started today at 1:30 am...that's right, night driving. If I have learned one thing in taking several trips to Disneyand it is that you do not want to make that trip during the daytime hours with 5 children if you can help it. Every new town that you happen upon has it's own set of pitfalls and time sucking traps that keep you off of the road. Things like going potty, eating, buying snacks, coffee, gas, car sickness and the list goes on and on. The night drive is a dream! Everyone sleeps (with the exception of the driver) and usually wakes up near LA. It just feels like a shorter trip all the way around...Not this year. This year we hit fog right outside of Merced that lasted for 3-4 hours. It didn't let up until it became burned off by the morning sun. We were also battling some minor car problems that I think will hold off until we get home. So a little worse for wear, we pulled into the hotel parking lot at 9:30 this morning. Our day promises to be fun filled and highly eventfull!...
OK, when I started this post it was this morning, now I am ready to go to bed and just d.i.e. . I am soooo tired. We hit up the park pretty hardcore and rode lots of fun rides. A great first day.

Post-Birthday moment....

Hey, yesterday was my Birthday. Yea Me! I guess that it is a little silly to cheer for having carved out another year on planet Earth. I have to say that I don't think much about birthdays anymore. When you are a kid, they are fantastic. Atleast mine were. My parents, even during the divorced years, always made my birthdays important. I didn't see it then (what kid ever does?!?) but they always made me feel special. Maybe it was the lighting of the candles on a cake. That soft glow of promises that parents make to children about what their lives are supposed to be like. The anticipation of knowing that their would be a present that maybe I didnt't deserve but that I would still recieve none the less. It was always a miraculous thing to wake up and know that it was "your day", maybe not in the litteral sense that it doesn't actually belong to you, but that you coming into existence has had some significant impact on the course of the universe. Yeah, it's a big idea, I know, but I just can't help it. Every little life in it's own particular orbit sheds its goodness on the spaces and people around it. I haven't really felt that way for a long time...until yesterday.



If I had to name an ambassador for my birthday,it would have to be my wife and 5 children. You see, I went to work and got a few "Happy Birthdays!" from staff and students. When I got home, I really just wanted to sit down, I was beat. My children, according to my wife, had be making birthday trinkets for me off and on during the day. They even went so far as to purchase a few gifts from the dollar store. The youngest, Lauren, at four years old made me a card with a cute little heart guy on it and wrote "I love you daddy." and "Happy Birthday". Though they were not entire correct in their spelling, I got the drift. Gabrielle, at 7, made me some animals out of clay. They were not yet finished, but she showed me her work thus far. Lots of detail and small pieces! The nine year old, Avalon, had mom take her to the store so that she could buy me just the right coffee mug. I am an incurable coffe-holic. All times of the day and never anything less that 2/3 to a full pot in one setting. She even found a good enough bargin to throw in some hot coco so that I could make "Coco-Mofo" a delicious blend of coffee and instant chocolate. Haven, my oldest girl at 11 didn't really get me anything, instead, she helped everyone else pick out their gifts and found lots of good options to help the little ones choose from. Let's face it, being the oldest girl in a family of kids is no picnic. She is her own gift as far as I am concerned! The last, my oldest progene, Crosby didn't really "do" anything for me either, but his birthday is a few days before mine. He tells me good kid jokes anyhow, and that is kind of "gifty" in itself. My wife made this fantastic dinner. It was grilled chicken with a lemon-pepper rub and tequilla-agavea baste, mashed potatoes and corn. She also baked a pumpkin pie for desert. It was fantastic! Just supper inventive and really really good.

I guess the point of all of this is really just to share how my day went. It wasn't bad, what I kind of anticipate it to be, but quite the opposite. When I was a kid, I wanted the parties with all of the friends over, the funny hats and favors. A few hours distraction with people that you really cared about. The best things remain the same no matter what your age is, time spent with people who you really care about. Thanks "36" it's be fun, see you in the setting sun. "38", I will see you next year!
P