Paradise by the sea

That's the name of the trailer park Here in Carlsbad. Amazing last minute deal Heidi found. Steps away from the ocean and a cool park. Great spot to spend New Years.

Christmas

Christmas with the Schwartz family minus east coast schwartz's and Brian and Debi

Merry Christmas

Woke up at the crack of dawn to rip into the presents

San Francisco

Palace Hotel and Yerba Buena Park

Aquarium and fun in Monterey

Cold and raining but we managed to squeeze in some fun

Renaissance Resort

Waiting for Heidi's caroling to begin we stopped at the fancy resorts in Indian Wells. No shortage of holiday spirit here. Looking forward to seeing the new Star Wars movie this evening.

Chess tournament

Our logical-mathematical logic smart son Won 3rd place! Won all 5 games and was a good sport. Parents and brother are proud.

Finished Project

Been working hard to complete this final project for my class. Heidi was a huge help in editing and making sense of it all.  I appreciate her putting up with my grumpy attitude at times, but in the end we created a great final project.  Check it out at http://differentiated-instruction2.blogspot.com/

Christmas tree

Our first tree in our new house. Hopefully the cats won't rip off all the ornaments or fry themselves on the lights.

Stockings hung

Looked on Amazon for stocking holders and they were $20 with bad reviews. My homemade version didn't put holes in the mental and can take the weight of 4 filled stockings. My secret is rocks in the Christmas tree and coins in the cup. Got the wire basket from a drawer in the kitchen. Bet nobody else has a stocking mantel holder as unique as this.  Heidi says this contraption would look perfect in the trailer.

My class

Great group this year! Happy to be their teacher. Missing a few kids in this picture. Finally the weather is just perfect.

Thanksgiving

Our first thanksgiving in our new house and we couldn't be more thankful. Excellent food and terrific family.

Turkey trot

A terrific turkey day!

Hops & Props

Great micro brews at the Palm Springs air museum with steve

Student store

Kids have earned their dojo points so now they can shop at the student store. It's amazing what you can get for a buck from China at the 99 cent store

Happy Halloween

It was fun trick or treating with our friends. Our neighborhood was a little sparse but we drove down the street to a generous neighborhood. I think the kids got about 5 pounds each.

Math scholar

Zachary received the award for understanding many math concepts. Ethan also received the character counts award.

Dia de Los muertos

Making some fun crafts at Sunnylands

Recovery

No problems removing the lipoma from my arm. It's a little swelled up and has a plug in it so I will wait to show pictures until next week.

Bad spellers of the world Untie!

Before shot

That 9 cm bump will be gone tomorrow. Won't miss this fake muscle at all. A little nervous for the surgery tomorrow.

Hitching a ride

This stick bug got confused with the wheel of my car and a tree. Good thing I saw him before pulling away.

Joshua tree

Went camping with some friends in Joshua Tree over the weekend. Free admission for all 4th graders and the whole family for the year to any national park. Came across these crazy guys slack lining across giant boulders. Rock climbers put a lot of faith in their ropes.