Getting ready for the weekend...

Today was a lot of fun. We decided on the spur of the moment to go to the indoor playground, then Carlos was able to join us for lunch. I was really glad that the kids got lots of solid play time. We've been cooped up a lot for one reason or another, and I think that Ariana and Joel were in desperate need of climbing and running (or at least doing it in a more congenial space than our living room).

Carlos is going for his....eighth? ninth? badminton championship. He wins almost every year. If you haven't seen tournament level badminton, don't let visions of gentle backyard matches deceive you. This is far more intense than tennis, and he trains for it pretty extensively every year. It is kind of funny, because one of the instructors is doing everything he can to put together a team that can defeat Carlos, but it almost never happens. Carlos has lost before, but usually only to a surprise international player, and even then, the second and third seed members on his team have been able to pull through.

Since he won't be with the kidlets, Elena is going to class with me. She likes being worn, but I'll be there about seven hours, so her abuela is coming along as back up. It will be an intense day for my students, too. They have to learn an entire chapter of new vocab, stressed possessive adjectives and pronouns, irregular preterites, the imperfect, and direct object pronouns, all before lunch! Then we'll review the previous chapter, with lots of regular preterites, stem-changers and spelling changes, comparisons and superlatives. Finally, they get an exam with listening sections, several cloze passages, reading comprehension, a short essay, and last but not least, a one-on-one oral section. Fun times! I have a really good group of students (if you aren't dedicated, you drop this class pretty quickly), so it truly is a joy to teach, even on a long day like tomorrow.

All this reminds me that I still have some grading to do, too...good night, and I hope that your weekend is a lot of fun!