Happy Birthday, Little Miss M!

My baby girl is 14!  

For her birthday breakfast-Ice Cream.  Salted Caramel ice cream.  Yum.






It has been a busy couple of months.  We are wrapping up the school year in the next couple of weeks.  Next year I will have a High School Freshman and a Junior!  

Our last field trip of the year was to The Bronx Zoo.  We had not been in a few years.  We got to see the baby giraffes, a baby gorilla, and Komodo Dragons.

B rode a camel!

M was not happy that I made them stand by the rhino statue.

Everyone loves the sea lions.

After viewing the short film about the Congo I was ready to get on a plane and save the rain forest.  But then I remembered, giant insects, malaria, lack of hot and cold running water, it is hot and muggy in the rain forest.  So, I will save the rain forest by not using products that are the result of deforestation and using products that help the rain forest when possible.

A great time was had by all.  I sent them on a photo scavenger hunt to give some purpose to our wandering.  It worked out great.  It was a basic list of questions such as -find an animal eating. Find an animal with feathers. Etc.  Who knew the preschool scavenger hunt would work so well for teens.

Soon the school year will be over and we will enjoy a lazy summer with my only commitment being to the summer swim team for the month of July.  Little Miss and I will enjoy a lazy summer.  Mister B will be life guarding at the town pool again.

I am looking forward to relaxing.  

Sophmore Dance

Mister B attended the Sophmore Dance at the high school with a friend this weekend.  Don't they make a cute couple?

Alas, they are not a couple.











They had a great time.  They danced, they sang, they ate.

Mister B is studying for his learners permit.  Soon he will be driving. They grow up so fast.

School work continues to progress nicely.  We recently took a food tour of the lower east side with my sister and her family.  It was a lot of fun and a lot of good food.

Yum, the pickle guy!

Of course we bought pickles!

We got to see Matzoh coming out of the oven.

We saw and tasted all highlights. Russ and Daughters for smoked sable and pastrami salmon, Katz's deli for hot dogs and knishes, The Streit's factory for matzoh, economy candy for halvah (delicious middle eastern treat), Kosser's for fresh baked bialys.  FYI, a true bialy is nothing like a bagel. And the final stop at the pickle guy. 

The tour was a lot of fun.  Our tour guide was very knowledgeable about the history of the lower east side.  Fun fact-Streit's is the last family owned factory. Manashevitz,Goodman's, etc. all since gobbled up by conglomerates.  Since Little Miss M is studying immigration right now the tour was timely.  Showing them where their great grandmother lived when she first came to this country added some extra meaning.

We also celebrated Great Grandma's 102nd birthday last month.

Doesn't my grandma look amazing with her great-grandkids.  Unfortunately my cousins with the baby had to leave before we could get this pic.  But know that there is one more great-grandchild.  Another boy. Poor Little Miss, the only girl on my side of the family.

Happy 16th Birthday

Mister B turned 16 over the weekend. I can't believe my baby is 16. On the threshold of adulthood.  I couldn't be prouder of the man he is becoming.

Birthday breakfast-Ice Cream! And, no, they did not eat the whole pint in one sitting.

Birthday tradition-dessert for breakfast.

So delicious!

Other big news-At the end of the season dinner for the Bergen Sharks it was announced that Mister B set the team record for the 200 backstroke.  Good year for Mister B.

Mister B is studying for his driving permit test.  Yikes!  He will be driving.  But also, yay, I can send him to run errands in another year.

Happy March

Having totally skipped January and February I finally have a few minutes to update what has been happening in our little homeschool world.  In a nutshell-swim, swim, swim, snow, snow, snow, and school, school, school.

Swim season is over.  That was quite a ride.  Mister B made it to States for the Bergen Sharks.  He swam freestyle and a relay.  He came in 2nd in his heat for freestyle and shaved some time.  Overall, he came in 7th place.  But he earned 2 points for his team.  So, all in all, pretty good if you ask me.  The Sharks won States overall combined score of girls and boys.  The girls came in 1st and the boys came in 3rd.  A great day and a lot of fun.

The high school team also qualified for States.  Our team made it as far as the semi-finals.  First time ever.  Very exciting.

This is the last week for the Sharks.  Sunday will be the fun meet against themselves.  Then the end of the year dinner. At which point I will enjoy a couple of weeks off before Spring Training begins.

But enough about swim, what about school, I can hear you saying.  School is going well for both of them. They are making progress.  Little Miss has been devoting some time to the study of Freedom from Religion and how that applies to daily life.  She has also been studying the moon.  In English she is enjoying The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.  She is not enjoying my constantly making her look up words when she does not know their meaning.

Mister B is also progressing nicely.  He is working on a research paper for his writing class and has started a 10 week Shakespeare class studying Romeo and Juliet.  Math is steady progress as is health, science, and history. 

The past couple of months have been hectic, crazy, and wild ride.  Here is to March roaring in like a lion and going out like a lamb.

Happy New Year!

Yes, I am still horribly neglecting this blog.  Between lack of time due to two teenagers and their right not to have every little thing they do tooted over the internet I find updating challenging.  So here is a recap of the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014.

Swimming.  Lots and lots of swimming.  Mister B is having a good year so far on the high school team.  Both Mister B and Little Miss M have shown improvement in their times.

Schoolwork continues to go fairly smoothly.  They are learning.  They even remember some things when asked.  Although for some reason Little Miss keeps forgetting The Pledge of Allegiance.  However, I just asked her to recite it and she remembered the whole thing.  Perhaps that hurdle has been conquered (to be replaced with her inability to remember the name of our National Anthem).

Mister B completed his first semester of the online writing class.  Considering how much he hates writing and how he has never taken an online class I think the B- he got is pretty good.  We have now gone over her comments and are working on strategy to bring the grade up.  Algebra seems to finally be sticking.  That is a relief.

We started back to school on January 2nd.  Only to have a snow day today, January 3d.  We got a good 8-10 inches.  Thank you to my neighbor who comes by with his blizzard grade snow blower and does most of the work for us.  I bake him cookies in return.  And then I get to feel like my mother by saying "Don't touch.  Those are Eric's cookies."  Okay she would say "Don't touch, those are for the holiday." but it is the same idea.

Did I mention the swimming?

Oh my! I have been horribly neglectful.

I realized today that it has been quite a while since I updated.  Life with teens has a funny way of cutting into my blogging time.

The big news here is that Mister B's PSAT scores arrived in the mail today.  Big sigh of relief-I have not ruined him for life and chances are he will get into a decent college.  He did just fine. Everything exactly where I expected it to be.  Now an action plan is being put in place for next year.  Never hurts to try for a National Merit Scholarship.

Mister B is having a busy school year.  His online writing class has been an exercise in time management.  Perhaps he will even master it by the end of the year.  In spite of his scheduling challenges the class is going well.  First there was the essay about him.  Then the persuasive essay.  Currently he is working on a short story.  He is doing well in the class but I don't think my main goal is being met.  I was hoping the class would help make the writing process easier for him but I don't think it is working.  Perhaps by the end of the year.

Little Miss M is also having a fine year.  Last year she loved all things science.  This year she told me she is enjoying her civics class more than science.  What is not to love about learning about our constitution and why we have ethics and civics.  She is also loving her rainbow loom. I think it is great that the loom entertains her for hours.  I certainly prefer stepping on little rubber bands instead over legos.

They are both still swimming and loving it.  Mister B is still swimming for the club team and the high school.  The high school season just started and Mister B is a little upset that the coach wants him to continue doing distance.  He prefers sprinting.  You want to sprint-get faster.  Little Miss continues to work hard and will be trying out for the high school team next year.

Happy Halloween!

This Halloween was a little bittersweet for me.  I don't have little kids anymore.  No more pumpkin crafts.  No more cute princess and pirate costumes.  No more trekking in the cold following my little munchkins (okay, I don't miss that). 

Mister B spent the afternoon at a friends house.  Little Miss M and her friend put on their zombie makeup and went out for what was likely their last trick or treat.

Sure, I still passed out candy and oohed and aahhed at the adorable little kids and faked horror at the scary older kids but it is not the same when you don't have one of your own.