My last days with a 16 year old son

Soon this young man will turn 17. 

Time has been flying so quickly.  

He is getting more handsome everyday.  

In my humble opinion.  

Well, as humble as a momma can be.  

The Four-legged Child

 Christmas is a very happy time at our home, but Christmas gift exchange time

 ramps up the excitement and volume.

Peaches gets as excited as my two-legged kids when it comes to opening Christmas gifts.

Since she doesn't have opposable thumbs she relies on Allison to help her.

But once they are out of the wrapping it's game on!

Most of the pictures I have of her during the minute or two after opening her gift 

were just blurs of white and brown fur.  

Like this...

and this.  

Then she very patiently sits while everyone finishes opening their gifts, hoping that there might be something else tucked away for her.  

I wonder how long it will be before the Puppetmaster strikes again.  

Mmmmm, Bacon...and Chocolate

 It seems that Santa has a bit of a sense of humor.

Ben, aka Bacon Boy, loves bacon more than just about anyone I know with one exception. 

(I'm looking at you cousin Sam!)

He also loves chocolate.

But sometimes two good things don't necessarily go together well.

Enter: a large bar of Bacon-infused Chocolate.

It was kind of nasty.  

It had bacon bits in it so it had these gritty, greasy, almost jerky-tasting crunchy bits in it 

that gave the whole thing a weird texture.

He offered us all some of his chocolate (a rare occurrence) and kept eating bites of it in between professing it to be disgusting.

Does this look like someone enjoying their candy?  

I think not.  

I think he might have been thinking to himself, 

"It's chocolate.  It's bacon.  If I keep eating it it will have to get better, right?"

BTW, this morning the remainder of the chocolate/bacon bar was on the kitchen counter 

with a note asking folks to help themselves.

He has moved on to his more conventional Christmas candy now.  

I have to admit it was good for a laugh or two. 

Teens... Gotta Love 'Em

In Milwaukee over fall break we all made a trip to one of the lovely city parks

 to take some family pictures. 

The foliage colors were amazing!

While my in-laws were arriving I got the grandkids together to snap a few pictures.

I asked them to group up and to touch at least two others in the group.

This is what I got.

So I told them that I needed to see their faces.

This is what I got.

I then told them that I needed everyone to face me.

This is what I got.

What I have is four cousins that enjoy goofing off together.

And some cute photos.

Kicking Back on the Weekend

Around the Peter's ranch we don't watch TV during the week during the school year,

at least while the kids are awake.

So on the weekends when the homework is caught up the boy has his own style of kickin' back.  

Now that SEC football season has started he multi-tasks by watching football while playing a video game online with his friends.

Peaches is all smiles since she has her favorite littermate's full attention.

Except that the littermate likes to play with her toys. 

Maybe that part isn't so great.  

I am a Proud Boy Scout Momma!

Tonight was Ben's first Boy Scout court of honor as senior patrol leader.  

Before the ceremony Ben helped to get all of the awards and badges arranged.

Then there was the wrangling instructing the new scouts on how to be a color guard.

Three handsome men standing at attention while the color guard files in.  

Pretty snazzy uniforms, huh?

Reciting of the Boy Scout oath.

Ben receiving his badges that he has earned since the last Court of Honor.

Being congratulated by Mary Breeden, scoutmaster extraordinaire and 

wonderful motivator for this troop.

This is what Ben came home with tonight:

Badges for weather, forestry, soil and water conservation, fingerprinting, auto maintenance, 

bird study, zombie defense, and duct tape merit badge.

BTW, the zombie defense and duct tape merit badges are spoof badges.

They are earned during camp while completing fun activities.  

They don't count toward Eagle requirements but they do get added to the sash.

The Davis Inn patch was earned by climbing the 2 mile difficult hike up a mountain to the Davis Inn where they have to complete several activities like branding, carving, campfire cooking, lashing, and a basic course on edible plants.  

He also earned a World Conservation Award panda badge - kind of a cool deal.  

He is only the third scout from his troop to earn a panda patch.  

I am very proud of Ben and his troop.  This is a very busy bunch of boys - and it shows.  

Out of this troop of about 15 there were 72 badges and awards given!

It was also mentioned that this troop has a 100% Eagle rate.  

None of the active scouts age out before they reach eagle.  

That speaks very well of the scoutmaster and all of the adult help for this troop 

as well as the motivation of the boys.  

Makes a momma proud.

My Two High Schoolers

All the while feeling like a private investigator, I took my camera with me when I went to pick up the kids after school today.  

I am glad that no one seemed to notice me.  I don't think I would enjoy having to endure questioning about why I was photographing children in a school yard.  

Allison was first out and immediately noticed the camera.  

The girl never misses a chance to make a goofy face.

(I have no idea where she got that trait.)

I think she makes a pretty cute freshman...

Even though she busted out a few sweet dance moves while walking to the car.

No music required. 

Ben, who I believe also noticed the camera, never let on that he saw me until he was at the car.  

Upperclassmen have to be all cool like that.

We are having a great start to the year so far.  

The kids are happy with their classes and teachers.

Bruce and I are happy that they seem to be doing well so far.  

I hope that we stay in this happy groove for a long time.

Patches and Stitches

Ben came to me with his Boy Scout uniform shirt and 

asked me to get it up to date for him.  

He has a very important duty this coming weekend.

He will be master of ceremonies for his friend Jonathyn's Eagle Ceremony.

This is a big honor and very cool because Ben and Jonathyn have been 

scouts together since they were cubbies.

His uniform also needed to be updated because Ben is now 

Senior Patrol Leader for his troop.

In working through his Eagle requirements Ben needs to have leadership experience.

Now is Ben's chance to lead the troop.

In a couple of weeks Ben's troop will have their bi-annual Court of Honor 

where boys will be awarded the badges and 

rank advancements that they have earned.

After having a very successful week at summer camp Ben should be 

awarded several more badges to add to his sash.  

I guess there is no use putting away the sewing machine!

This weekend we are having a Harry Potter marathon.  

We decided that we wanted to go back to the beginning and watch all of the movies 

before we go to the theater later this week to see the final installment in the series.

It's been fun watching the Harry and company grow up again.

In true fashion, we lie around like boneless chickens when we watch movies.

The greatest physical expenditure is petting Peaches during the movie.

Although she also does her share of boneless chicken imitations.

We have enjoyed JK Rowing's stories and hate to see them come to an end.

I owe a great debt of gratitude to Ms. Rowling.

My son's love of  reading came when he picked up her first book in the 3rd grade.

He hasn't slowed down since. 

Splish Splash

Today we met up to swim at Mrs. Jennifer's pool.

She has a pool and no kids at home.  She has graciously asked us 

to come and swim anytime we want.  

Sweet!  

It was a wonderful sunny, but not terribly hot day.

Just right for playing and bobbing around in a pool.

Much fun was had by all.

Ben got really tan working at our church camp this summer.

He is always ready to keep the tan going.  

He has the ladies to impress, you know.

He and Allison had fun playing with each other.

Here he is demonstrating his lifesaving skills...

delivering his sister safely to the side of the pool.  

We started playing a diving game.

As they were getting ready to jump...

I would call out an animal...

This gave them just a split second to imitate the animal before they hit the water.  

They were pretty fun to watch.

 Between the goofy looks on their faces

 to the weird dives, 

it was pretty fun to watch.

About here is where I called out "Llama"!

Here is her llama.

About to be a very wet llama.

Splash!

 You can practically watch this kid grow this summer.

What a fun afternoon.