Birthday Photos

We had a fun family birthday celebration last night.  More to come when E- celebrates with friends in a couple weeks.  This was an evening of gift opening, turkey burgers, sweet potato fries and cobbler - and a quick and easy photo booth!

Photo Booth Fun!

The parents of a 16 year old!

Happy Birthday To My Sweet 16 Year Old!

16 things I love about my Sixteen Year Old!

1 - Her zest for life!  E- is most always game for anything and goes about life with a smile on her face.

2 - Her intellect.  I am not just saying this because I am her mother, but she is a joy to listen to whether discussing her opinions, history, books, logic, etc...

3 - Her  devotion to friends and family.  E- loves her family and friends.  Lucky you if you get to count her as one!  She will stand with you until the end.

4 - Her enthusiasm for learning.  I'll take credit for this one since it is one of the main reasons we decided to homeschool.  Her love for learning everything (even when it isn't a favorite subject like physics) makes me proud and happy:)

5 - Her love for her family.  It is a rare thing to see a teenager so content to hang out with their siblings/parents/grandparents these days, but E- truly enjoys and cherishes these times.

6 - Her extrovertism (is this a word?).  She's an extrovert (probably the only one in our family).  It is refreshing to see her jump in a crowd and make friends, answer/ask questions in various forums, and not be afraid to wear bright colors and hats just for the fun of it!

7 - Her sense of responsibility.  I never have any doubt that she will make the right decisions (big or small).

8 - Her maturity.  If you know her, you know what I mean.  She is wise and mature beyond her 16 years.

9 - Her "non-typical" teen viewpoints.  She is atypical in the best way.  No short skirts, no texting in public, no boy crazy moments, no pop culture junk.  This is all great stuff!  Don't worry, she's not a nerdy homeschooler, she knows about all this stuff - just chooses to ignore them and finds some better options.  Yes, she balks at her mom's reading of PEOPLE magazine!

10 - Her ability to have fun and be silly.  She'll still play nerf, build legos, jump in the Rio Grande, watch Disney movies, sword fight with her brother and generally have a great time being a kid.

11 - Her sense of adventure.  From wanting to travel the world, to hiking the Sandias, to trying new foods she is not afraid to 'go for it'!

12 - Her love of nature and animals.  It is super fun to see the thrill she gets while trying to catch lizards, frogs, mice etc... and she enjoys the change of season, rainstorms, sunsets too.

13 - Her love of children.  E- loves the little kiddos as much as her mom!  She is probably the best babysitter anyone could ever have.

14 - Her love of God.  She has a remarkable and strong faith which guides her in her decisions and grounds  her in life.

15 - Her compassion for others.  E- always knows if someone is down and does her best to bring them up whether it providing hug, a cup of tea, poem, note etc...  She is especially in tune with me and can always lift my spirits.

16 - Her positive attitude.  She always looks on the sunny side of life and has a 'glass half full' outlook.  I'll credit her dad for this one!

Happy Birthday E-!  You are by far my favorite 16 year old in the world!  I love you!

Mommy

Change of Season

I love fall!  I know it's not 'officially' here until next week, but the signs are creeping into our lives here in NM already.  The mornings and evenings are cool and crisp, the geese honk by in morning, the sunrises and sunsets are more vibrant (why is that?),  balloons fly in the sky, and the chiles are roasting on nearly every corner!  Yep, that's what fall is in NM - chile time!  The smell - mmmmm.  Something you have to experience to understand.  We got a 40# a couple weeks ago and bagged 'em up to use for the year.  So good and I swear they ward off colds and flus... seriously (touch wood) we can't remember the last cold we had;)

I made a Green Chile, Bacon, and Potato soup - mmmm.  Will try to post the recipe soon!

School is going well thus far (week 3).  M- is enjoying his physical science class the most and has already finished reading 2 books off his booklist!  E- ecstatic about her rhetoric class and European history.  I am feeling extra smart as I spent 5  hours on physics in the last two days and not only figured it out, but taught E- as well:)!  We must get smarter with age as I never figured physics out in high school!

Balloon Fiesta is in a couple weeks - we are staying home this year, but hope to see some from the house!  This guy must have been prepping... gotta love this scene (from our bedroom porch) when you wake up in the morning!

Hubby and I head out in about a week for our relaxing get away!  Super excited - life has been hectic and stress filled for him at work and we are both in need of some downtime.  Thankful for parents to stay with the kiddos and hold down the fort - hope they can figure out the physics!  

Enjoy the weekend and this sunset!

Meet Me At the Fair!

On Friday Pah, the kids, and I went to the NM State Fair.  Thanks to Governor Susana Martinez, all state school children and their chaperones can go and park FREE!  Lots of fun - animals, 4H exhibits, art, music, shows and some rides too.  Weather was great for the fair and for NM too - actually it was so chilly that M- and I had to get some matching sweatshirts:)  How cute are we?

M- couldn't wait to try his first deep fried treat.... lots of choices (bleck).  He chose a deep fried oreo!

But, Pah discovered the best fair food combining his Wisconsin cheese love with a little bit of New Mexico chile:)  This is my favorite picture - and these were really good!  I am actually craving them as I type.

We saw some crazy high diving pirates.  Seriously, they were nuts!  I am surprised no one died.  They were diving off platforms with winds gusting up to 30 miles per hour.

E- had her fill of some fair rides and coaxed her mom into one that was "pretty mild".  Haha - she conveniently forgot to tell me that after it went forwards (which I was handling), that it then goes backwards (which I didn't handle as well)!  Good thing we sat at the pirate show after that!  If you zoom in you can see how elated she is that she has tricked me:)

Here she is on her fave fair ride!  She is the adventurous one... her brother opted out of all rides.

A fun day for all - Thanks Governor Martinez for the opportunity to check out our state fair.  And, thanks Pah for enjoying the day with us!

Back in the Groove

I wish I would have had this much fun in school!  Believe it or not this is not a staged photo and the kids are actually having this much fun on the 1st day back at EMG Homeschool!  They were competing to see who could get the better math grade and finish 1st!  Maybe not so fair as one is doing Algebra II and the other Pre-Algebra.

Routine is good - for all of us.  Honestly, I think we were all ready to get back to a schedule.  So here we are... E- beginning 10th grade and M- starting 8th.  Both are doing science with Memoria Press ( my favorite online program!) and although E- is doing Physics and M- Physical Science they have the same teacher, who happened to teach E- Logic a couple years ago - we love him:)  E- also taking AP European History and Aristotelian Logic??   Don't even ask, but I am pretty sure after this she'll never lose an argument!  M- is doing Pre-Algebra and WWII History.  And both are doing OYAN (One Year Adventure Novel) together.

As far as extra stuff - they are set for plenty of that as well.  Which means I am set for plenty of driving!  

Summer flew by and I'll be honest and tell you that it was not my favorite, but the kids had an awesome time and probably will count it as one of their favorites.  Although we did some fun stuff, there was just not enough "downtime" for me (or my husband).  BUT, never fear... we (just hubby and I) are getting away at the end of the month to chill!  I just have to keep it together until then - 26 days!   Sunsets and tea will have to help me relax until then:)