Maggie's graduation

Maggie graduated from High School-I'm not sure who was most relieved-me or her!!!

Ben and I had gone shopping with her the week before and she looked great.  She even wore my Rothy's (although she took them off before she even got home and walked down the street in her bare feet!)  She will probably never wear those clothes again, but it was worth it!!!

Rare family photo taken by Jan

Ben goes to Madrid

 We had a huge storm come through Brentwood the day before Ben left.  It took down a massive tree in our neighbour's yard.  Ben is going to miss our melodrama!!!!

Sam and I went out to breakfast with Ben at Half and Half

As far as we can tell, Ben had a pretty good flight, even though it was long.  He found his way to where he is staying.  He was a little shell-shocked at the beginning as he found out that there are no other students staying at the same home and his host cannot speak any English.  By the end of the day, he had been out wandering about and had already made some friends.  I suspect we are not going to hear much from him in the coming months!!!!

The advantage of being on his own is that he's got twice as much closet space and twice as much room in general

Once again, he's landed on his feet.  So far he's loving being in Madrid, I hope it continues and he has a great time.

Ben moves in to SLU

Today is the day.  Ben becomes a Billiken.  Ben leaves home (for the first time).  Ben gets to be independent (somewhat).  Ben gets to adult......All of the above
Ben is moving into the SLU dorm today.  Sam is helping him.  I'm staying out of the way!!!!

Graduation 2019!!!!

We had two graduations in one day this year. In addition to the medical school graduation, Ben graduated from high school on the same day. It was a very long day.
We always have a breakfast for the MD/PhD students.  It was huge this year, we had 4 students graduating and they brought a bunch of family.  This is Kostia (Biochemistry), Anit (SLUCOR), me, Andy (was the Program Director before me), Andrew (MMI), Ray (Biochemistry)

We took this picture after graduation-me and a bunch of Biochemistry people.  Dr DiCera (chair of Biochemistry), me, Ray (MD/PhD student), Kostia (MD/PhD student), Susana Gonzalo (Ray's mentor) and Sergey Korolev (Kostia's mentor)

On to Ben's graduation.  

He was definitely ready to be done with High School and move on to College!

They had a very nice ceremony and Ben got a bunch of certificates from the school and State

Family waiting for the ceremony in the auditorium

Found this old picture of Ben and Ms Scott from last day of 5th grade, time goes by so quickly

Can't wait to see what this new chapter in Ben's life looks like

Ben's second prom

Ben and Theresa went to Theresa's school prom. Ben went with black this time

They look great together!!!

Senior Awards

As part of graduation celebrations, BHS had awards night. Ben was eligible for a scholarship that apparently he is not able to use, but at least he qualified

Ben's Prom

Since Ben is class president this year, there was no way he was able to avoid prom!!!!  He and Louis looked great in their suits!!!!

Ben decided to take Teresa with him-she's a friend that works at SLGC, they look good together

They are going to Teresa's prom on April 26, so this is a busy prom season for us!!!!!

Ben's team wins scholar bowl

Ben's chemistry teacher started a Scholar Bowl team this year and Ben has been part of it.  They won the district competition and so now move on to the regional, which will be held at Brentwood on Ben's birthday!!!!!!  So, now I have to move Ben's birthday dinner reservations to accommodate their success......

Not bad for the first year being in the competition!!!!

First Day of School 2018

Time for 2018-2019 school year. This is the first year that Ben and Maggie have been in the same school since 2011. This is also the last year that they will both be in the "first day of school" picture.  Ben is a senior and Maggie is a freshman this year.

They had a great first day.  They went to each class that they will have, no A day and B day on the first day.  Maggie seemed to do OK, Ben took her early this morning and made sure she knew where all her classrooms were.  Then we went and got her school supplies this evening and Ben helped her put everything together.  They both had plenty to tell us when we got home tonight, so hopefully that's a reflection of excitement and they are looking forward to the year ahead.

Graduation-Maggie

Maggie has graduated from Middle School!!!! I cannot believe that we have 2 kids in High School.  No wonder everyone says time goes by so quickly.  She is really looking forward to being in school with Ben and hopefully he can help her when she gets there

Congratulations Maggie, we love you so much.....

Cake and cookies!!!!

Graduation 2018-Ben

Ben had a fantastic year at school, especially at SouthTech where he did Anatomy and Physiology.  They had a graduation ceremony at the end of the year, but we were not able to go because it was in the middle of the day.  Luckily, someone took pictures.  This is Ben with one of his teachers and his friend Hayley

Ben and Hayley-superstars!!!!!

Mentoring program at Brentwood

They started a new mentoring program at Brentwood where they have coupled some of the 11th grade kids with the 8th graders.  Both Ben and Maggie are doing it.  They posted a picture of all the kids together

These are the 11th grade mentors.  About 1/4 of the class.  

I think the purpose of the program is to help the 8th graders get ready for high school.  Ben says they are going to do homework together as well.  That should be good for Maggie!!!!

Ben's muscle project

Ben has been loving his anatomy class at SouthTech.  He's been doing a huge muscle project and just finished it yesterday.  He got 640/600 points.

School days........

The kids are doing well in school this year.  I have done Maggie's IEP meeting and Ben's is coming up soon.  Ben is doing amazingly well at getting up at 5am to get to SouthTech.  They have started wearing their scrubs every day now.  Sam took this photo on the first day he wore them.

Maggie's grade went to Camp Lakewood for 3 days.  The school posted some pics of the kids doing their team building activities.  I copied all the ones with Maggie in them

Ben was inducted into the National Honor Society

A bunch of Ben's class was inducted into the National Honor Society.

Jackson Reeves!!!!

Reciting the oath

Ben, Maggie and me!!!

and Jan!!!!

Ben's certificate already framed.....