8th Grade Awards Ceremony

First semester of 8th grade is over and we attended the little awards ceremony that the school does for honorees. Jacob won two awards this year; one for Principal's Honor Roll and one for Science. 

We are of course proud parents and can't believe that the end of 8th grade is a few months away.

Las Vegas 2016

Monday, on our drive out we stopped for lunch at Emma Jean's Holland Burger Cafe on historic route 66 in Victorville. We shared a Brian Burger; beef patty, thick slices of toasted bread for the bun, cheese and some sort of green pepper or chili. It was good and something different.

Flamingos at the Flamingo. Tuesday, we saw Piff the Magic Dragon which is a magic and comedy show. It was fun and amusing. Of course Mr. Piffles the chihuahua was the real star. I wanted to get my picture with Mr. Piffles but the line was too long. Instead we went outside to the Wildlife Habitat. It was night so most of the animals were asleep.

We went to Cracker Barrel Old Country Store for breakfast on Wednesday. Michael is familiar with this chain of restaurants from his trips to the South. I was the one in for a treat. I enjoyed my eggs-in-the-basket and fried apples.

The country store is something to behold.

Wednesday afternoon was spent at the Mob Museum. It was well worth the price of admission, we spent 3 hours there. One of the more impressive pieces is this wall where the Valentine's Day Massacre took place. The bricks were numbered and reassemble here at the museum.

We discovered parts of the hotel that we had never been before, the Koi pond.

And Ferrari shop, Jacob would be impressed.

Garfield Get Together

At our annual block party our car enthusiast neighbor asked Jacob if he wanted to take a ride in a Ferrari. It took much prodding on Jacob's part but we convinced him to go.

Jacob experienced zero to sixty in three seconds and a top speed of one hundred and one. I don't know where in Venice this is achieved as it takes me twenty minutes just to get to Ralphs grocery store. He came back in one piece so I didn't worry.

Jacob's Bar Mitzvah - Friday Night Service

Michael managed to take a few pictures after Friday night's service. Jacob did several prayers on Friday night. He did well and I think it helped prep him for Saturday morning.

The green kippah (yarmulkas) made a big hit.

Jacob looked so snappy in his new suit.

These ladies are part of the sisterhood who made the cake according to Jacob's specifications; white cake, white frosting.

Nothing like a formal event to get your kid to smile.

After Friday night's service, Michael and I went home to assemble 48 cupcake hamburgers.

They were well worth the effort as I think they were a very popular item. We hope to be able to share more pictures later.

Michael's Birthday

We celebrated Michael's milestone birthday with a quiet dinner party at home. With all the big celebrations coming up we decided to keep it low key. You only turn 50 once so the mother of all ice cream cakes was needed to celebrate.

Trying to cut this monster frozen cake.

Naked cake.

Banana Split Ice Cream Cake from Bon Appetit. Recipe and video available from the website. Stay tuned for more milestone birthdays.

First Day of School

Parents warned me that middle school would go by in a blip and they were right. I can't believe that Jacob is starting his final year of middle school. Where did the time go? I seem to be saying that a lot lately, I need to get it on a t-shirt.

8th Grade

7th Grade

6th Grade
This photo melts my heart. Here is to a successful year.

San Francisco 2016

We drove up to the bay area on Friday and met with my long time friend Julie, her husband and youngest son Jack who is now 8 years old. We had a wonderful visit as I have not seen Julie in a long time. I neglected to take any photos.

We stayed in an Airbnb in Berkeley. It was a back house with a bed, sofa bed, kitchenette and bathroom. It was the perfect set up for our family and it was nice to have some meals in the cottage. They also had a chicken coop in the backyard and one morning I did not like the chicken coop but that was ok.

Saturday morning was a beautiful day in San Francisco. We met some nice people who were willing to take a picture of us, of course Jacob declined. We had wonderful pastries by the bay.

Our morning activity was the Exploratorium.

Jacob enjoyed this exhibit the most; strandbeest.  Jacob teases me for taking pictures of people's backs but when he won't cooperate for a picture what choice do I have. 

I thought this was a cool exhibit; Scott Weaver's 100,000-toothpick sculpture.

We headed out for quite the walk to our lunch destination.

We walked a lot of hills that day. Jacob of course had a blast with it.

We ate lunch at Golden Boy Pizza. The walls were covered with stickers and they played heavy metal music. Jacob and I deemed it "sketchy" but of course it was fine and good pizza.

Jacob is learning to take pictures of his food too:)

The red building is the pizza joint.

We ended our day with a Cable Car ride to the museum.

It was fun watching how it all worked. Our dinner plans included meeting up with Howard and Margi. Again we forgot to take pictures but dinner included Mexican food, almost an entire challah and dessert. Balanced meal right?

On Sunday we went to the botanical gardens at UC Berkeley with Michael's friend Abe, his wife Layla and their two daughters.

Jacob was the only one who remembered to take pictures.

The gardens were beautiful despite the hot day.

At the end of our day we did go to the University campus a bit. I had never been to UC Berkeley so it was fun to see. I did not realize how old the college was, established in 1868. All in all it was a great trip and we look forward to going back especially for the food.