Visits home from college ....

It was a delight to have my oldest son home from U Penn for the weekend.  We were celebrating his 19th birthday; where, oh, where, does the time go?  Life is in a terrible hurry.   If only I could turn back the hands of time ....

John makes us proud every single day.  He is a profound thinker, an amazing athlete, a terrific musician, and the nicest young man you could ever hope to have the pleasure to meet.

Here he is 19 year ago ....

And here he is at his 19th birthday dinner last night

And this is how time flies and why I am so glad I was home to see it all ....

Gold Medaling at the Center City Slam

My 13 year old erged his way to a record breaking 2K time at the Center City Slam on Saturday, February 9th.   He won a gold medal and broke a record at this annual event for his age group!  He gave it all he had as you can tell from the pictures below.  He fell off the machine afterward and was unable to move for a disturbingly long period of time.   What a performance!

Disassembling for Success ....

In the Fall of 2012, my youngest son came under the spell of attractive online computer games.  For over a decade we have resisted going down this road and have never owned a GameBoy, PlayStation, XBox, Wii, or anything like this.  "Playing" time on the computer was also very restricted.  It was extremely difficult and it continues to be difficult.  We believe it is a hill we must be willing to die on, though.  Our oldest son thanks us for maintaining our stronghold on this hill, now that he is in college.   He uses the words that we used at the time:  "It could have robbed me of my childhood, but you wouldn't let that happen.  I'm better for it."

So, when my husband and I saw James coming under the spell, we disassembled his computer and put it in the basement.  This was 6 weeks ago.  Below are pictures of the books that James has read since then and he shows no sign of slowing down.

Big problems occasionally require bold action.  The most interesting part - he hasn't complained.  The rich life he lives in his books at the end of the day is much preferred.

Deja Vu

My husband and I can both recall our long-suffering parents rolling their eyes as we played the same 45 over and over and over, singing along earnestly.  It was usually the Beatles or Motown.

Tonight we heard our youngest, with his friends,  singing along to the same song, over and over and over, and although it was a CD, not a 45 or an lp, the spirit was exactly the same.  What is interesting about this is that, 40 +  years later,  it was the same song !   Who knew?

Beatlemania is alive and well at Labereeland .....