Jake just finished another season of Science Olympiad, competing on the homeschool team, Learning Vine. They are a team of nine, competing against all the area mega-high schools, like Naperville North, Nequa, IMSA, and Libertyville. It’s akin to David going up against Goliath!

The Learning Vine team had t-shirts made with this quote on the back: “There are two types of people in this world: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data” This is very very funny if you are a scientist. It’s a little annoying if you are a grammar buff.

How do they compete? The only equipment necessary, for the most part, are pencils and brains. They enter a classroom with this equipment and take a written test.

A couple weeks ago, they participated in the regional competition at IMSA, where the competition is intense because kids have been studying and researching their topics for months.

Jake and his friend Sam placed second in Astronomy (right behind Metea Valley…ouch). They were very excited.

Speaking of Metea Valley, there was a bit of an awkward moment when Jake walked in to take his compound machine test, and the administrator was his Physics teacher from Metea. Umm…hi, Mr. B. It was all good though, Mr. B wasn’t surprised to see Jake. Probably most awkward for Jake’s mother.

Jake came away with a couple more medals, and overall, the team rocked. Not only did they win the Spirit Award for team with the best attitude (politeness to test administrators, etc.), out of 24 high schools, Learning Vine came in 9th, just two places away from making it to the state competition!

After printing out all the teams’ stats, bringing the info to bed and studying the details last night, Jake is still filling out his bracket the next day.

I’m beginning to wonder if I should have copied his bracket instead of the “expert’s” bracket online!

March Madness is upon us, and every member of our family is filling out a bracket.

No member of our family has watched a lick of basketball–NCAA or otherwise.

So how does one go about picking teams when one has absolutely no background knowledge? We found that there is more than one way to skin that cat.

I went online and copied an expert’s bracket.

Jake spent a couple hours scouring records and stats in order to determine winners.

Jim and the other boys used gut instinct and whatever trivial knowledge they’ve managed to pick up.

And then there was Ruthie’s method. Jim juxtaposed the mascots of every matchup, and Ruthie pointed to the one she preferred.

Who did she pick to go all the way? The cute cheerleader bears from UCLA, naturally!

Peter is now in the double digits!

He went all out this year and made his own Snickers birthday cake

and cake pops.

I am greatly enjoying seeing Peter’s personality develop.

In what has become somewhat prophetic, upon each child’s birth, Jim and I bestowed him or her with a greek letter as a code name so we could talk about them without them knowing. (You may be wondering why I’m posting this confidential information on the blog…the gig was up years ago when they grew up, got smart and caught on to all the Alpha/Beta talk)

Being the third child, Peter’s code name is Gamma, which is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. Here’s what Wikipedia says about Gamma Rays:

They are of extremely high frequency and therefore high energy. They are biologically hazardous.

The high energy part is obvious. Peter is fast and intense, and when he gets into something, whether baking or football or friendships, he is all in.

The biologically hazardous description is also evident, especially when Peter is emptying the dishwasher. Just take a look sometime at our dishes. Not a one of them is without a chip. We affectionately call him Bam-Bam.

He is greatly loved in this family.

Don’t you guys just love your brother? Be serious now.

Just when we thought spring was right around the corner…

This was the scene pulling out of the driveway on the morning of March 12.

It’s how Ruthie says Craisins. So she asks for Praisins in her oatmeal, Praisins for a snack, Praisins in her granola. And it’s so entertaining and cute, I haven’t corrected her. They’re only this young once, right?

She is a chow hound. And a human being wannabe.