First Lego League Competition

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Tessa

This year Lex joined the local First Lego League group and finally found his tribe. :) There are ten kids in the group and they have been meeting twice a week for the past few months, designing and building a robot to complete a variety of challenges (aka “missions”). Today was the big competition. Nineteen teams from around the area competed in robot missions, design challenges, team work exercises, and presentations. It was a full day for these kiddos and a day of firsts for Lex! Overall it was AWESOME!!

The event started at 8am today at Dartmouth College. Lex and I went while Alan took Eve to karate. Suddenly we are that over-scheduled family! I wasn’t sure what to expect, but parents from last year said there is a lot of waiting and just hanging out. I personally felt the day flew by! Alan brought Eve over around 11:30 and I was having a great time hanging out. I loved watching the kids on the team work and play together. You could clearly see who had been there before (the older kids) and who was new (the younger ones) and how they went about things differently.

#10 Pencils, hanging out before the events begin.

My #1

#10 Pencils, getting ready for their turn.

Lex gets final updates on the mission order before their first match.

Part of the competition is a presentation and demonstration of their robot design. Each person had to read a part and then they all had to answer questions.

Question time.

I love how Lex stepped right up to answer questions without hesitation. He was so confident!

Team picture!

Another part of the competition was to solve a non-robot challenge. This years challenge was to design a new way to teach someone something. Their team came up with a new way to teach someone to run. Then they had to present it to the judges.

He looks so little in this group! He did great though.

Eve and Alan got there right around lunch time. We had some lunch, hung out, went to one of the team’s presentations, and then Eve talked me into leaving. More like she wore me down with her whining. I was conflicted because I had told her ahead of time that Alan and I would probably switch off and that she wouldn’t have to be there all day, however I was having fun and really didn’t want to leave! I didn’t want Alan to miss out on the whole thing either though, that didn’t seem fair. I begrudgingly left around 1:30 and we went home. Eve wanted to play house and dolls and all I wanted to do was text Alan to see how it was going. We settled on reading, which I did not do very well. Eventually she asked if she could play on the computer and I flopped over on the couch and took a nap!

Alan took a video of their third match and sent it to me. It made me very happy. The team had tried the “sports” mission (where the robot throws the ball into the net) twice before and each time it missed, but this time they got it! Hence the cheering. :)

Lex and his team ended up winning an award for Best Robot and progressing to the championship round next month!! I am super happy and excited for them!! It will be a busy day and I am totally looking forward to it! Alan is excited because the championship is held at his old high school. :)

The team won an award for the best robot design. Alan sent me a picture. :)

The actual award. I wonder what they will do with it.

Lex today wore a shirt that matched everyone else’s (or at least 10 other people), stood in front of a group (twice) to do a presentation, and happily survived a day full of noise, people, and chaos. I’m so proud of him!! He is growing up into such a strong, smart, fun little guy. I’m so glad that he is introducing us to this fun new world. That’s one of the many joys of parenting, all the places your children bring you. I think my parents would agree with that!

Ninja time!

Posted on August 21, 2014 by Tessa

The kids had their second belt test tonight. They both did AWESOME! I was really impressed with how focused and strong they were, especially since they have been quite silly at lessons lately. They pulled through with flying colors. Orange colors. :)

Chillin’ with Aunt Rosy before the belt test begins.

They were so strong and focused.

The sensi told Lex that he was really focused and did a great job on his moves.

Then he asked Eve how it is possible that she did so well on her karate, focused and strong, and also managed to make every sempi (teacher) at the table smile. There’s something about that girl!

They are so proud and excited to start learning new moves – orange belt moves!

We celebrated the achievements with take-out pizza and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the original 1990 version. We figured karate and pizza called for TMNT!

The other excitement for today is that Rosy came to visit! And she brought with her a tent!

There were two very happy children in the kitchen this afternoon. And a tent.

They are “sleeping” in the tent tonight, in the office.

This was a mistake picture but it looks pretty cool.

“Sleeping” seems to involve lots of flashlight action. :)

The grownups in the house have odds on whether or not they will make it. The kids are pretty determined though. They say it’s their practice run and they want to sleep outside in the yard tomorrow. We’ll see about that. It’s pouring rain tonight. Maybe it will rain tomorrow too. :)

Update: By 11:30pm, with the help of me laying down with them for awhile, they are both asleep, in their tent, in the office. We are all going to be tired tomorrow, but that how it goes with camping!

Oh, what a day!

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Tessa

I have had a very, very busy week! It’s my second solo week in kindergarten, though the first one I’ve actually had all five days. Tuesday night my friend from UVEI called to tell me what I’d missed that day, which apparently was a bump up on the due dates for a few big projects due. I know what’s due, but apparently it’s due two weeks sooner than I anticipated! On Wednesday morning I scheduled an interview for next Monday (yay!) which I’m not even remotely prepared for yet. But I’m trying to keep my eye on this week. This solo week. Which has had plenty of ups and downs, of course, and I’m pretty sure I’m learning more than the kiddos this week.

My school day ended on a high. As a UVEI project I wrote a kindergarten unit on neighborhoods and I’ve been teaching it this week. It culminated with the class building a neighborhood in the classroom out of paper, cardboard, wooden blocks, Legos, and more. They loved it!! We gave the other kindergarten a tour, a few teachers, and the principal even stopped by to visit our neighborhood. The kids were so excited!

After school Lex and Eve had their first belt test! They were super excited and I found myself feeling very nervous for them. Eve gets silly when she’s nervous and Lex tends to cry, so I wasn’t sure at all what to expect from the afternoon. Turns out they are both rockstars and did awesome! They needed to ace three separate tasks to move up a full belt color, or there are stripe levels to move up partial belt colors. They had the option of doing the third task or not, but if they did it it had to be done solo, not with the group. Both of them chose to do it! I was so surprised and proud of them! They ended up moving from white to orange with a white stripe, which is one step below orange. The Sensi was proud of both of them for trying the third tasks and they did well with it, but not perfectly. However, they were THRILLED about their orange/white stripe belts. Absolutely thrilled! Eve said her heart was bursting with joy and she swore she had happy tears inside too. :) I did too!!

This video is nearly nine minutes long, but I suspect there are one or two of you out there who might be interested.

Two little monkeys…

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Tessa

jumping on the bed.

One fell off and bumped her head. I didn’t get that on video though.

Alan and I got a new mattress and the kids were breaking it in. We need to get rid of the old one, but for now we just stacked the new one on top. Now we have a huge bed! My bedroom looks so small and sparse in this video. I seriously need an interior decorator! :)

I also added videos of the kids playing in the snow and our super fun sledding outing. You can reread those posts for the videos if you care to.

Snow

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Tessa

We got a bit of snow today, like 18″ or so! The district cancelled school, thereby extending next week’s vacation just a little bit longer. I was a little bummed because today is Valentine’s Day and we had a kindergarten party planned, but apparently the Superintendent didn’t take that into consideration! Geesh! Eve’s teacher bumped their party up a day, though Eve forgot and didn’t bring in her Valentine’s cards. So now we have mine for two classes (K and 5th), Lex’s, and Eve’s all in a big pile on the counter. Everyone will celebrate at school on the 24th. :)

I made little Valentine’s for my fifth graders. It’s silly, I know, and will be extra silly on the 24th.

Happy Valentine’s Day to my little valentines.

We spent several hours outside in the snow. Poor Alan had to go to work, so we started by shoveling out the driveway. That took awhile!

We have a lot of snow around here!

Eve plopped down and we nearly lost her! :)

Our little house in the snow.

Mountain climbing!

Eve slid down the banister face first and couldn’t get up. She started crying that her chin was cold so Lex warmed it for her while they waited for me to come to her rescue and haul her back onto her feet!

I told the kids to go on an expedition to find the swing set… they made it as far as the porch.

They got stuck in the snowbank! Lex is in up to his waist and Eve up to her armpits! Lex managed to get himself out, but Eve was so stuck I had to shovel her out. :)

I don’t think she minded too much being stuck in the snow.

Here she is, partially shoveled out.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Happy winter vacation! Happy Family! We were doing our highs/lows this evening and the kids had nothing but highs to talk about. Lex barely managed a low (snow down his back) and Eve’s low was she was too tired. :) Everyone is looking forward to a visit from Mema and Grandpa Tom tomorrow! Let the fun continue!

Sledding

Posted on February 9, 2014 by Tessa

At six and eight years old I thought the kids were about due for a proper sledding hill, not the gently sloping lawn we usually sled on. Today was a beautiful day, sunny and in the 20s, so we packed up the sleds and headed to a nearby slope! It’s a place I’ve heard all about but I wasn’t quite sure where it was so we went on an adventure. Turns out it was well worth it!! The kids loved it!

Yesterday they had a ice festival there, something I’ve always thought we should attend but never quite mustered the energy for, but turns out going the day after is perfect. All the ice sculptures with none of the crowds. Probably none of the s’mores and hot chocolate either, but we survived.

It was a beautiful day!

An ice car for kids to play in.

Eve brought Empy, her new penguin, and was excited to see an ice penguin there too.

One cool castle!

Lex on the ice slide

Eve on the ice slide

There was also a big snow slide that had a double track and went under a polar bear.

I’m sitting at the top (see my boots) and Eve is way down at the bottom.

Yesterday they had ice fishing at the party. I like that the hole is in the shape of a fish. :)

One big hill!

See Lex climbing it?

We each went down this hill once, fell off the sleds, bumped our heads, and decided to try a smaller hill. Actually safety conscious mom said we had to do a smaller hill. I wanted no concussions today!

Empy the penguin came sledding with us too. Here she is safely wrapped in Eve’s hat.

This hill was better.

One happy boy!

Eve decided to do some sliding like the penguins do!

Weee!! Empy is tucked into her hood and also enjoying the slide.

One happy girl!

Action shot!

I love this one!

Look out Eve!

Overall we had a great day! No tears and no concussions. What more can I ask for. The kids want to go back again soon. Hopefully the great weather sticks around for awhile because we have a week long vacation coming up and it would be great to do some sledding!

Robot Meeting

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Tessa

A snowy day

Posted on December 21, 2013 by Tessa

The snow was perfect for packing today! Eve wanted a snow bunny, so we worked on that first.

I think the bunny came out pretty good!

Snow bunnies!

The snow was really heavy!

Hard at work. It was great snow for building.

I love our snowman!!

The kids even gave it hands. :)

Back inside Lex finished building his EV3 R3PTAR (cobra-like robot) and it’s pretty cool.

Then we spaced out for the rest of the day. A little cleaning, a few games, lots of media and cookies. Vacation!

Holiday Concert

Posted on December 15, 2013 by Tessa

Oh, I forgot one big event in my update post below. The Holiday Concert! We have a new music teacher at school this year and she organized a great holiday concert! Here are a few from-the-back-row, low-quality videos for your viewing pleasure. Eve was SUPER excited about it and has been singing the songs for weeks now. Lex, on the other hand, was less so. They have been practicing in music class for awhile now, maybe since the beginning of school, and Lex has not been excited. In the beginning he was putting up quite a fuss in music class, telling me he was embarrassed and did not want to go to music class. His poor teacher, a girl fresh out of school, came to me in the lunch room to see if I could help. Apparently he was being a pain in the butt. He and I had a chat that night and we made a deal that if he had top-notch behavior in music class between then and the concert, if he participated and I heard nothing but good reports from the music teacher, then I would let him stay home from the concert. He agreed eagerly and was a model student for the rest of the time. His teacher told me that whatever I said to him had worked because he was a joy to have in class now. I didn’t bother to tell her about our arrangement. He even did well at the stage rehearsal the morning of the concert. That night he was really torn. He wanted to go, wanted to be there, but was nervous. So we made another deal. His teacher was one of the people who were standing behind the risers “just in case” and I told him if he got too nervous he could step off the back of the risers and stand with his teacher. I knew she would be fine with it. She was well aware of his stage fright and had been encouraging him to come and give it a try. He agreed to the deal, got changed into his nice(ish) clothes, and came to the concert. Once there, Eve happily ran to her place on the risers but I had to walk with Lex to his. Inconveniently his class was center stage. Right in the middle, front and center. As we got closer to his spot he got more and more nervous. We ended up stopping a bit away. He was crying and buried his face in me. His teacher saw him and waved him over. A friend came running over to help him along. A sweet friend who’s helped him through nervous times in the past. But no luck, he wanted nothing to do with it. He ended up coming back with me and sitting, very fidgety, on my lap for the whole concert. The place was packed! I would have preferred him on the risers, but you can’t force it.

Here are a few videos of Eve singing, and the rest of the school too! :)

The opening number… (Eve is the kid with the Santa hat towards the middle)

Kindergarten and first started with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Eve is the one in the Santa hat in the middle. She kept pulling the hat further and further down over her eyes. :)

Next up, “I want to be an elf” by kindergarten and first. Eve loves this one and has been singing it for weeks!

Lex’s class sang Frosty and played a song on the “barred instruments.” He’s the kid not in this video. :)

The whole school sang a funny song called “Someone’s in the chimney.” A 4th grader was hiding in a fake chimney and voicing Santa for the song.

And lastly, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, from the whole school.

There was a professional photographer there who I’m sure took much better videos than I did. In fact, he was right in front of us! :) But you can watch these if you’d like. Or not. Merry Christmas from DBS!

What’s going on…

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Tessa

Here’s a quick look at what’s going on in our world. What I’ve taken pictures of, at least!

Snow!

They still enjoy the tiny hill across the street.

Lex loves his new jacket with the wrist covers.

Lex got his long awaited EV3 Mindstorm kit and, first things first, organized it. “I saw on a video that they said to do that first,” he told me. I wish that video had said to eat your veggies first. :)

Calm and Chaos: Life with kids

Tag Archives: Videos