The Gladiators

Today was the big day...the state competition.  Joshua's Gladiator team was competing against 62 other teams from around the state.  The competition was held at ASU's school of engineering.  It was again an all day affair.  Joshua rode with one of the other boys to get there on time.  I had to rest some before heading up their.  I have been fighting off a head cold and Jay is out of town.  I did stop on my way in and get them all Krispy Kreme donuts.  Since it is 12-12-15 they have buy 12 get 12 free.  The boys were very excited to see me!  HA! 

Their team had to complete their 3 runs and once again give all their info and present to the judges.  These events were spread throughout the day with the closing ceremonies happening at 4:30pm. In the three robot runs the boys placed 25th out of the 62 teams.  So the top half!!  Our boys worked hard and gave it their all but they did not win.  However, they were very good sports and are already talking about next year's competition. The good news was though it was another homeschool team (of who we know) that won first place!

Here are some pictures of the day.  We were glad that the robot runs were live streamed over you tube so Jay and other friends were able to watch.  

First Lego League Competition

What an amazing day!!  Today was the day the boys have been working for the last 2 and a half months.  Competition time!  There were several of these competitions going on around the state.  At this location there were 18 teams.  The boys gave their presentation, met with judges, had 3 runs with their robot.  The only score we knew before the closing ceremonies was their robot runs.  They boys placed 4th!  We were pretty excited about that. 

 So fast forward to the end of a long day and it was time for awards.  We were getting pretty nervous because the boys were not getting called for any and we knew they had a good project. Well..... they ended up winning the WHOLE thing.....1st place GRAND CHAMPIONS!!!  WOW!  We knew they were good but that was a surprise!

Now they go on to state.  They will compete against all the winners of this first competition.  The boys have a really good project plan and I think they can win state! They are a good group of boys who have all worked really well together!

Here are some pictures from the day:

Joshua's Birthday

Happy, Happy Birthday to my 12 year old!!  I know this is a birthday Joshua will never forget!  His Aunt and her family have year round passes to Disneyland.  So they asked if Joshua could come with  to Disneyland for two days so the boys could celebrate together.  It was the first time any of my kids have been gone for their birthday but I knew he would have a great time.  So this was his party and gift all rolled into one.  : ) 

We woke up bright and early on his birthday and headed to the airport to get Jay (He had been working in Atlanta for the week).  We took Joshua out for breakfast and then met up with My sister and her family for Joshua to start his adventure.

 I asked my sis to be sure and take lots of pictures to share and she did.  Here are just a few.

Happy birthday my sweet, amazing, funny, smart, God-fearing young man!  Love you!

First Lego League

This semester Joshua is participating in First Lego League competition.  The competition will be held in November.  The boys are presented with a challenge that focuses on a real world topic related to the sciences.  (You can google it)  This year it has to do with solving a trash problem.  I am pretty hands off on this one.  I have a friend who is leading the group and they meet on Tuesday mornings.  I take the girls to gymnastics during this time so either Jay or Anastasia take Joshua.  However, they had a field trip this past week to a transfer station and so I took Joshua and Jadon.  It was pretty cool.  One of the boy's dad in the group runs this place so he gave us a tour.  Even though it was nasty hot in the middle of the afternoon it was quite interesting.

 Showing us how the trash and recycle is sorted to be sold off to other trash and recycling places.

Their favorite part was getting to get up in the trash truck and push the buttons to make the truck pick up and empty the trash bin.  Then they got to blow the horn.  Jadon thought this was really cool!