November 5, 2024 - Mr. Confident

Robotics spotlight! The North Houston BEST competition was last weekend. This is a qualifying event for the regional competition in December (so a very important event). There were 18 teams comprised of 2 middle schools, 15 high schools and 1 home-school team. Our region is piloting a new game software and it's been a challenge to say the least. Due to robot issues, our team didn't even start driving training until a week before the competition (usually they practice for a month). JD and Luke left the house before 7am and drove over an hour to north Houston to meet the rest of the team. There were major issues with the new software across the board, causing a 2H delay. 

Prelims: 4 rounds, 4 different drivers

*Round 1: WIRED could not get the robot to turn on, 0 points

*Round 2: WIRED driver scored a couple points but then flipped the robot ending the run (at this point the team was in 12th and at risk of not making semi's)

Luke and another boy decide to make some adjustments. His teammate took a part off the robot and Luke reprogrammed it.

"Luke, we do not re-write code mid-competition. This is not done." - Mr. Q and Mr. Lin, lead mentors

"I've got it, don't worry." - Luke, cool as a cucumber

(not sure if this was the exact conversation but you get the gist)

*Round 3: WIRED driver (our very own LUKE), does a perfect run and maxes out points, moving the team into 3rd place. GO LUKE!!! 

*Round 4: WIRED driver does a decent job, but highest points are round 3

Semi's & Finals

*every driver does a good job but the highest scorer of the day was Luke!

Final Results:

*Robot Competition - FIRST place!!!

*Marketing Presentation - FIRST place

*Website - FIRST place

*BEST Award (overall award of marketing plus engineering): THIRD place!!

So proud of these kids!

On Friday, I stopped by Starbucks and ran into Mr. Q. 

"Did your son tell you what he did?" - Mr. Q

"I heard he preprogrammed the robot mid-competition." - me

"It's just not done. It hasn't been done in 20+ years. I could not believe his confidence. And he delivered. He's just so confident." - Mr. Q

Congratulations WIRED! Next stop: Dallas in December!

Luke's perfect run: https://photos.app.goo.gl/gJjPB3quvMMa9nkY9

November 1 - Happy Halloween

Book character parade

Halloween! We started off the day with the 2nd grade book character parade at North Pointe. Jillian loves to read Uncle Jay's Garfield comics and decided months ago that she would be Garfield. It was hot and extremely humid, but those kids looked adorable. All of the non-2nd grade students at the school line the hallways and the kids walked down to Thriller. They walked outside so parents could see them in their costumes. So cute!

Jillian's friend Colin and his mom came over after school. The kids had dinner and then we went trick-or-treating together. It was a rainy day but the weather held. The kids made it about an hour or so before heading home and checking out their spoils. 

What did the big kids do? Julia and Mia did makeup at our house and then went trick-or-treating in a friend's neighborhood, while Luke stayed home and handed out candy. Great evening for all!

Halloween 2024

October 30 - Blondes Have More Fun

"Jillian, go upstairs and take a shower." - me

45 quiet minutes later:

"Where is Jillian?" - JD

 I find her upstairs and discover she hunted through my closet to find my blonde wig (from the Alice costume) that was pretty well hidden. And unsurprisingly, she LOVED it! 

"Wow, could you imagine having hair like this? - Jillian

"Ask Julia, she naturally has hair like this. Maybe yours will thicken up like hers one day." - me

October 29 - Pumpkins!

What a weekend! Jillian spent the night at Scarlett's house Friday night, Luke hung out at Shawn's while Julia went out for frozen yogurt with Kendall. JD and I shockingly found ourselves alone and went out for a nice dinner together. We usually only go out on birthdays and our anniversary so it was great to get out on a random Friday. 

On Saturday, Luke and JD were at robotics for most of the day, Julia was at a swim meet while Jillian went to cheer on Scarlett at her soccer game. I spent the time...you guessed it, cleaning and doing laundry.

What a day! LOL 

Sunday was more fun. I took Jillian and Adelyn to a local pumpkin patch and they had so much fun. We took pictures, the girls did a scavenger hunt and they picked out little pumpkins and one big pumpkin for carving. When we came home, we carved the pumpkin together and then rode bikes in the cul de sac. Love making memories with our little one. 

October 25 - Spooky Season

Cheshire Cat & Alice in Wonderland

Halloween season is here! We hosted a Brownie Halloween Party over the weekend and the girls had so much fun. It was mostly food, candy, the mummy wrap and little girls running around screaming. But they loved it! 

Last night was a Trunk-Or-Treat at the elementary school and we hosted a 'trunk' again. Our theme was Alice In Wonderland and after unsuccessfully decorating the car (nothing we had would stick), we decorated the table. Jillian had a blast running around with her friends while I handed out 22 bags of candy. It was a packed event! Fun fact: Jillian insisted on wearing heels to the event and lasted about 1.5h before her feet hurt and she had to switch over to crocs. But I was impressed she lasted that long!

Girl Scout Party

Trunk-Or-Treat

October 23 - Region Band

Region band auditions were held on Saturday for all the kids in our district. Luke placed 6th out of 50+ trumpets and made symphonic band (the top band). We are very proud of him! As part of region band, Luke will attend workshops all day at a local high school and the kids perform in a concert together that evening. What an opportunity!

Last night was a short band concert at the school and they played Monster Mash and a song from Tangled. They have improved so much from those rough concerts in 6th grade LOL. 

October 20 - Delicious Golden Circles

My mom keeps telling me I'm doing a great job with my 'weight loss journey.' I'm not sure what that means, but she's been giving me less food over the last 6 months and I've got to you guys, I'm a hungry man. I have this blonde human sister (very feisty, talks all the time), and guess what her favorite breakfast is? These things called 'buttered pancakes.' Guys. I cannot tell you how delicious these golden circles are. Every morning, mom makes these delectable treats and when she puts the plate on the table  and the coast is clear (meaning the blonde chatterbox is too busy talking and too slow walking to the table), I take my chance. I jump up and eat those buttered pancakes as fast as I can. Does my mom yell? You bet she does! I get the whole "Apollo Radcliffe Yamokoski" full name treatment, but it's worth it.

October 18 - Luke is 14!

Age: 14

Grade: 8

Favorite Class: biology 

Least Favorite Class: ELA

Current Activities: WIRED Robotics (lead programmer), Symphonic Band (first chair trumpet), Band-Aide (assists band directors and helps with lower level bands), Aquastar Swimming

Current Style: hoodies/sweatshirts, crocs

Current Interests: Hanging out with friends, music composition, programming, 3D printing, Anime

Favorite Foods: loves Japanese food

Best Friends: Shawn, Riley, Angel, Ansley, Tegan

Dream College: MIT

Dream Job: programmer or maybe a neurosurgeon

Place you really want to travel: rural place on the side of a mountain (this is what he told me LOL)

Shawn, Justin, Tegan, Ansley, Angel, Riley, Luke

Fun Facts: What a year. In addition to a huge growth spurt (you are now taller than me), you have absolutely flourished over the last year. You have a great group of friends and have turned into a social butterfly. You also have a girlfriend! You and your friends love to hang out for hours (pool parties at Shawn's house, baking at ours, beach volleyball, etc). You are a typical teenage boy and eating a TON recently. 

We celebrated your birthday this year by dinner at Chick N Pickle with your crew and Shawn baked a homemade birthday cake. Happy birthday to my favorite son!

October 13 - Iowa State University

Go Cyclones! Julia and I traveled to Ames, IA for a tour of Iowa State University two days ago. You may be thinking, "Iowa? Seriously, Iowa?" Well, it may seem random but yes, Iowa. NASA recruits engineers from ISU and we know several people who  attended and had great experiences. Ames is also considered one of the best college towns in America and my friend's son, who was a top track and field recruit last year, did campus visits all over the US (Penn State, Ohio State, Iowa State, Texas, Florida, Georgia, etc) and said Iowa State was the best campus. 

We flew out of Houston Thursday night, directly into Des Moines. It was a quick 2H flight and then Ames was a 30min drive from there. The Des Moines airport reminded me of the Albany Airport (very small and not crowded) and the drive to Ames reminded me of upstate NY (2-3 lane highway, no real traffic to speak of). Friday was a full day on campus and I was very impressed with how organized and thorough everything was. We met in the commons for a general information session at 11am with approx 30 students and parents. Every student received a packet with their itinerary and they gave each student a breakdown of merit (for example, for Texas residents, merit is based on GPA and a 4.0 will result in $48k merit over 4 years, etc). I liked the transparency. From there, we all went to a dining hall and had lunch together.

Everyone then broke off and went to different buildings on campus for their specific interests. We went to "Health and Human Sciences - Undecided" and met with an admissions advisor and a current student. They talked about all the different pathways in that college, from physical therapist, physicians assistant, pre-med, optometry, nutrition, dietician and more. The session was Julia and 2 other girls and they were able to ask a lot of questions and get a lot of insight into course schedules and opportunities in regards to job shadowing and internships. From them, the entire group met up again for a campus tour and then we did a housing tour. Freshman live in either your traditional tiny dorm room with communal bathrooms on the hall or a 2 bedroom suite that share a bathroom. The campus was absolutely beautiful (we definitely went at the perfect time with the fall leaves just starting to change). I think the only negative was Julia is that they loft all the beds in the dorm rooms. 

Overall, great experience. Go Cyclones!

October 9 - Spirit Squad

Our elementary school started a 'Spirit Squad' this year (for the first time ever) and there are approx 50 members from 2nd through 5th grade. The girls walked in the Clear Brook homecoming parade last week (our zoned high school, not the one that Julia attends). The girls had so much fun!! They did a few cheers they have learned and they were all excited to have pom poms! All of our Brownies are members of the Spirit Squad so it was fun seeing them all together.