December 15 - Jazz Band and More

Luke is taking 'Jazz Band' for his 2nd 9 week mini-course and performed in a Christmas Concert with the Clear Lake HS jazz band earlier this week. All of the players did a great job and the music was so fun! We also found out after the concert that the top trumpet player in the state plays for the Clear Lake Jazz Band. Wow! Honestly, as a non-musician they all sounded great to me but what great experience for the middle schoolers. 

The following night, Luke had another band concert, this one with the entire honors band from his middle school. The holiday music was so fun! Very proud of all these kids. 

December 13 - XC Districts

Two days after returning from the robotics competition, Luke had cross country districts. We were not sure if he would be allowed to participate since he missed two meets and almost every practice due to robotics, but the coach allowed him to run. The kids run in two different groups. The top 6 runners from every school run in the elite division and the rest of the kids run in the open division. Luke ran in the open division and did great (especially considering he hasn't practiced in about a month). 70th place out of 150! Very proud. 

Now that we know the XC season has been shortened to 4 weeks (compared to 3 months when Julia ran in middle school), he won't do it next year due to the robotics conflict. Next up, he's trying out for the golf team (tryouts are in January). And his school came in 2nd place for the XC meet, their highest finish in 10+ years. Go Timberwolves!

December 11 - BEST Robot Finish EVER!

The weekend after Thanksgiving, Luke and JD traveled to Fort Worth, TX for the BEST state competition. What an INCREDIBLE experience for Luke and the team. After prelims, WIRED was in 2nd place out of 72 teams (almost all high school). They also won the 'Top Gun' award for highest scoring prelim round, the first time the school has ever won that distinction. Scores reset for semi's and they did not have great rounds. However, they scored enough points to make it into finals. My favorite driver, Luke, was the driver chosen for finals and they placed 3rd, the highest ever in the history of the program. HIGHEST EVER! Go WIRED! In the overall BEST competition (robot plus marketing), they placed 3rd. Congratulations WIRED!

November 30 - Arena Assassination

After a great few days at Universal (I think I forgot to note that Jillian was a total champ, walking 20k+ steps with no complaints) it was time for our annual Thanksgiving tradition, Thanksgiving at the farm. The kids and I arrived Tuesday early afternoon while the NC Cook's arrived a few hours later, and then Bryan a few hours after that. The kids played outside practically every day during daylight hours and even made a movie. They actually made their first movie at Jay and Rachel's wedding (I don't have it uploaded yet). In the first film, Victoria goes into the house and attacks Andrew, only to receive a text telling her "wrong address." So she leaves 'to be continued.' The 'Arena Assassination' is the follow up video. Andrew and Luke recorded the footage, Andrew, Victoria and Julia acted while Luke did the drone work and editing. Jillian brought them snacks so she technically helped too hehe. I am very impressed with the final product!

It was wonderful catching up with everyone and special thanks to Brian and Fernando for hosting. Everyone helped out with dinner this year. Brian and I made the turkey and stuffing, JD did the cranberry sauce and green bean casserole, Jill made the deviled eggs and sweet potato casserole, Greg made the mashed potatoes, Fernando made the gravy while Brian made a homemade carrot cake and Brussel sprouts. The food was DELISH. I think most shocking was Luke eating about 5 servings (maybe more) of mashed potatoes and the green bean casserole (he ate a ton over the week, I think a growth spurt is coming). The kids and Bryan helped out by hand washing all the dishes. The dishwasher was broken so there was a lot of hand washing going on over the week! 

While we were there, Julia had to swim a few times to stay in swim shape and Andrew and Victoria went with her one of the times. Great exercise for all of them! Greg also set up a huge outdoor movie screen for the kids. The big kids weren't interested by Greg and Bryan watched ET with Jillian and she had a blast. Bryan put together a fire pit the last night and the kids roasted hotdogs and s'mores. I picked up JD from Orlando on Wednesday night so we were happy to be able to celebrate with him. Overall it was a great week! 

Board game fun

Horse Love

Luke eating his 5th helping of mashed potatoes

The family!

Arena Assassination

November 27 - Pain is Temporary!

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! Our travel this year was a little crazy. JD left on Friday after school with Jillian and Luke and started the drive to Florida. Julia had a swim meet late Friday, so she and I flew out on Saturday. We met up in Orlando Saturday evening at the Hard Rock hotel and then went to a family dinner at City Walk. The following morning, JD went to the Orlando airport to pick up a rental car and drove to Tampa. He met up with his siblings and they spent Sunday through Wednesday going through his mom's house and getting paperwork together. Meanwhile, the kids and I went to Universal for a few days. 

Sunday: we woke up early and headed to Islands of Adventure at 7am. The park opened at 8am and we had a great place in line. Hagrid's does not have an express pass so our goal was to ride it early. We entered the park and the most amazing thing happened. Luke gave Jillian a piggy back ride and power walked (fast) from the entrance to Hagrids. He told us "Pain is temporary!" We practically walked on the ride and Jillian LOVED it. Then a really cool thing happened. As we were getting on ET we hear "Hey Jillian" and look back. One of Jillian's friends from school was in line with his family. What a small world! We talked to them after the ride and they were there for a big family trip to Disney/Universal. Even though it was a holiday week, the park did not seem overly busy. We knocked out a lot of rides before lunch at Toothsome, where the kids loved their food and their desserts. After lunch, we stayed in the parks until we had dinner at 7pm at Cowfish (burger/sushi fusion) which the kids loved. 

Monday: we slept in a little and got to the parks by 9.30am. Once again, not that busy! Luke literally walked onto a big coaster while I picked up a few muffins for breakfast, it was incredible. We ate lunch in the parks and Julia and Luke decided to head back to the room to rest. Jillian and I stayed in the parks having fun until we all met up for dinner that evening. After dinner, Jillian and Julia went swimming (too cold for me LOL). 

Tuesday: we packed up the room, loaded up the car and went to the parks for a few more rides. Jillian finally got her own wand (Hermione's) and she spent most of her time doing spells (so fun!). Her favorite was making the skeleton dance in Diagon Alley. We left Orlando and headed to Ocala for the second part of the vacation. 

Next post: Thanksgiving at the farm!

'Pain is Temporary'

Jillian & Landon

Face Paint! (we had trouble cleaning the black paint and Jillian looked like she was wearing eye liner the next day LOL)

Horror Makeup Show - I always wanted to see it and we finally did. It was funny!

Spell time

Love them

Jillian and the hottest toy at Universal (100 per day, it was hard to find one!)