November 28 - Another Universal Adventure

In mid September, Greg texted and said something along the lines of "Let's do Universal over Thanksgiving break." Even though we went to Universal over spring break you guys know me, we are HUGE Universal fans in this house. We were definitely "in"! The key to a smooth Universal vacation is staying at one of the top tiered hotels that come with express passes. The hotels proved to be booked solid the weekend before Thanksgiving but with some persistent Internet refreshing, we both successfully booked rooms at Hard Rock. 

We all arrived at Hard Rock last Sunday and the kids were so excited to see each other! We had a delicious dinner at Vivo and met bright and early on Monday to get in line for early access to the parks. Our day was amazing! The big kids are all finally tall enough to do everything and they squeezed in a shocking amount of rides quickly. We met up at the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium for lunch and then back to the parks! More rides followed by dinner at NBC Grill. We sat at a really cool table that served double duty-fooze ball and dinner table! Greg, Jill and the big kids headed back to the parks for more while JD and I headed back to the hotel with Jillian. She and JD hit up the pool and hot tub and watched the castle fireworks, which was pretty neat. 

Tuesday was our last day in the parks. Greg, Andrew and Victoria got an earlier start than us and got in line for Hagrids. When we finally got going, Julia headed to Islands (where they were) to shop and meet up with them. JD, Luke, Jillian and I headed to the Studios side to have breakfast and do some rides. Jillian's favorite rides? ET and the Woody Woodpecker rollercoaster! We did them several times on Tuesday. Other than a meltdown by Jillian on Tuesday (she did not want to wait while JD and Luke went on a ride) it was a great day. I think the highlight of the day was when we all went on the Men in Black shooting ride, and Jillian beat all the big kids in terms of points. They couldn't believe it! Our little chatterbox is also a sharpshooter apparently (or the game was rigged according to Luke LOL).

After two fabulous days, it was time to head north to the horse farm! Great start to the vacation! 

Fun times with cousins!

November 14 - WIRED

1st place Robot!

In the spring of 5th grade, Luke applied to be a programmer for his middle school robotics team, WIRED. WIRED stands for: Westbrook Intermediate Robotics Engineering Division. It's a competitive team and they only take 10 kids per grade level. Luke spent hours on his application video and made the team. We were so proud! When school started, the real work began. This years challenge? Design and program a robot that controls another robot, that is picking parts to build a robot (imagine an Amazon fulfillment center). How complicated was this compared to years past? Previously they built the practice field in one weekend. This year it took five weekends. 

1st place BEST!

The team is serious about robotics. They spend 3h a week during class time, 6h after school (spread out over three days) and an additional 4h every Saturday. The kids are divided into two main groups: marketing (14 kids) and engineering (16 kids). Each group has divisions within. Marketing: booth & presentation and website. Engineering: robot, engineering notebook and on field competition. As a programmer, Luke is in the engineering group under 'robot.' 

After months of hard work, the team competed in North Houston BEST last weekend in north Houston. There were 18 teams total: 14 HS, 2 middle school and 2 home school teams. WIRED placed:

*Best Website

*Best Team Exhibit & Interview

*1st place Robot

*1st place BEST 

First place BEST is the top award of the competition. They did AMAZING!! Next stop, states in Frisco next month! We are so proud of Luke and his team!!!

YouTube Team Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EabqjqbazWs

Team Website: https://www.ccisd-wired.com/

November 8 - Halloween Wrap-Up

Halloween wrap-up! Two of Jillian's friends from Primrose (pre-school) came to our house to go trick-or-treating. Penny was dressed up as Evee (Pokeman character), Leeya was Elsa and Jillian was a witch. They were adorable! The weather was actually pretty night and the girls were out for a little over an hour before their little legs were tired. Julia went trick-or-treating with her friend Ava in her neighborhood, while Luke stayed home to hand out candy. It was a great evening!

    

Halloween fun!

I carved a pumpkin with Jillian's class on Halloween too. They voted on a happy, sad, funny or scary pumpkin. Happy won!