Tech Fair

 Both of the kids decided to compete at the district Tech Fair this year.  Olivia and her partner entered in the category of video production, and Owen and his partner entered in the category of game design.  While neither of the kids' teams placed, I am proud that they chose to participate, worked to learn the skills necessary to complete the project, and presented their work in front of judges.  They are already looking forward to next year.

Georgia Aquarium

While we were in Atlanta, we decided to pay a visit to the Georgia Aquarium.  The kids had not been since Olivia was 2 and Owen was 6 months old, so a return trip was needed.  In case you haven't heard, the Georgia Aquarium is the largest and, in my opinion, best aquarium in the country.  Since our last visit, they have expanded the aquarium and now have dolphin and sea lion shows.

 We arrived around 10:30- just in time to see the penguin parade. A couple of times a day, the staff marches a few penguins down a ramp in the atrium.  This allows visitors to get an up-close view of them.  Penguins are Owen's favorite, so he was especially excited to witness this.

 My favorite part of the aquarium is the Ocean Voyager gallery.  This is where you will find the four whale sharks that the aquarium is so famous for.  Those things are amazing.  I could sit in front of the large window for hours and watch them swim.

 The new dolphin show at the aquarium was surprisingly well done.  I would say that it was on par with the dolphin show at SeaWorld.  We sat in the "splash zone", so we had a great view of the show.  It was very enjoyable.  We also attended the Sea Lion show.  It was pretty good as well.

 Both of the kids were really fond of the beluga whales.  Olivia even chose a stuffed beluga as her souvenir.  I think we spent more time watching the belugas than any other animal at the aquarium.

 There were several touch tanks throughout the aquarium, and I think Olivia touched every single fish in them.

 The kids favorite gallery was the Tropical Diver.  They enjoyed watching the colorful fish in dart in and out of the coral reef.

Another pleasant change to the aquarium since our last visit is that the 4D theater that used to be an add-on is now included in the price of admission.  We enjoyed watching a "Happy Feet" show.  There is also a new hands-on educational area for kids.  There was not much traffic in this area of the aquarium and I don't know why.  Olivia and Owen enjoyed all of the interactive games.  I practically had to drag them away from this area.  Another interesting thing about the educational area was that there were windows where you could see the top of the various tanks.  That's a part of the aquarium that you don't always get to see.  We spent a little over four hours at the aquarium.  We could have stayed longer, but needed to get on the road to head home.  I would definitely be interested in doing a behind-the-scenes tour or animal encounter here in the future.

First Robotics Competition

 Last year the kids' school began an VEX IQ elementary robotics team. There were (and still are) no other elementary robotics teams anywhere near our town, so the kids just built and practiced with the robots but did not enter any official competitions.  This year the coaches decided to take the program to the next level by registering for a few competitions in the Atlanta area.  The first competition was last weekend.  Olivia and her partner competed in the "alliance" portion of the event.  This duo was paired with teams from other schools to work together and score as many points as they could in a sixty-second time frame.  Olivia drove the robot for the first thirty seconds.  Her job was to knock down the four hex balls with the robot.  She would then pass the controller to her partner who would try to park the robot on the bridge.  There are other things that you can do to score points, but knocking off the balls and parking on the bridge was our team's strategy.  Olivia and her partner ended up finishing 26th out of 40 elementary and middle school teams.  That's not too bad for their very first competition.

 Since the competition was in Atlanta, we decided to stay an extra night with Cassie and James (Nick was out of town).  I'm so glad that Cassie lives nearby.  I accidentally flushed my keys down the toilet and had to have my car towed to the Honda place to have a new key programmed.  What a mess! Cassie came to the competition and then took my kids home with her while I sorted out the key fiasco.  She was a real life-saver.  Once the key situation was taken care of we all went out to eat at Longhorn and then spent the evening loving on my favorite nephew.  Sweet baby James sugar is just what was needed after a long day.

St Augustine Field Trip

Olivia's WINGS class recently took a field trip to St. Augustine.  It was an all-day affair that included a trolley tour of the city, a visit to Ripley's Believe It or Not, and a trip to the Fountain of Youth.  Olivia reported that she had a great time.  She liked the Ripley's a lot and even took a picture of the metal "Chucky"- the same statue that almost caused her to have a breakdown when I took her last year.  She also liked visiting the Fountain of Youth and thought it was cool that her class got to see a canon firing.  While the canon was cool, the water from the "fountain" was not.  Olivia said that it was gross and made her feel ill.  Olivia was chaperoned by the lovely Granny Mel who also had a great time.

This is the Fountain of Youth (yep, that's it)

Remember the Titans

Both of the kids put in to play soccer this year. Owen had played for the first time last year and really liked it, so Olivia decided that she would give it a shot.  Both kids were on the same team (the Titans) and in the 8-10 year old division, The games in the 8-10 year old division were more organized than in the younger division that we were in last year. There was actually some strategy and skill needed.  Dare I say that I actually enjoyed watching the games?  The kids loved soccer and seemed to get better as the season went on.  They had some really skilled players on their team, and ended up with an undefeated season.  They have both expressed interest in playing again next year, so we may do that.

A "Wonder"ful Halloween

Our Halloween theme this year was "Alice in Wonderland".  Olivia dressed as Alice, Owen as the Mad Hatter, and Brian and I were Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.  As usual, we met up at Granny Buie's house and went trick-or-treating in her neighborhood.  The kids had a great time and racked up on candy.  I love Halloween.  It's so much fun.

Kings Island

We were staying in Kentucky on Olivia's actual birthday, so we decided to make a short drive to southern Ohio (state #20) to visit Kings Island.  Brian and I had visited this amusement park prior to having kids, but we were amazed by how much it has changed.  The park was sold a few years back, and the new owners have added many new, quality coasters.  

The first order of business after entering the park was to get the kids measured.  Once they get their "official" measurement they receive an armband stating how tall they are.  Doing this allows them to avoid having to be constantly measured at each individual attraction.  They both measured above 54 inches, which is the magic number for coaster-loving kids.  At 54" you can ride any coaster.  I knew Olivia would hit the mark, but I wasn't sure if Owen would.  He just did meet the height requirement, and he was so happy.

 We spent the whole day at the park and rode every notable thrill ride- including The Beast- currently the #6 wooden coaster in the world and Diamondback-  currently the #9 steel coaster in the world and the kids first hypercoaster (a coaster w/ a drop over 200 feet).  We even got Nana on a coaster!  In case you don't know, theme parks are our thing.  Brian and I loved them before we had kids, and now that our kids are tall enough, it is wonderful to share our love of roller coasters with them.