Smoky Mountains Field Trip Day 1

Olivia's WINGS field trip this year was a 3 day / 2 night trip to the Smoky Mountains.  I'm definitely one for maximizing an itinerary, but whoever planned this is a definite itinerary master.  We were busy from dawn to dusk each of our three days.  We left on a Thursday and made the loooonnggg drive to Pigeon Forge, TN.  When we arrived, we headed straight to the Hollywood Wax Museum.  The kids had a great time seeing all of the different wax figures.  The museum had various props near some of the figures that you could use when you took your picture.  I was kind of surprised that Olivia and her friends knew who some of the people were- especially when they identified Edward and Bella from Twilight- how did they know that?

 After checking into our hotel, we had about an hour to get settled before leaving for the Hatfields and McCoys Dinner Feud.  This dinner show was a lot of fun.  When you enter to theater, you either sit on the Hatfield side or the McCoy side.  We were Hatfields, and so we cheered for that family throughout the evening. The show itself featured singing, dancing, and country music.  At one point, the stage floor opened up and there was a pool underneath it.  That was unexpected and really cool.

 Prior to the show, the kids in the audience were invited onstage to learn a dance and then later on some adults in the audience were chosen from each "family" to compete for their side.  I was a representative for the Hatfields in a game where we had to run a spoon with a string on it down our shirt or pants.  Everyone on our team was a parent from our school group, and we won both rounds of competition.  The kids were thrilled to see their parents bring home the win for the Hatfields.  I literally looked out into the audience and could see Olivia jumping up and down and cheering.  Needless to say, we all had a great time.

Grand Spring Ball

Olivia's year in cotillion wrapped up a few weeks ago at the Grand Spring Ball.  She has learned a lot this year, and has really liked attending the two balls.  Some of the dances that they learned in year one were the foxtrot, east coast swing, waltz, and salsa.  Owen will be participating next year, and Olivia has already been giving him some early pointers on the dancing at the house. 

Welcome, Maren

 After nine months of anticipation, I am so happy to introduce my new niece, Maren Gale.  She came into this world at 7.7 pounds and a head full of hair.  We are all smitten.  The new parents are also doing well.  Olivia and Owen were so excited to get meet their newest cousin last week and love on her.

Robotics State Championship

The last half of the kids' robotics season has been exciting.  Olivia's robotics team (team A) ended up making it to the final round in every competition that they attended.  In the last competition of the year, they finished in second place, and this qualified them for the state tournament.  Owen's team (team C) continues to improve, and they ended up getting a wild card spot at the state tournament.  This is really good considering that all but one member of his team are new to the robotics program this year.












The state tournament was this past weekend, and Olivia's robot finished third in the state.  The top two finishers get a bid to go to the world finals, so they only missed it by a hair.  The kids' school also had another robot (robot B) finish in 6th.  We were all so happy with how well our students and robots performed. Also exciting was that the middle school robotics teams were also competing, and both of those finished in the top as well- and one of them qualified for Worlds.  This is the program that Olivia will (hopefully) be a part of next year, so it's great to see how well they are doing.

Arbor Day

Southern Forest World was offering free admission on Arbor Day, so the kids and I decided to pay a visit.  Olivia hadn't been here since she was in Kindergarten, and Owen has never visited- which is a shame because it is so close by.  We had a great time looking at the exhibits and talking to the special presenters who were on hand for the special event.  The highlight of our visit was the chance to see Stuckie the dog.  This poor fellow chased an animal up a hollow tree trunk years ago, got stuck (thus the name "stuckie"), died, and became mummified due to the natural preservatives found in the tree.  Olivia was a little spooked by the dog, but Owen was quite interested in him.  Before we left, we were given three dogwood trees which we planted at Gigi and Papa's house.  It was a fun morning.

Science Fair

Olivia and Owen teamed up to complete a science fair project this year.  For their project, they tested different varieties of water to determine ph.  Since completing the project, they have been very specific about what types of bottled water they will and will not drink.  They took their project to the district competition where they received a second place ribbon. 

Father Daughter Dance

 The annual father-daughter dance continues to be an event that Brian and Olivia both look forward to every year.  Olivia loves getting dressed up and spending this special time with her daddy.  She received a lot of really nice dresses from Nana and Poppy at Christmas, and she wore one of those dresses to the dance. Olivia chose Captain Joe's as the place that they would eat, yet again.  After their meal, the two headed off to dance the night away.

Owen and I continued our tradition of eating Mexican food and watching a movie.  There were no suitable movies at the theater, so we watched Cars 3 on Netflix.  A good time was had by all.