Owen is 10

We recently celebrated Owen's 10th birthday.  We are so proud of the young man he is becoming.  Here are some facts about Owen at 10:
1.  He is a joker and likes to pull pranks at every opportunity.  He also likes to hide and jump out to try and scare you when you enter a room.
2.  Math is his favorite subject in school.
3.   When he has free time, he likes to play his video games.  We have to watch him on this because he will play them all day if given the chance.
4.  He loves salsa and he always wants to go to the Mexican restaurant just so he can get some.
5.  He is very loving to his family.






We celebrated Owen's birthday with a chocolate cake from Holt's.  He also received nerf toys and an Itunes gift card from Brian and I.  Since this was his 10th birthday we told him that we would do something special.  He chose to go to Dave and Busters and invite a friend.  This was our first time here, and we had a blast.  We ate at the restaurant on premises and then let the kids play games for two hours or so.  They had a great time.  We sure do love our little buddy.

Smoky Mountain Field Trip Day #3

On our last day of Olivia's field trip we made a stop at Rock City before heading home.  It was St. Patrick's Day and they were having a special event (ShamROCK City)  to celebrate.  There were people playing Irish music, dancing a jig, and playing the bagpipes.  It was much busier on this day than it had been on my previous two trips.  We walked the grounds admiring the beautiful rock formations.  When we reached the waterfall we were delighted to find that water had been dyed green in honor of the holiday.  The views from the top were great.  Two hours and a picnic lunch later we were on the road heading home.  It was a fun and action-packed field trip for sure.

Smoky Mountains Field Trip Day #2

Day 2 of Olivia's WINGS field trip began with a tour of the Titanic Museum.  The museum itself is shaped like the Titanic.  Since we were a large group, we had a guide lead us through.  I really enjoyed this.  Our guide was really knowledgeable and made the experience informative for us.  There were some interactive elements of the tour like sticking your hand in the 28 degree waters that the passengers would have faced.  The experiences really showed the kids the gravity of the situation that those on board were facing.










Before entering, everyone was given a card with the name and some information about an actual person who was aboard the Titanic.  Olivia was a first class passenger named Lucy, Countess of Rothes.  I was a third class passenger named Sarah Roth.  At the end of the tour, you could see what was the fate of your passenger.  Both Olivia and I survived.

After a quick lunch at Cici's Pizza, we headed to Gatlinburg.  We were given the choice of going to Ober Gatlinburg or of exploring the town on our own.  Most of our group chose to take the gondola up the mountain to Ober Gatlinburg.  Once on the mountain we had a lot of activities to choose from, and Liv and I did almost all of them.  We did the Alpine Slide, took the scenic chair lift to the top of the mountain for a view of the Smokies, did the mountain coaster, and went ice skating.  Most of the kids had never been ice skating before, so there was a bit of falling at first.  They kept with it though, and were looking pretty good by the end. 

After leaving Gatlinburg, we returned to our hotel for 30 whole minutes before meeting back up to go to Dolly's Dixie Stampede.  We enjoyed some really good bluegrass music during the pre-show and then headed in for the main event.  Like the previous night's show, the audience was divided into teams to cheer for.  The teams here were the north and the south and they sat us on the side of the north.  We cheered for the north as we were asked to do, but no one was sad when the south won the contest.  After the show we returned to the hotel completely exhausted.

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.