Robotics Update

Last year, being new to robotics, I didn't do much outside of the designated meeting times.  This year, I am in charge of my own little team, so it's been a little more intense.

Grace spent Sunday afternoon helping me build (and rebuild some of) the missions that they didn't finish at build night.  She was able to work independently for most of the day, and I was glad for her help, because I would not have finished alone.

We can't bring the robot home, so after subbing one day, I attempted to put the pieces together so that we could jump straight into programming this week.  The sides were not properly assembled (I had to leave to get Emily and William from their robotics in the middle, since it was a Thursday) and the teacher mentors were trying to help my team and all the other team leaders.

In any case, I stayed late, and the twins helped me rebuild the robot.  Only a few pieces were misplaced it turned out, but you have to start from scratch to figure it out, when someone else did the original build.

I also spent a few hours making badges to pass out at the event, like other schools do.  I used up the leftover badge lapel pins from our Fallout party, and was going to buy more in smaller sizes before Billy's layoff, but now I'm in money conservation mode, so people can take little wooden stars instead, if they'd like. = )

Twin power, helping put away the tables!

I'm feeling very hopeful about this season, now that we are finally to the programming piece!

later days

Robotics Competition and Parade

This year the competition for both girls' teams were on the same day.  That same day: William's birthday.  William was quite the sport, and allowed us to celebrate his special day on the day before, since the big girls had to be up at the school at 550am to depart.

On the last meeting of the year, I snuck in to see the robot and see Alice at work programing, since I was a parent volunteer for the twins' team, and needed to be at their competition as a leader.

Billy and William drove down to Battle Creek to see Alice and Emily's team in action, though the accommodations were too small, and they did not stay very long.

We had a slightly later start time for the twins' competition, so we had plenty of time to prep and arrived early.  I had some camping chairs in my car (they just kind of live there now, as I find them to be quite useful) and brought them in on whim.  They were very comfortable compared to the cafeteria benches or stadium seats that were avialable to us for the day.

The fourth grade team!

It was a cool set up, four tables, only one ran at a time, but the other one would be used for teams to get in place, so that there was no down time!

On the back side were the informational displays that described the process and team building elements of the team, as well as the robot features!

The high school and middle school teams were exhibiting their robots (very cool!) in the common areas.

Most of the teams brought their practice tables, and anyone could hop on to use them in between competition rounds.  It was a really neat experience!

One of the tables had these cool cookies, so I took a picture! = )

My mom came to cheer on the twins (and it was a surprise!)  She also was sweet enough to volunteer to stand in the really long concession line to get each of us a cheeseburger!  Sadly she came back empty handed, as the smell that was making our mouths water was actually beef hot dogs! = (

But, my mom takes good care of me still, and drove up to burger king to get us each a whopper, so that we could satisfy that burger craving!

Neither of the girls' teams took an award, but it was a learning experience for all!  Playing with Legos all day, but not really getting to make anything, had Grace in the mood to build when she got home.  She built a trophy.  (Notice the lack of green and brown bricks?  lol.)

Once the big girls came home, I wanted a picture of all of them in their shirts. = )

Emily has been going to the off season robotics meetings, but Alice doesn't go, since she'll be on the high school team next year if she does it.  They did have a 'float' in the parade, for which Emily offered up our wagon.  So the two of us went really early so that they could start decorating it.

It looked really good!

Alice came out with Billy and the little ones closer to start time, but she did end up marching in the parade after some convincing.

Thankfully, it was a short parade, because it was COLD!  Surprisingly, they did throw out candy!  The little ones were excited.  Sadly, many of the candy canes broke, but we were able to use them for our Gingerbread house!

Billy and the little ones left, and I waited for the big girls to return and then disassemble their float, so that we could bring our wagon home. = )

It was a good, learning season, and I'm not sure what next year will look like, but I hope that William gets to join in too!

later days

Minecraft Lego Advent Calendar Instructions Day 24

Alice

Emily

William

Grace

Juliet

<fin>

later days

Lego Advent Calendar Creation

Back in October, I found a bag of Lego Minecraft and just Minecraft toys at the thrift store.  Knowing that a single advent calendar runs the upwards of $20, I happily paid that for the bag that I bought.

I spent some time brainstorming, and decided that I would take some of our Legos to make a 'scene' for each of my dear ones.  My original thought was that I would make a 'booklet' for each of them, but decided to save the paper and just make each day a blog post (then there would be no peeking!) = )

So, one day, I picked out every green and brown Lego from our Lego bin!  I was really worried that someone would notice, but the twins played with the Legos (twice!) and didn't remark or notice that the brown and green bricks were missing. = )

The next time I found myself with a large stretch of time, I started picking out Legos of which we had five matching or coordinating versions.  Then, it was time to start creating scenes!

I left them mostly assembled (the trees had to come down) and stored them in the empty Aldi beer advent calendar that I claimed to repurpose into their advent calendar.  We hadn't opened any of the doors, and it was a good size.  I had intended to put some Lego/Minecraft stickers on it to make it more festive, but after I finished all the pictures and baggies, I had no motivation left.

After playing with the lighting and camera settings, I finally settled on what I wanted, and took over 300 pictures (a minimum of 3 pictures per child per 24 days!)  I started with the end product, took the pictures, labeled the bag, put the pieces in the bag, then placed them in the appropriate 'door.' Eventually all that was left was the starting platform!

The final step was uploading and making a scheduled blog post for each day.  Sometimes the pictures loaded backwards, and it was easier to move around two pictures for each child than to reverse the entire order.  And, by being a little bit lazy, Juliet wasn't always last!  But William was always in the middle. lol.

So, on Day one, I emailed the kids the link to my blog, and they started building!

Juliet building her scene before school one day:

A week or so in, William stopped building his, so we got him a basket to hold all of his unused pieces (so that they wouldn't get mixed in with everyone else's builds.

The almost finished product!

It was quite an endeavour, but I think that the girls really enjoyed it, and they all got some cute little Minecraft characters, and the Legos will go right back in the bin, with a few new additions! = )

later days

Minecraft Lego Advent Calendar Instructions Day 23

 Juliet

Grace

William

Emily

Alice

later days