Yes, it's been a YEAR!

So, it's been a year since my last post. I realize this. But I'm not sure anyone else has. Does anyone really even read this or know this blog exists? Regardless, I'll be updating it over the next couple weeks. I've got a lot to catch up on, so expect a whole lot of bragging!

hello.....(echo, echo....)

My daughter pointed out to me the other day, after starting up her own blog, that mine is very out of date! I realized that, but didn't have much time to do much about it. But, if any of my family and friends are still out there checking in on us from time to time, I promise to post some updates in the next couples days/weeks! :) Promise!

Kayleigh's First Feis

What's a feis, you ask? Or maybe you're just asking....how do you even SAY feis?

A feis - pronounced "fesh" - is an Irish dance competition. There are probably a lot more Irish dancers around than you think! It's like there's whole underground curly-haired sub-culture that you never even knew existed!

Kayleigh has been dancing for about 3 years now, but had never competed at a feis before. Her previous dance class didn't do competitions, so this was a whole new opportunity for her, and she was very excited to enter it!

So we dragged ourselves out of bed at 4:30 yesterday morning, drove down to Milwaukee, and set up camp at Stage 5 wondering what the day would hold. There were 6 stages running at the same time, with over 1100 dancers competing at all different levels. Kayleigh's goal was to not place last, with the hopes of being in the top 10 for at least one of her dances. (Although she later confessed to hoping for a top 5!)

Her first dance was her reel. I have never seen her so nervous about something ever! But, she stepped out there and did well. The expression on her face was priceless when the results were posted and she found out she had "placed", receiving a 5th place award!!!! It really helped build her confidence when she received her ribbon.

Her second dance was her slip jig. I thought she did well, but I'm biased that way, and she didn't feel very good about her performance, so it was very exciting to get to the results board and see her name listed in 3rd place, earning her her first medal!

Her 3rd dance was her treble jig. It's a hard shoe dance, which she is generally pretty good at. For some reason she started feeling a little unsure of herself going into this one, and at one point during the dance, slipped on the duct tape holding the boards together that formed the "stage." She did a great job recovering and didn't fall but she come offstage renaming the dance the "trouble jig." ;) Of course we weren't surprised that she didn't place in that dance at all, but when we saw the overall results she was surprised to learn that, despite the slip and her lack of confidence, she got 9th place out of 28!

Her final dance of the day was her hornpipe, another hard shoe dance. She just finished learning this one and it's a little trickier, but it's one she was very confident in, and it showed! She stepped out on that stage like she owned it! Unfortunately, it took an agonizing 2 hours to get the results back, although it didn't matter anymore when they were posted and she was listed as 2nd place!

It was a great day! She's going to have to work hard to keep up these kind of results at her future competitions! Her teacher, classmates, and classmates' parents were all so helpful and supportive, making the day even more special for her. I see a lot more of these ahead of us!

We are the Champions!

For the past 2 1/2 months, we've been taking Kayleigh down to Oshkosh 2 or 3 times a week to work with her LEGO League team - Team F.O.R.C.E. - for this year's First LEGO League (FLL) regional competition.

So what is FLL? It's definitely not kids building fun things with LEGOs like many think! FLL teams are kids ages 9-14. Each team is given the task to focus on a real-world topic related to the sciences and determined by the league. Each challenge within the competition then revolves around that theme. They also have a robotics part of the competition which revolves around designing and programming LEGO robots to complete tasks. The students work out solutions to the various problems they are given and then meet for regional tournaments to share their knowledge, compare ideas, and display their robots.

Awards are intended to be spread equitably among deserving teams. As such, teams are normally allowed to only win one core (judged) award. Teams can win an additional award based on their robot's performance during the robot game competition portion of the tournament. Award areas include:

Champion’s Award: this is the top award, combining the scores from each of the other areas.

Robot Design Award
Robot Performance Award (the robot competition)
Project Award
Teamwork Award

They also have a Team Spirit award, Judges Award, and Gracious Professionalism Award.

Prior to the competition, the teams complete research related to the topic of the year. This year's topic was transportation - making it safer, more efficient, etc. Our team researched and talked with different professionals (including a NASA engineer) and came up with the idea to improve cargo transportation by using unmanned airplanes flown on solar power and algae-fuel. They explained to the judges how this was safer, more economical, efficient and better for the environment during a timed presentation to the judges. This is followed up by a timed question and answer period.

They have a panel of judges for the technical competition where they show their robot, show the judges their programming, explain what it can do, and how they worked on it together.

The third panel of judges is for the Teamwork competition. These judges give the team a problem with a time limit to solve it. They watch to see how well the teams works together.

The afternoon is spent competing with the robots themselves.

The robot is autonomous and completes missions on a board (where the missions are set up). The robot then has two and a half minutes to complete those missions. Two members of the team are allowed at the board during a match; however, they can switch out if needed. Our team switches out for changing parts for the various missions. For the 2009-10 season, the FLL made things tougher by making navigation really tough, by making sharp twists and turns, as well as adding obstacles, and requiring straight driving. The team gets points for each of the missions it completes, trying to attain a perfect score of 400.

Team F.O.R.C.E. showed up ready to win, despite being a young team and having 4 rookies (one of them being Kayleigh.) And they did not disappoint! They won 1st place in the Performance area (the robot competition) scoring 370 points - the most scored at a regional competition in the state so far this year! And even better...they won the Champion's award, meaning they had the top overall score when combining all the areas; this is THE award you really want to win! Even more impressive is that they spent a good chunk of their team time helping get 7 new teams started as well, sharing ideas and equipment, helping building playing fields for the other teams, and hosting a scimmage to help these new ideas gain some experience before heading into regional competition. Gracious Professionalism!

Next up is the State Competition in December.

Oh yeah, the afternoon was even more special when Donald Driver showed up to cheer on his son's team! :)

Which brings us to fall....

Fall = Crazy Busy for us this year!

School is going well for both kids. Kayleigh is in 5th grade this year and is keeping busier than ever! Her teachers continue to find new ways to challenge her and we're always amazed at the things she's learning. She joined band this year, playing the oboe. It's a tough instrument, but she's doing great, as we knew she would. She's also the Student Council president! It's so amazing to watch her lead and speak in front of so many people, knowing how shy and clingy she always was when she was younger.

She's also keeping busy outside of school. She's in her final year of Children's Choir at church. She was invited to join LEGO League as well, which has been a great experience for her. This group of about 10 kids has been working together about 6 hours/week to prepare for local and state competions. LEGO League is a hard thing to explain and imagine without seeing it in person, but it's a great program. They are given a topic/problem and need to research and work on a solution. This year's topic was transportation. This weekend is their regional competition, where they will present their solution to a panel of judges, as well as compete on a playing field with a robot they built. It's really a mixture of engineering and forensics, and it's amazing what these kids come up with! If you're interested in checking them out, they have their own websitehttp://fllforce.com/ They also have pictures from their scrimmage this past weekend on the Oshkosh Northwestern website:

http://www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=U0&Dato=20091107&K

The thing she's probably MOST excited about is joining the Trinity Irish Dancers. Her previous teacher, Ms. Andrea, is moving to Scotland this month, so it was a good time to switch over. Already Kayleigh has learned a lot and can't wait to do more performances and start some feisanna (competitions.) Her feet never seem to stop moving! She is so proud to be wearing a Trinity school dress!

Matt is enjoying 3rd grade so far and doing well. Well above where he needs to be in most of his subjects. As long as he has recess to get some of those "ants out his pants!" He's doing hockey again this year. I don't know where the interest in the sport came from, but he's actually quite good! He had his first scrimmage this past weekend and scored 3 goals!!!!

Matt's also in Children's Choir in church. It's always fun watching him sing; he really puts himself into the music. He's always listening to a cd or his ipod or playing on his drum, recorder, or the new keyboard he just got from Grandma.

Getting the kids to wherever they need to be seems to be what keeps Timm and I busy for the most part, but we try to fit in a few things for ourselves.Timm is helping teach the Junior High Sunday School class, continues to be a part of the church's Men's Ministry as well as the Prison Outreach ministry. And new this year, he has joined the church choir! :)

I'm serving as PTO president at the kids' school this year. It's a lot of work, but it's nice being active in their school. I'm also keeping busy leading a Bible study for Junior High girls, which I have LOVED doing. These girls are wonderful and it's amazing to me that I have 10 girls willing to give up an evening to come and learn and study the Bible together.

So, I think that brings us up to date! Whew!

Let's just say I was on furlough...

Eek! I just realized this week how long it's been since I've updated our blog.

So, what have we been busy with....

Our summer:

Matt played baseball again this summer. This was his first season of "coach pitch" and he did really well!

Kayleigh got a scholarship to attend a week long camp at UW-Oshkosh. The camp is called GOAL (Gifted Opportunities for Accelerated Learners.) She learned Computer Art/Photoshop as well as movie making and had a blast! She also informed us that we need a better computer (meaning, a MAC) and that we have inadequate software for her needs. ;) Guess what's on her Christmas list this year?

Both kids went camping with Grandma and Grandpa Lawrence in July as usual and had a great time. It's so nice they have that time together, but even nicer that I don't have to camp myself! :) While they were camping, Timm and I trekked down to Great America to hit some rollercoasters; I was so excited. Unfortunately, Timm's stomach only last for 4 rides. Not quite the little getaway we had planned on! LOL

In August, we took a little weekend trip down to Milwaukee to see the Brewers play the Astros (Timm's favorite team.) It was Kayleigh's first time at Miller Park and we had a lot of fun! The kids had fun teasing Timm when the Brewers slaughtered the Astros!

The next day we took the kids to Irish Fest. Kayleigh was in heaven with all the Irish dancing and music! She was really excited to watch the girls she'd be dancing with soon, the Trinity Irish Dancers.

One our way to Irish Fest, we had to make a stop downtown. Timm had to find his namesake...the Fonz. After almost an hour of driving/walking around, we finally found the elusive Bronze Fonz.

Kayleigh dancing for Palm Sunday

After seeing Kayleigh do her Irish dancing recently, our church pastor asked if she would share her dance at the Palm Sunday services.