All the Prom Pics

At our school Prom is called Junior/Senior Banquet (JSB).  It is traditionally hosted by the junior class to celebrate and honor the senior class.  Ella had a wonderful time at her first JSB!  There is a strict rule that only juniors and seniors are allowed to attend though, so Ella's boyfriend Ben had to sit this one out since he graduated last year.  Though he was missed, these lovely ladies made the most of Girls' Night Out!  After a day of setting up the Community Center to be a "A Night in Italy", these girls then spent hours doing each others' hair and makeup and getting ready together.  Ella said this is always her favorite part of a formal.  

Pictured left to right: Maya, Ella, Marina, Ansley, Madison, Anna and Ruth.  Not pictured 2 friends who couldn't make it: Kacy and Avery.

A few new friends have joined this group in high school, but many of these kids are ones that have been in our life since grade school.  They've slept over at my house, eaten dinner at my table, come to birthday parties, rollerbladed and played laser tag after hours in our church, and joined us on family outings.  We've cheered for them in sports and drama and FFA and Debate.  We've attended their art shows, choir concerts, and princess coronations.  They are a magnificent bunch and one of my greatest joys has been watching Ella and her friends become beautiful inside-and-out young women who use their many gifts to glorify God!

All the Things Spring

When trying to decide how to name this blog post, I struggled.  I apologize that I can find no common thread in the things you are about to read.  So, enjoy a glimpse of our spring, which featured: crumpets, dinosaurs, roses, flying cars, paint parties, make up, wicked witches, donuts, new recipes, and Japanese spider crabs.

My Book Club read a lovely book set in London in WWII, so I had fun buying all the crumpets, scones, tea, and English Toffee that I could find at Trader Joes to compliment our great discussion!

Ella the Artist was my hero once again, donating a morning of her valuable to time to help me paint my ridiculous dinosaur shirts.  It's not my favorite school project, but she makes it much better. 

Our next drama production is already underway and Delia was happy when we found the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car visiting a local car museum.  When we went to visit, we even heard the car's PR lady proclaim that "The car IS the most important character in this play!"  Fun news for the girl cast to PLAY THE CAR in May.

The window for perfect, not fried in the CA heat, roses AND rain is small. I love when they collide.

Ivy up to her antics!

Easter Sunday, where we celebrated Jesus' resurrection with an absolutely packed sanctuary and a hopeful, bright future for our church.  And with some relaxing family time and delicious food-- including this new recipe which is a fresh take on the old Strawberry Pretzel Jell-O "Salad" using mascarpone, honey and just-picked strawberries.  A win!

Donuts and Dogs!  It's not a legit break without a drive to the good donut shop in our jammies with Ivy!  

Delia's love for color and fashion combined with Ella's love for art has given the girls a new interest-- fun makeup!  We first spent a little time at the beauty store browsing all the bold eye shadow pallets and then spent the afternoon trying on dramatic eyes.

Delia and her creative friends planned a Paint Party and had a blast one day creating and enjoying each others' company.  Meanwhile, Ella and her creative friends spent a day making a fancy Spring Break breakfast and then mastering the art of cream puffs.  Do I love that a good time to my girls and their friends is getting together to make stuff?  Yes, yes I do.

One Spring Break activity was finally enjoying the girls' big Christmas gift-- tickets to see Wicked in Sacramento.  We had a wonderful night enjoying dinner and strolling through the nearby Capitol Rose Garden.

Seeing Wicked with the girls, Delia especially, was super fun!  The music is familiar, but it was their first time seeing the show.  Delia gripped and grabbed me, her eyes big with excitement throughout.  We were blown away by the spectacular production design (elaborate sparkly costumes, constantly moving sets, cool lights, and even characters flying on ropes and harnesses!).  It was a neat thing to share with our drama-enthusiasts!  And to be back in a theatre enjoying a real Broadway show felt special too.

Without any big Spring Break vacation plans, we did ask the girls what their dream outing would be and both enthusiastically answered, "The aquarium!"  It's been 7 years since we've been members, and the girls wanted to revisit some of their best childhood memories.  The magic of the aquarium is for everyone, if you are in kindergarten or high school!  We marveled over our God of Wonders and His amazing underwater creations.

But, it was these Japanese spider crabs, in a brand new "Into the Deep" exhibit, that stole the show for us!  These are real.  I feel I just need to say that because when we walked up to their tank, that was my first question, "YO, are these FAKE?!?!"  They are monster crabs, with a "wingspan" of 12 feet, weighing as much as 40 pounds (larger than one of my students), walking around their tank both fascinating and terrifying us.  We are still thinking and talking about them.

Admiring jellies and tornados of sardines.

Petting decorator crabs and bat rays.

That clamshell is shrinking! ;) (For reference...)

Enjoying the salty ocean air.  We watched mama and baby otters and seals from the aquarium's deck.  We found Pacific Grove's famous "purple carpet", which looks especially stunning in the spring. 

We even dug our toes in that soft, white Asilomar sand.

There are about 5 more weeks of school left, which will fly by with all the usual end-of-the-year fun, including Ella's Robotics Assembly and Junior/Senior Banquet (another formal just for upperclassmen-- like prom) and Delia's play performance!  Cheers, Spring!  You've been good to us!    

Bidding 2022 Robotics Farewell in the Desert

One of my favorite online pastors posted a great piece of parenting advice a little while ago.  He shared that our kids spend so much time in our worlds where we are the "experts".  We don't need to try and be the expert in their world.  We should seek opportunities to let our kids be the expert of their own passions and gifts and teach us.  Their extra curricular activities are the perfect place for them to do this!  So today, with all of Ella's new free time, she and I spent a few hours together catching up at the coffee shop.  I listened and learned about 3D printing, omni-wheel driving systems, and her dreams for growing our Robotics program.  Getting this taste of her thrilling Robotics world, which I am admittedly addicted to right now, was also what prompted me and my friend Donna to hop in the car after school last weekend and make a totally spontaneous, and a little crazy, 6 hour drive to the desert to watch our kids compete one last time this season.  

This RoboMom Road Trip was SO FUN!  I'm a planner and a nervous driver, so to just up and drive 12+ hours in one weekend is quite out of character for me, but so worth it!  These are the special moments in our kids' lives that I don't want to miss!  This second competition was the Aerospace Valley Regional, honoring all the big name airline engineers that headquarter in the high desert of LA and sponsor it.  It had a different feel than Sacramento.  Being in the middle of nowhere had the whole team staying in a hotel.  Late nights in the pool and sitting around the tables in the lobby, playing games and laughing till we cried will be some of my favorite memories.

But, riding the rollercoaster of emotion that is watching our kids compete with their robot are also sweet memories I take from this weekend.  Here's the honest truth: our kids had no idea how good they actually were until they shocked themselves in Sacramento.  They went into this second competition with much higher expectations.  Because this Regional doesn't typically attract the big Silicon Valley schools, we were even more competitive too.  Finishing in a good spot (#12), but still battling a bit of driver error or robot malfunction had the team a tad disappointed after the first day.  Ella told me competing with expectation and even pressure made this Regional much more stressful.  While they did not finish in the very top like they were hoping, the team still made it to the finals and was still able to captain their own alliance, but once again got knocked out in the quarterfinals.  The picture above is their 3 team Finals Alliance.  They really liked working in this strategically picked alliance. 

Carrying Katana, their 125 lb robot, into her final match for the last time.

One last hang.

Time to breathe and relax!  Between the final matches and the awards ceremony is a super fun dance party.  A few brave members of Team 3669 even jumped in the conga line.

One of our alliance buddies came and delivered a personalized award!  So classy!  Our robots are Instagram friends now. :)  This relationship building and networking is one of my favorite parts of Robotics.

And this terrific team even won another award!!  This time the judges awarded them the Creativity Award for the unique way they designed their robot to hit the climb every time-- even though its chains and "many flailing arms" originally baffled the judges!  No Robotics team from our school in the 12 years it's been in existence has ever ended a season with 2 top finishes and 2 awards!

I'm so thankful Ella has found this world.  Having spent 2 competitions in it with these kids, I love them all too.  They are brilliant, creative minds who don't take themselves too seriously and love to have a silly, hilarious time together!  Their coach says they are a pretty special bunch, which might be a major contributor to their success.  With no seniors leaving, the junior leadership having actual competition experience now, and, hopefully, some more new members again next year, they'll be that much stronger in the 2023 season! Watch out World Championship, the RoboKnights might just be shattering history and coming for you next year!