Science Fair

Lukas has spent the last week on his Science Fair project. Since robotics took so much time this fall, he put this on the back burner and is now playing catch up. He has completed all of his research and is now in the process of output - how to display and present what he has learned. He is cheerfully accepting suggestions for improvements and is realizing the value of attending to the tiniest of details, such a font size. Great learning and great project!

Yes, he does have more clothes, but he insists on spending his days in shorts and t-shirts despite the cool ambient temperature. At least he is using his fleece blanket to stay warm. 

All good things has to come to an end

Noah is spending his spare

time taking apart the robot that they so painstakingly constructed this fall. The competition is over, the project complete, and the parts need to be ready for its next purpose. It is not quite as much fun to take apart as it is to build.

Going brown

Since we are not going to spend the holidays in our home, we had opted for a no tree Christmas. Well, the packages began rolling in and Noah decided to create a brown tree. He decorated it with candy canes and even cut out an angel as a tree topper. It is definitely Christmas here in our house! The cookies are baked, the tree decorated, and the cards are mailed!

Noah's wreath

Noah made a new Christmas wreath for the house.

Dinner Music

Noah and Bob entertained us after dinner one night this week. Noah play carols and Bob sang - what a great way to usher in Christmas.

St Lucia

Sunday was St Lucia day. Nobody volunteered to be Lucia, however, we did have lusse katter and hot cocoa as we read our daily Advent story - Isthar's Odyssey. A nice, quiet, and calm evening in a house that smells like Christmas.

Time to replenish..

The boys worked hard all day long at the competition. By the time we got back into the car, we were hungry, tired, and ready to relax. Five Guys became dinner that night, it was fast, it was tasty, and it was no clean up. :-)

Great job!

Well done! 

Light Soldiers, here we come

After many weeks of hard work, long hours of tinkering with design, scanning through lines of code, and working through numerous technical difficulties, the day is finally here - the day to show off what they have accomplished with the robot. First Tech Challenge Competition.
The four boys along with their coach Bob endured a stressful, exciting, and rewarding day at the competition. This team of four young men showed that it is possible to complete the task without adult assistance, that adults can guide and direct without doing for the boys what they can do themselves, and they did not crumble under incredible time pressures on competition day. Great team, great accomplishments, and great ending to a busy fall.

Bob and Noah relaxing

Bob and Noah took a quick Sunday afternoon nap, which should  more descriptively be called a video watching time.

Robots

Lukas and Noah are spending all their spare time and some of their not spare time on getting ready for Saturday's competition. They tighten screws, refine the design, fix code errors, troubleshoot errors, and do more code fixing, and more tightening of screws. Bob has patiently walked the boys and their two friends through the process and has made this steep learning curve fun and enjoyable. I am not sure how many pounds of candy, clementines, and other snacks they have consumed while pondering, tinkering, and programming.

Our new walrus

The picture says it all!

Noah is taking cartography to a new level

Noah has been drawing the Western Hemisphere all semester, and now that he feels he has it mastered, he is going to paint this part of the world on a canvas. He learned from his Grammy and is making sure the sides are neatly penciled in. He is taking careful measurements to make sure the scale is suitable. Stay tune for the final reveal!

Lukas dressed for school

We decorated our house for Christmas and Lukas is now doing school in a Santa hat - maybe that will get him into the spirit despite having to copy Logic indices, completing a Science Fair project, editing a literature paper, practicing his music, reviewing Latin and oh by the way, there is a robotics competition looming on the horizon....

Blue Book Day

Noah and his fellow classmates finished out the Classical Conversation semester this week. The final day of seminar was review and Blue Book writing. No mid term exams, but rather a celebration of what each person had learned this past semester. And yes, he passed with flying colors!

Singing in the Christmas Season

We once again had the opportunity to attend a Keith and Kristyn Getty concert. There is no better way to sing in the Christmas season.

Artist at work

Deep in concentration, fixing a painting for his Grammy.

Enjoying Turkey Leftovers

A picture is worth a thousand words.. this the last of our turkey.

Smiling school shot

It is obvious Lukas enjoys school - that smile says it all. 

Cleaning time

Noah has a large collection of special momentums, items that he has collected and or built over the years. The shelves are rather full, and it is a bit of a chore to dust them all. Noah finds himself stopping to observe and reminiscingis suppose to dust.. who can blame him?

when he

Thanksgiving dinner preparation captured by Noah

After Noah decorated the front door with a lovely cornucopia, he took over the task of capturing the Thanksgiving preparations. When we finally sat down, there were 14 of us around the table, giving thanks and enjoying a wonderful time of fellowship.

Preparing for Thanksgiving

Noah set out to make the pecan pie, but gave up on the pretty circular pattern that Grammy made last year, since Mama had only bought pecan pieces! It is too hard to make broken nuts look good. Fortunately, they all taste the same.

Lunch break

Lukas enjoys a bit of down time, watching Ted talks or reading hacking blogs while munching on his lunch. These boys are becoming quite adept at creating tasty and nutritious lunches left-overs in the fridge.

Feast of the unlucky turkey

The weather was too treacherous to join the boys for the fantastic feast. Noah and his patrol were in charge of the mac 'n' cheese.  At least I have a picture, and the boys brought home lots of tasty leftovers!

Wait, this is November!!

It is only November; it is not the time for snow just yet! Well, that is my opinion, and clearly the weather had a different one. And the boys are away, who is going to shovel?

November Hike

Lukas and his patrol set out for a morning hike before getting the food ready for the family feast. The scouts learned the value of a tarp and a rope; the perfect temporary shelter and everyone enjoyed Lukas' gourmet sandwiches. What other patrol gets homemade baguettes for their hiking lunch? They started out in drizzling rain and ended up treading back in snow..

Off they go

Lukas, Noah, and Bob headed out for the Boy Scout November event -the feast of the unlucky turkey. They headed up to the camp on Friday along with the rest of the scouts to prepare for the feast to which all of us parents were invited. They packed the car full with camping gear and food; nobody is going to starve, that's for sure. The temperature dropped as quickly as the boys packed the car... this is going to one chilly feast.