Jackson's Science Fair Project

I loved Jackson's Science Fair Project this year! We ordered a mini wind turbine kit online. Jackson put it together experimenting with different patters and materials for the turbine blades. He learned how to read a multi meter and graphed how much energy the turbine was producing at different heights throughout our backyard and in an empty field by his school.

Jackson's Project was one out of the six projects chosen from his entire grade to go on to be judged. I was very impressed with his mock presentations we did at home and he received an Honorable Mention for his school. I'm a proud momma.

Rapunzel

Ashleigh chopped her hair off!!  It was past her waist and now it's just past her shoulders. It looks really cute and boy will we save a lot on shampoo and conditioner. haha

Jackson's Lego Robotics Competition

Jackson's school takes part in First Lego League, a program geared to get kids excited about science and technology.  Two times a week during the school year, the Lego robotics club met after school to work towards competition at the end of the year.

This years theme for Lego League was, World Class Learning Unleashed. In the three part competition, the teams are challenged to "redesign how we gather knowledge and skills in the 21st century. Teams will teach adults about the ways that kids need and want to learn". They chose "Terminator Penguins" as their team name this year and rocked santa hats for their team flair.

Part One: The Project

Terminator  Penguins chose to create a mobile app to teach people how to get through a future energy crisis. They educated the app users through a game called, Blackout. Players monitored energy of individual cities and created alternate power sources such as windmills, dams, or nuclear power plants. The team spent months researching and collaborating on their project which they presented to a panel of judges.

 Part Two: The Robot Games


The goal of the robot games are to build and program a robot to maneuver through a course and collect the most points. This is Jackson's favorite part and he was the head programer of the team. This year's course was much more technical than the year before and really pushed the teams to think outside the box.

 Part Three: Core Values

This was another interview with the judges to determine how well they embraced the core values of First Lego League. They were asked how well they worked as a team and how they overcame obstacles. Judges also had walked through the prep area and took note on how the teams were interacting with other teams, how clean they kept their work area and their overall sportsmanship.

The kids worked hard all year and it was a great competition. Jackson had great support at the competition this year with my mom,  my brother, Russ, Ash, and his Dad. 

Ashleigh's 17th Birthday

Ashleigh at 17:

 What is your favorite color? Purple

What is your favorite animal? All animals, not insects

What is your favorite food? Sushi

What do  you want to be when you grow up? I don't know, maybe a Physical Therapist

What is your favorite book? The Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls)

What is your favorite song? Budapest (George Ezra)

What is your favorite TV show? Grays Anatomy, Revenge and The Office

What was your biggest accomplishment this last year? Making Advanced Theater (at school) and getting a job

What is your favorite season? Summer Why? No school

Where would you most like to go for vacation ? Hawaii or Europe

What is your favorite thing to do? Watch Netflix and hang out with my peeps

Where do you like to go for dinner? Any good Sushi place

Who is your best friend? McKaida  a.k.a. Keeda

Ashleigh's best friend, McKaida, coordinated a birthday surprise for Ash the weekend before her birthday. Ashleigh thought McKaida was working all day and the plan was a late night movie night at our house. I texted McKaida once Ash and I were out of the house. I took her to the grocery store for "movie snacks" and a couple Redbox movies while McKaida and Amanda came over and decorated Ash's room with tons of balloons and party poppers.

When we got home, I told Ash to go turn her bedroom light off since she had left it on. She had no idea her friends were hiding in her room with plans to sweep her away on an adventure for the weekend!

Her reaction was fantastic; she was thrilled! I handed McKaida an overnight bag I had packed for Ashleigh and they were off.

Ashleigh's adventure started with a Sushi dinner across town, then a movie night at a local theater. They also got vouchers for massages at the Utah Collage of Massage Therapy for the next day after their sleepover.

Ashleigh had a blast. I love that she has such great friends!  A few days later, on her birthday, Ashleigh opened gifts from us, Russ's parents and my Mom and Stepdad. Then headed out to a new Sushi restaurant Ash and I had discovered on an impromptu Mom & Daughter date a couple months ago.

 

  The boys (Jackson and Russ) aren't huge fans of Sushi, so Sakana Sushi Bar was perfect because the boys could order steak. Sakana had a roll we had never seen before called, the Fresh Roll  (salmon, yellowtail, crab, tobiko and avocado wrapped in cucumber and topped with ponzu sauce). Ash and I decided we would go back again just for that particular roll, It was delicious. Banana's Foster for dessert and an order of green tea ice cream. Yum.

 I can't believe she is 17. Almost a full blown adult! I absolutely love having her in my life and thank God for her everyday. I hope she has an amazing year.

New Years 2015

I think it's true that the older I get, the faster time goes by. I can't believe an entire year has gone by.

Ashleigh spent the night ringing in the new year with some of her friends.






The rest of us had a mellow night at home with snacks and party poppers...and hoping time will just slow down.

Family Christmas Party

My cousins Sharon & Dave put on the best Christmas party! Great food and fantastic company.  We had family in from out of town so it was extra special since we don't see them often.

We played a game that had me laughing so hard I was crying.  A blindfolded person is "it" and walks around to people in the room and says, "oink piggy, oink". The person then makes an oinking sound and the blindfolded person tries to guess who is making the sound. It was hilarious! 

We also did a White Elephant gift exchange. There were a good mix of nice and gag gifts. The "rainbeer" was a hit and the gourmet hot cocoa mix with a bottle of Bayleys got traded the max amount of times. Dave kept trying to pawn off a set of wooden pineapple bowls and poor Jackson ended up with a giant calculator...which was actually really funny!