3~2~1~ LEGO!!!

First Lego League ROBOTICS!!
This was a long day, so I will warn you now . . . this is a long post!

We had a great time at our "First Lego League Robotics Tournament" this weekend.

For the past 6 months, Kaylee and her "All Girls" team from school have been

learning programming, building and teamwork to prepare for this competition!

It's an all day event for our Central Valley kids. Ages 9~15 years old.

There were 85 teams and Robot Sisterhood came in 21st!

This is where they all come together and show what they have learned and what they are able to do with the Lego Robots that they have built and programmed!

It's so encouraging to see these kids in a positive and up-beat environment. The speeches they received from the leaders of the league, reinforced all the positive things we are trying to instill in our children today.

At the awards ceremony at the end of the day were more praise and encouragement!

EVERYONE is a WINNER whether you walk out with a trophy or not!

Here are some pictures from Saturday. Exciting, fun day!

This was the start of the day . . . EARLY!! Even for our Kay Kay!

A quick breakfast, coffee and out the door!

Our fearless leaders!!

Barb and Greg ~ Greg's 5th year coaching!

You can't really read it, too far. In the opening ceremony, they had a banner hanging up that had a list of the "Core Values" that should be followed during the tournament.

They went over each one.

This gentleman with "Elvis hair", is Retro Bill! He was the MC for the entire day and evening. He was wild, bringing lots of excitement to the kids and encouragement. He gave a great speech at the closing ceremony to the kids regarding peer pressure and drugs. Great for our kids to hear!

The girls coach, Greg, works for Lyle's Engineering. Great company and a sponsor as well! They have a neat story behind their business, great ministry!

And . . . He's with the girls again! After round 2, his stress was finally gone!!

There were 8 girls on the team ~ Here they are doing a presentation in front of the judges for their research project they did on public transportation. They did awesome!!

Here they are getting ready for their 1st round with Amy! (Their Robot)

They practiced on a board like this at the coaches home for months before the tournament.

READY . . . Go! Here, Amy was programed to go around on the board to the

red car on the ramp and trigger it to come down the ramp.

Looking at this picture, it worked, the red car is down. Yay!! For the 2nd run,

Amy also went around the board to the black and yellow circle and stopped, which was another successful run! (she is on the otherside of the bridge) Great job programming girls!!

Here was a paper that one of the girls on the team had to write for a "Crash Test Figure".

(A Dummy) . . . his name was Shiney Object.

It was nominated for an award but did not win.

BUT . . . they DID WIN the trophy for the "Judges award"! Very cool!

They were so very excited.

They were also nominated for the "Teamwork" award!

They did an awesome job and worked very hard!

Each student in the tournament received a Lego Robotics Medal!
Here is Kaylee, proud to wear it!

Proud of all the girls. . . and yes, Kay Kay, mom & dad would be happy to do it again!

Thanks Greg and Barb!!