FIRST Lego League

Another great year for my First Lego League team. This year Grant was old enough to join Jadon and the group of boys called Out of the Box. This year's theme was Body Forward. They learned a LOT about medicine and how the body works. They also spent weeks programming the robot to do missions on the table. They participated in a regional competition at Merrimack High School. They won second place for the table portion and 1st place for the design of their robot. This propelled them to go to the State Championship Competition on Dec. 4th where they were against 51 other teams. Though they did not go home with a Lego trophy, they did a great job! I am very proud of them.

Practicing their research project presentation

At the regional competition

Pround team with their trophies

At the State Competition

Thanksgiving

Rienstra Family

We had a wonderful relaxing Thanksgiving at my sister's house. Four families visit with my Mom. We did some eating, playing games and looking after the 21 children. Good times!!

My Mom and her 21 grand-children

PMC Kids ride

 Back in September the kids participated in the PMC Concord, NH Kids Ride. They LOVE this event. This is the 2nd annual ride and it was just as good as the first. I have been on the committee and I am so proud to be a part of this. The kids ride their bikes, they have lunch, get their face painted, decorate their bikes, bounce in a bouncy house, and SO much more all while raising money for kids and cancer. What could be better? Here are a few of the great shots of the event!

Lillian does 4-H

This year Lillian starts her second year with 4H, working on her sewing skills. She is so excited about this that I have intergrated sewing into her school work as well. She is crafty like her Mom what can I say? :) So far she has made a couple of pencil holders, a bookmark and has even made a cornucopia for Thanksgiving. Our next 4H project will be Christmas ornaments.



Lillian with her friend (also named Lillian)





Working on the sewing machine



inside pencil holder

Cornucopia

Halloween 2010

It was a rather chilly Halloween this year but with the hunger for candy we ventured out. :) Lillian is a ballet dancer (a warm one), Jadon was undecided so he chose this funny eyeball hat and glasses. Grant is a Ninja (he chose it because he could hold a sword, naturally).

Beautiful Butterflies!!

September 28, 2010 (I know- posted in December. Better late than never, right?)

Early this past September, we took a walk down the local bike/trail path in search of some monarch caterpillars. It was a little rainy but we were lucky enough to find two. Within a couple of days they transformed into their cocoons...by the way, this is LIGHTNING fast! You blink...you miss it.

Then on September 28th both of them emerged. It was so fascinating. It took all day as one emerged in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Lillian had asked if it was a boy or a girl. I had no idea, so we looked it up. Turns out boys have a small dot/circle shape in one of their black stripes located on the bottom wings. We were lucky to have both a boy and a girl butterfly in our house. We even got the neighbors involved in the afternoon as we watched the second one dry his wings and fly away.

I took a ton of pictures but here are a few. Can you tell if the last picture is a boy or a girl?

Day before the big reveal!

The next morning

Out for about 5 minutes

Moved outside

Wings drying and amost ready to take flight!

Family Pizza Party

Thank you to all of my family for coming over to share some pizza and cake with us to celebrate the boys birthdays. We had such a great time!!!!

Easter 2010

Another wonderful Easter Sunday at my mothers house. This year we had such super weather! It was sunny and high 70's. Wish the day could have lasted longer!


Jadon decided to spike his hair because it was getting so long. We really had fun and sprayed it green then added and Easter egg. He is so much fun!


Lillian and Grant


David and Lillian dancing in the sunshine:)



The Rienstra family!!

Visit to the Boston Museum of Science

A couple of weeks ago we traveled to the Boston Museum of Science. It is such a great place to explore and learn. It seems like we never have enough time to see everything but we make the time to visit our favorite areas. One of these areas is the engineering challenge. Jadon spends at least a half an hour here. It would be longer but his brother and sister start to get tired of waiting.

This year, Grant gave it a try too. The challenge was to build a boat that could travel the fastest on their water race track without sinking. A second challenge was to build a boat that could carry the most gems across the water track without sinking.

Jadon went straight for the speed challenge. Grant decided he liked the gem challenge. Both worked very hard with their own creative ideas. How many sails to use? How many gems to start with?




Jadon AND Grant both got high scores before we moved on. It was pretty exciting.
Here is the leader board...Jadon was Firefly and Grant was Speeder.


Then Jadon beat his own record!

Lillian turns 7!

I am still not sure I counted right...but the math does not lie. Lillian is officially 7. We celebrated a week early with a party right before Valentines Day. She invited loads of friends and family for a fun celebration.




Then this past week we celebrated on her actual birthday, the 23rd. Hey, it is a good excuse for more cake right?




Happy Birthday Lillian!!!!

Snow??

So as the rest of the country talks about the blizzard conditions, here in NH we have been literally left out in the cold. So yesterday morning when the forecast actually called for snow, we were SO excited. So we waited....and we waited. The kids decided to head outside to use their imaginations.

So, in honor of the Winter Olympics we have....

Skiing




Speed Skating



and canoeing?? Okay this one is a summer sport. Oh well. :)



Yes, Grant is in shorts. The funny part was he HAD to wear his mittens because his hands were cold!

FINALLY after waiting all day the snow began to fall about 3:30PM. We got about 5 inches total. Enough for a fun snowball fight and some shoveling! Now we are happy.

Christmas 2009