The District Invention Convention

Lily's Handy Hanger project had won 3rd place at her school's invention convention, so she was sent on to the district invention convention which also took place at her school a few weeks later.  There were a lot more projects there and it took half of her school day.  She was to sit by her project and as judges would come around and ask questions, she was to stand and demonstrate and answer their questions.  Parents/visitors were allowed to sit on the stage during the process, so that's what I did.  Steve's parents were still in town, and they came down a little later to watch.  Before things started, I went around with Lily and took pictures of all the other inventions.  It was fun to see what the students came up with.

This is a warmer/dryer for socks, shoes, gloves or whatever.  One of Steve's students made this.

This has a light that glows by the light switch so you can find the switch in the dark.

Here's Lily's handy hanger.

The shop cop is a bowl with a lid that has a strong magnet attached that can pick up screws and nails, then you scrape them off into the bowl.  The girl who made this also created a song that went along with it.  I think she took 1st place at our school invention convention, but she didn't place at the district level.

The Taco Assistant basically is a plastic disk that folds around a taco shell so you don't snap your shell when you're filling it up with meat and toppings.

Self explanatory- pooper scooper with disposable bag.

I loved this idea.  A backpack that has fold out legs so you can sit on it.

Basically he invented a lamp for use in the car.

Gluten free dessert recipe

Apple picker.

A shirt that you can remove and play your cars on.

This invention softens your ice cream by placing an electric blanket around the bucket.  It also has a lid that catches ice cream drips and puts it back into the bucket.

This is a cat bed that attaches to the side of a regular twin sized mattress, so you can share your bed without having to sacrifice any room.

A new getting to know you board game.

This list maker/note taker keeps a running list so you can go back and see previous notes.

I didn't get to talk to this kid, and he didn't really want to talk to me, so I'm not sure what the pants holder does.  Maybe you can tell from his poster?

This is a towel and a robe in one.

A shoe shield is so you don't have to take off your soccer cleats or golf shoes when you need to leave the field, just simply slide the shoe shield over your shoe and you protect your shoes and the surfaces you're walking on.

This long strap attaches to a zipper at the back of your dress and helps you pull up the zipper.

This is the judging form.

The cupcake sprinkler helps direct your sprinkles onto your cupcake in a neat shape or design.

When you are not using your scarf, you can store it as a stuffed animal.

The next few pictures are of Lily with one of the judges.  Lily can be soft-spoken at times.  As her parents, we'll often request for her to talk louder because we cannot hear her.  I like how you can see in the next sequence of photos how the judge has to keep getting closer and closer to her in order to hear what she is saying.  As I watched I kept thinking, "Speak up Lily!"  She kept slowly backing away from this guy.  It was kinda funny.

 Next we see Lily with the guy from the local newspaper.  He was interviewing her for his story.  I still haven't seen the story in the paper.  I even wrote to the paper and requested a story.  Still haven't seen it.

 Here's a picture of one more judge.  Lily had to talk to a total of 4 judges and she was in that seat from 9am- 12:45pm.  That's a long time to sit there.

Finally, the judges finished judging and awards were handed out.  Lily took 3rd place and earned herself another trophy.  Yay for Lily!  It was fun to have the support of her grandparents and sister there as she received her award.

 

The winners getting their pictures taken for the newspaper.

 

This project worked out great because she really does use it at home to get her clothes ready for the next day.  Go Lily!

An Irish Dinner!

Amara made this menu, or should I say "men you?"  I love her spellings!  "Kord or Korn beef, Kabij, Red patotoe..."  The picture is of a chick hiding in a tree saying, "I am her[e]!" and a leprechaun on the grass.  Then there are little worms sleeping on bunk beds underground.

There's 2 girl leprechauns and there's one daddy leprechaun.  There's also a bunch of 4 leaf clovers.

  This year St. Patrick's Day was on Sunday.  One of my family's traditions from when I was growing up was to have an Irish-one-pot meal of corned beef, cabbage, new potatoes, and carrots.  Yum!  So, I made it for my family this year, and invited my mom and Tom to join us.  Tom is Irish- his parents immigrated from Ireland to New York, where Tom was born and grew up.  Unfortunately, he hates corned beef and cabbage.  So, he stayed home and enjoyed leprechaun legs or something.  I'm pretty sure my husband would have rather joined Tom than be subjected to such a fatty piece of meat.  Honestly?  Fat is flavor, right?  To my dearest, fat is filth and he will dissect any meat on his plate to purge it of any visible bits.   It's kinda funny to me, actually.  I can somewhat empathize with him because when I was pregnant, my palate was much the same way.  Poor hubby.  But he is a good man and enjoyed a dinner of boiled potatoes and cabbage and still thanked me for the meal.  Amara and Lily didn't want much of the meat.  So, me and my mom had all the corned beef a 2 girls could want!  And even leftovers for lunch the next day. :) 

We all had a lovely time together.  The girls made menus for everyone.  They were really cute!!!   

Lily can draw Leprechauns really well!  She freehanded the menu without any pictures for reference.  I'm really impressed.

Another free digital ecard by Smilebox

Amara's Creations

Amara loves to create. Whether its building forts or towers with blocks, sweet notes and drawings or a new snack combination, she keeps imagining and creating. It's a joy to see!

She was being a dog and she built a dog house.

She built towers and pathways out of all the blocks we own.

She finished.

It's bigger than her!

In the picture, there is this girl who is thinking about a man hiding in a tree.  The little man in the tree is saying, "Hey!" and the girl is saying "who?" 

When asked about this picture, Amara said, "I really do love my mom really much!  And the heart reminds me of some of my grandpas who died.  And he's my great-great-great grandpa."

Amara said, "That was a yummy treat!  It was also like a snack.  And it was also for lunch."

Amara created this idea for her lunch.  She put cottage cheese on an apple slice and topped it with a cracker.  She was really excited to try her new creation that I just had to take a picture of it.

It was so good, but a little messy to eat because the cracker kinda smooshed out the cottage cheese.

Happy Birthday Steve!

Uh-huh.  That's a birthday-cookies-and-creme pie.  And yes, that candle is a 3 and those squiggly things are 6 more candles- 36, right?

For Steve's birthday this year, his parents came up and surprised him.  It was really fun getting to have them here for the weekend.  They came on Friday while he was still at school.  I thought it would be fun for us to pick Steve up from work in our van, but have his parents in the front seat.  So that's just what we did.  The anticipation of his reaction had us all on the edge of our seats.  Lily and Amara were especially excited to see what he would do.  Then out he walked.  He squinted at the driver (he couldn't find his glasses), realized it wasn't me, and then realized it was his dad.  His expression was that of mild surprise.  It was obvious he didn't expect what he saw, but he didn't do the dramatic-drop-of-the-jaw-and-wide-eyes that Lily thought he would do.

Steve's birthday was actually on Saturday and it was awesome.  The girls got up early and decorated the house with grandma and grandpa's help.  We let Steve sleep in, but as soon as he was ready to get up, he was bombarded with decorations, birthday wishes, and gifts.  He is so special to us!

The girls lined the hall with their stuffed animals to greet Steve.

Time for gifts!  Work gloves and a beautiful reunion photo book from Steve's parents, as well as money to help pay for a new front door deadbolt.

He looks tired in the picture below, but truly he loved everything.  The girls gave him some candy- starbursts and peanut butter m&m's.  I got him some sweet handheld artillery, also known as a slingshot.  And thanks to Tom, Steve's big gift was that we got his car working again.  Now he can go to school early and not have to wait for the rest of his family!

We ate at Golden Coral for his birthday lunch.  My mom came over later that evening for birthday pie.  She gave Steve a set of 3 really cool books that have historical stories that most people don't know.

Love you tons Steve!  We loved celebrating YOU in our lives!