The Greer Family

Lego is finally over for the year. We have had the Lego field setup kit in our living room since August. This year was our most successful ever. We made it to the regional championship. We won the project award this year as well. The kids project was the Lunch Tockz. It was a little electronic device that monitored time and temperature of food in your lunch box to tell you whether it was save to eat or not. The kids worked really hard. Overall, they did extremely well. At the competitions, they generally only give 1 award to a team. Otherwise, I think that we may have one more than one. The kids did really well in all the presentations (Robot Design, Teamwork, Project).

There was no snow in Tahoe, so we spent the time after Christmas nearer to home except for a trip for Elizabeth and the kids to visit Cal Poly SLO and UCSB. I met them at Disneyland. We met Samantha there and spent about a day and a half at the park. The first day was split between Disneyland and California Adventure. The Wonderful World of Color was really impressive. Disneyland is an interesting place. They spend a lot of time and money making it the happiest place on earth. We spent a day and a half waiting in lines for rides, but left not thinking that we spent that much time waiting in lines.
Katy had been lobbying to go to Disneyland for a while. She really wanted to get her picture taken with Ariel (Little Mermaid). She had this done years ago, but I guess the 16 year old really needed another picture. Sam had never been (or at least didn’t remember), so it was good that he got to go as well. Margaret didn’t remember a lot about it. A good time was had by all.

Another Christmas has come and gone. Another day of too much food and too many presents. The kids had a great time (as we all did). Margaret got a loom, so now she is starting to weave. Sam got an arduino. He is already better at electronics than I am. Katy got rollerblades that she only wants to use at night in the street. We all got blankets from Marcella. She had these made from various pictures that either she (or I) had taken. Mine was from my picture of the lift at Sherwood. Elizabeth made a pretty cake for Christmas Eve.

We got our tree from the same place again this year. However, with the downturn in the economy, they don’t have as many trees anymore, so the pickin’s are getting a bit slim. We got a fine tree anyway. The biggest reason that we have to have pictures of this each year is because Katy is always convinced that it is her turn to put the star on the top of the tree (she’s only right about a third of the time).

Another year, another FLL (First Lego League) team. This year there were more tournaments than ever with more teams. Our team managed to not win any awards at the tournament, but did qualify for the Silicon Valley Regional. They are now busily preparing for the next tournament in January.

Sam ran into a girl on the playground and managed to do enough damage (to himself) to get stitches on his chin. He is fine, but he will have something to remember for a while.

We spent the day racing at the local velodrome. The kids really like it (Margaret doesn’t actually like racing against anyone). They had a fall in one of their races. It was exciting, but luckily, no one was hurt. Even I got out there and raced (I was the slowest of the adults, but I beat all the 11 year olds).

Another halloween has come and gone. Again, the family was very excited about it. Sam was TinTin, Margaret was a princess of some kind, and Katy was some form of Mini Mouse. We had lots of people by and Elizabeth set her ‘witch’s den” up in the front yard. A fun time was had by all.

Katy and a bunch of friends went to coronation Saturday night. It is basically a formal homecoming dance at her school. Her date is the one in the tux. She seemed to have a good time. They all had dinner at the Yonenaga’s before hand and ended up there afterwards. She seemed to have a good time. I assume y’all that are her facebook friends (she won’t let Elizabeth or I) know all about it by now.

Margaret had a good year this year at Cross Country. She has gotten much faster and finished consistently 6th in most of her meets. She made it to the County Champions Meet and finished 8th. We still haven’t figure out where Margaret got the running gene. This year she did learn that if you work hard at something, you get better. She ran with the faster group this year. She really improved.