Last Friday afternoon Alex and I took off of work and school early so that we could go to the regional robotics competition. These are teams of amazing high schoolers from all over the state, country and some from as far as Brazil and Israel. They work for months to design robots that will play a game in the competition. It's a different game every year and sometimes fairly hard to follow. This year the game was based on soccer and there were six teams on the field at once. The robots got extra points if they could climb a pole at the end of the 2 minute time period. Alex and I stayed for a couple of hours, cheering for teams we thought were interesting, him peeling and eating roasted peanuts. The teams and their fans (other students, coaches and parents) really get into the competition - wearing matching t-shirts, having a mascot and bringing all sorts of stuff to cheer with. They play music throughout the day and I got to share the joy of dancing to "YMCA" with Alex and the rest of the crowd. A good time was had by all.

 

After the competition I made Alex put on his Easter outfit so we could take some "grandma" pictures at the Botanical Gardens. I had him change his socks, too, because most of his school socks are no longer white by any stretch of the imagination. He decided that his tennis shoes weren't white either and that he must wear his church shoes. The garden was incredible. Their camellia section was in full bloom as well as their tulip trees, buttercups and lenten roses. There were lots of people strolling through, several taking pictures. This one shows Alex's trademark cheesy grin. (And was not included in the Easter cards I sent out!)