March & April 2013 Layout Pages

 

credits: at scrapbookgraphics.com: by Natali Design- Happy Hoppy Easter, At the Dawn of Spring Collection, by Bethany Harty- Easter Religious Wordart; Spring Fling by Crystal Livesay at PixelsandCompany.com; font: CK Becky

 
For March 2013 Scraplift Challenge at SBG, original layout by Lilith Eeckles.
credits: at Scrapbookgraphics.com: by Flergs- Candy Crush with Melita Bloomer, Candy Crush Extras Collection; Tangie Baxter- AJC11 Provisions Parcel 30 Gesso Textures; font: AJF Mock Turtle, custom font by Darcy Baldwin

  credits: Love is All You Need, Yes You Can Patterns and Prints, Yes You Can by Captivated Visions at scrapbookgraphics.com; Homebody templates by Crystal Livesay at Pixels&Company (part of Homebody collab by P&Co at MSA in April 2013)

 
credits: Let the Games Begin by Libby Pritchett and KCB at SweetShoppeDesigns.com; Rock the Blocks by Crystal Livesay at PixelsandCompany.com; Putt-Putt by Chelle's Creations at scraporchard.com;
font: Loosie Script 

 
credits: You and I by Litabells (newsletter freebie); Rock the Blocks by Crystal Livesay at PixelsandCompany.com; font: SBC Distressed Typewriter

  credits: at The-LilyPad.com: by Michelle Godin- A is For Awesome Papers, A is for Awesome Elements, Snarky Snippets: Awesome, by Kim Jensen: Ragged Edges; GWL Letters: June by Crystal Livesay and Sara Gleason at Pixels and Company
font: custom print by Darcy Baldwin

 
credits: Captivated Visions: You are Worth It Value Bundle, Mish Mash: Stamp Stash Value Bundle 1, CU Kraft Papers; Flergs: Volterra Glitter Styles, Magical Christmas with Jady Day (stars), Love 2 Dance with Charlize (rhinestone ring); Launchpad Feb 2013 template by Blagovesta, Tangie Baxter: Mansion Masquerade (black feather), Microferk: Tragic Romance (red feather), Luna (bling diamond); Jenn Barrette: Naturally Organic (spotted feather); retired: Urban Love by Birgit Kerr, Vivid Intensity by Kim Jensen; font: Arial

 
credits: Captivated Visions: You are Worth It Value Bundle, CU Kraft Papers, Everyone Has a Story; Flergs: Volterra Glitter Styles, Love 2 Dance with Charlize (rhinestone ring); Tangie Baxter: Mansion Masquerade (black feather), Microferk: Caliente Alpha, Tragic Romance (red feather), Luna (bling diamond); Effortless Templates by Crystal Livesay at PixelsandCompany; Jenn Barrette: Naturally Organic (spotted feather); retired: Urban Love by Birgit Kerr, Vivid Intensity (retired) by Kim Jensen  

 
journaling: Alice, Brenna and Brieyelle have had so much fun working together on their ballet trio. Between the extra rehearsals and the playdates together afterwards they’ve become really good friends too. I hope that it is a long-lasting friendship.
credits: What a Wonderful Day by Michelle Godin and Pink Reptile Designs at The-LilyPad.com; Fun With Shapes Vol. 3 Circles by Crystal Livesay at PixelsandCompany.com
font: custom font by Darcy Baldwin

  journaling: With 3 kids in the high school band, Friday nights are often filled with the sounds of grunts, cheering, stomping, pep band music and wolf howls now. It’s often cold, and the bleachers are uncomfortable before too long, but it’s fun cheering for the football team and the band. We are VR! Go Wolves!
credits: Play Ball by Dani Mogstad at jessicasprague.com, Round and Round by Dani Mogstad (retired); Template 219 by Yin Designs

  journaling: Dean Kamen set out to  bring the excitement of sports events to science, and I would say that he has succeeded. You can feel the emotions of the participants in the air when you walk into the Ritchie Center on FIRST regional weekend. The 2012 game was Rebound Rumble- the robots had to shoot 8 inch diameter foam basketballs into 3 levels of hoops, and cross and balance on bridges. Coopertition was taken to a new level with bonus points being awarded when robots from the 2 alliances balanced on the middle bridge together. The Cyber Wolves performance was a mixed bag this year. Essentially no practice time with the robot before Bag and Tag Day meant that all of the little glitches were found on the field during the actual matches. A third day of competition might have made all the difference in showing off what our robot was actually capable of this year.
credits: Play Ball by Dani Mogstad at jessicasprague.com, So Square by Dani Mogstad (retired); Homebody Templates by Crystal Livesay at PixelsandCompany.com
font: Century Gothic, custom font by Darcy Baldwin

Misc August Scrapbook Pages

 
credits: Studio Mix 6: Bring Autumn Magic In with Lorie Davison, Natali, and Ztampf!; font: TXT Annesia, TXT Brush Script

My grandparents through the years from their wedding to just before my grandfather passed away. credits: Post Script Master Collection by Maya at scrapbookgraphics.com; font: LD Abe Lincoln

Just documenting the kids' 'loves' and 'hates' in the food department these days. journaling: I really don’t have a reason to complain about my kids’ eating habits. For the most part, they eat without complaint whatever is put in front of them. Each of them has their ‘loves’ and ‘hates’ though, and it can be hard to appease everyone at every meal.
credits:
at scrapbookgraphics: Bethany Harty- Food Wordart and Food 4 Wordart, Thaty Borges- Cooking Time with Kristin Aagard, Cooking Time Veggies, Flergs- Welcome to Paradise (shell); Pamela Donnis- What's For Dinner, Fiesta Elements (soft taco), Peanut Butter and Jelly; Happy USA by Shabby Miss Jenn (flag); Say Cheese by Kaye Winieki at TLP (cheese); font: CK Becky

 
journaling: The club season kicks into high gear at the beginning of January when FIRST announces what the competition challenge is for the year. The kids then have 6 weeks to design and build a robot that can accomplish the designated tasks in a 2 minute and 15 second period. “Bag and Tag” day was February 22, and no work was allowed on the robot after that until they unpacked it in the pit area of the regional competition the club was attending. We celebrated the end of build season with a potluck and a robot viewing to which family members and representatives from the corporate sponsors were invited. At the end of the evening the robot was sealed in a large plastic bag in the engineering lab where it waited until the Denver regional competition weekend in April.
credits: Bryan's Bots, Bryan's Bots- Graphic Splats, and Bryan's Bots- Clusters by Saxon Holt at 9thandBloom.com
font: CK Constitution, Century Gothic

   

 
journaling: It’s an Easter morning tradition in our church to arrive early and share breakfast with each other potluck-style. The tables are always beautifully decorated with spring and Easter decor make a pretty setting  for the plates heaped with egg casserole, breads of all varieties and fresh fruit. It’s a wonderful start to the day's celebrations of Christ’s resurrection.
credits: by Natali Design at scrapbookgraphics.com: Joyful Easter Bundle and My Favorite Season (postcard altered to make photo frame);
font: FO Uptown Girl Lowfat, Harting

Brenna’s Tap 5 class with Ms. Cindy. I’m so proud of her as she passed this class and moved up to Tap 4 this summer. She has her older sisters’ knack for tapping too it seems ;)

journaling: Brenna’s first year of tap with Ms. Cindy on Saturday mornings. Her friends Brieylle and Riley were in the class too. They danced to “Safety Dance” from Glee.
credits: by Redju at scrapbookgraphics.com: Black Textures Vol. 2, Real Stitches Vol. 8, Paper Flowers Vol. 3, Sequin Spills Vol. 2, Texture Overlays Vol. 6- Twisted Starbursts, Sequin Strings, 3D Alpha Template;Templates 169 and 213 by Yin Designs; font: Natural Script

Yep, still have Savannah pages that need to be done :P I finally figured out what to use for these pages on the churches we visited. 
journaling: The churches of Savannah are a big part of the walking tour around the historic town. The steeples tower above the live oaks of the town squares. The first day I walked Savannah the churches were not open to the public, but we were able to go inside a few days later. The beautiful stained glass windows are pieces of art. The history and architecture of the churches are so different from the churches of the western states, much more reminiscent of the churches we saw in Europe.
credits: at scrapbookgraphics: Christina Renee Designs: Authentic Artistry 3, Artistic Accumulation Faith; Lorelei Murphy: Blended Templates Bundle 2
font: Garamond

Lycos Robotics Club 2010-11, Sea Perch Challenge at Coronado HS

Sea Perch took place on May 7, 2011 at Coronado HS. The Coronado Cougars robotics team had arranged this activity and invited all of the robotics teams in the city to come join them for the day building underwater robots and racing them against each other. It was an optional event, but I think well worth giving up a Saturday lazing around for.

The kids were divided up into groups of 3 or 4 and each was given a robot kit.  They followed the instructions to build their underwater robot, and of course were allowed to ‘tweak’ the design to their liking as they went along.

Once the robots were built and all of the glue set, they got to the really fun part- putting them in the water and ‘driving’ them. The challenge/race was for the robot to navigate through a series of 3 hoops at the bottom of the pool, find a ring and pick it up, then bring the ring to a team  member and return to the starting hoop. Fastest time to complete the course wins.

 

Bryce’s team:

The ‘Mentorbot’ gets it’s turn at the obstacle course.

The girls and I popped in and out of the building as permitted during their dance schedule for the day. I think they all got a turn at driving the ‘mentorbot’- even the ‘I don’t like robots’ girl (Carissa) took a turn and then admitted it was fun. ;)

Big thanks to Coronado HS and Honeywell for sponsoring this day of robotics water fun!

Lycos Robotics Club 2010-11 Season Summary, Part 2

There’s so much to say about the regional competition weekend in Denver April 7-9, 2011 that I really don’t know where to start. I wasn’t originally planning on going up for the competition because of several things the girls were doing that were going on as well. The team left the Springs on Thursday morning to transport the robot to the arena and make last minute updates and changes to it (remember it had been ‘bagged and tagged’ since the end of February). Friday morning at 9 the preliminary rounds started. I decided at the last minute to drive up to Denver with Sarah after I had dropped the older 3 girls off at school for the day. Having to be back to pick them up at 3 I knew I would only be able to stay until lunch, but I wanted to go experience a little of it myself since Mark had done most of the robotics club interaction for the family as he was a club mentor for the season. I’m so glad I went, it was amazing- and that was just from a parent’s perspective. I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to go back Saturday morning too and take the other girls. Carissa opted to stay home and attend the opera showing she wanted to go to (a school sponsored event), but Brenna and Elizabeth went up for the morning with me.

The “Rookie” team award for this regional event was given to a team from Mexico this year, and they deserved it. Yes- that country down south of us. They drove to Denver for the weekend and they were there to have a good time. They were always dancing and singing together and enjoying the whole experience. It was a great example to everyone there about what the spirit of FIRST is all about. I’ll let the journaling I did on my scrapbook page sum it my feelings of the weekend, though I’m not sure I was able to capture it in that small amount of space on the right page.

Journaling: The atmosphere at the Ritchie Center during the FIRST Denver Regional competition was like a big party. Music was playing loudly, and teams showed their group spirit with costumes, waving flags and dancing. The pit area where teams worked on their robots was always abuzz with concentrated activity. On the competition floor, robots moved on and off the field with efficiency. Cheers rang out for robots that successfully hung tubes and deployed their minibot to climb the pole for a big score during rounds. The Friday and Saturday morning round scores were used to rank the teams for the final elimination rounds Saturday afternoon. VRHS was pleased to be chosen to join an alliance in the competition rounds. What I found most impressive as a parent was the 'team spirit' that wove through everything.  Working well together within your group and with others was as important as the robot you brought to the competition. VRHS was awarded the 'clean pit' and coveted 'team unity' awards at the end of the 3 days of competition. Remember to build it like a tank next year, kids!

credits: Robotrix Collection by Flergs and Charlize Creations at scrapbookgraphics.com, Project 365 Templates by Jen Caputo (retired)
font: Baby Boston, Century Gothic

Here are a few videos of the Lycos robot in action at the competition, and the last one is the final match for the championship.

Friday #1, Lycos hangs white tube, the minibot was still being worked on and is not on the robot during the match.

Friday #2, Lycos minibot wins race

Friday #5, Lycos minibot wins race

Friday #6, Lycos match with Titanium, minibot places second in race

Saturday #3, Lycos hangs red tube

Mascot Dance

Final match for regional championship

Lycos Robotics Club 2010-11 Season Summary, Part 1

We made it through our first season of the FIRST Robotics competition with the Vista Ridge Robotics Club at the end of May. From the time that Bryce heard about the robotics club at a district school open house in the fall of 2009 and saw the robot that they were building for that year’s competition, he wanted to join and be a part of it. The engineering academy program and the robotics club were the big reasons that we decided to send him to Vista Ridge High School even though it isn’t our neighborhood school.

The club season kicks into high gear at the beginning of January when FIRST announces what the competition challenge is for the year. This is a big deal with groups from the area meeting at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to hear the challenge specifications via a nationally broadcast video. The kids then have 6 weeks to design and build a robot that can accomplish the designated tasks in a 2 minute and 15 second period.

This year’s challenge was named “Logo Motion” and there were 3 parts to it:
1. Autonomous period where the robot is programmed to hang a gold tube, called the ‘uber tube’, by itself. The drivers are not allowed to even touch the controls of the robot. If an uber tube is hung, then any tube hung on top of it during the second part of the challenge receives double points. This section lasts 15 seconds.
2. Driver period where the robot is controlled by a driver and has 2 minutes to hang as many red, white and blue tubes as they can on any of the 3 tiers of pegs. The top row of pegs was worth 3 points, the middle row 2 points, and the bottom row 1 point. If one of each of the 3 color tubes were hung in the order to make the FIRST logo, then the score for the row was  doubled, and then doubled again if there was an uber tube in place as well.
3. Minibot period ended the competition and the teams had the last 30 seconds of the match to deploy a minibot and have it climb one of four 9 foot tall poles. The first minibot to reach the top and activate the sensors received 30 points, second place 20 points, and third place 10 points.

It is an intense 6 weeks, with 3 hour build sessions Monday through Thursday after school or in the evening, and a 6 hour session on Saturdays. Mark was a mentor for the club this year and attended the evening and weekend sessions to help the kids design and build their robot. He took on the minibot project in particular, spending most of his time working on that part of the robot. Bryce chose to be a part of the CAD team and helped design and draw parts that need to be manufactured for the robot.

“Bag and Tag” day was February 22, and no work was allowed on the robot after that until they unpacked it in the pit area of the regional competition the club was attending. We celebrated the end of build season with a potluck and a robot viewing to which family members and representatives from the corporate sponsors were invited. At the end of the evening the robot was sealed in a large plastic bag in the engineering lab where it waited until the Denver regional competition weekend in April.  
Mark helped a lot with the minibot this year. Many parts were manufactured on our dining room table during the month of February. Brad was the student who headed up that aspect of the robot and worked with him the most. The minibot was nicknamed “Sheila”.
 
“Minibot Land”
Bagged and Tagged, and waiting for April to come.