YOU DIDN'T JUST DO THAT!!!!

.......Yep, they did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by Robin

We're going to state!! Or as they say on American Idol, "You're going to Hollywood!" Insert plenty of jumping, screaming, high-5's, smiles, more screams.

I'm not even sure that I have words at the moment to explain how deeply proud I am of my son, his team and our coaches. I'm going to let many pictures talk for themselves but then I've added some Scripture that I picked out the other night.

Lay hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands and you will live. Prov 4:4

What a way to live!! First, we received this warm welcome from the hosting high school.


The Loot for the winners.


We weren't able to use the gymnasium because another event was coming in so we were in the cafeteria. Much smaller but we managed to survive the crowding, heat, body odor and nearly 2 hr award ceremony. (Talk about clausterphobia!!) Sea of parents, coaches, other competitors. Four tables are to the right. Two teams run at the same time while 2 other teams are setting up. Runs are 2.5 min long. Cameras record each round.


Yes, those are all teenagers who've eaten, breathed and slept Legos for many years. They are part of the high school leagues and they volunteer their time to judge & hold competitions for other leagues.


Here are our 2 boys on their 2nd round, discussing levees and points. I'm very proud of my son. The judge accidentally awarded the team an extra 5 pts they hadn't earned and "Simon Peter" pointed that out to him. You can see in one of the two pictures that the other teammate is actually slightly frustrated about the loss of points; however, it was the right thing to do. (Edited: I may be wrong. I could have been the 3rd round where they had the levee discussion. I'm pretty certain I was standing here for 2nd round though.)




At the end of Round 2, my girlfriend, Pam, came and got me to show me the scores. We're Team 2307 in 2nd place. (left column) The problem is that we did not receive a 225, we got a 245!! Thank goodness that all runs are taped and subject to review. The young boy on the right, above, approached his coach and then the Supervising Adult Judge who reviewed the video. After review, the number was changed. Yeah!! Now, that put us into 2nd place Performance of Robot after the 2nd round.

The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it. Prov 10:22




After 3rd round, the kids were much more careful to pick through all their points before signing the sheet. Thankfully, this was a much nicer judge than the first judge we had (twice).




Here are the participatory medals for all the teams & their members. The judges each got one as well. Our host team/judges are the Pinks Team, hence the pink ribbons.


I have video of the awards ceremony and you can see them receiving their awards on another post in the future, but for now, here are the Thunderbricks with their 1st place Performance Robot Award. We creeped by our competition, Team DNA on the 3rd round by 10 points. Then, we were surprised by a 2nd place award for Technical work. YEAH! This automatically qualifies us for advancing onto the State Tournament finals.


TEAM DNA won the overall Championship award. We scored unusually low in our Teamwork portion and hence, it pulled down our overall score. Plus, our coaches said that each team is only allowed 2 trophies. DNA took 2nd place in Performance and so this was their 2nd trophy. We'll be seeing them again in a month.




Blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed are the people whose God is the LORD. Psalm 144:15



The proverbs of Solomon: A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother. Prov 10:1

Here is our son, bringing us much joy!!!


Sometimes next week, I'll organized and upload video of Saturday's competition. Right now, I'm going to head to the garden to put in a semi-sprinkler system.