What a Day

First, let me apologize for not visiting anyone yesterday.  I had just started on my day, checked in on a few people, showered and started to walk the dog when I got a panicked phone call from Anna that she and Ryan had both forgotten their name badges for the science fair.  So I rushed up to the mall to drop those off and the rest of the day was a blur.  I went around to visit all my students and had lunch with my science teacher friend before coming back home to gather everyone up before going out to dinner before the awards ceremony. 

Special awards are first on the agenda.  Anna had a brand new project this year, and she was worried that she didn't know it as well as she knew her stuff from earlier multi-year projects.  She moved into engineering this year though, which is such a great field for women.  Some of her judges were seriously trying to convince her to change her major into biomedical engineering.  We were so hopeful for a SWE (Society of Women Engineers) award.  We didn't know anything about though a Mainstream Engineering award which was given to a someone from the senior and the junior categories.  Anna was just walking off the the stage with hers when they announced Sydney's name! 

 So Anna turned right back around and gave her little sister a great big hug.  I was in the audience crying like a baby.  As much as sister's can bicker, it is awesome to see them support one another. 

Then the place awards.  Sydney first in junior environmental engineering.  Ryan second in robots and programing something.  Anna first in engineering.  We were all so happy.  The kids had all kind of sleuthed the places out ahead of time  based on who the best of show judges visited on the second day.  They are all so sneaky in their spy craft.  I must say, they were all pretty accurate in their predictions.  We were all happy and ready to round it up when they started announcing Best of Show and called Sydney's name as runner up.  Boy were we shocked!  She had a nice simple little middle school project, but she sure knew her stuff. 

Then the main contender for best of show in the senior division got runner up and we were all stumped.  When they called Anna's name for best of show I thought her head might explode.  She was so shocked that she could hardly get up to walk across the stage.  Best of Show comes with an automatic bid to the International Science and Engineering fair in Pittsburgh.  I have never seen a kid so darned excited about a trip to Pittsburgh.  I'm still not sure she has completely come to terms with the idea.  I think I have her convinced that they didn't give the award to the wrong person by mistake.  

Here they all are with their ribbons at the end of the awards ceremony.  

 And all of us together.  What a night!  I'm sorry to go on so long, but I am so proud of all of them!  The next few months will be busy with follow up contests and next level fairs.  All so exciting!  Today I am a soggy mess of nothing.  We filled out lots of paperwork and tried to catch up on laundry and normal weekend things.  Honestly, it has not been a productive day in any way. 

I do have a few new hexies to add to the mix.  It was fun to dip into some darker purples and think about how the setting might work.  I really kind of like the idea of the little triplets of white for linking.  No need to decide now though.  I think I'll do some more prep work while the cross country skiing continues on the Olympics.  I would have loved to watch figure skating last night, but it is still fun to watch all the festivities, no matter the sport.  I will go now and peek in on the posts of yesterday and see what everyone is up to on Slow Stitching Sunday.  Nothing special in the scrappy category this week for Oh Scrap!  Not that there is much in my repertoire which isn't scrappy.  It is fun to see all the Squared Away blocks showing up.  Here I am as a proud mama again.  Now I think my head might be the one ready to explode!  Happy Sunday everyone.  Thanks for sticking in there with me through the non-quilting stuff.  I'm sure real sewing will happen again someday!