February 18th Intro Girls to Engineering Workshop

Well, I volunteered for this SWE (Society of Women Engineers) workshop.  Kaylyn joined some of the girls from GEMS to attend this workshop and I helped with the Chocolate Asphalt workshop.  It was a lot of fun and I learned more about asphalt than I ever thought I could since I did a lot of the teaching on it.  Most of the girls were engaged and interested.  Of course, most of them wanted to each their creation right away, but they had to wait awhile for it to cool.  This workshop made me miss teaching some, but by the last class there were older girls with attitudes that reminded me why I wasn't teaching anymore ;-)  This workshop was held for 3rd through 6th graders and about 620 girls showed up, not including the volunteers.  Amazing...and the girls got to do a lot of hands on stuff and Kaylyn really seemed to enjoy it.  But she did tell me that she did not want to be an engineer, but wants to be a zookeeper :-)  I'll keep working on her!

February 17th Grandparent's Day at School

Today was Grandparent's Day at school.  Thank  you to Wai-po and Mamaw who were able to attend.  Mamaw just had another skin cancer removed from her right lower eyelid.  This is the reason my skin is so white, because I try to avoid sun exposure because I see what she has to go through and I know it's not easy.  Overall, I think the grandmas and girls had a good time.  Afterwards, we met at Island Pasta for lunch where I treated them to their special day and then we went to a coffee shop where I treated Mamaw with a yummy specialty coffee.  It was a nice afternoon spent with them!

February 11th A Day at Magic Kingdom

Needless to say, we have not used our Annual Premium Passes very much this year.  So, we decided to get some steps in this weekend since I was recovering well from my foot surgery.  We decided to go to Magic Kingdom and spend the day.  Tara and Thomas met us there mid morning and spent part of the day with us.  It was lots of fun and I got in 17,000 steps for the day.

February 7th Science Fair

The day of the science fair, we got the call to come to the award ceremony that evening because Kaylyn placed.  We were hoping she didn't place first so that we didn't have to worry about her going to county.  Well, she won 2nd place in biological and needless to say we were ecstatic.  Unfortunately she was very upset.  It was very embarrassing.  Her friend Allie also won 2nd place for physical.  So the pictures aren't the best, but we had a heated discussion on the way home about pride.  The next day she came home and said, "Mommy, I guess I'm lucky I placed 2nd in the science fair because there were a lot of kids upset that they didn't place at all."  I hope this means we are finally learning...but we'll see in future endeavors I'm sure.

February 4th Brevard Zoo with the Teachers

At the school auction last year we bid on the kids going to the Brevard Zoo with Kaylyn and Ashlyn's 1st grade teacher and Kaylyn's 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Smith & Mrs. Meyers.  They were so excited that the day finally came to go.  The pictures below were actually taken with Kaylyn's camera.  They had a lot of fun!

January 29th Chinese New Year Celebration

This year we celebrated again with the Space Coast Chinese American Association (SCCAA) at the Eau Gallie Civic Center where they had a lot of entertainment, including the Lion Dance and a famous Peking Opera performance.  Wai-gong and Wai-po were able to join us as they just got back from New York City.  Each of the kids got Hong bao (red envelopes with $1) and Lanterns.  There was great food and it was really fun.  The girls had a ball watching all the demonstrations and performances.  Their favorite was when they called out the numbers for door prizes.  We did not win a door prize, but my parents won an interesting art piece from a drawing (let's just say it is good luck for fertility this year).  We also ran into some current and old co-workers that we sat with and had great conversation with.