Happy 10th Birthday Elias

This March my sweet baby boy, my first baby turned 10!!!! There is something so mind boggling about your first baby turning 10. Even though I have an infant at home, it seems like yesterday that that infant, was Elias! 

This year for his special festivities,  Elias picked Olive Garden with his Mom and Grandma followed by shopping with all his birthday money and finally an evening at Northern Air with the neighborhood guys. 

Elias got quite a bit of birthday cash this year. After he took out the amount he needed to put in his savings and the amount he needed to tithe, he realized he didn't have enough left for the one gift he REALLY want to buy, a $60 video game. The entire way to target he struggled with do I put this $20 in my wallet and just spend it or do I give it to the church. He decided( I literally had no say in it) to give it to the church. We walked into target with $40 and Elias had resided to getting some Pokemon cards. Elias wanted to walk by the video games just to check them out and don't you know the only game he wanted was also the only game on sale...for $25 bucks!!!!! It was a birthday miracle! He grabbed it up and skipped to the cash register. 

One day, when Elias was around 8 Brandon said to me " You know, one day you will pick Elias up for the last time." While I know its true, that thought was just so sad to me! So,every couple of months I walk up to Elias and look into his eyes and say" Elias, one day I will pick you up for the last time...BUT TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY!"  We giggle and I scoop him up. I think I have at least a year left. 

Elias took a bunch of his neighborhood friends to Northern Air for laser tag and trampoline jumping. We came home for cupcakes but everyone just decided to hang out and play video games...cause that is what boys do when one gets a new game. It was a wonderful birthday to celebrate my first born baby!

Message to Elias: Elias darling while you were an absolutly awful toddler you are turning out to be a pretty amazing kid. You are sweet and sensitive and care about others feelings. You frequently help resolve neighborhood conflict and have a moral compass that puts a lot of adults to shame. You are helpful, dutiful and very reliable. You have really grown into your role as eldest son. I cant wait to see what fun being 10 has in store for you!

First LEGO League- STATE!

After our buzzer beater at regionals, the Hydro Nerds were very excited to make improvements to our presentations and compete at State! We had been told that State FLL was kinda crazy but I didn't really believe it. I mean how crazy can a bunch of programming kids get? Well for one, there were a TON of people there! The entire ball room upstairs at the Union was converted into a competition floor with an intense sound and light display set up . There were kids, parents, and fans everywhere! 

The Hydro Nerds got there and set up by 8 and headed to our first presentation at 8:30. While we were setting up, I ran into Liz and her daughter Aly. Liz and I used to cheer together and it is always fun to run into her!

Our presentations went much much better then at regionals, which was the goal. The team was better prepared and we sounded like we had a clue of what was going on. The robot game on the other hand was a disaster. Our missions that ALWAYS work, were not working. We had lots of problems and sadly no buzzer beating moments. 

The team knew going into State that the goal was to simply do better than at regionals. Our presentations definitely did so for that we were happy. Our robot game finished almost dead last....but not last so that is good right!

It was a busy whirl wind day! Elias was so overwhelmed with the lights and sound he covered his eyes and ears the whole way home and went right to bed...at 5. He said he had a lot of fun but wasn't prepared for how loud and crazy it was going to be. 

FLL just started this month( because I am so far behind) and I am really excited about our team and our progress! I can't wait for regionals!

First Lego League Competition

Elias has always loved building LEGOS. Our entire house has been over run with them since 2012 when he got his first LEGO set. When Elias was 7, we heard about this First LEGO League program that was free and run through the library. You had to be 9 to participate so Elias had to wait a couple of years. I think we both thought it would be building LEGOS and making a robot made of LEGOS do some cool stuff. It was a bit of that, but so much more! 

The teams are ran by volunteer coaches and since I like to be involved, I signed on to be a volunteer coach for my son's team when I could be there which was bout 40% of the time. . I quickly realized I had zero idea what was going on. So the general idea is you build a robot and program this robot to complete missions which are worth points. You also need to research a problem and find a solution to that problem related to the theme that year. You have to present your project, your robot design, make a poster and of course compete on the timed course with your robot. As we got closer to competition I knew there was zero way we were getting out of the regional meet. We had no idea what we were doing the whole season seemed so disjointed. 

The meet was ALLLLLL day one cold cold January day. We struggled through our presentations and made it to lunch! After a terrible first run we had an eh second run. We now knew we needed 60 points to stand a chance to advance to state. The bottom 3 teams, even if they rocked presentations, are not eligible to move on to state. 

Our team had an OK run. We struggled with our second mission but were still hopeful. We needed our last mission to go smoothly. It did not. We needed our robot to do a 90 degree turn and drop a "water" into a "well". The robot didn't rotate a full 90 degrees ending our state dreams....but wait!! The robot was programmed to go back to the base but was off course from its previous mishap and it ran right into another challenge we missed KNOCKING THE PIECE IN in the final seconds! It was epic!! The entire place erupted in cheers. We had a beautiful Hail Mary moment and it secured our spot high enough to stand a chance to move on. All we had to do was wait for judges awards. 

 When awards were announced, much to everyones surprise, we made it to state!!! We shouldn't have based on project scores but two teams were eliminated from advancing due to low robot game scores. We had a lot of work to do to improve our presentations but we were just SO excited to advance!

Hydro Nerds!!

End of the year recitals Part 1- Music!

The first two weeks of May were insane with end of the year performances. Annie had gymnastics, dance and voice and Elias had Piano. Throw in rehearsals and the actual recital and it was a very busy time which required lots of Grandparent transportation help!

Up first, Annie had a small recital to conclude her first year of voice lessons. She sang Castle on a Cloud from Les Miserablles, Maybe from Annie and finally How Far I'll go from Moana. She did ok on the first two but really enjoyed singing How Far I'll Go and it showed!

Elias just finished his second year of piano. He spent a lot of spring sick and didn't get in as much practice as we normally do but he pulled it together in time for  his end of the year piano recital.  He choose to preform Pterodactyls and Here comes the band. He did great at both and made no mistakes( at least to my untrained ear!) Elias was thinking that he might be ready to give up piano, most likely because it is getting harder, but thanks to our neighbor( who takes lessons with Mrs. Green also!,) he has decided to take Isabelle's advice and stick with it. Thanks Isabelle!! 

Next year both Annie and Elias will be in Piano and I can't wait to see how Annie does. I hope she enjoys it as much as Elias did, I have big dreams about singing Christmas carols around the piano for many years to come!

Happy 9th Birthday Elias!

Last year Elias had a big friend birthday party at the gym with pizza, cake, presents, the whole 9 yards. This year we took the year off from the big hoopla and decided it was a family only birthday. I can't remember all the details of his actual birthday but I know he went to Garbonzos with Uncle Jordan and Daddy for some guy time. He loves the pizza there so much and it was really great for him to spend some one on one time with his two favorite people. 

The evening of his birthday we ate and had family over for cupcakes and presents. The night was a blur and since I didn't blog about it right away I don't remember the details. I am sure it was fun and exciting for all, just look at his face in the pictures, he was pretty stoked. Elias got a couple new Pokemon games, pokemon cards and of course...LEGOS! I wonder when the next holiday we will have in the Eberhardt household with no LEGO gifts, not that I am complaining they are great! A few cupcakes and a late night spent playing with all his new gear rounded out a great day for my first born. I think I am going to have a midlife crisis next year when he turns 10....He can't be that old already can he?! 

Message to Elias: You are amazing. You have a great head on your shoulders and are a rule follower to the point of it being comical at times. You love your friends, family and all things Pokemon and LEGO related. You have a kind heart but tend to loose patience when dealing with the "little boys" Benjamin and Samuel look up to you so much and want to be just like you so I really appreciate it when you let them in your room to hang out with you when you are having alone time. You are really into reading lately and really love math a history, a guy after your parents heart. I can't wait to see what the rest of this year has in store for you. 

Pre Birthday Festivities

As Elias's 9th birthday began to approach, the card from family and friends out of town started to roll in. Elias loves his party in town and he loves all the people who can physically wish him a happy birthday BUT he would be lying if he said he wasn't equally if not more excited about the out of town cards that come in. He likes getting mail first of all and usually there is a dollar or two in those birthday cards and this kid loves to collect and save money! After I took a few pictures from one of his card openings it became painfully obvious, this kid needed a haircut before our family party, he looked like Wolverine! 

 Elias has always thought Uncle Jordan's hair do was pretty cool so we set out to match it. Elias is a very particular kid and he has only gotten his hair cut in a salon a couple of times, both of which were with his Grandmother. He was very adamant I go to the same place...the one where they play HGTV......wow that is not at all helpful. He thought it might be near Red Lobster or near a place that looked like Red Lobster, so off we set. We tried three places before we found the right one and sure enough, when we walked in...HGTV was on! He got his hair cut and we were on our way. I thought he looked mighty handsome and so grown up if I do say so myself!!!!

So grown up

Awesome Authors

So this post is obviously a few months old. from June to be specific. Not sure why I never uploaded it but better late than never. I seem to be saying that alot lately!
While Annie was busy doing SPA, Elias choose to do a summer school class called Awesome Authors. I was pretty excited when he chose this class since his handwriting is rough and he struggles with coming up with paragraphs to tell a complete concept. I thought this would be the perfect help and he picked it and didn't even know he needed improvement in this. Win win! From day one he loved the class. He talked about the kids he met, the fun games they played and loved both of the field trips they took, one to the herald and one to the ND museum of art. They did several projects which they uploaded to the class blog. He also wrote a couple of stories. On the last day, we got to go to his class and he showed us all the fun stuff he had been doing. Out of all the projects he did, his animated story was hands down my favorite. They had to come up with an ad, they they narrated it and chose the animation. The finish product is below, hopefully it plays!

Piano Recital

This year brought a new activity for Elias, piano! He had expressed an interest in learning music and when we thought his mind and fingers were ready, we gave it a go. The result: Elias loves it!! Elias loved it so much we found a great deal on a used piano and bought it. I love listening to him play and it is somewhat therapeutic for him as well, bonus! Elias didn't start lessons until mid January of this year and his first recital was scheduled for early May. Elias worked hard and was able to learn enough to participate in Pianoforte achievement awards as well as his recital. Learning to read music and manipulate his fingers correctly to play brought challenges but with many hours of practice, he did great. Elias absolutely loves the piano and  I think this kid will be playing piano for years to come.

Elias' New Room

Elias is really getting some blog time this month! Remember just a few short months ago when I was so excited to share my very own sewing room re-do with my dedicated blog followers? Well that was super short lived,6 months to be exact.  I lost my woman cave to a very sweet 8 year old, good thing he is worth it! 

Elias was having a rough time living with Benjamin and Samuel. His behavior and school work was suffering. We had offered Elias the room many times but he kept saying he was too scared to sleep alone. After a particularly rough day he spent some alone time with Grandma and she convinced him that he really would benefit from having a room all to himself.  In 24 hours we emptied the room out and moved his bed upstairs. Grandma bought him star wars decorations, end table and bedding and Brandon and I picked up a few odds and ends to finish the room off. Like the death star light. We had some major pieces of furniture that we are just making work in his room because there was no other place to put them, like the big book shelf. Grandma plans to paint his room this summer but in the meantime, it is perfect! 

Elias' behavior turned around almost immediately upon moving in. He has a place to go to calm down and his therapy swing is already in there so that is an added bonus. My sewing room has found its new place downstairs in the laundry room but its just as well, I don't have much time to sew now that Mr. Nicholas is here anyways. The things we do for our kids!

 Kellie and I's sweet BB-8 painting. It turned out great!

Nicholas loves big brothers room.

How Elias' room usually looks, I took the swing down in other pictures so I could actually see the room.