The Best Things in Life

Taking advantage of the rare shimmer of sunlight we were blessed with on Saturday (Honestly, we've gotten more rain since getting getting the dog...kind'a like Murphy's Law when you get your car washed.) Mommy donned her running clothes and MP3 player, leashed the dog and went out for a run.

Upon her return, she excitedly told me about a foosball table she had seen while running. It was sitting at the curb and appeared to be being discarded. During her quick glimpse while running, she felt it looked to be in good shape and she wanted to go back and check it out. Maybe even retrieve it. So we emptied the van and drove down the street to check it out.

Arriving at the house, the table clearly had a sign that read "FREE + IT WORKS". Plus, it had the added bonus of also being an Air Hockey table. After a knock on the door went unanswered, we loaded it up, brought it home, and cleaned it up.

The kids haven't been able to stop playing with it since.

Science Olympiad 2008

Saturday, February 9th, Alex participated in his 2nd Elementary Science Olympiad at St. Marks High School. This year, 16 kids from RLCA competed in a 22 events.

The morning opened with the egg drop. Alex competed in this same event last year and hoped to capitalize on the experience. Teamed with friend Ben, the boys first tackled a 10 question quiz on energy, momentum, etc. Upon completing the quiz, the boys immediately went to work on their carrier, combining a Styrofoam cup, straws and index cards to try to protect their precious cargo. Check the video for the results.

After the egg drop, Alex moved on to compete in 2 more competitions: Up in the Air and Maps and Symbols. Up in the Air was a closed competition. Alex was teamed up with classmate Angela and had to answer questions about the atmosphere. Maps and Symbols was similarly a closed competition. Teamed with classmate Zach, the boys had to work with different types of maps to find locations and measure distances (right up Alex's alley).

At the end of the day, Alex and Zach brought home 5th place medals for Maps and Symbols. In total, RLCA brought home medals in 12 events. Not too shabby considering there were over 30 teams competing and this was only the 2nd year that RLCA has competed.

Congratulations to all who competed.

Post edited on 5/9/2011 due to shutdown of GoogleVideo.