VTHacks

Last weekend, April 18-20, Spencer and Grant participated in VTHacks, Virginia Tech's first Hackathon. Around 600 college students from 90 universities turned out to work in groups for 36 hours to create a coding project from start to finish. Thanks to the kids' computer mentor, Kevin, Spencer and Grant were allowed in as the only non-college kids, at ages 12 and 14, grades 6 and 8.

I dropped them off at Cassell Coliseum at 5 pm on Friday, they came home Saturday morning from 7 to 11 for a quick nap, then returned and stayed until 2:30 pm on Sunday. All meals were provide and kids just slept wherever, whenever, as needed to get through the long weekend of work.

On Sunday all projects were presented at an "Expo" with awards announced following. To our tremendous surprise, Spencer and Grant were announced as winners of one of three prizes awarded by our local tech company, Rackspace! As if recognition were not enough, along with that comes a Rackspace Startup Package with Cloud servers and computing.

There were kids on the floor of the coliseum as well as around the mezzanine (or whatever you call that hallway that goes around the building). Check out all the toasters and bagels on the table.

Their "office" for the duration.

Speaking with the judges who critiqued, questioned, and offered advice.

Their mentor Kevin Malachowski (white shirt) who has taught them much. His team took first prize with their 3-D maze controlled by hand gestures.

Here's a great write-up about the Hackathon by Samuel Toriel, one of the Rackspace judges. Spencer and Grant are pictured with the other Rackspace awardees in their coveted Racksburg shirts!

This was an incredible experience for both Spencer and Grant and they left there even more motivated and fired up about programming. They learned a lot about the types of projects to tackle for a Hackathon and how to approach it.

Spencer at the Technology Student Association Regional Competition

Saturday morning we were up early for Spencer to meet his team at the Middle School to head to Abingdon, VA to the TSA Regional competition. Unlike a school morning, he was up and motivated, and ready to roll. For that he was treated to a beautiful Saturday morning sunrise!

Spencer's essay on the importance of the C programming language in communication took second place.

He and his teammates also won first prize in the System Control competition (LEGO NXT).
Way to go Spencer! And a nice lead-in to your birthday the next day!!!

Math Counts!

Grant and Spencer were among the 10 kids from Blacksburg Middle School who were chosen among a competitive process to attend the Regional Math Counts competition at Virginia Tech. They were there from 9 am until 3 pm participating in various rounds under the supervision of their coaches, math teachers Ms. McCall (front, center) and Mr. Cox (back, center).

Among the ten were a group of four (I forget which) who competed in and won the team competition, allowing them to move on to the State competition in March in Richmond. The top three teams advance, plus the next six highest individual competitors. Spencer earned an individual spot, as did three other BMS students, meaning a total of 8 are eligible for the next round! While Grant was a little bummed that he did not advance, he did extremely well to have made it there as just a 6th grader.

Great job, Spencer, Grant, and BMS!

Grant turns 12!

Grant's 12th birthday is underway! It started with a by-request breakfast of eggs and cheese, bacon, biscuits and coffee.

He opened a few gifts including the gadget that tracks the stock market wirelessly (i.e. not on the internet, from a network of towers sending stock signals). It's magnetic too, so he wants to take it to school and put it in his locker!!

 cold hard cash from William (frozen into block of ice!)

 Giant party sub

 His requested gift - an office chair.

cute gifts and cards from friends :-)

 What's more fun than putting your arms through your shorts?

 Giant cookie!

 One of the many sleeping options

Standard issue sleepover breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes!

 Morning-after video games

Quick trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte, NC

The kids were off school for snow and teacher work days so we took an overnight trip to Great Wolf Lodge indoor waterpark in Charlotte, NC. Good friend William was able to go along with us making it twice as fun!

The park was very very UNcrowded and we almost never waited to ride anything. We really enjoyed ourselves.

 The wave pool during a non-wave time.

Huge crowds...not.

 Grant was the champion of getting across these. He'd fling his body from the center of one to the other and scramble across so fast!

See how crowded that it's NOT? Grant and I played a lot of basketball.

Opting for the floor over the two beds and pull-out sofa bed!

Assorted pet photos!

Spencer restrings his cello

We needed to replace a string on the cello so Spencer met with Dan Foster of Foster's Violins to learn now to restring it. We replaced all the strings and kept the old ones as spares!

His shop is just beautiful, don't you think?