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Soccer was so frustrating this year. It rained and rained and rained and they only got to play a few games. On the upside I got to watch the whole team make real progress.

Ben and Gabe’s last game of the season was last night and I have to admit that I think they played their best game ever. Sadly, they still lost 7 - 1. Nonetheless, they PASSED THE BALL! I mean, they finally started playing with the forwards staying forward and the full-backs staying closer to the goal. And miracle of miracles, they PASSED the ball!

To each other!

On purpose!!

Ben had a couple of good saves in goal and showed a lot of thought on the field. By that I mean, he didn’t just kick the ball up the field without regard to who was there. He looked for people to pass to.

And Gabriel was a mad man and managed to be in all places at once. He had some trouble in goal but only let three get by him.

They all seemed to have a pretty good time too. We posed for pictures afterwards and the coach’s wife brought cupcakes for everyone.

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So I mentioned that I’m working on the demonstration robot that comes with the Vex robotics kit. About half an hour before the kids were supposed to go to bed I got it out and started work to finish the chasis.

yes, I know I said it was done — I was wrong. I still needed to add a platform for the battery case. So Ben wanders over and starts helping. I had him screwing things together and bolting things on.

He loved it. He sat there quietly with a grin on his face. He’s so good — after a few bolts he pushed the whole assembly towards me and suggeted I put some in because it was really my robot. He wanted to take turns to make sure I didn’t feel left out.

How considerate!

It made me happy to hear that. I declined and told him to finish up what he was doing so he could move on to the next piece. He added the platform and bolted on the wheels. Then he bolted on the front bumper sensor. Its really just a button that will get pressed if the ‘bot runs in to a wall. There’s one on the rear bumper too.

He’s a good kid and I’m happy to help him with things he enjoys — like this robot. I’m going to see if Gabriel wants to give me a hand tonight. I know Chloe wants to help — she came by while Ben was adding bolts and asked if she could do the next one.

If she sees someone enjoying themselves she immediately has to get involved. Sometimes that’s good and sometimes, not so much. Its good when you’re looking for a buddy to do something with, but its not so great if you’re just having fun doing your thing.

She’ll learn.

Liz got the kit for half-price and I’m looking at all the pieces I’ve used up already and I think I might need another starter kit! or maybe I’ll just b buy the add-on kits. There’s an additional chasis kit and bunch of sensors that are interesting. There’s an extra kit with catipillar treads that could be handy.

But I think that if I want to add arms and things I’ll need the additional chasis kit and probably the hardware kit (nuts & bolts).

I wonder if they sell a wireless camera for it. Hmmm..

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