After shopping, we headed back toward the high school where the competition was being held because the main challenge scores were ready. Unfortunately, they were not very good. :-( I had a feeling they wouldn't be, as I had seen their last rehearsal back at school and their performance here wasn't nearly as good. But one thing I love is that the judges are so encouraging! The judge who came and showed the kids the scores kept saying positive things, and they received these post-it note pages from their particular scoring judges:
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| You can imagine that this was well-received by Kendra! :-) |
Next was the Instant Challenge, which is the part that had essentially won the kids first place at regionals. They absolutely killed it there, and they really grooved as a team so we thought they'd do the same. This is the part that parents aren't allowed to watch, so we gathered as a group in the cafeteria area. The conversation hovered around the possibility of them making it to Globals. Most of us were really hoping they wouldn't qualify (the top four teams in each category qualify). Two families had kids who were graduating from high school the same weekend, and some of us (me included!) were unsure if we could afford to go. Our district didn't pay for any of us to be at State. Our school scrounged money to pay the registration and for the teacher/manager's hotel, but the rest of us paid for our two night stays, meals, gas, etc. out of pocket. The kids came back from their Instant Challenge and they were SO EXCITED. Their teacher said that again, they killed it. Seriously, they did whatever it was perfectly and gained extra points, too. Worried looks crossed the table between parents. What if the same thing happened like at regionals---we never thought they'd make it to state, and yet here we were! Would we be Globals-bound?
It happened to be one of the teammates, Jacob's, birthday on this day, too! His mom picked up a cake and balloons, and she invited the girls to the boys' hotel to swim and have a small celebration. The girls picked up a small present for him at Charming Charlie's---a robot key chain who was wearing a tie (Jacob enjoys tie-wearing!)
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| I feel like these are going to be life-long friends! |
It was time to clean up and head back for awards. It was LOOOONG day! Awards didn't start until 9:00 p.m.! We took the opportunity to take some team photos with their awesome coach/mentor/manager/teacher, Nicole Silva.
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| Yep, that's a Flat Stanley. Blake's cousin sent him to visit, so he came to awards! |
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| Crazy! |
Unfortunately, the kids didn't place this year. :-( We wondered if they might win the Instant Challenge award in their category, and when the scores came out later the next week we found out that they had come in 2nd for that! Their main challenge just didn't pull off the way they'd planned. But all in all, it was a fantastic experience, the kids learned a ton (teamwork, problem solving, etc), and they are all great friends now. Kendra told me on the way home that she doubts she would be such close friends with this group if it hadn't been for DI. All six of them plan to be a team again next year!
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