Odyssey of the Mind-State Finals 2017

We took a little road trip to Houston this weekend for Matthew's OTM State Competition. His team tied for third place and missed making it to World Finals by half a point. The kids were happy to make third place and the parents were so proud. But it was soooo close! In any case, they had a great time competing and we had a great time watching them. I'm so proud of them because they were one of the youngest teams and their category had the most teams competing.

Our coaches did a great job preparing the team so the parents chipped in a got them well-deserved gift cards. I volunteered to coordinate and came up with this idea to present them with their gift. I thought it turned out pretty nicely.

Houston or Bust!

My little teenager being pleasant as always....

We stayed at the St. Regis and there was a pool - it was cold but these guys didn't mind.

Love it when they get along.

Aren't these lovely?

Thought the hotel, there were beautiful flower arrangements and I thought I should take some pictures and try to replicate them one day. These smelled so good.

After dinner, we stopped for ice cream. I had Kit-Kat in mine and it was delicious.

Enjoying his robe.

We woke up bright and early the next morning and stopped for breakfast before we headed over to Waller High School for the competition.

Coach Anne giving a last-minute pep talk.

The kids made all their costume and did all the make-up without adult assistance. Not bad...

The team is ready to knock it out of the part-which they did!

Matthew has decided to take a break from OTM next year. We are going to try our hardest to convince him to reconsider. It's such a great experience for him and we enjoy watching him compete so much that we will really miss it!