Odyssey of the Mind Competition

When school began, Kennedy was invited by her teacher join "Odyssey of the Mind", an afterschool program where kids solve given problems without adult direction or ideas. Kennedy joined and has been working on her "problem" 2-3 days a week since then. Kennedy's group chose "Food Court" where they had to make up an original 8 minute program that would be presented in front of a group of judges. No adult help at all!

Earlier this month, Kennedy and I headed out to Palm Springs for the regional competition. The kids were so excited to go!! Basically, they had a court room with a judge, jury (banana, french peas, tomato, corn & Apple Jacks cereal) the "accuser" - a watermelon and the "accused" - a donut (Kennedy). They made the props, the costumes and the script. It was cute and clever. Our kids did not make it to the state competition, but they sure had fun!!

Darren and Michael had to stay home for opening day of baseball, but joined us later for a little fun. We stayed at The Westin Mission Hills Villas in Rancho Mirage and it was really nice. Kennedy and I ordered room service and watched a movie before we went to bed early (we had to be ready for the competition in the morning)



This is her fun group of kids and their coach Paul.



After the competition was over and Darren and Michael joined us... we made the most of it. We swam at night in the hotel pool (did I mention that it was raining and about 60 degrees?) and ordered room service. In the morning we enuck out to breakfast at a little joint that Kennedy and I found the day before and came back to the hotel for some more pool side fun. The kids went on the water slide. Again... raining! they were the only ones on it so they took full advantage of the fun. We let them play for about an hour and headed home.