Mrs B

"Mrs B...... Oh sorry, its Mrs Byres right?  You aren't a teacher are you? Because then we could call you Mrs B but because you are just Mr. B's wife we'll call you Mrs. Byres. Ok?"

Just one of the random comments from the 14 year old boys I spent a great deal of time with this weekend.

Oh.my.word.

They made me laugh.  They drove me batty.  They spoke without drawing breath. For hours.

Hard at times to believe these monkeys will grow up to be smart men.

 Because they are smart.  Young and cocky and naive but the smarts are there.

Allan had the older and more serious boys in his car.  I had the 3 grade 9's and David.

Drive. Ferry, Drive . Dinner. Competition. Drive. Ferry. Drive.

My 3 did not have a working robot they proudly proclaimed on the way there.

Having been to many of these events I knew this would be highly anxiety producing and could see we'd be up late as they hurried to get it done.

Turns out I know nothing.

These 3 were cool as cucumbers.

They kept smiling and shrugging their shoulders and adding elastic bands to every moving part of the robot to keep it together.  David, Mr. B and some other team mates pitched in to try and help in the one hour they had on Friday night to get it ready.

At most of the other team tables heads were bowed and a very serious air prevailed.

At our team table there was more hilarity than I have ever seen at a robotics competition.  The robot arm fell off - they died laughing.  The robot moved two inches they cheered as if they had won the top prize.  All around them amazing machines were moving and picking things up and playing the game.

While my lot kept adding rubber bands.  And killing themselves laughing,

They cheerfully left the robot behind when we went back to the hotel for dinner.

No angst. No begging Mr. B for more time.

These three has come last at their last competition so in their mind they were definitely going to do better.  I bet them a dime they would do better than last time....quite frankly feeling my dime was pretty safe.

Their self chosen team name......they thought was HILARIOUS

I felt even more sure when I arrived at the competition mid morning on Saturday and saw they had abandoned the arm....they just a square with 4 wheels.... they essentially could not play the game.

And boy where they ecstatic.

They rushed over to tell me they were doing super well.  They had lucked out and every game they had been paired with an excellent partner who had "carried" them and they were in the top 10.

And as the day wore on they ended in 7th.  With a robot that did very little.

To the dismay of the other McMath teams who worked so hard and had bad luck and finished further down.

Allan had to explain how playoffs worked to these bouncing boys whose grins were literally ear to ear.

They went out in the quarter finals but they may as well have won the world championships.

They whooped and hollered and jumped all over that gym.

I handed over my dime.

It was a fluke but it couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch.....sometimes good things happen for those who just chill and go with the flow.

And they had a much better time than the stressed out guys and gals who never cracked a smile all day.

They taught me something.  They made me laugh. And they reminded me why a classroom full of them would drive me around the bend.

Night.