Proud of My Girl

I mentioned yesterday how Jeremy was setting up Nichole's science fair project, right?
Well, back in November, the 5th graders were assigned to put together a science fair project for school.  Nichole and her friend decided to be partners.  Nichole had this idea after watching Jr. participate in his first pinewood derby to see what kinds of wood sand better and does it make a difference if the wood is wet or not.  Her partner was fine with that.
So these girls worked hard on their project, researching different kinds of wood, different kinds of sandpaper (including some that are waterproof- I didn't know there was waterproof sandpaper before they did this project).  And they definitely worked hard on sanding those pieces of wood.

So after the 5th grade science fair was done, they found that one of Nichole's classmates had his project picked to go on to the district level science fair.  He did his project on music and what instrument makes people feel the happiest when they listen to it.  Good job, kid.  Since we've known that little boy and his family for years, I made sure to check out his project at the school science fair.  It was fun to hear him tell about his project.
Now, back to my daughter and her friend.  We found out later that the school could send more projects to the district science fair and Nichole and her friend's project was picked to go on.  How fun.

At the district science fair, Nichole and her friend got to present their project again.  At the end of the evening, they announced who would get to continue on to the Central Utah Stem Fair.  Their musical friend was one who was announced.  At the very end, there were only three people left to announce.  Nichole and her friend were two of those.  Jeremy went with Nichole that night and said that she was looking less and less hopeful as her name wasn't announced and then perked up when they announced a "group project" from her elementary school toward the very end.  They were very happy to be picked to go on to the next level.  They were also very happy to get medals.

So yesterday, Jeremy went down to BYU to set up the girls' science fair board and pick up T-shirts for them and cinch bags with coupons in them.
This morning, the girls didn't have to go to school.  Instead, Nichole, her friend, her friend's mom, and I headed to BYU.  Well, that's where I went to college so I guess they did go to school today.
I made sure while we were there to take pictures of Nichole juggling since the science fair was in a building Jeremy and I had done juggling shows when we were in college.  Like mother (and father), like daughter.

It was a neat day.  The girls did a great job.  They didn't win any awards or advance this time but I think it was a good experience for them.

We did find out that Nichole's classmate's musical project did win an award.  I just checked facebook and his mom said he won 1st place for his science project for state.  Woohoo.
Nichole and I did not go to the award's ceremony.  Nichole had already been asked to join several 5th graders at the school district board meeting this evening, playing their recorders for everyone there.  So that's where we went.  Those seven kids did a good job.  It was neat to see them play what they had been practicing.  Apparently the kids could earn different "belts" (kind of like for karate) based on songs they memorized.  So Nichole is a black belt in the recorder.

I'm proud of my daughter.  I'm proud of her for practicing her recorder and learning so many songs.  I'm proud of her for developing her juggling talent.  I'm proud of her for working hard on her science fair project with her friend and making it so far in the fairs.  I'm especially proud that when she learned that her other friend won the state science fair, she was excited and happy for him.  I'm proud of my girl.