More Basketball...

Ethan's in fourth grade.  He finally had a basketball tournament we could go to.

 

 

That's him in the center with the white jersey. 

 

They played and won their first game, had a break and then because of a mix-up, had to play three more games in a row with about 3 minutes between each.

 

 

Ethan had a blast, drank tons of water and somehow kept up his steam the whole day.

 

Mom almost lost her voice from all the loud commentary.

Both of them slept well that night!



 

Three games won, last one lost put them in second place at the end of the day. 

Great job boys!

 



Bismarck Museum

A few weeks ago we took a trip to Bismarck, ND.  While we were there, we happened upon a gem of a museum!  The front lobby had an incredible display of this mastodon found in Canada.

 

 

His bones are all real, but the real tusks were so heavy, they would have tipped the entire skeleton over had they used them.  These were cast from the real ones.

 

 

Here's a different angle with Ethan.  Man that thing was huge!

This reminded us of Rexie from "Night at the Museum." 

Glad he one didn't come alive while we were there.

That is one big fish - could've swallowed all four in one bite!  I think this is the big fish that was chasing Manny in "Ice Age."
 

 

Check out this sea turtle - a little larger than the ones in "Finding Nemo" huh?

 

 

Aww... cute sisters in front of a mammoth turtle.  Wonder what those ate!

 

Alex's favorite displays were the collection of guns...

 

...and traps.  This one shot the animal when it got caught in it.  It's outlawed now.

If you're ever in Bismarck, be sure to go to the State Capitol complex and see it for yourself!

Basketball is Our Life

From Thanksgiving through February, we seem to eat, breathe and drink basketball.  With two kids in the sport, it keeps us pretty busy, but we love it!  Leah is on the 9th grade team (C- team) this year, and has been having a great time.  She is excellent at defense, and has been changing her shooting technique this season - it's coming along well.  She's been getting quite a bit of playing time, even with such a huge team.

 

About a week ago, Leah's team took first place in a 3-game tournament in little Newfolden, MN.  She was pretty pleased, and I think she's pretty cute.

 

 

We'd have a picture of Ethan's first 4th grade tournament, but we got freezing rain the night before and couldn't drive the two hours to get to it.  Don't worry, they have them almost every weekend so we'll do an update soon.

Lilly turned HOW old?!

I don't like to think about how old I am, but when I have a girl who just turned 19, reality hits me pretty squarely in the face!  Nineteen sweet, stubborn, exciting, fun, dedicated, beautiful, happy, loving, determined, chocolaty-filled years with Lillian Noelle.  Love this girl!

 



Isn't she sweet?  Lilly was born 5 days after Christmas which she says is sometimes not as great as it would be say, 6 months after Christmas.  But in spite of that, she had a fun birthday this year.

And, even though we were delinquent in the picture taking, we did all go bowling, including 3 of Lilly's friends.  We finished out the night with pizza, pop, ice-cream cake, and a game of pool, followed by a movie night with friends and family.

 

We celebrated with presents a few days later when there was more time.  Some things she got this year were her fav movie, "A Walk to Remember", a planner for the organized side of her, another scarf (she almost has one for every day of the year), a plan of salvation shirt (my personal favorite), and a hammock for the outdoorswoman in her.
Leah gave her a vase in her favorite color, and the kids gave her some delicious dark chocolate candy. 

 

 

This girl is such a joy to have in our home!  She's always the life of the party, and loves to do fun things with her siblings  Many days the kids ask her what they're going to do fun that day, and she inevitably has lots of great ideas, some of which include ice skating, going to a movie, playing basketball or tennis, going to a movie, DQ, or longboarding. Ethan said the other day, "What are we going to do when Lilly goes on her mission?  It's going to be so boring!"  True indeed Ethan---we are going to miss her terribly.  And Mom is going to have to get less boring and more creative. 

 

 

And to top it all off, she just started her last semester of her RN program.  So if all goes as planned, she will graduate with her RN degree this spring!  It's amazing how much dedication and perseverance this girl has in her.

We're gonna miss this one when she decides she's had enough of us and moves out.  Meanwhile, we are soaking up as much fun and memories as we can with her! 

We are so blessed to have her in our lives.

 

Mouse Skeleton

We homeschool our kids, for those who didn't know, and this year in science we are studying all different kinds of animals.  We have learned about primates, marsupials, the cat family, the dog family, and are currently studying rodentia.  Now this is a close second to my least favorite category which is coming up soon - eight legged furry creatures.

 

In spite of my aversion to rodents, I have to admit that our science project for this chapter was pretty cool.  The kids were able to pull apart an owl pellet to see what was inside...

 

 

Of course we called in the 'super-nurse' Lilly to help out.  After pulling the tiny pellet apart, we couldn't believe what was inside!

 

 

Lots of hair, and little tiny mouse bones.  In fact, we almost found the entire skeleton!  I'm sure it was all in there, but we ran out of time to get everything.  Here is what we ended up with:

 

 

Not bad for a bunch of amateurs, right? 

P.S. So glad we had the latex gloves!

 



Olivia's Solution to Vacuuming Stairs

In our house, all the kids have jobs.  Some like them more than others.

This little girlie didn't like vacuuming the stairs because the loud noise scared her....

until one day she came up with a solution.

 

 

Earmuffs! Who knew!

 

She still vacuums as fast as she possibly can to get it over with,

but at least she gets it done.

Go girl, go!



Gingerbread (or not) Houses

Our annual tradition of making gingerbread houses almost didn't happen this year, partially due to the fact that some, ok most, of us were sick leading up to the holidays and we couldn't find a time to invite friends over to do it without getting them deathly ill too.

 

 

But it finally did happen a few days after Christmas, minus the homemade gingerbread.  Probably the only one who cared was Mom anyway. 

 

Most of us got into the action, including some friends and every last bit of candy was either consumed or piled on.