State Basketball Tournament

Joel's team made it to the state basketball tournament in the "silver" bracket this year (took 2nd in their league), so he, Greg, and I traveled to Redmond this last weekend to watch a whole lot of basketball! The other kids stayed behind with grandpas and grandmas (one night with each set) and had much more fun than they would have had with us. (Well, except for Kari--poor thing got sick on Saturday. The rest of them had fun, though!) We had a great weekend, watching basketball in Redmond  and Bend and staying with Ryan and Michelle in Sisters. The boys won their first two games and lost the last two, which made them 4th place out of 16 teams. They never gave up and worked hard. We were proud of them all! They were disappointed with their losses, but they all had a fun weekend, too, and came away with a great first state tournament experience. The fact that it was sunny was a nice bonus. It's been so rainy here (24 days straight of rain), we were all starved for some sunshine.

Jett's mom is a photographer and has captured lots of great shots this season and kindly shared them with us. These are all hers, with the exception of this first one.

Kari's Syllabus performance

Kari has been working hard learning new scales and all kinds of music theory the past couple months. Her teacher thought she might enjoy a new challenge, and she was right! Kari rose to the challenge and did very well at her Syllabus performance. It was another great experience for our gifted pianist. We appreciate Katie so much. She's an amazing teacher. We're all very proud of Kari's hard work and dedication.

Greg's Birthday

Leah invited us over to their house to celebrate Greg and Eric's birthday together, something we've never done before but was really fun! Mom and Dad came over, too, and we celebrated with lots of dessert options.

Kindergarten writing

Melt my heart--found this when I came home this afternoon: 
"Dear Joel, I love you because you love me. Sincerely, Grant"

And then there was this. I asked him what he wanted "control" of, and he said, "The gym!" She is the PE teacher. 😂

Aubrey's 9th Birthday

It wasn't a friend party year for Aubrey this year, but we celebrated her birthday with family on her actual birthday. She wanted to play games, so Greg organized a game of Guesstures for the family. We had a nice time together with lots of laughter. Aubrey's birthday gift from Grandpa and Grandma Moffat, a "Hatchimal," provided some great entertainment. Great Grandma was especially fascinated with the "hatching" process. :) 

More Ice

We ended up with 10 days off of school due to snow and ice this winter. Another ice storm came through February 3rd, and the next day the school district added 5 days to the end of our school year.

Crazy Hair Day

Aubrey and Kate were good sports and let me make birds nests in their hair for crazy hair day. I had so much fun doing it! Grant wanted crazy hair, too, so we put some hair chalk in his hair and spiked it. Joel decided to opt out this time.

Joel's 11th Birthday Party

It's March 14th, and I haven't written on here since January 14th! So much happening, so little time to write about it. Time for some major catch-up!

Joel turned 11, and we had a big party with 15 boys at our house, playing minute-to-win it games. Greg was in charge of this party, too. He's been the "master of ceremonies" for the last two parties and done a spectacular job with both of them. We had some serious competitions going on here that Friday night--cup stacking, bottle-flipping, relay races, pedometer head-shake, and many more. It was an intense evening! The boys had a great time.

We had Joel's family party that weekend, and we played some of the games then, too.