Hoops Fest

Jonathan's team had  a tournament this weekend.  They won both games yesterday.  Today we played Rough Justice for the championship.  They always are competitive, but the Mavericks had a strong 2nd half and won by 9.  Jonathan didn't get a lot of play time during today's game, but did well when he was in.

Coconut Cookies

Last weekend, Megan helped me make a batch of coconut cookies.

Kayla Rose Miller

The newest member of the extended Miller family arrived on Monday, Mar 18th.   Megan and I went to Fargo to meet her.  Congratulations, Jason and Holly!

Butterfly Ball

Don and Megan had their big date to the Butterfly Ball last night.  She was beyond excited.  I made a fancy meal of baked salmon, roasted cauliflower, and red grapes for supper.  The boys and I stayed through the Grand March, then we went to Cherry Berry and Barnes and Noble.

 The ball is sponsored by Suzuki Music.  Some of their students played music prior to the Grand March

This is Megan's friend Ruby.  Her Dad works with Don.

St. Patty's Day

March 17.  My Grandma Miller was born on this day in 1907.   Wendy would have turned 44
 today.  Grandma always had green punch and a green jello type salad.

The kids love all the leprechaun tales, especially the ones involving a leprechaun messing up the house.  Jonathan was the first one awake this morning, so he took care of the leprechaun duties (for Megan's benefit....)

 The leprechaun left the kids this box of green goodies.  

He also left a box of limited edition Lucky Charms with all green marshmallows.  Limited Edition simply means it costs more money, and was not part of the General Mills cereal sale at Central Market last week..

Play

With the weather getting nicer, we have been playing outside a little more.  We even let the cats venture out for a bit. 

 Trudy loved rolling around in the flower bed by the house

 Jonathan taking a pic of me taking a pic of him

 Eric waiting for his ride to karate

Megan

Spring Music Program

Megan had her kindergarten music program last week.  There was a bit of emotional drama the week prior when she learned she was not selected as the female lead in the role of "Jill" in the nursery rhyme themed program.  The coveted role went to Haley.  Megan may never speak to her again.
Instead, Megan was assigned to be a triangle.  Not the shape, but rather the instrument.  She played the triangle, one of the lesser known percussion instruments, during the song "Jack and Jill".

It was a cute program.  Megan's part was during the first song.  This is the same program that the boys did when they were in Kindergarten.  Jonathan, who was sitting next to me, was able to tell me which classmate of his and Eric's played each role as they were on the stage.

Music Box

Mary Kay gave Megan a music box/jewelry box for her birthday.  I believe I had one similar to it when I was little.  I remember mine being green, and not having as many drawers.  Maybe it was Amy's, and I would just play with it it.  Regardless, when Megan opened the gift, I found myself quite protective of the other kids, perhaps even Megan, playing with the music box.

Karate video

Karate

Click above to see a little video of Eric's karate ceremony

First Place

The Mandan Boys Basketball club hosted a tournament this weekend.  There were 10 4th grade boys' teams in the bracket.  The Mavericks beat the Magic City Magicians yesterday afternoon.  This morning they barely beat the Bismarck Bombers (played sloppy but a win is a win!).  This afternoon they played the Bismarck Cougars, a team we have lost all three contests to this year.  Today the Mavericks outplayed the Cougars, and they won the game 25-17.  The Cougars had a brief 2 point lead early on in the game, but otherwise the Mavericks controlled most of the game.  This team has come back against us before, so we were on edge until the last minute.  It was an exciting win for them!!

 Waiting for their early game against the Bombers to start

 Jonathan fighting for an offensive rebound against the Bombers.

Belt ceremony

Last night we attended Eric's belt graduation ceremony.  He has been waiting for this day for a loooong time.  

 This is Eric with his Sensei.  He's a pretty cool dude.

 This is Eric and one of his best buddies, discussing the finer techniques of Karate and self defense.  More likely, they were discussing an ipad game called "Road Blocks", as Ryan was at our house the day before and they were playing it together.

 Eric with 2 of his classmates.  Good kids.  They all met at daycare, and are all in Mrs. Miller's class this year.  We carpool with Lizzie to karate.

 We got to the dojo an hour early to get the best seats in the house (Front and center....)  I wanted a good view of Eric having his yellow belt tied on him.  As luck would have it, another, bigger student was getting his belt tied on right in front of Eric.  This was the best I could get.

 New yellow belts

 The yellow performing a jab jab cross snap kick combo

Not going to mess with this group of kids

 These 2 students were awarded their red/black belts.  This is the beginning of their black belt level.  What's neat about this is that the boy on the left is the youngest to earn a red/black belt at this school, and the man on the right is the oldest to earn it.  Ethan is only 10.

 Where's Eric???

Always reluctant to smile on the outside for stuff like this, but he is beaming on the inside.  He even let me hug him when we got home. 

I told Eric that I would cook him whatever he wanted for supper.  He picked hot dogs and potato chips.  We also had our ninja cookies.