Purple Belt

Saturday was belt testing day for Eric.  He was excited and nervous.  The testing was scheduled for an hour.

 His nice parent helper did not use a wide enough base of support.  He almost knocked her off balance several times

 This parent helper did a much better job maintaining his balance

Well done, Eric!

He is now a member of the Black Belt Club.  Next goal is blue belt.

Backyard

Megan and I chilled out on the deck the other night while the boys were at football practice.  She played with cloud dough.  I picked some tomatoes and entertained the cats.

Tigirlily

Megan loves the female duo Tigirlily from Hazen.  We have to watch lots of youtube videos of them performing.  Lo and behold, they were playing at Applefest on Saturday.  Of course, we went.

She was super excited to have her picture taken with them!

Hoops

If you need a laugh, head to Ft Lincoln gym on Saturday mornings at 9 to watch 1st and 2nd grade basketball.  The ref only calls out of bounds at this point, which means the girls can travel and double dribble as much as they want.  It is hysterical.  Play in this age group is also quite ego-centric, so it is not at all uncommon for the girls to steel the ball from,or even foul their own teammate.

Bull Dog

Eric lines up as Tight End on offense (usually).  He has some great blocking on Saturday!

We call him Bull Dog, because he's bully-ish.

37 pitch pass

The Longhorns (ie...Jonathan and Eric's team) played the Vikings on Saturday.  They ran a 37 pitch pass to start their first offensive series of the second half.  It's a play we've also been practicing in our back yard, as it requires a left handed H-back to pull it off.

 The QB pitches the ball to Jonathan

 But wait, it's not a running play, it's a pass play!

 Perfect spiral

 Perfect catch!

I was not able to get a pick of J high fiving his coach after the play, but he was sure excited! Glad Don was able to tip me off that the play was coming.

mini-marathon

The Bismarck Kroll's Marathon was this weekend.  On Friday night, there was a kids' mini-marathon at the capital.  There was a 50 yd days for the really little kids, and 200 yd dash for the somewhat little kids, a 1/2 mile run for the regular sized kids, and a mile run for anyone who wanted to participate.  Megan was in the somewhat little kid category, so she did the 200 yd dash.  I was not able to action pics as it was utter chaos.  The boys did the mile.  Jonathan ended up just doing a 1/2 mile, as he was having some asthma troubles.  Eric finished the whole thing.  Megan's BFF was also there, so they did the 200 yd dash together.

 Lt Governor Drew Wrigley and his wife, Kathleen.  Kathleen suffered an aneurysm ~3 1/2 years ago.  I watched her finish the Fargo Marathon less than a year later, with guide runners on each side of her due to vision loss from the bleed.  She was bawling.  Made me tear up, too!

 They did it!

The only pic I got of the boys running.   All 3 kids refused a post race pic.

Grandpa's girl

Kacy Adventures

In her attempt to hunt and kill a bird, Kacy jumped up onto the pool.  She made it look easy.

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 Our good cat

 The birds escaped and were setting up camp in the maple tree.  Kacy lurked-waiting for them to return. 

She debated walking across the pool cover to get the birds, but decided against it.

18-0

The boys had their first football game of the season today.  The final score was 18-0.  It doesn't matter which team won, the important thing is having fun, and learning the fundamentals of the game.  That's code for: They lost.
Most of Jonathan's snaps were as tight end on offense.  Most of Eric's snaps were as safety on defense.  Both had some special teams play.  Our friends Craig and Kathie were on the sidelines as part of the LaFleur Fan Club.
Jonathan is #6, and has the long sleeve shirt under his jersday.  Eric is number 12, and has a blue shirt under his jersey.

 Megan was there to cheer on her brothers as well.  By 'cheer on her brothers', I mean play on the playground, run up and roll down the sledding hill, and ask every 5 minutes if it's time to go home yet.

Huxley was with us, too.  After the game, I picked up Papa Murphy's for supper.  Yum.