Track and Field

Eric went out for track this year.  It is the first year for 6th graders to have 'school' track and field.  He was on the edge on whether or not he wanted to do it, so I bribed him.  He is distantly related to Gene Venzke, after all
His chosen events are the hurdles, high jump, and long jump.  His first track meet was a few weeks ago at the Community Bowl.
His first event was the long jump.  He scratched all 3 attempts :-(.  His form was otherwise good, just need to work on the timing of his jump.
Next up was the 100 m dash.  Not his chosen event, but apparently Bismarck does not allow 6th graders to do the hurdles (flashback to Parks and Rec Track of '13) so he chose this event instead.  He did not place (there were nearly 1.3 billion 6th graders in this event)
Finally was the high jump.  He cleared the first 2 heights, but not the 3rd.  He again has great form.

Next meet is the 30th in Bismarck.  Mandan was supposed to host one yesterday, but the track is damaged.

No high jump pics, as I had to leave to pick up Megan.  Don was able to video it.

Art fair

Last week, Megan's school had an art fair and ice cream social.  Her class made kites.  We were in and out in 5 minutes.  That's how in to art we are.  We mostly went for the ice cream.  It was yummy.

LILO

Meet Lilo.  Megan's concert ukulele.  She bought her Monday after saving and saving her money ( ie...visiting Grandpa LaFleur).  She has wanted a ukulele for most of her entire life (since August).

Megan will swap piano lessons for ukulele lessons from Mrs. C during summer vacation. She did learn a few chords on Thursday, though.

2015 Grand Am

This past weekend was the Jr Grand Am tournament in Grand Forks.  This is the biggest youth basketball tournament in the state, drawing teams from Canada, MN, and SD.  The 6th grade boys' bracket had 35 teams in it.

The 1st team we played was Winnipeg Jr Bison Black. They are a basketball club affiliated with University of Manitoba. They were huge.  We played their White team. last year as well.  They were huge then, too.  Several of the players from the white team were on the black team. They led most of the game by as much as 8 points.  We played in a small gym that was hot and stuffy.  The loud cheering (that echoed in the gym) from their counterpart team motivated our boys!  They played hard from behind,  and we won by 2.  They were a great team, and it's unfortunate we had to play them in the first round.

The 2nd game we played was against a Grand Forks team that has beat us all 3 times this year.  The last time we played in Mandan, they beat us in the championship game in double OT.  I think this is the victory the team wanted the most, and they won by 14!  The boys took the lead early and held it the entire game.  After our game was over, we went to the side court to watch Rough Justice, our favorite Bismarck rival, win their game in double sudden death OT.  They were playing a Winnipeg team with 3 players taller than Don.  One had facial hair visible from across the court.  Isn't this the 6th grade bracket???   We were cheering hard for them, as we played the winner of that game.  If we are going to lose, we'd rather lose to a local team.

 J and this boy battled in all 4 meetings.  Jax guarded him more in this game (he was out with a broken foot for 2 of the meetings).  J held his ground very well.  He boxed him out efficiently and did not let many passes get in to him.  

 This shows just one of the many shoves

Celebrating after the win!!!

We played our 3rd game against RJ late Sunday morning.  They are an excellent team that beat us 2 of our 3 meetings this year.  Our games with them are always neck and neck, and this one went to double sudden death OT.  This was a 'loser goes home' game. We were thrilled to get the win, but again, it is unfortunate that the RJ team had to go home, as they were a much better team than some other teams on the other side of the bracket that got to advance. 

 This is the game winning free throw by Jayce!  SWISH!  It was our 2nd possession in the 2nd OT.  Jayce got the defensive rebound after RJ's 2nd possession.  As he was driving down the court, he was fouled.  We were in bonus, so Jayce went to the line.

Lots of excitement after the win!  I didn't know Jonathan could jump so high!  Jayce got a big hug from his Dad/coach after his winning shot.

The 4th game was against a Bismarck 'super team'.  They formed at the end of last season: it's made up of the best players of the 2 best Bismarck teams. We had not played them this year.  We lost by 10. The boys were still gassed from the double OT game, and there was only 1 hour between games. They played to the buzzer as if they were only down by one point.

The 5th and final game for 3rd place was against another Bismarck team.  Our boys were a little bitter with a loss to this team last month. The parents/coaches might have been, too, as this is the team with the worst sportsmanship!  Their coach was actually ejected from the game the first time we played this year.  The boys put the game away in the first 10 minutes.

It was a great way to end the season!  The boys play so well together, and rarely get flustered when they are trailing.  They have all improved their play so much from last season.  

The Coach put together these stats for comparison:

2015:

·         Overall Record: 39-15 72% (35-7 83% if you throw out January)

o    14-2 Nov-Dec (5 tourneys, 1st-3, 3rd-2)

o    4-8 Jan (4 tourneys, 3rd-2, 4th-2)

o    12-2 Feb (4 tourneys, 1st-2, 2nd-2)

o    9-3 Mar-Apr (3 tourneys, 2nd-1, 3rd-1 , 5th-1)

·         Tournaments attended: 16 (1st place-5, 2nd place-3, 3rd place-5, 4th place-2, 5th place-1) 

o    The 5th place was CHS Spring Hoop Fest where we lost to Wolves in first game, then won the next 3 (including comeback against Motley Crew).

·         Average Offense: 45.51

·         Average Defense: 33.41

·         Average Margin of Victory: 12.10

2014:

·         Overall Record: 26-7 79%

o    5-4 Nov-Dec (3 tourneys, 2nd-1, 3rd-1, No place-1 )

o    12-0 Jan-Feb (4 tourneys, 1st-3, 2nd-1 )

o    9-3 Mar-Apr (3 tourneys, 1st-1 , 3rd-1, 4th-1)

·         Tournaments attended: 10 (1st place-4, 2nd place-2, 3rd place-2, 4th place-1, no place-1)

·         Average Offense: 41.97

·         Average Defense: 30.18

·         Average Margin of Victory: 11.79

Easter

We had a pretty low-key Easter weekend.  We already had planned to stay home and chillax for the long weekend, so Don's appendectomy Wednesday night didn't wreck our plans too much.

This is also our first Easter where all 3 kids know The Truth about the Easter Bunny.  Much less pressure for Mama.

 Megan helped me make the traditional bunny bread this year.  The boys did not care to assist.

 She was also the only kid who wanted to help me color eggs.

Jonathan spent most of the weekend doing this.  

The Hoyt Ignite

Waaaay back in September/October, Don and I each bought a raffle ticket from the Bismarck Hockey Club.  They have a huge gun giveaway each year.  Each ticket has a 1 in 30 chance of winning (they have a cap of how many tickets they sell.)  We ended up buying 3 tickets.  If you do simple math, that becomes a 1 in 10 chance of winning (or a 9 in 10 chance of losing).
The drawing was last Saturday, and lo and behold, the odds were ever in our favor, as Don won a Tikka T3 25-06 Rifle.  It was one of the top valued guns they gave away.  Not being much for hunters, we opted to take the cash value of the gun, and redeemed it for a cool bow for Eric.

Eric has been in archery through 4H.  They provide bows for the students.  He is getting to the point to improve and develop, he would do best with his own bow.

 We went to the outdoor range in Mandan not too far from our home.  This is newly re-opened, as it closed after the flood several years ago.

 He got  a release-a little awkward to use at first, but he caught on.

 The 2 guys at Scheels that set his bow up for him threw in this cool hat for free!

 He was apparently so excited to try it out that he neglected to close the door on the van

 His bow is a Hoyt Ignite.   We were planning on getting the Misson Craze package on recommendation from the 4H teacher, but Eric liked this one better, and it had all the same specs

This is Jonathan's friend's basketball.  It was resting on the rim.  Jonathan stayed home and shot hoops while we were gone.