Michael Staying Busy

Here's Michael and his team taking it easy between games. The Colfax 5th graders had a basketball tournament in River Falls this weekend.

Jon was home, so he was able to take Michael to the games while Emma and I stayed home with Leila. This year the tournaments start at nine in the morning and end at six... WAY too long to expect Leila to behave. She is so active right now. Really keeps me running (were the other kids as challenging?!).

Colfax almost didn't have a fifth grade team this year. Only five fifth grade boys signed up for basketball. They were able to put a team together, though, by recruiting a 4th grader and a couple of 6th graders.

The good part is that each individual boy gets a lot of game time. Michael's getting a healthy work out and learning some new skills. It's nice to watch his confidence grow.

Michael had an academic challenge earlier this week.

He'd asked me to sign him up for a knowledge contest in Menomonie, where kids from surrounding schools competed in math and spelling.

Michael did very well in the contest. He placed 1st in math and 2nd in spelling. So later this month I'll take him to the next round of testing in Plover, WI.

Sunday afternoon we visited Jon's parents in Cornell. Grandma Jane gave Leila this wonderful
(big!) Raggedy Ann doll that she made.

The kids are so lucky to have two sets of grandparents to enjoy them and give them so many wonderful handcrafted presents. Very lucky kids.

Since it's almost Valentine's Day, I'll close with a picture of our little sweetheart... Coco.

XOXOXOXOXOXO (woof)