Winning Some Hardware

 These 7th Grade girls have had a great club basketball season.  So far they have placed in every tournament except one.  And the one tournament that they didn't medal in was a tournament that they had to play up in the 8th Grade Division.  This last weekend they won their own NC tournament.

 They encountered a tough team from Homer in the first game.  It was a very, very physical hard fought game.

 Then they won games against Wayne, Pierce and Neligh.

 Erica doesn't always get to play, but when she does she has to make the most out of her minutes on the floor.  She did put up two shots and one shot did go in for her two points.  Basketball is not her favorite sport or maybe her best sport, but she practices and puts forth the effort.

 The victory huddle after a long day in the gym.

 At the NC Tournament, if you place 1st, the team gets championship t-shirts and medals.

Erica has one more tournament left in a few weeks before the basketball season is over.  It was a long weekend in the gym.  We sat through basketball games, wrestling and volleyball.  Needless to say, I am way behind on laundry, errands, etc.

Take care,
Michelle

5th Grade Basketball

 This group of 5th Grade girls had a tough club ball  season.  Some girls are have played the game for a few years and some are touching the ball for the first time.  The coaches do a good job of getting each girl playing time in every game.

 The girls played in four tournaments this season - Stanton, Pierce, YMCA and Norfolk Catholic. 

 Finally, during the last tournament, the girls came up with a win.  After the game, the girls were jumping up and down and hugging.  They were so excited to get a win!!!

 Ashlin played mostly as a guard this year.  She is not afraid to shoot and has pretty good ball control. 

The season may be over, but with the weather turning warmer this week, she has been outside in the driveway shooting hoops and dribbling with Erica and Justin.

Take care,
Michelle

5th Grade Inventor Project

The 5th Graders for a science project had to pick an item, find out who invented the item, research the inventor,  write a paper, and then give a presentation to the class, parents, and other students at school.  They hosted an open house one afternoon for the parents and other students to attend.

The 5th Grade students were paired up for the project.  Ashlin's partner was Channatee and they chose to research contact lenses.  Adolf Fick was the inventor of contact lenses.  They found all sorts of research and even had to cut some out of their research paper.  The girls did an excellent job when presenting it to the public.  One person had to dress up like the inventor and that was Channatee.

This tri-fold display gave me fits because the girls kept spelling the word contact wrong (3 times in fact) and I refused to go buy another board.  I kept telling Ashlin that the display board needed to be clean and professional looking.  A definite learning experience on display boards and presentations. 

Take care,
Michelle

Valentines at School

 Ashlin informed me two nights before her Valentine party at school that she needed to decorate a valentine box because her class was having a party.  Thanks to Pinterest, we came up with this Olaf valentine box made out of a Kleenex box.

 Saylor won 1st place with her hot air balloon.

 Zuleica won 2nd place with her Minion.

 And Gavin won 3rd place with his Army tank.

I briefly stopped by Justin's party to snap a quick photo.  The kids have so much fun passing out their valentines, eating snacks, and playing games.

Take care,
Michelle

Celebrating a Golden Birthday

Erica celebrated her Golden Birthday!  She turned 13 on the 13th!  Yes, we have another teenager in the house.

 Erica spent the day with her teammates playing in the YMCA's basketball tournament.  She provided breakfast snacks for the team after the first game of cutie oranges, granola bars and powerades.

 A photo of the three neighbor girls watching from the bench.

 After playing two games, it was lunch time and part of the team decided that a birthday luncheon at Valentino's was in order.

The girls ended the day playing in the championship game against Crofton.  They took home second place medals.  Erica did have cupcakes to share, but Justin dropped the whole container spilling 21 cupcakes all over the bleachers.  Not a happy moment!

Later that evening she had a friend come over and spend the night.  She picked an Oreo ice cream cake for her birthday.

I can't believe how fast Erica is growing up (not only in height, but also in years).

Take care,
Michelle

Youth Bronco Wrestling Tournament

Sunday morning we were up before the sun to make weigh-in at the Youth Bronco Wrestling Tournament in Stanton.  Justin had to be weighed in by 8:30 and start wrestling at 9:30.

 Justin weighed in light again at 52.1 lbs.  First up, was a wrestler from Bloomfield.  Justin handled him in a 6-0 decision. 

 Next up was a wrestler from Elkhorn Valley.  At the start of the match, they hit heads during a takedown which resulted in tears and made Justin mad.  Then he really went after this wrestler, but Justin lost in a 6-8 decision.

 Last up was a wrestler from Pender.  This was another close and hard fought match with Justin winning 7-4.  Justin didn't realize until the ref raised his arm that he had won the match.

 Justin's bracket ended with a three-way tie for 1st because Justin had beat the kid from Pender, the kid from Pender beat the wrestler from Elkhorn Valley and the kid from Elkhorn Valley beat Justin and all three had defeated the wrestler from Bloomfield.  Therefore, they had to look at pins - and no one had a pin.  Then they moved on to number of takedowns - Pender wrestler-7, Justin-6 and Elkhorn Valley wrestler-4.  Therefore 1st went to Pender, 2nd to Justin and 3rd to Elkhorn Valley.

Justin had a very emotional day on the mat.  He had tears when he won and when he lost.  He didn't sleep well the night before because of nightmares, his stomach was upset, he gets himself worked up when he watches the other kids in his bracket wrestle, etc.  Justin and Dad had to take a walk outside before his last match to calm him down and to re-focus.  Justin's coaches do a great job with directions during the match, learning after a match, pep talks before a match, etc.  Justin looks up to Coach Classen, Coach Daniel, Coach Fisher and Coach Konicek.  They do a great job with these young wrestlers!

Take care,
Michelle

Grandparent's Day

Last week was Catholic Schools Week at school.  Many of the planned activities had to be cancelled or postponed due to the "Kayla Blizzard" that hit the Midwest.  Grandparents Day was supposed to be held on Tuesday, but it got moved to Friday.  I helped in the kitchen at school for a day and a half making sack lunches to feed everyone.  We made a total of 832 sack lunches and had only 40 sandwiches left.  The grandparents ate lunch with their grandchildren, joined in a sing-a-long and then went to an all school Mass to end the day.  Somewhere in that crowd of people are Justin and Ashlin with Grandpa and Grandma Leader and Grandpa and Grandma Korth!!!  It was a GREAT turnout! 

Take care,
Michelle Leader

Fat Tuesday

The Jr/Sr High Students were all called into the gym today at 3:00 thinking they were "in trouble" only to receive a "Fat Tuesday" surprise of candy and root beer floats!

 

Cara and Erica both thought that the students were in trouble for something today when all the students got called to they gym. 

What a great surprise for the students!!!

Take care,
Michelle

January Bake Sales

Justin decided to join K-Kids this year at school.  K-Kids is the grade school level of Kiwanis on the adult level.  It is a service organization.

Justin's poster for the bake sale on the front door at school.

Every Friday during the month of January, K-Kids has a bake sale to raise money.  The money raised helps pay for the schooling for a little girl in Africa.  They have supported the education of this little girl for the last three years.

Every week Justin would have to take baked items to sell for 50 cents after school.  He took chocolate chip cookie bars and brownies.  The first week he got mad at me because the whole pan of bars went to the bake sale and none for him to eat at home.

Every week there was a mob of kids trying to get an item (pop, juice box, cookies, donuts, bars, puppy chow, chex mix, candy, etc).  After bake sales for four weeks, the group made a total of $669 to send to Africa.  These little sales are a huge success!

Take care,
Michelle

Winside Wrestling

Last Sunday was little wrestlers competing in Winside.  The NC Takedown Club competed as individuals, but also as a team.  They brought home the 2nd place trophy as a team.  The trophy was placed up in the wrestling room at school.

 

 Justin helped the team earn points by pinning opponent #1.  Justin weighed in two pounds less at this tournament than the last tournament.  This probably helped him bracket-wise.

 More points were earned with pin #2 on his next opponent.

 Then came opponent #3, Trevor.  Justin and Trevor were on the same baseball team last summer and they know each other from the playroom at the YMCA also.  The photo up above is what the coaches tell the kids not to do, "If you are down, don't put your head down.  Keep your head up because then it's harder to do a half (flip-over)."

 Both of these kids were looking for their coaches to find out what to do next.

 Almost a pin up above, but time ran out.

 Justin could not get Trevor pinned.  He came close so many times, but Trevor would wiggle out of it and fight a little harder.  Justin kept looking at Coach Kevin for what to do next.

 All smiles today when they presented him with his 1st place trophy.  Then the parents talked the four in the bracket into a group photo.

Take care,
Michelle