Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Matt, always up for wearing a silly costume, won the St. Patrick's Day costume contest for the 7th graders at Wachter Middle School today!  He won 6 cans of Mountain Dew...what a grand prize!  He's such a goof.

Grace had 2 of her class friends come over after school yesterday.  They painted nails, applied make-up, ate pizza and discussed who was whose boyfriend.  Oh boy.

The Sun! The Sun!

There was a strange yellow ball of light in the sky today, I think it may have been the sun!  I don't think the sun has been out for weeks.  Even though it was only in the mid-30's, it felt warmer with the sun out and no wind.  There is still quite a bit of snow in the yard, but all of the concrete was snow-free, so the kids got out this afternoon to ride their bikes and scooters.  I saw two people wearing short sleeved t-shirts and shorts today.  It's like summer up here when it makes it into the 30's :).  First pic I took with my cell phone of the front of the house two days ago....it was raining/snowing and thoroughly disgusting outside.

getting the mail from the boxes across the street.  you can see how much snow we still have!

There is a tax prep place up by the mall that has people dress as either Uncle Sam or the Statue of Liberty and walk up and down the sidewalk waving and beckoning to people to come in to get their taxes done.  Today it was Uncle Sam's turn :).

St. Patrick's Day fun!

Thanks for the St. Patrick's Day box Grandma and Don!  It's so fun getting things in the mail!  Aren't our new monkeys cute?

Here is Ben's "I Have A Dream" wish for this year:

Yipes!

Ugly sweater day

Today was ugly sweater day at Matt's school.  Don't be offended Grandma Cathy, but Matt decided to wear this:

you have to admit, it does look pretty homely on him :)!  You'll be glad to know he was in the Top 10 ugly sweater wearers.

Ben found a sheet and was trying to make a toga out of it...he has been obsessed with Greek gods and myths and stuff.  But he decided to wear it on his head instead.

The Bismarck High School boys made it to the state tournament, which starts tomorrow and is here in town.  Matt's getting a tournament pass so he can go all weekend.  Matt has also decided to go out for track.  Hmmm, he's slow and has a vertical jump of about 1/2"...should be interesting LOL!

One more quick funny from tonight

We all know how Ben has a one-track mind.  Once he gets an idea in his head he will say it over and over and over and over.  Today it was Dairy Queen.  He wanted me to go to DQ after dinner tonight.  I said not tonight, we've already had a pretty big day...maybe one day this week.  After asking about 10 more times, it was finally his bedtime (thank God).  When I went to the kitchen later to let the dogs out, I saw this on the pantry:

Oh ADD, why must you challenge me so?

Our star bell ringer

Ahh, what a relaxing, nice Sunday!  We went to church this morning and Grace got to ring the benediction bell.  Here's the story of ringing the bell:
"The bell you ring is the one that hung in the steeple of the first Methodist Church in Bismarck.  It is more than 130 years old because before it hung above the church it was on a steamboat on the Missouri River.  You will ring it three times-once for god, once for Jesus, and once for the Holy Spirit.  when the congregation starts to sing the last hymn of the service, come to the narthex at the back of the sanctuary and I will meet you there to go to the bell."
She did great!  She was kind of nervous I think....she thought she would have to do it in front of everyone, but actually it was outside of the sanctuary way back in the meeting hall. 

The first pic is Grace ringing the bell with the help of the lady from church.  It was pretty heavy!  You can see the bell better in the second picture.

After church we went to Cracker Barrel to eat (thank you Grandpa Jim for treating us to lunch!), came home and took a nap, went to the library, and now it's Oscar watching time! 

Matt's basketball season comes to an end

Well the B-2 Wachter Wildcats had their last game last week.  They actually ended up pretty good and got to the finals of the season ending tournament.  Matt had a great game, he played like a defensive monster!  He also had a great left-handed lay-up.  The team looked much better at the end of the season, as opposed to the extremely rough start of the season!  I'm always sad when bball season is over, I really enjoy it.  A few pics!