Hockey is OVER!

The sticks are put away, stinky gear still needs airing out and early morning weekends are long gone...hockey is done for the season.Henry's team won in the Mite Division final - Henry even scored one of the goals! (he deflected it off his stick into the net....not intentionally - but it counts...) Henry's team lined up for the national anthem and skater introductions.
After they won - each player carried a replica Stanley Cup trophy around the ice.

Pizza and trophies followed...Dana caught this of Henry admiring his new hardware on the way home.

Jack's team was also in the finals, and it was the most exciting game of the season, all the kids played the best they could but they lost in sudden death overtime, 4-3. Jack was really disappointed, but he played great and second place isn't such a bad place to be.

Both boys had a great season...now we as parents shall rest.....

Been A While

Not for lack of stuff going on.
Hannah's birthday party was the weekend after the boys' party but with a similar flavour, games, pizza, cake, pinata, open presents...but with a craft thrown in too! She had a great time at her "Pet Party" and now we can put birthday parties to rest for one more year! I got to teach the photography badge to Hannah's Girl Guides group. It was a lot of fun, but I really don't know how teachers get any teaching in. I had half an hour for each of 3 groups which seemed like plenty of time, but after answering questions and listening to stories the girls told me about their hamster pictures, photos of Disney World, pictures they've seen at school, types of cameras they have, what their friends' names are, "I have a new puppy", "can I take pictures of trees?", "I once took a picture of a flower", "I'm going away for March Break", "I have magazines with pictures of tv stars", ...there wasn't much time to actually teach much.

March Break was pretty great! This is the up-beat, optimistic me saying that. The van died and is going to cost so much to fix that we decided we need a new one. Jack woke up Wednesday morning throwing up...the day his cousins from Windsor were supposed to visit. Henry broke a window. We were home without transportation all week. But honestly, it went really well. I think it was a good thing we were carless...it meant we didn't spend any money and the kids played with friends and went on walks with Murphy and we spent a lot of time at the park.

Monday my friends from high school, Karen and Nicola came to visit with their kiddies. It was really nice spending time with them and we vowed to do it more often.

Wednesday was the cousin visit and they bravely came anyway! Tara, Eva & Owen came for lunch and a play before heading back to Windsor. Tara & I had a really nice visit while the kids played but unfortunately, I don't seem to have any photos.

The rest of the week was visits to the park, board games, friends, good times. The kids are getting older and really got along well with each other.

This past weekend, Henry had his first turn as goalie in his hockey game...I've never seen him so excited to play! Nan & Grampa came to watch...it was an exciting game with Henry's team winning 12-9! One more week of hockey and then our weekends are a little more open...just in time for wedding season!

Our weekend in a nutshell:

Henry & Hannah were both in skating Olympics through their skating lessons Friday night. They compete against 2 other kids in their skating level performing a few tricks that they learned through the year. Each kid is then awarded a bronze, silver or gold medal. Henry was adament that he did NOT want a bronze medal...I don't know why he was so revved up about it, but I'm glad he ended up with a silver, he might have given it back otherwise! Hannah proudly won a gold in her group doing some fancy backward skating with one foot up in the air and some spins too!

Some of her friends were there competing too making it even more fun!

Of course we played with Murphy all weekend too!

Henry's actually getting quite used to her (he was afraid of dogs & we're hoping Murphy will help cure him!)

Then Saturday was boys' birthday parties...Henry's over lunch with some fun games, pizza, cake, presents and a pinata!

Then Jack's party over dinner with games, pizza, cake, presents & a pinata!

Then Sunday was back to normal...Henry had a hockey game at the same time as Jack had a practice then a game at a different arena. One of the Dads on Henry's team took photos. I thought this was a cute one! Henry's team won 11-6 and Henry scored one of the goals!!

Next weekend marks the end of birthday week with Hannah's party and the start of March Break!! Should be fun!

Murphy

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Double digits! Happy Birthday my purple-loving, animal-friendly, happy-go-lucky, kind-hearted, smart, dreamer. We love you!

Happy Birthday Boys!!

Happy Birthday Jack and Henry!! Can't believe you are 8 and 5!!

No time for new photos...

clean up poop, take dog out, throw ball, bring dog in, clean up pee, take dog out, vet appointment, play with dog, clean up poop.
you get the picture.