Mike, Grandpa, and Declan headed off the rink bright and early for Dec's game against the M3 girls team. Little dude was pretty excited. There is, perhaps, a feisty little redhead on the girls team whose name makes Dec's face turn red every single time we say it. We definitely don't use that knowledge for evil. Probably. Ish.
While they pointed the car toward the rink, I pointed mine toward Maddy's house to pick up Quinn from the "sleep"over. She told me that they fell asleep sometime after 2am. I was there to pick her up at 8:30. Oooof.
I got her home, had her splash some cold water on her face, checked on Fiona (still sleeping!), and we headed to the rink to catch the end of Dec's game. I found myself cheering for Dec - and the girls' team. Mike said that he accidentally did the same. Even though he was on the boys bench as their coach. Oops. Dec's team won and, as you can see, he had a pretty fun time!
Meanwhile, Q was trying to pump herself up for the game against the other boys' team. There is no way to sugar coat it. Her team should have won. Easily. They didn't. It wasn't terribly close. I think the lopsided loss from the night before was still in the girls heads - and their goalie was severely sleep deprived and not on her game! Q didn't play badly - just definitely not as well as she normally would.
[The real question is ... are her eyes slits because she's got her game face on? or because that's how wide she can open them after no sleep?]
Win or lose, these girls are great teammates to each other! They shook off the morning loss much better than the night before (perhaps it was needed to kick them back into gear ...) and were ready to finish the season strong!
Mike and I (and many of the other parents on the team) have said that we wish/hope we can keep these girls together for their entire youth career. They are the real deal for talent - but better than that, they are the real deal as teammates and friends. Plus holy smokes, they are a bunch of characters!
Hockey moms can get a bit of a reputation for being intense. But if I have to be part of a group of hockey moms, Q's team moms are my people. They are fun, they are funny, they are fierce for their girls, and they are family. I think the moms were as sad as the girls that the season was ending!
After the morning games, Gpa decide that his butt had had enough of bleacher seats and that 10 games was his limit. The kids were all so glad that he game to watch - and I was incredibly thankful for company in the stands. When I'm shuffling people around and making sure the next player is in the locker room getting ready, I feel like I miss a lot of the game. It was great to know that the kids had a fan in the stands, even when I wasn't there!
We had a couple hours break before the final two games of the season. Fiona begrudgingly agreed to attend the season finales. Until then, we had a pretty low key break so a couple of girls could rest. While they were crabby, I feel like the long game fell in my favor. Neither is terribly interested in having or attending a sleepover anytime soon!
Then late afternoon, we loaded up for one more batch of games. First up was Declan with this last mixed teams game. It was a really close game and his team won. Super fun to watch! After the game, all the boys got their trophies. Poor Dec. Mike was the one handing out the trophies, so he held D's super high and made him jump for it. Mike said D was laughing the whole time.
Dec is working hard to up his game over the summer, so he can make the M4 team next season. He has a great shot at it, but we know he'll have fun wherever he plays.
Right after Dec's game was Q's last game as a Mite. She's moving up next season to the 10U team (equivalent to a Squirt) and is more than ready for it. It was a mixed teams game for Q too, and she played out as a skater. She was on a team with her friend Nolan (who plays for one of the boys team) and they made a dominant pair. She set him up for several goals and they clearly had so much fun playing together - even though neither of them would admit it after the game. Nor would they pose for a picture together. Ha!
That's a wrap on hockey season ... for about 48 hours when off-season hockey started.
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