Bonus Post: Big Camera Shots

I dusted off the big camera for the hockey jamboree weekend (first time since the last jamboree, in case anyone besides Mike was wondering). Since we've covered in depth the events of the weekend, I'll just share a handful of my favorite pictures from the weekend. Enjoy!

13 Games in 4 Days: Part 3

Ready to bring this weekend to a close? So was Grandpa!

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.

13 Games in 4 Days: Part 2

Ready for games 6-9? Let's go!

The super fans brought their A game on Saturday! I had sweetened the deal for Bugs by getting her a new Shako quarter zip for the occasion. She accepted my bribe and [mostly] happily headed to the rink first thing Saturday morning with me. She wanted to come to see both D and Q get their names announced before the first games. 

We watched D's first game, caught Q's announcement, and then I left Gpa in charge of Declan while I ran Fiona home. She had play practice all afternoon, so I wanted her to have a few minutes of downtime and a chance to get lunch before practice. She made sure to fist bump Q through the glass before we left - and shoot her dad a dirty look. Just for the fun of it.

Both Q and D's levels have three teams, so the first and fourth games of the jamboree were "mixed teams" games. The coaches had divided the three teams into pretty evenly matched two teams. That meant that the boys and girls were playing on the same teams. And teammates were playing against each other. They were exciting games to watch. And according to Mike, a lot of work to ref. 

I got back in time to catch the end of Q's game. Meanwhile, Declan had been happily hanging out with some buddies. They were working hard on their pictures for the coloring contest and he had eyed up the hockey gear garage sale for just the right jersey. We ended up spending something like $5 for an old school Shako jersey that is so big he'll probably never grow into it. But he loves it and that's what matters. [I did manage to talk him out of the XXL goalie cut option that had a "better number"]

After Q's game, Gpa looked looked at me and said "now what?" I think he incorrectly believed we could leave. I told him that we had 30 minutes to Dec's next game. The look on his face was pretty priceless. It was a combination of shock, exhaustion, and frozen solid Gpa. He obviously had missed that morning's briefing on the day's schedule.

While I helped D get ready for his game, Q was checking out the Chuck-A-Puck situation. One of her teammate's moms bought pucks for all the girls on the team (with their numbers). Mike bought Dec a puck too and asked Q to chuck it for him. Q also got prime line position, which I like to think I helped with since I solved the Great Sock Tape Crisis that had popped up in the girls locker room before their first game. A couple of the girls have very strong opinions about the tape they use on their hockey socks and no one had the right tape in their bags. I snagged some from the boys locker room to avert the crisis. Before Game 2, the coaches showed up with five rolls of sock tape!

Dec's team played the other boy's team and did a great job! Super fun game to watch. After that, I turned Quinn over to Gpa (who finally got to leave the rink ... for a while) so I could rush home. Fiona was there waiting for me - so she could jump in my car to get to play practice on time. Poor Gpa was so confused when I passed him and Quinn as they headed toward our house.

While F was at practice, Quinn and Dec spent their downtime playing street hockey. As one does. Mike and I spent it smoking some pork steaks on the Traeger for dinner.

I picked up Fiona from practice and we ate a quick dinner so we could head back to the rink for Q's second game of the day. Her team was playing the top boy's team - and Q was in net. It was a very one-sided score (not in our favor), but Quinn actually played awesome. She probably had 50+ shots on net and made some really great saves. The girls had been hoping to make it a closer game, so they were a bit disappointed. 

However, both the girls AND the mom's brought their beast mode. We made it fun (eye black for all) and they know that they win and lose as a team. The coaches did a great job reminding them that there were more games to play tomorrow. 

[One of my co-workers saw Q and my eye black photo on instagram and teased me about being a committed hockey mom. I don't know what she is talking about. It seems totally understated ...]

After the game, we hurried home so Q could shower and then I dropped her and Fiona off at Q's friend's Maddy's birthday party/sleepover (which they had scheduled to best meet Q's insane weekend schedule). It was a Harry Potter themed party and they were so excited. It was also their first official sleepover.

Sort of.

At midnight, I got a text that Fiona wanted to come home because the girls would not go to sleep. One of my favorite things about Fiona is that she loves her sleep. And she was not having their shenanigans. So I elbowed Mike and off he went down the road to retrieve her. I was so proud of her to make that choice and own it. Q decided to stay. More on that decision in the next post. 

13 Games in 4 Days: Part 1

Buckle Up! It's Jamboree Weekend. This is not for the faint of heart. Grab your coffee. Numb your butt (seriously, think about sitting in the bleachers for this many games). Apply your eye black. It. Is. Go. Time.

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You know it is power-packed when you need to 1) write out the hour x hour schedule and 2) color code it so you know which child goes where when. Then 3) cross-examine for overlaps in drop off/pick up/shuffle. Finally 4) be thankful Gpa V came because clearly you need another person with a driver's license!

We kicked off The Weekend of Hockey on Thursday night (otherwise known as St. Patrick's Day) by heading to Mike's game. He plays with three other Shako coaches, so representatives from all their families also showed up. We had 9 (out of 10) kids represented and three wives. I was in charge of the tagalong Moon child, which was super easy because A loves Fiona and happily hung out with her. The Ps were there and Dec lived his best life running around with the boys, while Hannah teamed up with Fiona and A and lived hers. Quinn rotated between groups, depending on who looked like they were having more fun!

The big boys won, probably thanks to some of the coaching from the stands. Cooper took advantage and impersonated Brad's "spectator" coaching perfectly. My favorite was when Brad hit the crossbar and Coop yelled "you gotta hit the net." The mite coach contingent couldn't stop laughing when N ran behind their bench and yelled "move your feet." As you can see by the smiles (taken right before C handed out green frosting cookies to all), they had the best time!

Gpa V arrived Friday afternoon, looked at my schedule list, and [probably] contemplated hightailing it back home where it was safe. Instead he joined us for an early pizza dinner and it was off to the rink for the M3 Mite Olympics. This was Dec's level - and they did an hour of various drills and games. It was super fun to watch and sounded like it was a lot of fun (and lots of work for the coaches). My favorites were dodgeball and the relay races. 

Dec is a dream partner for half of the relay race - because he has great balance and weighs nothing. When his partner T was pulling, they handily beat everyone! However, T is much bigger than Dec and when it was D's turn to be the puller, they weren't quite so fast. I'll give the boy credit - he hung in there and was much closer to the front than expected. [Photo tip: D is #12 in the red jersey/black helmet pulling red jersey/white helmet]

After D's game was the event we had been the most excited about. All the girls moving up to 10U next year were playing the coaches. Plus one very special guest. A fair amount of the boys coaches had not signed up to play in the girls game (I have thoughts about this, but will leave it at that), so they were a bit low on grown up players. I played a very winning hand and asked Uncle Brad if he would come play - for Quinn. We all know he can't say no to that. She wasn't sure if he was coming, so when I had her pop her head out in the hallway, the smile was epic!

The game was so much fun to watch. The goalie for the girls was their goalie coach and the coach's goalie was one of the dads. It was hilarious to watch and the girls were just beaming. As you know, Quinn doesn't care for emotion - but she was visibly thrilled to be out on the ice with both Mike and Brad. It was such a special game for these girls - to celebrate the end of their Mite/8U career.

After the game, Quinn hung out with her teammates, Mike played in the boys vs coaches game (as did the majority of the girls coaches. just saying), and I ran home to snag a piece of equipment that Quinn forgot. I missed most of the boys v coaches game, but sounds like it was high energy and a lot of fun.

If you are counting and think I missed a few Vs, you are right. While all that was happening, the bookends were invited to head home with our neighbors to make a very long night slightly less long. Instead of sitting at the rink for over four hours, they got to head home with the Bs for a 2nd dinner floor picnic and movie. Thank goodness for great friends and a village to raise the children.

Meanwhile, I met Gpa and Q back at the rink for the final event of the evening - the M4 Olympics. Basically the same as what Dec's group did, just for the next level up. Quinn was tired from the game, but had a fun time competing with her teammates. I think their favorite event was "longest slide" and I noticed that they all took a couple extra beats to get up. Quick power nap, maybe? [photo clue: red jersey, orange stick]

And with that, we were home around 9:30. We ran the hockey players through a quick shower rinse and hustled them off to bed. Five games down. Eight more to go ...

Dec's Out of Town Jamboree

Dec had been anxiously awaiting his own out of town hockey jamboree and was super excited when the first weekend of March arrived. We were thrilled because it was just a day long jamboree and would not require either the full weekend or a hotel room.

Mike and Dec headed south to Le Sueur around 8am. D was nervous, tired, and not quite onboard with the early departure. We loaded a giant tote of snack bags into Mike's car and he knew that his buddy A's mom was bringing donuts for after the first game ... so he was moderately placated. 

Around 8:45, Fiona and I headed to her play practice and Quinn walked over to a neighbor's house.I had volunteered to help paint sets for Fiona's play while she was in rehearsal, but I needed a landing spot for Q. So she went to a neighbor's and entertained their 5 and 3 year old - and I was thrilled she was supervised. Win win! 

Then a sweet mom on her hockey team picked her up for hockey practice because I was still elbow deep in set paint. It truly takes a village - especially when you are out-numbered and need to get three people to three different activities. 

Set painting was a lot of fun and F was thrilled that I was helping out. My friend Aaron and I ended up on the marbling team - and spent the morning creating marbled pillars. They turned out well and we were quite proud of ourselves! We were also extremely tired. Marbling giant pillars is a lot of work!

While I was painting, my phone buzzed with a text from Mike. It was a picture of Dec, wearing the Hardest Worker hardhat from the first game. Apparently somewhere between the "not into it" of the departure and game time, the boy got into it! He played goalie for the first game and made some good in-game adjustments to keep the score close. Based on the picture, I'm not sure if he was more excited about the honor or the donut (I lie. It was the donut. Clearly). 

After set painting, F's rehearsal, and Q's practice, the girls and I got a few things done at home and then got ready to head south to catch D's final game of the day. We also picked up A's sister, so I had two giggly girls in the back seat (Lo and Fiona) and a happy Q in the front with me. It was a pretty quick 45 minute trip down Hwy 169 and we were ready to cheer on the boys.

In a super fun twist, Dec's team ended up playing the team of one of Mike's high school friends. Eric's son plays and E coaches in Bloomington and we'd been hoping for a match up against them all year - but no such luck (our other M3 team had played them). Until we both ended up at a tournament! Both Eric's wife and I insisted on a post-game father-son photo op!

Since we had three cars between our family and A's family, it was quite the car jockeying by the kids for the drive home. I got Lo and Fiona, the B's got A and Dec, and Mike and Quinn went together. It was terribly rainy weather, but at least it was warm enough to not be ice. Dec was exhausted, but thrilled with a very fun tournament day.

[Fewer details because I wasn't there - but they had several hours between games 2 and 3, so went to a bowling alley in a nearby town. Dec and his teammates lived their best lives in the arcade. Mike's friend Eric and some of his team also showed up, so they got to hang out and catch up too. I was told I didn't want to ask how many additional donuts/treats Dec ate during the day. I followed that advice. Sounds like it was everything an out-of-town hockey day should be!]

Big Games and a Visiting Cheering Squad

The big games continued at the end of Presidents' Day week. Quinn's team had only lost one game so far in the season and the big rematch was coming up on Saturday. Because of this - and Uncle Kyle being out of town, Auntie Tracey and Nate came down to spend the weekend with us. We were so excited to have them, show off our new house, and have some company in the bleachers!

Before Auntie and Nate arrived, however, we had games on Friday night. Mike and Dec headed up to Eden Prairie for Dec's game while I took Quinn to the rink in Shako. Her team was playing Minnetonka, who they had handily beat earlier in the season. Of note: in the prior Tonka game, Quinn was in net. This game, we had a pretty inexperienced goalie playing and Tonka showed up to play. Q's team came out flying, grabbed an early 6-2 lead, and then thought they would coast for the final period. 

Minnetonka took advantage and tied it up about halfway through the third. Having won (by a lot!) most of their games, Q's team was pretty unaccustomed to having to gut it out. Lucky for them, Quinn is a grinder. She never got into coast mode during the game and played like a beast! The best part, Mike and Dec walked into the rink about 20 seconds before she chipped in the winning goal on an awesome shot. Quinn is normally the steady, non-showy player. But in this game, she stood out big time. Super fun to watch! [Dec's team did not win, but he scored a goal, played well, and was happy as a clam!]

On Saturday, Auntie and Nate got to experience the full range of weekend activities. They got to make a trip to our favorite local donut shop, Auntie ran lines with Fiona after morning play practice, and off we went to the rink to catch the end of Dec's practice and snag good seats for the BIG Edina game.

Last time Q's team played Edina, we had one of our best skaters in net (she did fine, but she's one of our best defensive players and is a top scorer) and were missing another one of our best players. So the team was confident with Quinn in net and Ariya and Kate on the ice, they had a good chance to win. And they did ... have a good chance, that is. Win, they did not. It was a very close game (until the end when the defense gave up). The girls were devastated after it and the locker room had a lot of tears. The coaches (the next day) used it as an opportunity to highlight why you have to play to the very end of the game.

In case you are worried about Q after a tough game like that, don't. I asked her how she felt about the loss and she looked me right in the eye and said, "I'm fine. I did my job." Way to call out your defense, Quinn! Auntie Tracey was more worried about one of her two favorite nieces, so she and Nate grabbed a DQ cake on their way to our house. It is the continuation of a tradition they had with Ben when he was a swimmer on the HS team. Whenever he got DQed (or had a really bad race), there was a family DQ cake. We all happily ate the consolation prize!

[Side note: I was really excited to have company, so made my homemade enchiladas - that my whole family loves. Nate doesn't eat enchiladas, so Tracey grabbed him a frozen pizza at the gas station. Because my enchiladas required the oven, Mike popped Nate's pizza on our Traeger grill. And then when it was dinner time, everyone drooled over how delicious that dang pizza looked and my enchiladas felt like the consolation prize. Nate kindly shared a few slices with his cousins and apparently smoked pizza is delicious!

Presidents' Day Top Dog 3v3 Bash

We came back from the hunting shack on Sunday even though the kids had the day off on Monday because Quinn was playing in a 3-on-3 tournament with several of her hockey teammates. The girls were excited because Q had agreed to play between the pipes, so they knew they had a stonewall behind them. 3v3 games are usually played on half ice, and typically have a lot of scoring chances because of the compressed area.

The girls played four games and handily won all four. Although to be fair, they won game 2 handily because their goalie showed up when the rest of them got a little too confident and forgot to play hard. They didn't make that mistake again when they played that same team in the championship game. It was a blow out! [Game scores... #1: 17-2, #2: 8-5, #3: 13-5, #4: 14-2]

They played two games (back-to-back) in the morning and then the whole crew ... players, parents, and siblings ... headed to a local restaurant where we took up several tables and booths to fit our very large group (we had reservations!). The team piled into one booth (all nine of them!) and then the eight siblings split between two other booths. The little sisters loooooooove Fiona, so they were very excited to hang out with her. One of the little sisters and Dec have the cutest little crushes on each other, so he spent most of lunch with a very red face and a goofy grin. 

I let F and D off the hook for the two afternoon games and we dropped them off at home to chill. Then Mike and I headed back to the rink. Quinn played really well all day, but my favorite save was in the championship game. Quinn is a very precise goalie. She has amazing form and is in the right position most of the time. Therefore, she looks unimpressive as a goalie because she makes it seem easy. 

However, there was one rebound that took a crazy bounce and she dove across the crease and knocked it out of the air. It was beautiful and dramatic and not the saves she normally makes (because she doesn't have to). Mike told her "great desperation save!" I may have had my fingers over my eyes!

The girls were super proud and had a great time. And it was fun for Q to play goalie for an entire tournament. For the record, she had the lowest goals allowed total in the tournament - boys or girls. 

Saber Flag Bearer

On February 12, Declan had the honor of being the flag bearer at the second to last boys high school game. We've known for months, so marked it on the calendar and didn't think much about it. Then as it got closer, he started to get nervous. Thankfully, it was an afternoon game so his nerves didn't have to build all day long. It was also Mite Appreciation Day ... so the stands were full with lots of his teammates. Not sure if that helped or hurt the nerves!

When they handed Dec the flag, we saw the disadvantage of being on the shorter side of life. The "pole" (hockey stick) was aggressively tall. He was definitely practicing his maneuvering ahead of time. Dec also enjoyed meeting the HS coach and fist-bumping the team as they came off the ice from pre-game warmups.

When it was time to do his thing, there was a bit of a situation getting that giant flag out the door. He accidentally got it hooked on the boards and when someone tried to help, it threw him off balance. Let's just say that his entrance was a bit awkward [see video] - but he laughed it off and did an awesome job once the flag joined him on the ice!

He got to fist bump the team one more time, but chose not to stay out on the ice with the team for the national anthem. That was a lot of center of attention time for the little dude!

We stayed through the first period and hung out with some of the kids' teammates. Then Q and D participated in the Mite recognition between periods. They proudly wore their jerseys and waved to the crowd. Then we needed to head out because Q was subbing in for a game with the boys team in New Prague and Auntie was on her way to our house!

A Tournament, A Sleepover, and A Quest

In case you are wondering what happened to the blog, your girl over here thought it was a good idea to volunteer to do the school yearbook. In a not surprising turn of events, it has been a lot of work ... and overtook the allotted blog time. I'm currently loudly stating to members of the V household that I'm not doing the yearbook next year ... exactly zero people are buying it. So be prepared for a similar blog backlog in about a year from now.

Anyhoo ... back to the first weekend in February when we had Quinn's first out-of-town hockey tournament, Fiona's first sleepover, and Declan and I took an epic quest. It truly marked the end of our routinely busy, but mostly uneventful January. February started off like a lion, ended like a lion, and roared in the middle. Buckle up - here we go!

Saturday morning, Mike and Quinn headed to New Ulm for their Mite Jamboree. Her team had pulled a later game that afternoon, but the 8am game Sunday morning. Because of the distance, that meant hotel stay for the whole team. She was so excited (Auntie claims much of the pre-departure discussion was around car snacks). She was less excited that she had to run upstairs to repack her bag bag three times. Seems we needed her to bring more than swimsuits and pajamas.

Her team did not run into strong competition in the girls bracket and ended up outscoring their opponents somewhere around 100-3 in the three games. Q played goal in the first game and was deeply offended by half ice, small nets, and only a handful of shoots. She played out for the rest of tournament, scored a couple times, and had a lot of fun. She also loved her time with dad, all the pool adventures with her team, and the independence they all got. I do think she missed me though - because she climbed into my lap as soon as they got home (almost dinner time on Sunday - because they had the first and last games of the day) and was ready to fight any sibling who wanted my attention. 

Meanwhile, after I picked Fiona up from play practice and fed her lunch, it was time to drop her off at her friend J's birthday party. She was beyond excited! They were heading to the Mall of America to go mini-golfing. She tells me there was also a stop at the Shake Shack, which may be one of her new favorite places. Then they went back to J's house for girl time, dinner, and a movie. They watched Legally Blonde and F's mind.was.blown. She loved it so much - and I was pleased with her very good taste in both friends and movies. 

It was a sleepover party, but due to a few things we had going on, Fiona and I decided together that she wouldn't spend the night. However, I didn't come pick her up until 10pm and she felt very old to get to stay out and up that late. [Truth: both she and Quinn were tired Sunday night!] Best of all, I let her take my old phone* with her and she was able to take some pictures of her and her friends, which made her day even better!

While the girls were doing their things, Dec and I were enjoying a Mommy/Decky day. We had decided to go on a hunt for a dragon squishmallow (the softest stuffed animals ever!). We ended up having to drive to Eden Prairie, which officially made it a quest in our minds. We also were shocked by the massive size of the acquired squishmallow - we clearly did not look at the dimensions. But D was delighted, which made my day too!

We finished our evening with a movie (Diary of a Wimpy Kid), Chinese take-out, way too many gummy snakes, and watching Olympic snowboarding. D wasn't too sure about going to bed before Bugs got home, but he was tired enough to not fight it too much. 

It was the first of probably many weekends of divide and conquer kid activities in completely different locations. It was strange to be separated and we were very excited to sit down for dinner together Sunday night and share stories from the weekend. Everyone's favorite part - the dismay at the size of D's squishmallow!

*Remember three years ago when I drowned my phone on Spring Break? Apparently iPhones dry out in that amount of time. We recently found it in a box (yes, still unpacking!) and Mike and Quinn decided to see if they could get it to work. I told them in no uncertain terms that it was dead and about 36 hours later, they proudly showed me that I was completely wrong. Everything was still on it - so crazy! Mike reset the phone, attached it to his email, and voila! - a phone that can be used on WiFi to text me. Very limited capabilities, but it has served its purpose quite well when we are going all the directions! 

Hardest Worker

All of the time on the backyard rink in January paid off for Declan during a Sunday game late in the month. The pieces came together and he played an amazing game. His passes were on point, his positioning was great, and he skated really hard (which isn't always the case). 

On top of all that, Dec had a beautiful assist. D got the puck and broke down the ice. He deked the defense and then dropped a pass backwards to his buddy Andrew, who took the shot and scored. Thankfully A's dad caught it on video! Mike credits that play 100% to the hours the boys spend out on our rink just playing around. Dec knew right where Andrew would be and they scored because of it.

On top of just playing a really good game, Declan was also awarded the team hard hat for being the hardest worker of the game. When the boys earn the hard hat, they get to add their name and number to it and bring it home until the next game. From the moment I told Dec about the hard hat at the beginning of the season, he has been focused on getting that it. He.Was.So.Proud. The hard hat 100% made an appearance Monday morning during virtual school! 

Feeling Very North Pole

We were still in quarantine when our annual Legion breakfast with Santa happened. All three kids were surprisingly disappointed to miss it. So I promised I would find another Santa visit opportunity for them. Based on the weekend schedule (and the weather), Sunday afternoon was our best option. I was delighted to find outdoor Santa photos at a local restaurant on Prior Lake. 

As luck would have it, Mike had an early game of his own Sunday night that the kids and I could actually go to! So we decided to eat a combo late lunch/early dinner at the restaurant after seeing Santa. It was the first time the five of us have eaten out together in almost two years. When we got the bill, we remembered how expensive it is to feed five people at a nice restaurant. Might be another two years before we go out again ... [ha!]

Mike asked me while we drove to the restaurant what my Plan B was if the line was really long for Santa. I told him there was no Plan B, so to think good thoughts. While the restaurant parking lot was quite full (it's also a very small parking lot), there was virtually no line. I think we waited for maybe three minutes. The kids were so excited that both Santa and Mrs. Claus were there! They climbed into the sleigh, told Santa what they wanted, and smiled for a picture. Easy peasy.

Then we headed in to eat and the children remembered that nice restaurants are hard because you have to wait a looooooooong time for your food. To pass the time, Fiona made up a game. It's essentially Rock, Paper, Scissors - but instead was Santa, Elves, Reindeer. So funny! Then after we were done eating, we ordered dessert. The kids have been asking about cheesecake lately, so we got a slice of caramel apple cheesecake to share. Needless to say, they loved it. They also expressed extreme doubt when I told them I knew how to make cheesecake. Mike's birthday cake the following week may or may not have been a homemade cheesecake! [Well played, children]

After a short break, we piled in the car to head to Mike's game. Unfortunately Uncle Brad wasn't able to make the game (and Q was not happy). But she got to watch Coach Mike (not her dad), Coach Mike (her dad), and Coach Nathan (another Shako coach) play. Coach Nathan's family came too. His oldest son plays at the same level as Q and his younger son is at the same level as Dec. The five kids had a great time running around the rink and cheering for their dads. Mike's team even handily won, which made the trip even better.. Always so much fun to go watch our favorite grown up hockey player. 

That Girl Goalie Is Your Kid?!?!?!

I mentioned in the last post that Quinn unexpectedly was tapped to play goalie while Mike was hunting. The three M4 (advanced mites) teams were being divided into two teams (two boys teams and one girls team) for a full ice scrimmage. As Q and I waltzed in three minutes before the game, one of her coaches stopped her in the hall and asked if she wanted to play goalie. She immediately said yes and I silently berated myself for not throwing her goalie gear in the car ... because I had a sneaky suspicion things would play out like they did. 

She was able to use the association goalie gear and Coach helped her put on the pads (I have no idea how to do it!). I only got to watch a little bit of her game because I needed to run home to get Declan for his practice. I made him get ready in the arena so I could watch the end of the game, which was a shootout. From what I hear from others who watched the whole game, Quinn played very well. Then she found her groove in the shootout and stopped 20 straight shots. It was impressive! D and I were sitting next to several of the dads from the boys team and they kept talking about how the boys' shooting was off that day. It was all I could do to keep "or is my girl goalie just that good?" inside my head!

Quinn's team played a half ice scrimmage against Eden Prairie the next week and it was, as Mike described, "not a fair fight." Because it was half ice, they used the smaller nets. And the poor EP girls didn't have a chance to get that puck past Q. Bugs, Dec, and I went to the game and it was extremely one-sided. One of Q's teammates said in the locker room after the game, "I think we won like 30-6" and Q piped up "I did not let in six goals." She let in three. And two of them she would really like back!

That night, Mike was riding to his hockey game with Brad and another Shako coach on his team. Brad was asking how Q's game went. As Mike talked about her solid performance between the pipes, the other coach said, "Wait?!?!? That girl goalie is your kid?!?!" Apparently while the dads in the stands couldn't figure out why their boys couldn't score, the boy team coaches were very clear at the talent level of the goalie! Word is out and Q even got asked to tend goal for a tournament that the boys team is playing in January. We passed, but it is a nice compliment to her skills.

Then right before Thanksgiving (as we locked ourselves in covid isolation), the Spotlight Players from the first month of the season were announced. Players are nominated by the coaches for showing great effort, great sportsmanship, and having a positive attitude. Quinn was the M4 player of the month! Her nomination read: Quinn is always willing to volunteer for goalie. She is a great listener and has put in extra effort at improving her goalie skills. I know many of her teammates appreciate her taking the majority of the goalie slots.

Even more than being a reliable goalie, Quinn is a quiet leader on her team (I keep telling Mike she's the Joe Mauer of the team). She leads by playing her hardest every shift and bringing an understated confidence and emotional stability to the game. Mike says as a coach, it's really fun to see how the other girls look up to Quinn and how she is settling into her role as a leader. 

It was a long few days for Quinn when she couldn't be on the ice. Thankfully, she and Mike were out of quarantine the day after Thanksgiving and she celebrated by playing in a Turkey Cup jamboree. Her team went 3-0 and by all accounts, destroyed the competition. She tended the pipes for one game and played out for two. While Q enjoys playing goalie, she also enjoys playing out and is happy to not have to commit to a position quite yet. We just love watching her play because her joy is visible. 

Fiona's Jamboree

Fiona was surprised when I told her that I was writing a post about her jamboree experience as well. "But I didn't play." As Fiona and I can attest (and Auntie Tracey would back us up), being spectators is a lot of work too.* Thus, Fiona also gets credit (and a blog post) about her contributions as Super Fan to the jamboree weekend.

F was up bright and early Saturday morning so that we could get to the rink on time. Then there was a bit of a kerfuffle about what time we needed to be there and Coach Mike may have randomly yelled at everyone that we were "already ten minutes late." [we weren't] The girls and I got to the rink in time to watch Dec warm up and his game start. 

Anxious Quinn couldn't take it anymore, so we brought her to her locker room to get ready for her game. Fiona has decided that girl hockey players are crazy! Then off we ran to watch Q's announcements and the start of her game - before we hopped back to the other rink to catch the end of D's game. Fiona and I were basically hockey fan yo-yos. 

Fiona was thrilled when Q's game was over and we could leave. I had told her multiple times that she was required to come to one game for each of her siblings - but after that, she could choose to hang out at home. She's proven herself trustworthy enough for that privilege. Yet, after lunch, she chose to come back to the rink for Game 3 because she didn't want to miss Dec's name being announcement. She and Quinn were the sweetest little fans as he made his big entrance. Then my partners disappeared to the lobby to color while I watched the game.

We had promised the kids a trip to the concession stand between games 3 and 4 - so of course, it was closed. That, combined with forgetting some art supply that she needed, meant that one Tired Big Sister and one Tired Little Brother were not into Game 4. So I brought them home and they were much happier [remote] fans. Then as a special treat for the Super Fan, I made homemade mac and cheese for dinner.

Sunday morning, she was back at the rink because she wanted to watch her sister play goalie and see the trophy/medal ceremony. While Fiona was hoping Dec would hang out in the lobby with her, he actually preferred watching the game with me. Eventually she joined as well and was super helpful in taking videos of the goalie pile and medal ceremony so I could take pictures. Quinn was a more reliable partner-in-crime when she again chose to come back for Game 6 - although neither of them were anywhere to be found when I needed video assistants at the end of D's game!

To reward all hockey players, Super Fans, and coaches, we went to HyVee after the game and splurged on cupcakes from their bakery. Everyone got to pick (and eat) their own (mini) cupcake. Anyone who has watched me buy one cupcake and split it three ways knows that This is a Big Deal. Fiona may have even admitted that while it was a long couple days, jamboree weekend was also pretty fun.

*By 4pm Saturday, I already had over 10,000 steps on my Fitbit - and I had not worked out yet. That was simply from running around the rink!