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 ...

Skip Day

The last few weeks of Quinn and Dec's mite seasons were crazy busy. One might even say too busy. Most of the upper levels were done for the season, so there was plenty of ice time available. Which meant 4-5 nights of practice each week. The players, the coach, and the support crew of the house were feeling the pressure.

Mike and I woke up on the Sunday (the 13th) and both said that we just wished there wasn't practice that day. It was supposed to be really nice out and we were all craving a family day. I got up, headed to the bathroom to get ready, and by the time I got downstairs, Mike had marked everyone out of practice for the day and declared we were doing something together. 

After a very low key morning [thank you, daylight savings time] and a scrapped bike ride because Mike's front bike tire was popped, we decided to hike down to Spring Lake. Ironically this was the same trail that the kids and I hiked on the last Daylight Savings day when Mike was up north hunting. 

This time, the trail was very wet from all the melting snow. Some nameless 7yo boy in our group made poor choices about stomping in the puddles with his tennis shoes. Some nameless 9yo girl saved the day by pulling out extra socks for everyone from her pockets - because she had planned ahead! I feel like my parenting is basically done at this point.

The lake was really fun because although the snow was melting and the weather was beautiful, there was still a ton of ice. So out we went to run around on it. There was lots of rock skipping and ice sliding - and best of all, lots of giggles. It was the perfect end of winter/early spring day where it was chilly, but not freezing. The sun was warm. The air was crisp. And there were plenty of puddles to jump over ... or in ...

It wasn't anything fancy, but saying "no" to the schedule and spending the day together was exactly what we all needed!