The New Rink 2016 and Aiden turns SIX

Finn is dressed and ready to skate!  He loves to put his skates on by himself, but he hasn't quite learned that you can't walk on the cement floor with your skates unless you have the guards on.  Eeek....not good.

Liam (on left) and Aiden (in net)

First time on the ice...New Years Day 2016.  Liam and Luke have their new Pengins jerseys and Aiden has his new Minnesota jersey.

Night skating

Grandpa Morse got Luke, Liam, and Aiden a very special birthday gift (see below)


A year ago when we started to contemplate the possibility of moving to a larger home, we mentioned this idea to the boys and their first comment was, "will we still have an ice rink?"  We told them we couldn't promise a rink, but we would try.  When we looked at houses, we would often drive by to see the backyard before we even made an appointment to go inside.  If the yard was nonexistent or sloped, we scratched the house off the list.

When we moved into the new house in August, a rink in the backyard seemed like an impossible task.  The house had a small fire pit in the backyard with an area covered in way more rocks than necessary.  Around the fire pit were three medium sized trees and a few bushes.  We hired a graduate student to help John manually move all of the rock to the side of the house where we made somewhat of a rock bed that runs along the side of the house.  The next step was to remove at least one of the trees so we found a good friend from our previous neighborhood that was willing to assist in the tree removal.

After the area was cleared and roped off for a rink, the major task remaining was to level the yard.  The majority of the yard is flat, but there is a gradual slope.  We brought in a very large pile of dirt that John and the graduate student hauled to the backyard to level the yard.

By the time the yard was level, it was nearly winter.  We generally have our rink assembled with the boards in place and ready to fill with water by Thanksgiving.  We would have barely made the deadline this year if it were not for the fact that we had an unusually long and warm fall so we were given a few extra weeks to prepare.  

We opted to order a kit to assist in building the rink.  This would provide us with the braces necessary to hold the boards in place.  John had to rent a UHAUL truck to purchase and deliver all of the wood that we used to build the rink.  After the rink was assembled, we waited for the weather to get cold enough so that we could fill the rink and allow it to freeze.  We had several setbacks in this process including a brace that failed, animals that ate through the plastic tarp to hold the water, and finally weather that was far warmer than average and not suitable for an ice rink.  

All of this information to say....A LOT of work went into the rink.  I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the rink,  but watching how much the boys love to skate on it helps me appreciate the rink a little more.  I am particularly appreciative of the time, energy, and determination that John put into the rink.  It has been a second (or third) job for him.

Over the Christmas break, the time finally came to fill the rink and pray that it would hold water.  On New Years Day, the rink was finally frozen enough for the boys to skate.  We skated day and night over the last few days of Christmas break and they loved it.  

In other news, Aiden celebrated his 6th birthday on January 2.  We opted to have one big party for all three boys again this year.  We have done this a few times in the past and it seems to work best, but made a lot of sense this year because we have a lot of overlap in families who have children Aiden's age as well as Luke and Liam's.  More to come on the party in a few weeks.  
Aiden was super excited to be turning SIX.  He told me that six is now his favorite number since that is how old he is.  He loves the fact that he is only a year younger than Luke and Liam for at least a few days.  

Grandpa Morse sent Aiden, Luke, and Liam a very special birthday gift this year.  He purchased a signed New York Rangers Wayne Gretzky jersey for the boys.  He found the jersey through a lifelong friend who has a baseball card and sports memorabilia shop.  Leading up to the gift, we read a biography on Gretzky to sharpen our knowledge of "The Great One."  The boys really enjoyed the book and it made the gift even more meaningful.  They, of course, wanted to try it on and wear it for a short time, but the long term plan is to frame it.