Skating, Santa, and Third Place

Drumroll.......The ice rink for 2016!!!

First night of skating...December 15, 2016.

Aiden 

Finn with Aiden and Liam in background

Daddy (the Coach) with Luke and Liam post game

The "Dragon Warriors" basketball team

Luke receiving his trophy

Liam and his trophy

Shaking hands after the game

Finn and his buddy, Max (left), singing in church

All four boys are in there somewhere, but hard to see!

Skating with Santa.  Luke is so good with Finn

Finn and Dad

In our 5 years of building the ice rink, this is the first year that we have skated BEFORE Christmas.  We usually start building the rink around Thanksgiving, but typically do not fill it with water until after Christmas because the temps are not cold enough.  This year, however, has been very cold so far.  After a week of subzero temps and 4 consecutive days of indoor recess, the boys were dying to do something.  Anything to burn energy....It was a cold week with minimal opportunities to play outside.  We had a slight break in temps last Friday afternoon so John quickly pulled things together so the boys could skate for awhile.  Thankfully, this week is going to be a bit warmer so we are excited to spend more time outside.

Luke and Liam finished their basketball season over the weekend with a tournament and eventually a third place trophy.  It was a fun season where they really developed a lot and have a much better understanding of the game of basketball.  Overall, they are doing so much better with passing, dribbling, and shooting.  It has been fun to watch them this season as we played in "real" games where we kept score, had referees, fouls, etc...We have lots to learn, but its been fun to watch their progress.

The rest of our weekend was spent enjoying some festive activities.  All four boys sang in church on Sunday, including Finn!  I am not sure he actually sang that much, but it was funny to watch him.  We also skated with Santa on Sunday.  Finn was so excited about seeing Santa and "telling him what a good boy he has been."  Finn was certain that he saw Santa's sleigh leaving the community center after we finished skating.  

Snow and Ice

Aiden is helping me shovel snow over the weekend

Finn helped too but didn't exactly shovel in the direction needed to clear the driveway!

Aiden at an outdoor skating event with his team.
Note on the jersey:  John and I bought the USA jersey in Lake Placid, NY when we were on vacation several years ago.  We purchased two of them for John's nephews who are now in college and high school.  At the time we purchased these, our nephews were around the ages of the boys and they were very into hockey.  Fast forward 10 years and our kids are wearing the jerseys!  They also love the movie "Miracle on Ice" which tells the story of the USA Olympic Hockey team in Lake Placid.

Aiden and Dad

Nice night for skating.  Cold, yes, but nice.

We had our first big snowfall of the season over the weekend.  We had a smaller snow about a month ago, but it melted quickly.  This one will be here for awhile, I would guess.  The temps have fallen to highs in the single digits or teens and wind chills are hovering around zero.  It got really cold, really fast!!  John began the process of filling the ice rink with water over the weekend.  We both noticed one good aspect of the cold weather...that is, the ice rink freezes quickly.  The rink was never made to hold water like a swimming pool so the quicker it freezes, the better.  The boys (and our neighbors) are excited about the prospect of being about to ice skate in the backyard very soon and they are enjoying snow forts, sledding, and all the other winter activities.  The laundry room is an overnight drying facility with wet snow pants, coats, and gloves hanging to dry before they head out again tomorrow.  Cheers to Winter!  

The Countdown....

Double Brick Wall with Aiden and Luke at a Goalie Clinic

Look Mom, I have four arms!  Take a picture of me.

Finn is lining up the hockey players and he's singing his version of the national anthem

Blue Slushie at hockey practice on Saturday

Liam as the goalie for practice on Saturday

Aiden is on the far right with a couple buddies on his hockey team

We are counting down the days in December until Christmas arrives.  Aunt Charlene and Uncle Tom were kind enough to give the boys a Lego Advent calendar so each morning until the 25th, we have a little box to open with legos inside.  The boys are taking turns and really enjoying it.

The boys are also counting down the days until Daddy starts filling the ice rink.  The temperature is scheduled to plummet this week so it looks like that countdown will soon come to an end.  The boards on the rink are up, the tarp has arrived so all we need is several consecutive days of really cold weather to begin the process.  Finn asks everyday if we can put the tarp in now.  The other question we are asked almost daily is, "when will we have ice?"

We are still deep in hockey for all three older boys.  Luke has been trying out some free goalie clinics to see if he really likes being a goalie as much as he thinks he does.  Aiden has gone along several times to try it as well.  While Liam takes a turn in the rotation to play goalie for his team, he has no real interest in the position.

Enjoy the Season!