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.