Growing Boys

Cool and Too Cool.  Another crazy picture of Finn and his buddy, Cole, at their brother's hockey game.

Aiden and several of his hockey buddies before their game.  Aiden is on the far right (the last one in red jersey)


Luke and Liam had their 9 year well visits this week and Aiden had his 7 year well visit a few weeks ago.  We are thankful that all three boys are growing fast and doing well.  For those of you interested in numbers and growth curves, keep reading.  If this type of information doesn't suite you, then you might want to skip all of the data below!

If you have seen Luke lately, you know that he is rapidly catching up to me and probably in another year (hopefully two or more), he is going to reach me in height and weight!  Luke was 57.99 inches and 93 lbs at his recent visit.  The crazy part about this is that he grew 3 inches from last year and gained 13 pounds!  The report from his pediatrician said he is a "strong, sturdy, big boy!"

Liam is small, but mighty.  He also had a big year of growing even though it is hard to see when compared to Luke.  He grew 3 inches as well and gained a total of 10 pounds.  Liam is currently 51 inches and 59 pounds.

Aiden follows a similar growth pattern as Luke although he isn't nearly as tall as Luke.  At his seven year well-visit, Aiden was 63 lbs (heavier than Liam) and 49 inches.  At age seven, Luke was already two inches taller and 4 pounds heavier than Aiden at the same age.  And this is probably why Liam always looks so small when compared to Luke.  He is actually pretty average in height, but he is dwarfed by Luke who is a head taller than any kid his age.

It will surely be interesting to see what happens with Finn.  To date, he is measuring taller than Luke at the same age.  He is already a head taller than most of his peers.  In the future as the boys all get bigger, I think it might be best if people could just send us gift cards to use towards our food bill!!  I feel like they already eat a lot and they are not even teenagers.

President's Day Weekend

Finn and his buddy, Cole, entertaining themselves at Luke and Liam's team hockey party

Finn is serving cheese for the tacos at his big brother's party

Finn and Cole serving taco toppings

An absolutely beautiful day at the park with Jack, Charlie, and Andy.  Yes, the lakes are still a bit frozen as you can see in background.

Another gorgeous day with neighborhood friends playing basketball

Luke and Liam's hockey party.  Shockingly, they were able to keep this ice in good shape at a nearby community center.  It has a refrigeration system, but I still don't know how it was in such good shape for skating.

That's John dragging Finn on the ice.

Watching the lego Batman movie with our best friends, Jack and Charlie as well as two other classmates.  Sadly, Aiden had to miss the movie because he, Finn, and Dad went to Aiden's hockey game.

Buffalo Wild Wings after the movie

We had a fun long weekend over President's Day.  We were out of school for both Friday and Monday so it felt like a bit of a vacation.  While we still had our regular hockey schedule over the weekend, we enjoyed some down time as well.  Friday was absolutely perfect outside and we enjoyed playing at the park.  Minnesota set a new record high temperature over the weekend when it got up to 60 degrees in February!

We celebrated Jack and Charlie's 9th birthday with a movie, dinner, and a sleepover at their house.  This was the first sleepover that Luke and Liam have done (kind of).  They slept over at Kirsten's out of necessity the night before we closed on our previous house because we had no beds, no furniture, etc...Kirsten kept all three big boys for us while we signed papers and prepared to move to our present house (that was nearly two years ago).  All of the boys had a fantastic time together and went to bed super early the next day, but I am sure we will do it again sometime soon.

Have a great week!

Spring?

Dryland hockey practice.  Liam is super serious.

Luke has quite a funny personality

Team Canada in red plus our buddy Jack in yellow at the fun Olympics practice

Go Team Canada (Liam's team)

Luke was practicing so hard, he broke his stick!

If we can't skate on the ice, we just move to the driveway.  Finn really loves his little roller skates.  He wants a pair like his brothers (which are roller blades).

Liam practicing

In just a week, the weather in Minnesota has really changed.  It feels quite spring-like which is very unusual for February.  The snow is melting and nearly non existent.  Sadly, we are not sure the backyard ice rink will recover from these warm temps.  The outdoor rinks at the local parks closed today so that's a bit of a sign that we are moving on.  It has been nice to break out the outdoor toys and spend a bit of time in the cold (but not bitter cold) sunshine.  Over the weekend, the boys moved from the backyard rink to the driveway to play hockey so they are not missing out by any means.  I have lived here long enough to know that it generally warms up for a few days or even a week, but we are not finished with winter yet.  It is not unusual to have snow in May so I guess time will tell, but the warm weather has been nice.  

Our Weekend

Backyard skating with neighbors.  Luke is trying out his new goalie gear and goalie skates!

Finn is "helping" Daddy with the sink

This happened over the weekend.  More below...Luke is holding the faucet in place, John is installing the lines, and Finn is talking non stop.

Skating and bonfire

We had a pretty average weekend.  The weather has been a bit colder of late so the boys have enjoyed as much skating as possible.  There are a few neighbors that frequently walk over to join the boys.  Luke has been trying out his new goalie equipment.  We purchased some second hand goalie pads for him around Christmas because he needed a size that was six inches larger than what the association provides for kids his age.  He also received his own goalie stick as a Christmas gift.  Most recently, John found some second hand goalie skates for Luke to begin practicing with.  Although I have minimal experience with skating in general, apparently skating in goalie skates vs. regular hockey skates is quite different.  It has been an adjustment for Luke, but he seems to be getting the hang of it.   The blade on the goalie skates is wider and it fits his pads better and is easier to slide side to side and stand for longer periods of time.

Our kitchen faucet started leaking over the weekend.  Thankfully, we noticed the water quickly before it caused a lot of damage.  John went the following day to purchase a new faucet and installed it within a very short period of time.  It was relatively seamless, which doesn't always happen with home repair projects.  Finn was so excited to help John and he spent an hour under the sink with his tools "pretending" to repair the sink.  Thanks to John, we have a brand new and very much improved faucet!