Happy Memorial Day!

Finn loves a good strawberry smoothie!!

Liam and his school buddies on a field trip recently

Luke and his buddy, Adam, on a field trip.  They were covered in mud when they got home!

Aiden and John at the Memorial Day 5K in our neighborhood

Luke, Liam, and buddy Jack at the 5K

On the to do list....Luke needs a major haircut!  We tried over the weekend, but the haircut place was closed.  

Before the 5K race

Daddy and the boys before the race

We enjoyed a nice Memorial Day weekend.  We didn't really have specific plans, but that was ok.  We enjoyed some down time at the house and some extra time to play outside and enjoy the gorgeous weather.  We had a nice break from any sports activities so no games or practice schedules.  We participated in a very low key neighborhood 5K.  The big boys ran the mile recently at school so they were interested in trying a race similar to the one we did last summer.

Liam was our fastest runner in a time of 22:20!!  yes, that is fast for a 9 year old!!  John and I finished shortly after Liam in around 23:00 minutes.  John was pushing the stroller with Finn and we stopped to make sure Luke and Aiden knew how to follow the random signs throughout the neighborhood after they stopped to walk around 1.5 miles.  Nonetheless, I am not sure either of us had the speed to beat Liam!  Liam is quite the runner, for sure.

Hockey and Birthday Parties

Since playing in 5 hockey games and watching your brother in four games isn't enough in three days, you can always come home and rollerblade.  

They make me nervous

Liam's team before their 3rd place victory game!

Go Blue!

Celebrating after a 10-0 shutout and 3rd place win

The other team didn't get many shots off because we played some great defense

3rd place!

Liam also got the MVP award and 3rd place trophy for his team

Liam and his buddies, Alex (left) and Ethan (right)

Celebrating at lunch

We had quite possibly our busiest weekend ever.  I will attempt to record it here because I have a feeling we will surpass this number of games in a few years when Finn and Aiden are a bit older.  Over the weekend, Luke and Liam each played in a different hockey tournament in different places and at different times.  They are on slightly different AAA teams this spring and summer.  While thankfully all of their practices are together, their tournaments are different and sometimes fall on the same weekend.  With the help of friends and a babysitter for Aiden and Finn, we survived.

Liam's team came in 3rd place in the Mountain Dew Blast and Luke's team was challenged by some fierce competition from Canada and ended up in 4th place at the Independent Classic.  Liam's team has a lot of new players this year and has struggled a bit to get things going so it was really fun to see all the hard work pay off for these boys.  Luke and Liam played in a combined 10 hockey games over the weekend with 1 game Thursday, 3 games Friday, 4 games on Saturday (two each), and 2 championship games on Sunday.

Aiden was not without his own agenda for the weekend with a whopping FOUR birthday party invites over the weekend.  It seems that all of Aiden's close buddies were born in the month of May so we made arrangements for a babysitter to stay at the house so Aiden could ride with friends to and from each party.  He had a blast and was exhausted by Sunday night.  Finn, too, had his second birthday party invite.  He attended the 4th birthday party of his buddy, Max, at a local gymnastics gym and loved it.  He, in fact, did not want either John or myself to stay with him since he is so big now.

We had a really fun weekend of hockey with several fun friends and families.  We are taking a break from hockey for awhile and will pick back up at the end of the summer.  For now, its baseball and hopefully a bit more free time.  

Happy Mother's Day 2017!

Finn's special Mother's Day picture

Finn loved this Lemonade stand at Target

Mother's Day 2017

Opening sweet gifts

Mother's Day picture with the awesome gifts

The reality of it all.....

We enjoyed a very nice Mother's Day weekend.  The weather was beyond gorgeous for MN at this time of year and the boys enjoyed many hours outside with friends and neighbors.  The boys made me some very special gifts and John treated all of us to a nice dinner.  I enjoyed some time alone which is rare and much appreciated.  John took the boys to get donuts on Saturday morning and took them to play some soccer golf on Mother's Day after church.  I was able to fit in a bike ride with my new bike shoes I received for Mother's Day and enjoyed some peace and quiet.

We are thankful for our mothers and grandmothers as well this Mother's Day and appreciate all of their love and devotion to their children and grandchildren.

Happy Mother's Day!

Baseball Season

I enjoyed a women's conference at church while the boys grilled hot dogs for dinner with Dad

Rookie Baseball season is here!

Play ball!

It was a beautiful morning for baseball

Liam played catcher

Catcher

And Liam pitched.  He loved the pitching part and was actually pretty good at it too!

Baseball practice before our first game

Aiden is playing baseball as well

Have you ever seen a league put first names on the t-shirt/jersey?

Luke at bat

Baseball season has arrived for us.  We didn't play baseball last year so we are a bit rusty, but hoping that some of the talent from our cousins Zach and Seth will somehow rub off on us.  Maybe not, but the boys are banking on it.  Luke and Liam last played baseball the summer after first grade so things have changed a lot with their size, speed, agility, coordination, and strength.  Aiden has only played t-ball in the past, so this is his first experience with coach pitch baseball.

Aiden is #8 this year and playing on "The Crushers."  He has several buddies on his team including the older brother of Finn's best buddy, Max.  This is a bonus for Finn because he has a friend to play with at the games.  Luke is #9 and Liam is #5 and their team is the "White Lightning."  They too, have several buddies on their team from hockey and school so it is a lot of fun.

The only downside to baseball right now is that it overlaps with the end of our spring hockey so I find myself praying for rain on occasion.  Its actually really fun to watch them play baseball, but it makes for a tricky schedule when so much overlaps.  We only have two weeks left of hockey and then we will be taking a break over the summer so we are reaching the end of the tunnel, thankfully.  In the meantime, we often eat dinner in the car and do our homework at the hockey rink or baseball field, if needed. 

Hockey, Hockey, and more hockey.....

Luke is holding the trophy that his AAA hockey team won over the weekend!

Luke's AAA Red Team won 3rd place in their Duluth tournament

Luke is #19 and at least a head taller than anyone else on his team

Getting ready to skate

Protecting the goal (Luke in middle)

Knee hockey with the little brothers in the hotel room

Luke and his buddy, Matthew

Finn is ready to cheer on his brothers in the tournament

Dinner fun with Liam and his team

Aiden and his buddy, Ellis, at a sleep over

Breakfast with Liam's team and families after our 8:00 am game

Finn with two players from Liam's team and his buddy, Cole

Liam's team

Liam and his buddies, Alex and Ethan

Finn dressed as a fireman in between games

We had a busy weekend of hockey.  Very busy.  For the first time in the three years that Luke and Liam have been playing hockey, they played on different teams at different tournaments.  This was a bit sad for us, but we made it work.  Luke and John traveled to Duluth to play in Luke's AAA hockey tournament and his team came in 3rd place and did quite well.  Liam, on the other hand, played near our house with his team.  Of course, Aiden was not without activities of his own over the weekend so he ended up having a sleep over with a very kind friend of ours so that I could manage all our activities while Luke and John were away.  We had a great time watching and playing hockey, hanging out with friends, and getting to know our teams, but we were all pretty exhausted by the end of the weekend.