Countdown

Its not always such a good idea to put our "Cowboy" elf up so high!!

Aiden's hockey team got the opportunity to skate with the high school boys and Aiden skated with the goalie

Aiden is on the left

Finn was super excited to try on his skates for Santa skate and to go out on Dad's hockey rink

Aiden's team getting ready to skate with the high school boys.  Aiden is second from the left

We went to see Star Wars with some good friends.  They have a middle school daughter who watched Finn for us.

Trying out Daddy's rink for the first time this year

It needs a few more cold days and nights, but overall is in great shape.

Finn trying out his skates

The boys have started their final countdown to Christmas.  Finn, especially is super excited for Santa to make a visit.  He has been following the calendar and searching for the our Elf "Cowboy" every morning.  And, as you can see in the picture above, hiding Cowboy up high isn't always a good plan.

John's ice rink made its debut over the weekend.  The boys were very excited to skate on it.  The rink still needs another day or two of freezing, but overall it is looking good and thankfully all of the water/ice is INSIDE the rink...not on the outside (huge relief).  We are actually hoping for some below zero temps that are expected later this week so it can get a good couple days of freezing.

Aiden's team had the opportunity to skate with one of the nearby high school hockey teams.  It was fun to watch and hard to imagine having kids that old and that BIG in a few years!

Baby, its COLD outside!

Liam is showing me the icesicle that he found in the backyard

And a big chunk of snow and ice

We went to see the movie Wonder!  We read the book over the summer and the movie was so amazing.  Our big take home message, "if given the option of being right or being kind, Choose KIND"

Mimi bought all of us Christmas cookies at the bake sale at church

Temps have dropped in Minnesota.  We have had some snow, ice, and bitter cold.  John began filling the ice rink over the weekend and it is currently freezing, but won't be ready to skate on for several days. We are getting ready to celebrate Christmas and excited to be out of school for awhile!

The Christmas Program

Forgot to post this picture last week from our tournament win.  The boy in the middle with yellow shoes is our good friend, Jack Weigel.  We began skating in the backyard with Jack when we were two years old and he's on our team this year.

Finn is showing off his lego tower

That's Liam (black jersey) in the middle taking a decent shot on goal

Luke with the save

Luke in goal.  The white #2 on the opposite team happens to be our neighbor who goes to another school

Flashback to December 2012: Luke and Liam were in the preschool program at Montessori at the same age (4 yrs) as Finn

Aiden, Luke, and Liam (ages 4 and 2) in the Montessori preschool program in December 2012

Luke as Frosty-Dec. 2013 at age 5

Liam-Dec 2013 at age 5

Luke-Dec 2013

Aiden as a penguin-Dec 2013 at age 3

And Aiden as Frosty-Dec 2014 (Aiden was 4 years old)

December 2014-Age 4 years old.  The teacher on the left in the purple sweater is still at Step by Step and teaches in Finn's classroom.

December 2014-As Liam recalls, Aiden spent the entire program messing with the Frosty Hat!!

December 2015-Aiden as a Dreidel at age 5 years in his final year at Montessori.

We missed the 2016 Montessori program, but fast forward to December 2017 and here we are again with Finn.

Luke took this picture of Finn

Finn the Frosty

December 2017 with Finn at 4 years old

Finn as Frosty

Treats after the program

We have attended many Christmas programs at Step by Step Montessori over the last couple of years so I wanted to look back at those this week.  Its funny because not only are we still with the same teachers, we are still wearing some of the same dress clothes!  Note the bowties and the Christmas sweaters along with the white shirts and kaki pants.  It was fun to look back at these.

Finn had his program over the weekend and he loved it.  On the way home, he asked if I wanted to talk about it some more.  He was so proud of himself and had so much fun singing the Christmas songs.