Gingerbread Houses and Mariucci Arena

Luke and Liam worked together to decorate a gingerbread house

Aiden and Finn worked together

And the finished products were....interesting.

The boys were excited!

Honestly, you couldn't pay me to eat any of the candy!

Icing!

Liam's team had the opportunity to play another team in our association at Marinucci Arena where the MN Gophers play hockey

Liam and one of his best buddies, Teddy.

Liam and Teddy.  Teddy was actually on the other team we played which makes it a lot harder when you play one of your best friends, but thankfully we ended in a TIE!  3-3.  Liam shot the winning goal for our team.

Not a great picture, but Aiden's basketball team won 3rd place in their tournament and first place in the skills competition.

Aiden found a microphone and announced the game at Marinucci.  The best part was when he announced Liam's goal!

Liam getting ready to head out on the ice.  

We had another busy week and we are counting down the final days until school is out for Christmas break.  We decorated gingerbread houses the other night and the boys ate WAY too much candy and icing in the process.  We let Luke pick his partner to work on the gingerbread houses and he picked Liam.  Luke has worked very well with Finn for the last 2 years without complaining and let's just say that Finn isn't the first pick for a partner!

Liam's Squirt B1 hockey team played at Mariucci Arena in a game against another B1 team in our association.  We have lots of good friends on both teams so we were happy to end in a tie of 3-3 so that everyone was happy.  The ice was huge!  It is an Olympic size sheet of ice is about 15 feet wider than the regular rinks used in the NHL and college hockey.   It made the boys look really small and the game moved a bit slower than normal.  All in all, it was a fun game!

Our 8th and final Montessori Holiday Program

Finn and two of his friends with his teachers at the Christmas program

One of the benefits of only going to school three times per week.  Finn is skating in the middle of the day on the rink while his brothers are at school.

Finn was very excited to have everyone at his Christmas program

Our 8th and final Montessori Christmas program

Finn is by far the tallest kid at his school.  The only child close to him is the little girl in the black dress on Finn's left

First Montessori Program in 2010 with Luke and Liam when Santa came to visit at the end

Liam in 2011 program

Aiden joined in 2012 program

Luke and Liam's last program in 2013 when Luke dressed as Frosty

Aiden in 2014 also dressed as Frosty

Aiden's final year in 2015

Finn in 2017 dressed as Frosty, of course!

We attended our 8th and final Holiday program at Montessori over the weekend.  We began going to these programs when Luke and Liam were two years old in 2010.  We have attended every year with some combination of the boys except 2016 because Finn had not started school there yet.  Luke and Liam's last year was 2013 and Aiden's last year was 2015.  While John and I feel like we have outgrown many of the seemingly very young parents, its always a fun program to watch and we will miss it in years to come.

The ice rink is up and running after countless hours of work on John's part.  Each of the boys has helped at various times particularly Luke and Finn.  Finn loves to walk around and talk with John about the tools and things he is doing while Luke is actually quite helpful!  The boys are very excited and motivated to get their homework done as soon as possible after school so that they can skate!

It's Winter in Minnesota!

Pond Hockey

Playing in the snow

Hockey practice in the basement.  Yes, Luke can shoot harder than his brothers even when using a goalie stick!

Luke is catching up to me!  I probably have a half an inch on him even though its hard to tell in this picture.


It is definitely winter in Minnesota.  Our fall felt very short and rainy and the temperature dropped quickly.  The boys are excited because John filled the rink on December 1.  That is early for us, but the temperatures this week will be in the single digits and 20's so technically its good weather for freezing the rink!  We have not had very many years where we have skated before Christmas, but if all goes well, it looks like we should be skating this weekend on John's rink.  Finn is very excited to start "playing hockey" again as right now he is a chief spectator at all of the many games and practices for his brothers!