The A Team

Minnesota has had the snowiest October since 1991 with 9 inches already.  

Finn's 1st grade Basketball team (Finn went to preschool and kindergarten with the twins on the left and right front row)

Luke and Liam's igloo

There have been plenty of hockey seasons leading up to this year that we have not had anyone on an "A" team for hockey, but this year seems to be going well in the area of hockey tryouts for us.  Aiden landed on the Squirt A team this season bringing us to a total of three "A" teams for the year with Luke on PeeWee AA and Liam on PeeWee A.  Luke said he would "give" Finn one of his A's so that Finn could say he is on the Mite 2 Gopher "A" team!  It should be a fun hockey season and we are just hopeful we are able to have an entire season.  

Finn is enjoying basketball with John this fall and learning some skills.  He still seems to think he knows everything there is to know about basketball after playing with his less than knowledgeable brothers.  According to John, he even tried to pass the ball without looking at his teammate (like the pros do) and pretty much threw the ball out of bounds.

We are all feeling as if we skipped Halloween and Thanksgiving and went straight to Christmas.  It snowed about 7 inches last week and we promptly broke out the snow pants, winter coats, gloves, hats, and boots.  I don't think any of us are ready for snow, but the boys have enjoyed playing in it.  

 

From Fall to Winter

Bonfire with lots of Luke and Liam's friends

Our first snow happened on Friday morning!  It didn't stick, thankfully, but the weather temps have taken a drastic change

Flashlight Corn Maze

Flashlight Corn Maze.  We have been to an orchard every year that I can remember since the boys were born and we always go with the Bakken's.  This year was different, but we still managed to squeeze in a trip to the corn maze.  Most of the stuff was closed this season, but I think doing the flashlight maze was memorable for the boys.

We tried to get ice cream after the maze, but it was unbearable outside and you can't eat inside at McDonald's so we ate quickly!!

 The weather in Minnesota is changing quickly.  It feels as if we went from sunny and warm fall weather to cold and windy winter weather overnight.  I must say I am not excited about winter this year considering we have been spending so much time outdoors for the last several months and it has made the COVID situation a lot more bearable.  But, the winter months are inevitable and the boys are already asking when we can put up the boards for the rink!?  Hockey tryouts start for Aiden this week so we are well on our way to a busy winter of hockey games, hopefully.  We are just hoping everyone stays healthy and we are able to play without a lot of interruptions.  

Pumpkin Picking

Tossing Pumpkins?

Aiden's perfect pumpkin

Tossing one pumpkin was too easy so let's try two

Liam's pumpkin

And Finn's 

Lots of Pumpkins to pick from

It has been awhile since my last blog as we have been busy getting into the routine of school, hockey tryouts for Luke and Liam, and the start of hockey pre tryout skating for Aiden.  We are still in school in the hybrid model so we attend in person on Monday and Wednesday while we do school from home on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.  The elementary schools our district (Aiden and Finn) are supposed to start going back to school in person everyday beginning on October 19th.  I am not 100% sure this will happen, but that is the plan.  There are no plans as of now for the middle school boys to go back full time.  

Although I think all of us would agree that we would rather do school in person than at home, there are a few benefits.  Luke and Liam don't have to wake up quite as early for school when we are working at home and I think pre teen boys can always use the extra sleep!  We also made the trip above to the pumpkin patch on a whim when everyone was finished with their school work and John was free from meetings.  It would have taken a fair amount of scheduling to find a time when we could all go otherwise. We have had some beautiful fall weather lately as well so the boys have been able to play outside during breaks from school so that has been nice as well.  

Luke and Liam are both finished with hockey tryouts and will begin their second year of PeeWee hockey very soon.  Luke's team is already practicing and Liam's team will begin next week.  Luke made the AA team which is the same team he played on last year.  He is very excited to be the primary goalie this season as a second year.  There is a special tryout just for kids wanting to go the route of the PeeWee AA team.  Liam wanted to give it a try this year because if you can make it past the first two cuts into the "extended tryout" then you automatically make the PeeWee A team (the next team below Luke's).  They generally begin with around 50-60 kids for the PeeWee AA tryout and they cut about half of those kids on the first night.  On the second night, they narrow the numbers down to 20 kids so 15 of those kids will be selected for the AA team and 5 of them will move to the A team.  

Liam's goal this year was to make the A team. He worked very hard all summer and gave up a lot of playing with friends, sleeping in late, going to the pool, etc...to work on his goal.  We were elated and beyond proud of him when he made it into the extended tryout for PeeWee AA.  He got to continue in tryouts with Luke and 19 other kids to compete for a spot on the AA team.  Just making it to that point is a huge accomplishment.  While he did not end up making the PeeWee AA team, he did make the PeeWee A team and is super excited to play this season.  He worked very hard for this and has earned his spot!