Spring Break 2016 and Easter

Aiden as goalie for the first time

Finn really wants to be a part of it

Luke and Aiden as goalies 

Getting ready to dye our eggs

Here we go!

Luke and Liam

Finn loved it!

Aiden was able to participate this year thanks to our special gloves

Finished product

Hockey on the driveway with our buddy, Xavier

Indoor play place with friends.  The boys are all dressed in bright neon yellow

Ready to hunt for eggs way too early in the morning

Sorting out our loot

Aiden and Finn before church.  Just to keep it real...shortly after this lovely picture was taken, Finn bit Aiden after Aiden kept taking his Buzz Lightyear toy.

Daddy and Finn.  Aiden wore this same outfit when he was close to Finn's age and I was actually pregnant with Finn.

Finn at church

Best of the worst trying to get the boys to look at the camera

He is Risen!  Easter Sunday 2016

It has been a busy week here with lots of fun activities.  So much so that the boys were less than excited about starting back to school today.  I am not sure I had the same sentiments.  Although the week was super fun and it is nice to spend extra time with Luke and Liam, I am pretty sure I need a break from our spring break.  

Despite the popularity of leaving town over spring break, we stayed home over spring break.  I am amazed at how many people go on really big trips over spring break.  Like Mexico, the Caribbean, Dominican Republic, Arizona, Colorado, California, even Europe!?  The boys didn't mind being home at all and we found plenty of things to do.  We went swimming at the community center one day since we really have done that since over the summer months.  The waterslide and climbing wall were open and that's a big bonus for the big boys.  Finn loved loved the water so I feel like this summer will be fun for him.

We went to two open gyms at the fitness center so I could get in a work out, but additionally the boys have been asking to go and play floor hockey in the gym.  Aiden has, in fact, been asking to do this since he turned six in January because you have to be six to play with the bigger kids in the gym.

We went to see the movie Zootopia and we had dinner with our best friends at one of our favorite places one evening.  The movie was a lot of fun as we had 16 close friends there to share in the fun!

We also went to an indoor play area with huge slides and things to climb and expend lots of energy.  This was a good idea since we actually had snow on one off our "spring" break days off.  Lastly, the boys played in a pick up hockey game with several teammates and friends from school one afternoon.  They have not been on the ice a whole lot after our season ended so this was on their list of things to do over spring break.  It was a special treat for Luke and Aiden because they got to be goalies.  

Lastly, even though the weather was not all that "spring-like", the boys played a lot of hockey in their rollerblades on the driveway with neighbors.  They met a good friend named Xavier that has been coming over the play hockey quite a bit with the boys.  

After our egg dying fiasco last year, we tried something different this year.  Aiden has an egg allergy and cannot handle eggs at all.  He will become very itchy and uncomfortable so we have to be cautious when he is around eggs.  If you read the blog, you might remember that we tried to dye some fake eggs that were sold at a local store and it was a total disaster.  They didn't hold the dye at all and the boys were pretty disappointed.   This year, however, I purchased some plastic gloves and taped them to Aiden's arms and we used real eggs.  Everyone really loved it, especially Finn who missed out on doing eggs last year.  We were still very cautious and had Aiden take a bath afterwards, but thankfully all turned out well.  

Happy Easter!!  

Big 10 Hockey Championship

BIG 10 Hockey Championship game with MN vs. Michigan

State of hockey with our Bakken buddies

Left to right:  Aiden, Charlie, Luke, Liam, Jack, and Andy

BIG 10 Championship game outside Xcel Center in St. Paul

Finn with his roller skates, hockey pads, stick, and bike helmet

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

This is spring break week for us so we have lots of fun things planned.  John just returned from a trip to Japan on Saturday and we were very happy to have him home.  Talk about a long way from home... He was going to bed when we were getting ready for school and vice versa.

On Saturday evening, our best friends invited us to the BIG 10 championship hockey game where Minnesota played Michigan.  Thankfully, I was able to find a babysitter for Finn so the boys, myself, and John went to the game.  The Bakkens had an entire box of seats at the Xcel center where the MN WILD also play.  This was actually my first college hockey game!  I have seen obviously been to many of the boys games and a few high school games for nephews; however, this was my first college hockey game.  They don't play a lot of hockey in Arkansas!

We are looking forward to a fun spring break even if the weather in MN isn't supposed to be all that spring-like.  Snow is predicted for Wednesday and Thursday.

Jamboree Weekend Fun

Luke and Liam receiving their Teamwork awards at the end of season party

Checking out the awards

Indoor Knee hockey after everyone is feeling a bit better

The "Great Teamwork" awards for Liam and Luke for the 2015-16 Penguin Hockey Season

Daddy as the Mystery Reader at school-not hockey related, but I forgot to post this one last week.

Tigers locker room before the big jamboree game.  Aiden is down on far left (second from the end)

Aiden with his poster and an excited Finn after the game 

My good friend, Kortney, and I with posters.  Kortney's son, Keaton, plays hockey and goes to school with Aiden.

Luke and Liam with their posters before the game

Team Pizza Party

We finished a long hockey season over the weekend.  We began hockey practices in early November and played in the final games over the weekend.  It was a very fun year and the boys learned a lot, but I think we are all ready for a break!  John spent every weekend coaching both boy's teams and often left early in the morning and spent most of the day on the ice with maybe a short break in between games and/or practice.  Finn and I spent many hours taking or picking up the big boys and shuffling them around to various practices and games.  

For this season, Aiden was #7 and played for the Tigers while Liam and Luke (#8 and #9) played for the Penguins.  During their last weekend of hockey, the association sponsors a jamboree where all the teams play each other and they have an announcer with a tunnel, lights and smoke, etc...If you read the blog periodically, you may remember Luke and Liam participating in the jamboree last year.  Each child picks a name that they want to use when they are announced.  This year Aiden was "Aiden the All-Star Carrithers."  Luke and Liam picked a joint name of "Luke The Thunder and Lightning Liam Carrithers."  The Moms make posters to hang at the games with the nicknames on them.

Liam is thankfully doing much better and was able to play in his jamboree game.  He ended up missing an entire week of school from his bout with the flu and high fevers.  He was wiped out by the end of the week and very lethargic.  Thankfully, his brothers only had 24 hour flu cases and we had one sick day with everyone home at the same time!  The doctor put us all on tamiflu and we survived, thankfully.  Thank you to many for your thoughts and prayers, it was a rough week for sure.  

Tubing and the Flu

Aiden and the Tiger from his hockey team

Luke and his hockey buddy, Cody

Finn 

Penguin Hockey team

Gage and Liam

Playing on the hill

We had a fun weekend of warmer than average temps again.  Luke and Liam got to go tubing with their hockey team and the rest of us enjoyed tagging along.  Finn loves to tube now and talked about it all day long.  It was a nice day to be out tubing since the temps were quite warm.  The snow wasn't the best, but the boys still had fun.  This will definitely be our last time to go tubing for the season as the temps this week are also warmer than average, but I am not complaining!

Our fun day of tubing happened the day before Liam became quite sick.  On Sunday, he woke up complaining that his legs were hurting and he didn't feel good.  He started running a fever and we figured out how to rearrange our plans for the day so that Liam could stay home and rest.  During the day, we gave him Tylenol and lots of fluids, but the fever kept going up (his fever reached 107 at one point) rather than down.  By the afternoon, he was lethargic and not responding when I asked him questions.  I called John at hockey and told him something was wrong and Liam needed to get checked out.  He tested positive for the flu and is taking tamiflu and was told to rest for at least 48 hours.  Overall, it was a scary experience but he's doing a little better.  He is still battling the fever quite a bit.  We are praying that he recovers quickly and is back to normal soon.  Meanwhile, the rest of us are also hoping that we stay healthy.  We all had the flu shot back in October, so time will tell.

Finn's New Room

Pep talk in the Penguin locker room

After a full day at the rink with one game and two practices among the three big boys, they came home and played street hockey in the driveway on a very rare mid 50 degree day in MN.

Quite a crew right there

Luke in his goalie gear with the side attack from Finn

Finn's new Big Boy Bed!!!

"oh mom, I really love it"

We had a big weekend of hockey, some nice weather, and a milestone for Finn.  In the eight years that we have lived here, I cannot recall a day in February without snow.  Until now, that is.  We hit a record breaking high of around 55 degrees over the weekend.  It was beautiful.  Sunny, warm (or at least felt warm since we are typically 50 degrees colder!), and beautiful.  We played outside all afternoon when we finished hockey for the day.  It was fun to get the bikes, scooters, and other outdoor toys out again.  Of course, this week its back to normal with temps in the teens and 20's, but hopefully spring isn't too far away.

As I mentioned last week, Finn has been asking about moving to a big boy bed.  We received Finn's crib from his godparents (same crib their son used) and the crib has had a few issues recently so it was time to move on to a bed.  Finn was so excited to put up his big boy bed.  He has been talking about his "new room" for a week now.  We inherited the cool bunkbeds from Mimi over the summer and I ordered a new quilt for Finn's beds last week.  Our plan is to paint the room at some point in the near future, but we have lots of painting to do in the new house so we will add his room to the list!  Thus far, Finn has done well with the transition to his new bed.  He has been sleeping in his new bed without any issues and waited for us to go get him the next morning.  Let the potty training begin....but not until summer!  

100 Days Smarter

Aiden celebrated his 100th day of school

Luke had his chance to be goalie at their hockey game on Sunday afternoon

Liam was goalie on Saturday afternoon

Sleeping Finn.  He is rarely ever so quiet.

Sleeping in Aiden's big boys bed for the first time!

Football with Finn at the Dome

Markers with Finn 

Liam is 100 days smarter and has a 100 dollar bill

We celebrated our 100th day of school this week.  Luke and Liam both took 100 objects to share at school.  Liam picked marshmallows and Luke picked goldfish.  It was a great week to celebrate 100 days of school and nearing closer to spring break and summer because it feels like the weather changed overnight.  I am hopeful for an early spring, but I know all too well that the weather in MN could change back to winter overnight as well.  We could still get several big snowfalls, but we seem to be heading in the right direction for spring right now.  We will enjoy the warmer temps while we can.  Liam came in from school one day and said very excitedly, "Mom, I think its changing to summer pretty soon!  See, look outside...AND I heard three birds!"

Sad to say, but I think we are nearing the end of having a baby bed in our house.  We have had a crib in our house for nearly 8 years straight.  Shortly after Aiden's third birthday, we had a period of time (i.e. less than 6 months) before Finn was born when Aiden was in a big boy bed and we took the crib down for a few months.  Last week at nap time while his brothers were all at school, Finn asked if he could sleep in Aiden's room.  We discussed having to stay in Aiden's bed and not getting out until Mommy comes to get you, etc...I really wasn't sure how he would do, but he did great.  He slept in his crib until I woke him to pick up Aiden at school.

Liam and Luke both enjoyed the opportunity to be goalie for their hockey team over the weekend.  The goalie equipment is passed around during the hockey season so that each child has a chance to be goalie for either a game or practice.  Liam was technically goalie at practice and Luke was goalie at the actual game.  This was a debate for them because originally Liam was supposed to be goalie for the game.  Luke, however, is really the better one for goalie.  He's big for one thing and he is pretty good in the goal.  Liam has a hard time wearing the goalie equipment and he is a better skater than Luke so it makes more sense for him to be skating than to be a goalie.  We left it up to them and they decided (appropriately) for Luke to handle the game and Liam would take the practice.  Good choice!