Road Trip!

We had an "away" game tonight! It turned out this rink was near Acorn's house and her mom had said she was interested in seeing them play sometime, so we invited her along for the ride!

I picked all the girls up afterschool and they were bubbling and giggly before we even got outside the school. I'd packed sandwiches for supper but gave them the option of adding on some KFC popcorn chicken to round it out, OR to go for doughnuts after they ate their meal. Duh. First time mom??? TIE VOTE. we had to do both!  Everyone was quite upset as you can imagine! They had to eat their fruit & vegetables first though!

The trip went well and Murray's map memorization skills got us to the rink AN HOUR early! (got some Rick in him I think...) The kids played outside for awhile and then Honey & Lovey had to go suit up. We came inside for the start of the game but it wasn't long before the opposition took the lead. I asked Acorn if the game was as exciting as she'd expected and she said it was. Then she said it wasn't, it was MORE exciting than she'd expected. (Murray thought her standards might have been a bit low LOL) She seemed to have a good time and Sweetie was glad to have someone there to run around with when she got bored. They did a few laps of the arena to scope things out as the game went on.

Honey was working hard out there and it wasn't long before her cheeks were flaming red from all the hustling to and fro. She is all over the action and keeps up with the others pretty well now.

Lovey has a distinctive stride that even I, the worst hockey mom on the planet, can pick out a mile away. She has a sortof, la la la out for an evening stroll kind of gliding side to side saunter. You can almost hear her humming merrily on her way. She was very observant... of her fans and made sure to swing by, smile & wave frequently. I'm sure her coach understands why she can't be following that puck action all the time, it's not often your BFF comes to your game right???

Everyone had a great time and dropped off to sleep quickly when we finally got home to bed! (although Honey insisted on finishing up one last bit of homework she had before turning in!)

With Checkers coming soon, we've been working on getting things picked up, sorted out and uncluttered (well, somewhat!). This meant the tree had to come down today and is now outdoors waiting for the next bonfire! Whew! Tomorrow's project will be cleaning up the remaining needles!

Countdown of all countdowns!

The big weekend is almost here!!! We are going to pick up our new puppy on Saturday! I don't know who's the most excited (me??? hard to tell!)

The breeder sent us a Christmas picture, as if she didn't have him sold already??? So excited to bring Checkers home on Saturday!!!

The girls have been trying to be more responsible with their toys and I also have to get back in the habit or remembering not to leave things accessible! They've diligently gone through their rooms and culled the herd a bit and there's been a lot of recycling, garbaging and tidying! I'm sure we'll learn a few more lessons the hard way but hopefully not too many!

Here's his Christmas photo, brace yourself, he's pretty darn cute!

Christmas Chaos

The kids woke up on their own this year! We'd told them they could get up at 7 and at 6:53, I heard a distinctively loud whisper of "only SEVEN more minutes guys!!!" We quickly came down to browse our stockings and then went back up for a quick bite of breakfast. They are really quite good about it. I'm not sure my mum had as easy a time getting Dale & I to eat on Christmas morning! (but other than that I was pretty much a perfect kid! and as the writer of the blog, what I say GOES!)

Present opening gets faster every year it seems and it was a full time job managing the garbage, making sure nothing important was going in the discard pile, ensure everyone was opening their own presents and that nothing was getting lost in the mayhem!

They were quite pleased with everything and like their father, used anything they could immediately! Lovey had her pearls on in no time and you can see Sweetie sporting her new earmuffs! Once they had made it through their piles, Murray and I could relax and open ours. As a kid, this must have been what Mum & Dad were doing but I thought they were opening presents the whole time I was and was always amazed that they STILL had MORE to open after Dale & I finished! I thought they were quite spoiled actually! LOL Ahhh hindsight, you sneaky devil!

With presents out of the way, it was time for the most decadent breakfast of the year! Homemade Belgian waffles topped with strawberries, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. We talk about this for weeks before it happens! I prep everything except the whip cream the night before. Murray whips that up as I cook the waffles. It is so incredibly delicious, it's a bit sad we have to wait a whole year to have it again! But it's soooo rich that once a year is about all a body could really bear! I love this tradition and that the girls already identify it as a Christmas highlight each year.

I hope your Christmas was as merry and bright as ours!

Hockey Night in Canada

Ok so it was a day game but hey, why mess with a good title???

The girls actually had 2 games today, one in the morning and another mid afternoon today. The morning one was with their regular team and this afternoon was the girls' team. They ended up losing both games but seemed to enjoy both. The 2nd game took a lot out of them as they didn't have quite enough skaters for two shifts, so they were on the ice A LOT! They were missing their older players this afternoon and the other team was not! The scorekeepers are kind in this league and hold the scores at a 3 goal lead so I'm not sure what the real final score was but we did have two goals in the end!

Sweetie spent some time at Tulip's house for the morning game while I was at my class at the gym this morning and came home for lunch and to get ready for the game. We ended up getting to the rink quite early and as it turned out, complex was next door to Teena's mom's house! Since we had time to kill anyway, Sweetie & I walked over and had a little visit until it was time for the game to begin. She was surprised to find us on our doorstep but seemed to welcome the diversion to undecorating her tree!

We got home from the game right at supper time and upheld another Canadian tradition, beans & wieners on Saturday night! We jazzed it up with Honey's homemade brown bread in the breadmaker. She was pleased when I announced we were eating HER bread for dinner :)

After dinner Lovey did her violin and then we had movie night & snacks! Mmmm mmmm!!! Needless to say they fell asleep fast tonight and I think I'm ready to do the same!