kid update...

Just to follow up on my sports blog....(because so many of you are into sports!)

Melissa's team ended their season in 2nd place! We were so thrilled considering the number of disadvantages her team had during the season. They really came together at the right time to do well in the playoffs! Yay for her!

Melissa is about average height on her team, but with her long Kelley arms, she plays tall. In the past few games she has reminded both Dale and I of Dale's "little sister" Alison, on the court. It has been so much fun to watch Melissa develop her basketball skills.

And David's hockey team went on to win the "big enchilada" as his coach would say.... The Chesapeake Bay Hockey League Squirt Upper A championship! It hasn't been done in 16 years, so the boys were THRILLED! sadly I had to miss the big game, but have seen pictures, here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2773400579587.2115337.1395227522&type=1&l=c724e18eee

and read all about it, here:

http://howardhuskies.org/news.php?news_id=546524&lang=

A team banner will be signed by the team and hung in the ice rink, and trophies given out at the banquet in April.

Shawn is currently in his High School's production of Bye Bye Birdie. The drama teacher never disappoints, it is a first class show and Shawn is very brave to get up on stage and sing and dance, even if it is with a group!

O Canada....

most people head south for the winter...not us..we headed NORTH! with a kid playing a competative level of Hockey, we had to head north to Hockey Heaven, Canada. We could have brought our whole family, but all the kids had games and social events that they didnt want to miss, so dale went on one trip, and I went on the other.

Trip 1: Vermont, Quebec ( no photos, some happy Canadian somewhere is the proud owner of a man's razor, an electric toothbrush, and a camera! )...

Dale went with David on this trip. The itinerary was something like this: travel, play a game, watch a game, play a game, travel, play a game, watch a game, play a game, play a game, watch a game, travel, play a game travel.

The Highlights were: winning every game, playing outdoor pond hockey in zero degrees against a Canadian team, watching college games and attending an NHL game in montreal.

The Lowlights: a bus with NO heat! temperatures hovered at Zero degrees the whole trip...in addition, the door on the bus stayed open the whole trip. (at one point, in his 50th time shutting the door, the head coach almost fell out of the open door while the bus was going 55 miles per hour! he explained watching the pavement zoom by and feeling like this was it for him...)

Dale and David came home last monday, went to a Caps game on tuesday. and with all that hockey, David was still angling for more.

Two days later, time for David to leave again...

Trip 2: Sarnia,Ontario. Trip 1 was a fun trip put together by David's coach at the beginning of the season. When you except his invitation to be on the team, you know about trip one. Trip 2 was thanks to David's team pulling off a win in an international tournament, known as the Silver Sticks.(international being Canada and the U.S!) both trips happen to fall on back to back weeks.

Traveling to Sarnia, Ontario was to play the other winners of the regional silver sticks. We expected to be slaughtered. We are a young team, and were down 3 good players. we played three games and their record was 0-2-1. (W-L-T)...one of the teams we played is ranked 6th in the U.S for A, AA teams...that was a very respectable loss and the boys were in the game for 2 1/2 periods. We were down 3 players for these games, so we were happy with that loss. The other two teams are in the top 15 rankings for Ontario's A, AA leagues. we really should have won both, but a tie and a loss were good enough.

before game 3..


Attending the Sarnia Sting game...

Passion and Sportsmanship

After a rough,

Tough,

And rewarding hockey season,

The boys attended the Awards Banquet. The club consists of over 20 teams, team awards are not given out during the banquet, instead given out separately with your team. After awards were given out, David said to me, "My coach did a good job picking the team awards, he picked really good people for each award.", even though he himself did not recieve anything.

David's passion for the sport shows through. He loves being part of a hockey team, and his teammates are an extension of himself. He was as happy for his teammates awards as he would be for himself. I, however, saw David's hard work, good attitude and passion for the sport never waiver over the 6 month long season. I will admit, I was a little bummed that he didn't get a team award. David helped me to appreciate the choices his coach made for awards and we went on with our evening.

Knowing that David and Greg were not getting one of the 4 club awards, I felt safe to leave the banquet and rush to Shawn's basketball game. I was letting the boys finish dessert as someone tapped me on the shoulder....I looked up and there is David's photo, one of four nominees in his age group up for the "Robert L. Falk" sportsmanship award,

David's picture is the far right....Then David was named the winner of the award! He went up to receive the award...completely surprised by it.

The other nominees are from other teams and I don't really know them, but I am sure they were well deserving of the award, but I can say that David was a great choice. (His mother on the other hand, probably has some work to do before she would win a sportsmanship award).

David has a great attitude about hockey, and his teammates on and off the ice. I will spare you the nomination letter from his coach, but David really has been a great sportsman throughout the long, difficult and exciting hockey season.
Hockey is not the sport I would choose for my kids. Like football, I love to watch hockey, but didn't really wants kids who played it. When it comes to David, I do not have a choice in the matter. It is his first love, he eats, sleeps and breathes the sport and would never stop playing if he could. The season starts in august and ends in March, he and Greg are still on the ice two times a week even now. They will take off 2 months and be back to it in August. For David, even that is not enough. He is passionate about it. His passion makes him work hard, think of his team first, never complain about the long, grueling practices and his passion for hockey helps him accept the ups and the downs. Thats what makes him a good sport.

For me, my passion is my family. Watching little successes in their lives is amazing. As much as I hate the cold, I feel it a blessing to sit in an ice rink when it is 80 degrees outside and watch my children get so much pleasure from playing hockey. My passion for my family helps me to accept the ups and the downs, it helps me to work hard, and think of them first. For me, everyday is not enough, I never want to stop being a mom, a wife, a cleaning lady, a taxi driver and all the other various things. I love it passionately.

"Coolest Mom..EVER" award...

As a mom, sometimes I just want to step away from being the heavy, "Did you brush your teeth? clean underwear? ...No? back upstairs and change into a shirt that fits...WHAT HAPPENED to your hair? Clean your room, is your homework done? blah blah blah!" ....I KNOW my kids love me, but I know that sometimes dads are just more fun...when they are with dad, he could care less about all that little stuff, and they just relax.

I realized this when I was schlepping David to his hockey game...Dale and I split the sports duties 50-50..so I attend equal number of games for David that Dale does.

On the way to his game he was talking about his practices from the day before. (Yes, 2 in one day)..Dale and I attended both together. I told him I thought he did a great job...he was puzzled and asked very seriously.."You were at my practice? which one?" ..I said "Both"...He didn't remember that I was there...he had remembered everything his dad had said, but just kinda forgot about me even being there...

...I REALLY wanted the chance, for just a day, to win the "Coolest Mom..EVER" award from David.

Fast forward to his game...I bought him a pregame donut and cheese itz! yes, cheese itz, I am winning the award today!...or at least have him remember that I ATTENDED his game. I helped with the score sheet and when he was in the Penalty Box I smiled and said "I know, it wasn't a penalty, the ref was WRONG!" ...("Coolest MOM...EVER" coming right up!)...

opportunity to seal the deal...Bruce Boudreau, coach of the Washington Capitals Hockey team, was watching the 3rd period of David's game while waiting for his son's game to begin. I asked someone to take over the scoresheet while I went and chatted with him for a second. I asked if he would Congratulate our boys on their win. With a few minutes left on a 2-1 game, Coach Boudreau thought I was being a little quick to call it a win. I pointed out David on Defense and said "thats my guy out there, and I know him well enough to know he isn't letting anyone near the net.."..with 45 seconds left, the other team pulled the goalie and David went off the ice..other team took advantage of our guys and pressure was on our goalie. I hesitantly said, "ok, with my guy off the ice, maybe they will need a "job well done speech" if the other team manages to tie it" ...Coach Boudreau couldn't have been nicer or more down to earth...Game over...our guys held on and won it 2-1....I walked him to the locker room where he suprised our guys! He made several comments about the game to the boys (including the great job defense did!)...He really boosted their confidence in themselves and their playing ability...I know David will never forget it...

and I was sure *I* had won the "Coolest MOM..EVER" award from David!

Fast forward an hour...I ACCIDENTLY called David, Greg. and when he said, "MOM! you don't even know my name??" , laughing so hard and unable to finish my sentence I said, "no, no....."...he said "NO?? you really DON'T know my name!?!?!" (me---still laughing, unable to speak)...

heart broken he went to go find his dad, who does know his name. Coolest MOM EVER award.....GONE!

Coach Boudreau talking to the boys..

(David is all the way to the left with the water bottle in his mouth)

Halloween,Homecoming, Highschool and Hockey!!

Greg as "Snake Eyes"...From G.I. Joe...note the Duct tape accessories...I am getting very lazy in my old age!

David as a.....Monster. (A monster who survives on Hockey alone..)

Melissa as a "Colonial Williamsburg girl". I realized how lazy I have gotten with Halloween costumes when I was halfway done buying the stuff for Melissa's costume. I spotted a COMPLETED hannah montana costume for 9.99, I went to purchase it when the checkout woman started chit chatting with me. I actually said.."My daughter wants to be a colonial girl, but I am going to force her to be Hannah Montana instead"...as soon as I said it I realized what I was doing and handed the woman the costume back and said, "uh, actually, any idea how I can make a bonnet from the 1800's"...Melissa is such a sweet girl

Alex was "dad"...thats right, he has it in his head that this is what his dad looked like as a teenager...Don't say it, I know...that is so NOT Dale...next year we will make sure Alex has the flat top and the gold watch for true authenticity.

HOMECOMING

Shawn and his buddies before attending the homecoming dance (and after scarfing 80 dollars worth of pizza, 15 dollars worth of chips and several 2 liters of soda, they are growing boys) Shawn is the shorty, 2nd from right.

Shawn and his buddy worked on the Freshman float...they freehanded a Gladiator head...very impressive for a last minute throw together.

Here is the completed Gladiator...Roarrr, scary!

And the completed float...with a tornado tearing through the Competion..(Shawn is the kid to the left of the "man" sign)

And an impromptu reunion for me and a friend from High School at an event to thank some schools for participating in a program to help oyster habitats in the cheasapeake. Ironically Melissa participated in the program with her Grandma Kelley, after our elementary school had to back out at the last minute due to insurance reasons.

My friend actually told Melissa, "Your mom is the reason I made it through Algebra.." Even with that kind of a witness, Melissa and her brothers prefer their dad for Math homework.

HOCKEY

Two exciting Hockey events. (exciting to us because we are Caps fans). First, Shawn and David participated in the flag holding at the beginning of a Caps game. Shawn does not play hockey, but was excited to participate. Here are a few pictures from that event..

The players about to come on the ice

As the Caps came shooting out on the ice

This is the second exciting event...Greg participated in the intermission game during the a Capitals game...He is the goalie in white...the good news: Greg's team won, the bad news: Greg didn't face one shot! (at the end of the video slapshot the mascot comes ovcer to keep a bored Greg busy)



Greg celebrated in the locker room after scoring two goals in his game saturday night...(He is a goalie, but occassionally he skates out so that he can improve his skating)

New Post

A new post? I know, it's amazing!

I love this time of year! kids are back in school, Some days the house is clean, and most importantly SPORTS! I Love LOVE Sunday afternoon football! and the Skins are giving me something to cheer about this year, FINALLY!

My kids are getting into the swing of things also...The three older ones will start basketball in the winter. Until then, they are involved in other things. Melissa is in art classes. She and I had some special time at Hershey Park this weekend. (Yes, we did go to chocolate world, and can you believe it, I wasn't in the mood for chocolate!! What a waste..it's ok, it's less than 2 hours away..I WILL go back!) In one of the park photos, Melissa and I were screaming as we were going down the log flume,(The same photo that I opted out of purchasing for 20 million dollars)we had the exact same facial expression.. we looked like twins! (it was from a distance...you couldn't see my facial flaws)She is such a sweetheart, and I love getting time with her...I love my boys to pieces, but I am so happy to have my baby girl...





Shawn is in the school play, SGA and basketball conditioning. (Not to mention Seminary and his new found thrill, texting on his first cell phone!) Shawn is really doing well in his first year of high school...I still am in shock that I have a ninth grader!! I always tell Shawn, be careful how you treat the ladies, you never know which one could become your wife one day! (considering I knew Dale when he was in ninth grade, that is not such a far fetched idea!) (And if I had I known I might marry Dale, I might have acted a bit differently when I was younger!)

Alex is in love with golf, and goes with Dale every chance he can get! ...Until basketball starts he will keep busy with scouts and church activities. (not to mention the occassional paper sculpture)
The two younger ones are in full swing with hockey. They have been practicing and are about to finish up preseason games. David's team is starting out rough, but we are hopeful they will come together for the start of the season games. I have no complaints in David's performance. He is a hard worker and has been very coachable. He did not want to play defense this year, but his team desperately needs him back there. He has realized that playing defense means he is on the ice longer, so he has decided it's not so bad.

Greg is in a unique situation...He has never actually played Hockey on a team. He really needs a year of low stress recreation hockey. Recreation Hockey is more instructional, without assigned goalies for games. Greg practices two nights a week with the recreational program and one night a week with the travel team in his goalie pads. He will continue to develop his goal tending skills. The travel team needed a backup goalie, so they asked if Greg could be ready for a "call up" during the season. Ready or not, Greg was asked to play his first game on Saturday for the travel team. The coach knew that they were playing an easier team so Greg wouldn't have a stressful game. Greg was more ready than we gave him credit for, he made 9 saves out of 11 shots on goal. Experienced or not, that was a great game! I didn't get any good video of this, my camera froze !! anyway..here is Greg's first official game as Goalie!

got time?

then check out what happens in my house while the girls are away..I think Alex has a future in movie production (or as an explosive specialist),Greg as an actor and Dale as support while our kids are in therapy(thanks to his cameo in video #2)....

Warning: the following videos made by children, contain violence not suitable for children

spring fever!!

You know it's spring when you start cleaning and making things look nice! The kids start spring break tomorrow, so I wanted to get one major project done this week while they were still in school...I have been putting off cleaning my office and organizing all of my paperwork,it really really needed to be done...so I decided that could be my next major project AFTER I painted the foyer and hallway! Here are the before and afters...

Before: Beautiful green stencil from the previous owner..(circa 1992)

Before: More Lovely green stencil..it was everywhere!

After...a much warmer color...ahhhh
After: of course now I want a new rug, a new bench and a nice big painting to go in the new foyer! in time in time!

I also spent the morning fixing the kids up for "twin crazy hair day" Melissa and her buddy did 3 long spikes...David and Greg decided to "rock the Red" with crazy wild red Washington Capitals hair

Bad parenting, but hilarious!

Philly and the Big Dig...

We spent the weekend at a hockey tournament in Pennsylvannia. Based on the phone calls I got when we arrived home, I should have let everyone know EXACTLY where in PA we were. A roof at in ice rink collasped during a hockey tournament for 7 year olds in PA over the weekend, and I think a few people had heart attacks not knowing if that was us or not. it was not. That one was outside of Pittsburgh, we were outside of Philadelphia. I had noticed a lot of snow on the roof of the rink we were at, and I have to be honest, it was on my mind while we were inside. It was also on my mind because one of the rinks in our league had a roof collapse as well.

Travelling with an entire Hockey organization is an interesting and fun experience. The hotel was really nice, everyone had two room suites. The huge atrium in the center of the hotel almost made you forget about the 2 feet of snow on the ground outside! The hotel made a great deal of accomadations for our organization, including feeding us a huge buffet breakfast everyday..it was great!

They also let us take over their ballroom as 'knee hockey central' for the kids. They had a hude TV and a wii hooked up..there was action in that room 24-7 for the teams...they would go from playing hockey to the pool to playing wii and back again...

Here is Greg playing goalie as Alex's watches...Greg, another 6 year old and a 9 year old hockey player won this little knee hockey tournament which included three other teams and other hockey players as old as 14...Way to go Greg!!

In the real tournament, David's team made it all the way to the championship game...beating out 6 of the 7 teams...his team fought hard and lost in the third period of the championship game to a very good team from Richmond Virginia., a team they had previously tied..final score was 4-2..(I like to think of it as 3-2 because they scored an empty netter with a few second left)

Here is his team with the 2nd place trophy

David getting his trophy

Good morning, Shawn!! (This isn't even the morning that we had to get up at 5:30 for a 6:45 game!)

When we got home, it was back to reality, and figuring out how to get our driveway cleared..we no longer have the backhoe, and the plow could only get 2/3 of the way down the driveway...I went gracery shopping and backed down as far as I could today...Dale and the kids got together to shovel the remaining distance to the garage...

And success! Car in the garage and groceries did not have to be carted the extra distance...Dale was also successful in getting my car out...we are a two car family again!

Greg decided he wanted to dig the van out...in case you were wondering how this turned out, he was not successful in digging the van out. It probably will not be driven until spring.

David's exciting week

David turned 8 on Nov. 19th. He was baptized on Dec. 5. (Thank you to everyone who braved the snowy conditions!)

At his birthday party we had pizza, cake and crafts ready for everyone. Also added to the birthday fun was playing in the snow and basement hockey. (Of course)

On friday, David's hockey team and families went to a Caps game. His team were the 'Mites on Ice" after the first period. (David's hockey age group are called mites) Here they all are, amped up and ready to play.

David ready to go... (Photo by Shawn)

Here is a short clip of them skating...(sorry for my loudness)

the kid shooting from his knee at the end of the clip is David...(video also by Shawn)

Thanksgiving (part 1)

Ok, so this picture has nothing to do with thanksgiving. I was uploading my pics, and I saw this and just wanted to post it. Dale and David were walking out the door on their way to a Caps game for David's birthday, and I just had to snap a picture of the two of the them! I love my guys!

On to Thanksgiving. We start our Thanksgiving celebration on Thanksgiving Day with Dale's family. Everyone arrived, ready to cook and eat!

The kids lining up to get their food,

The table getting set....

Dale and I with Kaeli, Dale's cousin, who joined us forThanksgiving. (I am impressed she was smiling in this photo, considering the beat down I just put on her in scrabble!) (a girl's gotta brag!)

(I didn't take many pics, more can be viewed on my mother in law's blog) http://cckelley51.blogspot.com/

And here we are, all set up for Thanksgiving, part 2 with my family! We will start out with a thanksgiving pancake lunch on Saturday, and just keep on eating til sunday night!