a little bragging, if I must ;)

ok, so I know it's super rude to be braggy, so here is a warning, I am about to be very rude!

Sports. Greg. He is very athletic, and doesn't know it. He has an even temperament. (aka, isn't focused and is usually in space half the time during any sports practice)

Last year, his hockey team was playing in a division that was above their skill level...in other words, they were clobbered every single game! Greg was the goalie. At first it didn't seem to matter to him, getting crushed every game. but towards the end of the season, after facing 30, 40, 50 and yes sometimes over 60 shots a game, he began to grow weary and his confidence wavered. His numbers seemed good to me, hitting between a 60(at his worst) and 85 save percentage per game.( Meaning he saved that percentage of total goals that were shot at him) His coaches were always complimentary. I thought he was awesome, but I did realize that I was his mother, biased by nature. I realized I might not know the reality of his ability.

Seeing how his confidence was taking a turn for the worst, and not being completely sure of his "true" ability, we made the decision to pull him from hockey. (unlike other sports, the commitment for a child to play hockey can quickly become a burden if #1 they are not loving it, and confidence in themselves is going down and #2 if they are not progressing in the sport) The decision to pull him was hard.

He seemed content with not playing, until the season started. He really, really wanted to play. I explained that it would most likely be another tough season in Goal for him, and he still wanted to play.

Fast forward to Saturday. Greg represented his team in a "shootout competition" in Northern Virginia. In hockey this is a big deal. The goalie who lets in the least wins, and the shooter who gets the most shots in, wins. Eight other goalies his age participated. Dale estimated about 100 shooters participated.

The goalies who he went up against are from our league, teams who are from all over Maryland, DC and Virginia were represented.

Greg WON! He called to tell me the good news! I think he was excited, but true to Greg's personality, his voice sounded even keeled about the whole thing. He was most excited about the prize...a really nice, very expensive, hockey stick. He can't wait to get on the ice and play with his new stick.

I am still in shock over the whole thing. His coaches said they were not surprised by his win. As soon as they heard about the competition they signed Greg up. They knew it was Greg's competition. At this point, his confidence in himself is sky high. Unlike his mom, he is not a braggy kid. He never lets his head get too big, but I couldn't be more proud!

(This picture is from last March)

It's great to be 8!

In our family, a very special birthday party happens at 4, 8, 12 and 16 years old. With each of my children, 8 has been extra special. They were all baptized and then celebrated the day with as many friends and family as possible.

The day Greg was baptized was bitter sweet. I couldn't have been more proud of his decision to be baptized, but sad that my youngest is already 8! Time has gone much to quickly with these sweet kids. It feels like we were just celebrating Shawn's 8th birthday and baptism!


I am so proud of each of my children and Greg is no exception. He is so sweet, loving, kind, animated, bright, active and pure pleasure to be around!

Our local baptismal font is not working, and in an effort to keep his baptism close, he was baptized in our pool. It was cold, rainy and cloudy, but I didn't hear a word of complaint from him (or Dale!) They patiently waited in the chilly water for everyone to make their way down to the pool.



A few hours after the ordinance was performed, and services concluded, Greg celebrated his 8th birthday. Many family and friends joined in the fun.

tricking Greg with trick candles (he loves a good joke)...my experience has taught me that blowing trick candles out requires a "personal" cake to avoid contaminating the "community" cake.

I feel like a chapter in my life has concluded. I am humbled when I think not only of each of my children choosing to be baptized, but of the incredible support they each received from family and friends on their special days. Thank you all so much for giving them so much support and helping them to know that they are part of something far greater than themselves. I cannot express enough how grateful I am to all the support we received for each one of them!

Photo Phlashback

Ignore the time stamp, these were taken April 1, 2011...Greg is such a character, ALWAYS laughing with David and ALex. We went out for pizza before Alex's concert last night, and they could not stop laughing...I snapped some quick shots just as a memory of the "triplets" constant laughter...


(Dancing back and forth singing the Six Flags song...never been but he likes the tune I guess)
"I'm craaaaaazzzzzzzzyyyyy GREG!"


"This IS restaurant behavior, MOM!"

Today I was looking for a photo of Greg from 5 years ago...I came across the file of our Disney World Trip in 2006...I was a bit surprised to see the montage of Greg pictures that I took to documen,t what was apparently, a much darker time in Greg's life... check out the contrast from THEN to NOW....

"I'm so stressed, and your making me go to DISNEY WORLD!?! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

(Greg refused to be in this, and several other pictures with the Disney characters)

"A chipmunk?.....Can I run away from home and go to school to be a chipmunk?"





"If I could just be a chipmunk, everything would be OK!!"


"Life suxs!"

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!

Nice is as nice does..

Greg: "mom, are we going swimming today?"
Me: yes we are...
Greg: "wow mom, you are the second nicest woman I have ever known!"
Me: "Thank you Greg that is super sweet!"
Greg: "You are not the nicest woman I have ever known, thats Great Grandma Kelley! I liked when we went to her house and got wet in this little river thing...She is my favorite"

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!

End of an era??

We wrapped up the soccer season with a pizza party on Saturday. I really enjoy working with the kids and relish each of their milestones. Of my 5 kids, only Greg elected to play soccer this year. They each get to choose two sports a year, Shawn, Alex and Melissa elected to play basketball as sport one and baseball as sport two (softball for Melissa)and David elected hockey again(which counts as his two, unless he is conviently on whatever team Greg picks, then he can play a second sport) ANYWAY...Greg elected baseball and soccer. After being one of the best kids on the team, and showing real talent in soccer he informed me that he likes everything else better. Starting with football (which he has never played). Really? Football? 'Yeah mom, tackle football!" you are six, how about flag football. "no mom, I want to TACKLE, can you sign me up?"

I thought it was a phase, but he has been talking about playing football for longer than a year now, and he tackles EVERYONE all the time! .I LOVE watching football, but it's one thing to watch another women's babies beating the snot out of each other, it's another thing to ask me to watch MY baby be a part of it! Having a child play football was never a wish of mine, but if he wants to do it, he gets to do it. So next year, looks like we will be tackle football fans. Baseball is his second favorite, so he will play that, and his third favorite is basketball. I asked if soccer was his 4th favorite and he responded by saying "is there another sport I might like to be my fourth, then soccer can be my 5th favorite"

I guess I am done being a soccer mom! it's alright, I hate that stereotype anyway. I could see myself coaching basketball for my daughter, but other than that, I might be out of the coaching gigs as well!

Star Gazing...

In College I was able to score front row seats for a Bryan Adams Concert. I LOVE LOVE LOVED Bryan Adams! My tall friend put me on his shoulders and I found myself face to face with my idol! I started feeling weird being face to face with him, and then Bryan Adams stuck a pick in my hand and had me strum his guitar mid performance! EVERYONE at the concert could see me! I FREAKED out and started slapping my friends head saying "put me down! put me down!!" I am by no means shy, but I guess when the spotlight is big enough, I get very uncomfortable! So much so that I have learned to keep a safe distance from anyone who might have a big spotlight near them, and I tend to actually feel sorry for them versus being star struck.

Turns out, my kids are not easily star struck either, but for an entirely different reason. They seem to have a healthy understanding that famous people are just like them, only more well known. I have tried to take my kids to meet people who they enjoy. I took Melissa to meet the Jonas Brothers, and when I started taking her close to the stage, her response was.. "Mom, it's their music I like, not them." All my kids seem to share that sentiment towards famous people, 'it's their talent that I enjoy, not them'

I was so excited for David this weekend when a friend of his invited him to go to the Washington Capital's Convention. I knew David would get to meet some of his hockey idols! The summary I got from the mom about the event was about who was there and what the boys said and did with them! She got several photos of the boys with different players doing different things. David's summary was quite a bit different, He mentioned that he got to be goalie, that he got to take some slap shots, that he played hockey with his buddy, that he even got to buy a puck and a stick with his lunch money, but no where in his summary did David mention the fact that he had played 'hockey' with some of the *Caps* players! I was more excited about that than he was!

David and his teammate, Tommy, getting a picture with Alexander Semin.

Yesterday we took the boys to the caps practice rink. I think it is so cool that we can get David up so close and personal with his favorite sports stars.



Here Greg is eyeing the players...

Outside David got to meet several of the players, including the great 8, Alex Ovechkin!

David continued getting signatures of all the players on his caps sweatshirt. You can see that the players had to find space because some crazy kid had already signed his own name so big! (We also met the Caps owner, Ted Lionsis, as he was walking in. David responded to him by walking away saying "he isn't a player, I don't want his signature." Then later he commented that he at least should have met Ted Lionsis because he could have asked for a position on the Cap's roster! Oh the confidence of kids should be bottled up and sold!)

Since David love love loves the Capitals, (and HATE HATE HATES the Pittsburgh Penguins!) he gave Greg a special job yesterday...Greg had to wear the "Ovechkin" jersey and get it signed by Ovechkin. Greg was successful ! David was so pleased with his success that Greg celebrated by going up to fellow Capital Chris Borque and had him sign the Ovechkin jersey as well! David was no longer pleased with his little brother and in front of Chris Bourque he said, "Greg, I only wanted Ovechkin's name on that jersey!!" **In other News: Chris Bourque was just picked up by the Penguins. (Thats right, the only two signatures on David's beloved Ovechkin jersey are Ovechkin's, and now the much hated Pittsburgh Penguin's Chris Bourque!)(I think Greg is now on the "my little brother sucks" list)

fireflies

With most of our trip preparations finished, the boys took some time last night to catch some fire flies.

As soon as they spotted a 'flash', they would take off after it, you could hear their little feet running back and forth on the deck running from 'flash' to 'flash'! It reminded me of the trazillion fire flies I caught when I was a kid!

It was all so cute, except for the part where we accidentally let a fire fly go in our bedroom and he went so high that even Dale couldn't catch him!

Waiting for pizza...

With Dale and Shawn away at scout camp, we decided to have a pizza night! The kids have been cleaning and packing and acting like perfect angels for HOURS in anticipation of the BIG pizza dinner!

After getting maximum effort from the kids ALL day, I FINALLY took them to get pizza....

We opted to get carry out,...in what seemed like an ETERNITY to the kids, we waited for the pizza...

Melissa waiting.....

Greg Waiting.....

Alex and David waiting......

It's ready!! We bring it home and open it...

and it's gone! that was FAST!!

I almost feel guilty that they worked SO hard for such a fleeting reward... to quote a Montgomery Gentry song, "working maximun hours for minimum wage", it's character building, right??

activities surrounding the 4th....

Since we came back from New York the kids have been fascinated with tall buildings , here is a chart that they were studying....


Here is a drawing of the tallest building concieved...it is designed to be over 800 stories and 13000 feet above sea level...(thats the height of some mountains in Utah!) who knows if this thing will ever actually get built, but how cool is it???

My kids have been building their own "Twin Towers"....



On the 3rd we had several people over for swimming and taco salad (sorry, no pics!) and on the 4th we went to Dale's parents for their annual fourth of July BBQ...food and family and relaxing, there is nothing better! Even *I* was slightly taken back when I saw this picture of the Kelley family...and an announcement on Wendy's blog assures that this family is still growing!

Cousins and friends jumping on the trampoline....

right before heading to the University of Maryland for fireworks...