Hockey Camp, just enough to last until October...maybe.

Last year, Megan was on the AYHA 6U team, her first time on a hockey team.  It was a learning curve for all of us and she got to play in some really fun places. Overall, it was a fun season and I think Megan really enjoyed being on a team. 

 Megan (pink stripe on helmet) and Grace (pink helmet) ready and waiting for camp to start.

 

Hockey season is fun but it is long, so after 6+ months of 6U hockey, the kids were ready to be done. By the time hockey camp got here, all of the kids were beyond ready to get on the ice again!

FYI: the girls are 4 months apart in age...Megan is at the bottom of the growth charts and Grace is at the top of the growth charts. They LOVE playing together and each girl has their own strengths, so they are really fun to watch.

Paying attention to the coach and waiting until it is their turn to do the next drill.

She is starting to get a little "aggression" is her. Well, Megan's version of aggression.

 After the on-ice drills, the kids spent some time working of other drills outside.( Megan is wearing the white hat.)

Joey LOVES hockey, but during the week of camp, he couldn't decide what was better, watching hockey OR watching all of the construction equipment in the parking lot. Adrian College is expanding their fitness center, so Joey had fun watching the process.

 Mark got to come watch Megan for a few hours one morning. Megan was happy he was there to watch.

 One of the ways Joey stayed busy during the 3 hour a day camp (Megan is still only 6, I was not going to leave her there, just incase something happened.)

 Keep the pucks away from the coaches...fun game!

I love this picture!

 She scores!!! Slowly, Megan is growing more confident with what she can do.

 Joey would live here if allowed.

 Last day of camp...she was so ready to get on the ice!

 The 3 girls of hockey camp :) Grace, Megan and Willow...all of them will be on the 8U team next year...it is going to be fun!

The younger brothers loved running ALL over the almost empty arena. Zeke is Grace's younger brother.

 Slowly, gaining more confidence :)

 How younger brothers AND a cousin entertain themselves during the skills competition :)

 The end of hockey camp...great speech from their coach but also a sad goodbye...Stavros is leaving to take an assistance coaching job at Princeton (yeah, that Princeton) he will be missed. The kids were drawn to him and he had the patience to coach kids. 

After a long week of camp...she needed a donut!

 

I have a ton of videos from her week at camp, but I only picked a few to post.  Megan's skating is awesome and her stick handling is coming along. I cannot wait to see what this upcoming season will bring...is it October yet!?!



Loving lake life!

 Friends of ours, have family that live on Evans Lake, a nice quite lake just outside of town. It was a beautiful Summer day and a group of us went out to spend the day relaxing lake side.  Apparently, our group created just enough activity that a family of swans swam over, hoping to find food.

The kids LOVED the swans and wanted to take a closer look...the moms, however, were on edge just hoping for the swans to go away before something bad happened. Just incase you didn't know, swans are mean! Swans are protective of their babies! Swans are bigger than you think!

 The first visit from the swans brought a momma and 6 babies. She was just as curious about our kids as our kids were about hers. We had no food for her, so she took her babies and left. As the afternoon passed, more friends/kids showed up to play at the lake. I guess our bigger group caught the swans attention again, and over they came, this time bringing the daddy with them.

Since nothing happened with the first visit, the human kids were really interested with the swans this time. They slowly, slowly got closer and closer to the daddy swan. The moms were watching and just kind of waiting until we needed to step in. For me, that moment came when Joey started walking towards the daddy swan...the daddy swan that was twice Joey's size! That's when I got up, reminded the kids swans are means and it was time to leave them alone! (All of the moms helped get the kids away and it was a united front to just let the swans be.)

 Joey is becoming an independent child, which I have mixed feelings about, so here he is sitting on the dock saying over and over again, "Momma, just yet me be." *FYI the water is about up to his knee, that is why he doesn't have a life jacket on. I am all about water safety, but a foot of water didn't make me nervous.

 While I was laughing at Joey, Megan decided she was going to paddle board!

 She had kayaked in the past, but had never been on a paddle board...she was a natural! I was kind of proud that she took it upon herself to try it.

 Yep, I can see us buying a paddle board at some point, she loved it! It was a great Summer afternoon at the lake.

Mark's parents are back from their Canadian adventure and they brought back and extra person for a few weeks :) Our niece, Kelsey, is here and the kids couldn't wait to play her. Since Mark's parents also live on a lake (Michigan has a lot of lakes) most of the time the kids are in their bathing suits, running around the yard or playing in the water.

 Joey is still a little unsure of lake water.  He LOVES being in the pool, but the dark lake water kind of freaks him out. Kelsey, was able to convince Joey to go out on a floaty thing (yes, that is a technical term!) He was having fun.

Right after they went over board, Joey was done with the water!

 :) He is just so cute!

 During the Canadian adventure, Grandma and Papa found a popcorn popper to use over their fire pit. We all thought it was a great way to have a special treat that wasn't a s'more. Don't get me wrong, we all enjoy s'mores, we just don't need to have one every time there is a fire.

The first batch of popcorn didn't last very long...so we made another! And you know what, I never heard anyone complain that there wasn't any salt or butter on the popcorn! They were just excited to make it over the fire pit.

Michigan in the Summer...kind of perfect...I love it!

Worst thing ever...

Have you ever had times where lots of little things add up to one big sucky thing? Then when that sucky thing is done, all you can do is laugh at it and learn from it? That happened to me about a week ago (after reading about it, you will understand why there was a delay in updating this blog)

 

I promise I will not share gross details, just the story.

 

So about a week ago, it was one of those days where my kids were ready to eat, I wasn't, Mark was gone for the evening, kids wanted to swim, I didn't want to cook...Megan said she wanted a hamburger so off to Wendy's we went. (Side Note: Megan has been on a hunger strike, more details later) Joey has never really enjoyed dinner, so he didn't get anything. I was logging calories and not really hungry for a meal, but I needed something...baked potato with cheese and bacon...perfect! Just enough to give me energy to swim with the kids and I could enjoy another healthy snack later.

 

We ate our food, then put bathing suits on and went to our neighbor's house to swim (Thank you Drews for letting us use your pool) With Mark being gone, I got my pool workout done first while the kids played.  We swam until it was bed time, a good 2 hours. Closed the pool up...wet clothes off, pj's on...relax a bit before tucking the kids into bed, a perfect Summer night...

 

...until that feeling came. Everyone knows that feeling, the feeling that you just want to vomit to make the pain go away. Lucky for me, that feeling only lasted a for a bit, just long enough to get one tv turned to the Disney channel and the other tv turned to Disney Jr. Then...

 

It was almost instantly that I knew this was different, I knew I was in for a long night and needed someone to help me. If I wasn't so sick, this scenario would have made me laugh verses cry. 

• Mark was an hour away having dinner
• My parents were in Texas
• Mark's parents were in Canada
• My neighbors were in FL or not home
• Our friends that didn't have multiple kids to get into bed, were in Vegas

I sent Mark a text telling him he had to come home. An hour later, when he got home I was crying because of the pain and both of my kids had to fend for themselves :( Thank goodness, Mark jumped into Super Dad mode so I could just focus on me and my new friend Church. That is the brand name on our toilet seat. "Praying to the porcelain god" took on a new meaning and it made me chuckle while I lay there praying for it all to end.  After feeling like I was going to die, I knew that I was dealing with food poisoning and it was going to suck.

 

The next 8 hours were pretty much the worst thing ever. The next day I didn't eat anything and drank enough to keep me out of the hospital. Super Dad, kept the kids busy and I think they could sense that I just needed things to be quiet and time to recover. I slowly...slowly started eating a few bites but basically lived in my bed all weekend. I felt like $#!t but knew I needed to be a mom and with Megan having hockey camp the whole next week, I had to push through. So this is how I looked at hockey camp Monday morning.

I was there, but not there. After camp was done, so was I, tv day for the kids so I could sleep. Each day got a little better, I had a little bit more energy. Finally. today, Saturday a whole week later, I feel good. I am ready to get back to my workouts and ready to start testing recipes to quick easy DIY "fast food" meals. I haven't cooked in a week and my family has been eating junk. I am ready to take on the challenge of fixing 100% of meals at home, because food poisoning SUCKED and I just can't have my kids dealing with that because I am too lazy to have a meal plan in place. Time to sync our schedules to our meals, so I don't lose another week of my life again.

 

So if anyone has quick, easy, healthy recipes...send them my way! 

Still working on a better me!

Another therapeutic for me post, read on if you wish.

If you missed the original post about "time for me" you can read it here

 

I turn bright red and sweat like a pig 2 minutes after I start any workout
I blame my pale white girl skin, I have always been this way. But don't
panic, I'm totally fine :)

Okay, so I am a little over 2 weeks into "time for me" and I am feeling great...sore, but great! I have officially determined that I am not a runner and honestly, I don't think I ever will be. Pretty sure this started back when I was a kid playing YMCA soccer, and I quote, "Mom, there is too much running in soccer!" or it could be from playing softball in high school, "Berthold...lift your knees!" or maybe it is because the fastest mile I have ever ran was about 11:20 seconds...I am NOT a runner!!! But you know what I have discovered in the last 2 weeks, I can power walk faster than I can run! I can walk a 12 minute mile...if I walk for 5 miles at a time, I can keep up a 12:30 minute mile pace for each mile...WHAT!?! How is it possible that I can power walk for 5 miles and think nothing of it, but the thought of running a mile sounds like misery to me. Signing up for a 5K sounds likes torture and yet I have been out walking 5 miles at a time a least 5 nights since I have started this mission.

I know some of you reading this will not be impressed with walking a 12 minute mile (you are probably a runner) but I think that is kind of impressive :)

I have also discovered that I cannot back down from a challenge, so for I have completed a 10 mile challenge, a squat challenge (ouch) and now I am doing a push-up challenge (push-ups are evil...I hate them!) I have logged my food intake everyday and let me tell you...knowing the calories of EVERYTHING you eat, you will quickly learn to measure things!

So I am feeling good about all of this and if you see a sweaty girl walking like she is on a mission...it is probably me or another woman just like me, on a mission to better herself. If you see me at the pool treading water in the deep end when I can very easily just stand in the shallow end, it is because I am squeezing in a "workout" while I play with my kids. Now if you excuse me...I have some work to do!

Friends, family, fireworks...FUN!!!

 On the 4th of July, we spent the day relaxing on Loch Erin with friends and family. The kids played in the sand and water all day long. It was only about 75 degrees, so just a little chilly for the parents to get in the water, but the kids didn't care...or aren't old enough to know what "cold" means, so they had a blast.

 The pontoon never left the dock, but all of the kids loved just sitting on the boat watching all of the activity on the lake. It seemed as though there was always someone setting off fireworks, so the kids loved watching them all as the day went on.

 Glow sticks!!! You can never go wrong with glow sticks! (Confession: sparklers freak me out! It's not that I have a problem with them, I think they are fun, kids always giggle when they have one. But I received one of my nastiest blisters from a sparkler, it hurts for days! Plus a niece of mine, got a sparker stuck in her flip flop one year when she accidently dropped it...eek! They are hot fire on a stick, that freak me out...hence, glow sticks!!!)

 Fire pit + BBQ = S'mores!!!

 The next day, we were off to another event with lots of friends. The weather was beautiful, the yard was perfect for kids to play...if we weren't all so exhausted from the long night prior. Wow, we are getting old! Other than being tired, the adults shares funny stories (did you know that 2 people can sink a dock!?!) and the kids played, what more do you need in the Summer...

 A hammock is good...

 Oh and some dirt to dig in...

 Then add an outdoor movie...perfection!

 Joey totally made a comfy spot for himself!

 Watching The Sandlot, outside, during Summer, with friends...so much fun! I don't know how the kids stayed awake until the end, but they did...except Joey, he found me, cuddled on my lap and fell asleep half way through.

 He was really, really tired, because he fell asleep the next day AT THE POOL!?! What kid does that!?! (Full Disclosure: Grandma discovered that swim diapers are NOT absorbent!)

To end our fun filled weekend, we ended up at my parents house for a BBQ that included homemade onion rings (So good!!!) and yummy homemade ice cream (thanks, Olsavers!) Joey enjoyed his ice cream in the world's smallest bowl, sitting in a huge chair (well huge for a 2 year old!)

Our Summer fun is still going strong...and I am loving every minute of it!