Another sport, another stick.

A few years ago, Megan took lacrosse "lessons" at Adrian College and even though she was little, she did a great job and she had a lot of fun. Last year AC didn't offer lacrosse lessons but Megan kept asking when she could do it again. So when I saw the flyer for lessons this Spring, I quickly told Megan and her eyes lit up...she was so excited to learn more about lacrosse. (If you haven't noticed by now, Megan is our natural born athlete. She LOVES to try new sports.)

 First day, Megan was all set to go in her pink hockey helmet and pink hockey gloves!

 

Because this is a "learn to play" most of the time the kids just practiced different drills.

 

 Megan being Megan, she took her time with every drill to make sure she completed the drill how she was told to do it. Yes, she was slower than others, but she had good form!

Ice arenas don't have air conditioning...she was a little sweaty!

 

Stretching circle. I always find it funny just to watch how the kids separate into groups. No, it wasn't always girls vs boys, more previous teammates with previous teammates. The "people watcher" in me always noticed how the kids grouped themselves. (Yes, I'm a nerd.) 

 Another drill to try and teach the kids how to run while cradling the ball/stick. Megan did really well with this except for those few times she dropped the ball completely by accident.

 So proud of Megan in this picture. If you have ever watched Megan playing hockey, you know that she is "just too nice" she feels bad taking the puck from someone else and just isn't aggressive (partly because she doesn't want to do something wrong) But anytime the kids played a lacrosse game verses just a drill...Megan was 100% in the game. Megan, in all pink, was constantly in the middle of most scrum trying to scoop up the ball. She won, more than once, and I was so proud. Proud because Megan is gaining the confidence to be aggressive, proud because she is learning that it is okay to be aggressive in a sport and no one will be upset with her, proud because she is learning that being "strong" is okay.

She left it all of the field...which is just another great lesson sports teaches our kids. "You give 100% until the game is over. If you fall, get back up. If you lose to another team, get back up. As long as you are having fun and doing your best...that's all that matters."

 

 

All of Megan's sports are done for now, but soon she will get back on the ice for hockey camp starting in August. She can't wait! Joey is excited too because he knows that once the ice is in, hockey can start and hockey means our hockey players will be back...yay!

If you give a mouse a cookie...

For the past 6 weeks or so, we have all been busy. Wrapping up the end of the school year, starting Spring activities, finding motivation to check off big "to-do list" items. We are only a few weeks into Summer "vacation" but so far I feel as though I am following the "if-you-give-mouse-cookie" plot. Also the reason for zero updates recently. Please enjoy my version of this classic story.

 

If you volunteer to count Box Tops for your daughter's school,

you will spend the evening covering your dining room table with dirty pieces of cardboard.

If you lose your dining room to yet another project,

you will FINALLY start to organize your basement.

 

***More on that in a later post...huge transformation!***





 

After being stuck in your basement waiting for Spring weather to arrive,

you will find jobs outside so you can enjoy it.

 

While outside looking at your sad backyard,

you will discover that your neighbors have extra landscaping rocks.

 

***Our amazing neighbors moved (sad day) they had a few rocks that were not using and said that we could have them. I LOVE good deals...free landscaping rocks...yes please! Thank you awesome neighbors!!!

 







 
 
 
 
 


 After finally accepting that family friends really are moving to the other side of the state,
you will then throw a small "Sucks You're Moving" party for them.

 Because Field Day is the best day ever,

you will volunteer to organize the event this year...for 400 kids...without going crazy!

 

After feeling so good about organizing your basement,

you will then feel the need to "just get rid of it" and organize TONS of stuff for a garage sale.

 

Megan sold water and lemonade at the garage sale and donated her money to the Foster Closet of Michigan. (I am very proud of her!!!)

 

13 huge Rubbermaid containers filled with kid stuff went to the garage sale, clothes were donated to friends/family prior and what didn't sale, went straight to Goodwill or the Foster Closet of Michigan-Adrian. None of it came back in! Such a good feeling to move the stuff along to people who will use it.

 

If you think your weekends are going to slow down so you can start to enjoy them,

Mother Nature will dump 5+ inches of rain on you during a 24 hour, cold, WINDY, never ending storm.

 

The storm was 4 days away, some roads are still closed due to flooding, a lot of people had basements filled with water and way too many still have yards underwater...I am not complaining, we didn't have any major issues. The storm was not fun, but I know we were luckier than some.

 













 When your friend post really beautiful pictures of her updated landscaping,

you will then decide to cut out the annoying outdated bushes in your yard.

 

When you are done with what seems to a continuous list of big projects,

you will relax for a day, sitting in a chair where you used to have annoying bushes.

-The End-

 

Soon I will start with "fun" projects once these big projects are done. Of course we are having fun this Summer too, but I just wanted to share all of these boring things first.  Next up, I will talk about Megan having fun at Lacrosse practices. 



How to make a Fairy Garden (Part 1)

This is going to be the first in a series of post by a guest writer. My guest writer needs a fun way to practice writing, story telling and most importantly...typing! (A skill that everyone needs to have!) So with that, I am proud to introduce Megan, age 7 3/4 years as our guest writer.

Megan decided she wanted to talk about Fairy Gardens.  

 This is at Barrett's garden store.They had a fairy garden class me my mom and grandma want to it with my naber and her mom and a friend. First we put dert in it then mos in it for grass then we put deckerashuns I put a tabol and chiers a butterfly a fairy and a turtul I put some rocks in mine for decorashuns. 

 

 

 

 I put the mos in it and got my decorashns redey to be put in.  

My feirey garden is the one in the left.

 

 

I know views may vary, but I want Megan to focus on typing verses spelling everything correctly. We did edit a few things she noticed as we read her sentences out loud. 



We might have a golfer too!

Megan is at a really fun age where she is try anything. Megan has found a love for hockey (duh!) and she is starting really enjoy golf as well.  Megan has had a set of real golf clubs for a few years and in the Summer she would normally join Mark for a few holes of "golf" on Sundays. She had never really had lessons, just soaking in the information we told her. This year, the Centre started a "Learn to Play Golf" program. Pretty sure I signed Megan up within minutes of learning about it (didn't even ask her, I just signed her up!)

The program they used is called SNAG (Starting New At Golf) Basically, it focuses on form and the fundamentals of golf, not on which club does what, what par means etc. Just really basic information to get kids started. 

 The last day of the program, the kids went to the Lenawee Country Club, to play a few holes on a real course. (Yes, I know Megan isn't in golf attire, her soccer game ended 10 minutes before golf started.)

Because SNAG teaches the basics, it only uses 2 clubs, a launcher (driver) and a roller (putter) and the kids hit off of a launch pad. The launch pad has an arrow the kids line up to point towards the flag and the ball has an arrow to also point towards the flag. AKA slow down and line up your shot!

Here they are learning about what a tee box is. They also discussed fairway, rough, sand traps etc.

 Since I am not a golfer, I can't really critique her form, but I'm pretty sure she shouldn't be that rushed after she hits the ball.

Side Note: It was a beautiful Spring day, the course was gorgeous!

 The kids were playing a scrabble format (every player hits from the same spot, the team picked the best hit, then they all hit from that spot, repeat.) Megan was super excited that her shot was the best 2 shots in a row!

 Lining up her shot. When she takes her time...she is pretty good.

 A belated Christmas gift was a new set of clubs for Megan, when golf was done, she got to bring her new clubs home. Her old set is the black/yellow bag, they looked so tiny next to her new set. (She is growing up to fast, I remember when those were too big.) Here is an old post about Megan golfing.

Joey was also excited to have a "new" set of clubs. Both of them have fun hitting the foam golf balls in the front yard. I actually had to hang Joey's golf bag up higher in the garage because he kept getting things out to play! This is going to be a fun Summer!

Playoff hockey...more than just a game!

I promise this will be the last hockey themed post...until Megan has hockey camp in August.

Clearly it isn't a secret that we are a hockey family and that we are huge fans of our AC Bulldogs. They had an amazing season, the excitement really heated up for the Harris Cup Championship and then continued on during the playoffs. Megan and Joey had a great time cheering the boys on, which meant that our Bulldogs gave us a lot of fun family memories (that Joey still reenacts all the time!) 

 The tradition at AC is that after they win the Harris Cup,the fans are invited onto the ice to celebrate with the players. (read about past Harris Cup wins here ) Our kids LOVE being able to go on the ice and this year was no exception!

 Joey was running from the stands to get to the ice, to find our hockey boy. We were so excited for him and the rest of the guys, they deserved this moment. (Side Note: this is a rare picture of Megan with a genuine smile, not forced or fake, which NEVER happens for pictures.)

 Joey found his goalie or DK found his Joey...honestly, I'm not sure who like who more.

 The playoffs were really heating up and AC was able to host the quarter final game. The last time they hosted a quarter final game, we were in Florida. Being able to witness a sold out crowd, standing room only was sold out too, was kind of a fun experience on it's on. Being there to witness our boys win, making it into the Frozen Four was pretty darn exciting.

 Amazing game...simply amazing game.

 After that exciting win at AC, the next day we were taking Megan and Joey to their first Red Wings game. (It was so crazy, this was the best pic I took and Megan wanted no part of having her picture taken!)

 Both kids were excited to watch the game and both of them were in awe of how big The Joe is.

 Joey was also super excited that they had 2 Zambonis! Seriously, he wouldn't look away when 2 Zambonis were on the ice!

Please excuse my "deep thoughts" for a moment.
Because AC won the night before, we now had a big decision to make. Do we make the trip to Minnesota to cheer on the guys or do we just cheer them on from home watching the game online? Mark knew even before they won that he was going, my parents were going and so were a lot of other fans. I was torn...pull Megan from school for a hockey game!?! I didn't know...until I sat watching the Red Wings game. Normally, watching a professional game is exciting, but for me, for this game, my heart wasn't there. My heart was with AC and not wanting to miss their game in Minn. This helped make my decision...plus a text from our hockey boy...we were all going to Minnesota!

 In a matter of days, hockey fans had custom shirts printed for each of our hockey boys, hotel reservations were made and GPS's were ready to get us there. You'll notice 5 shirts in this picture...we had an extra family member joining us for the road trip, our hockey boy's girlfriend needed to get to Minny and we were happy to be able to get her there!

 Pretty darn impressive when you stop to think about all the ups and downs AC during the regular season.

 I can only imagine what they were thinking about warming up for this game.

 The Schutte men were set and ready to cheer for our boys.

 Drop the puck!

My 2 favorite moments from this game: watching the players look at the crowd cheering after they scored their 1st goal...the smiles on their faces were priceless! Then being there to cheer extra loud when our hockey boy scored a goal in an NCAA semi-final game...awesome!

Sadly, the game didn't end with AC moving onto the finals. There were tears and then we moved on. Friends, fans, family and players rallied and had one hell of a celebration to end the season.

Taking over the basement of a bar, our kids played and our kids learned that no matter what, you cheer for our boys, you cheer for the guys that worked hard all season, you cheer for the good guys because it's not about what they do on the ice that we respect, it's what they do off the ice! They are all great guys and were had a great time watching them this year. To quote a hockey mom, "If this is how we celebrate when they lose, I can't wait to see how we celebrate when they win." AC will have their moment, I just know it! (read about our first trip to Minnesota here.)

And just like that, we were on our way back home. The trip was 100% worth it and we made a lot of memories. I know the hockey guys appreciated the support, but what they don't realize is that we appreciate what they do for us. I can't begin to count how many hugs our kids got from players, how many fist bumps Joey got or how many encouraging words they gave Megan before she stepped on the ice for her practice (which was right after their practice once a week) For that I say "thank you."

Bunnies bring fun things, Easter 2015

Easter morning started with yummy cinnamon roll French Toast casserole, hash browns and fruit. One might assume that it started with and Easter egg hunt, but no, it took our kids about 3 hours before they realized the Easter Bunny made a stop at our house. (They kind of do the same thing at Christmas...weird.)

 Joey needed some assistance to see what was up high.

Our super smart Easter Bunny, collected all of the bunnies from previous visits and lined them all up, then added a few chocolate bunnies too! (Side Note: Megan and Joey were super excited and didn't noticed the lack of Easter baskets.)

 

Normally, we spend Easter in Ann Arbor with family, but this year dates lined up funny and my parents were actually home for Easter verses on a cruise. So after breakfast we went over to my parents house to continue the fun.

 When we arrived, we quickly noticed that the Easter Bunny arrived too! He left a note on the front door!

 Megan was on a mission to find her eggs! This one was just out of reach and she was doing the best she could to stretch to reach it...she must have used "the force" because it just dropped into her hand!

 Joey was doing a great job finding his eggs.

 I guess the Easter Bunny got the memo that Joey loves the Bulldogs and hid a few eggs in/near hockey stuff.

 Whoa! Look at all of her eggs!

 Time to open those pretty little eggs up...

...only to find puzzle pieces inside! The Easter Bunny made them work! It took a while to put the puzzle together (as of 3 weeks later, we are still missing a few eggs/puzzle pieces!) Luckily, Megan is a smarty, MacSmarty Pants, and she figured out the clue even with a few pieces missing.

 

Run, run, run to the room of craft fun.

 

Look and you will see a basket from me.

 



I have a great video of her solving the puzzle, then racing to her basket...but apparently it was too big and I can't post it. But she was very excited and Joey was very tired after climbing so many stairs to find their baskets.

 Super cute and meaningful basket filled with things, not candy.

 Joey found his basket too!

 Joey showing off his new game of Right, Left, Center, while Megan was sorting through all of the colors of loom bands in her basket.

 Another fun Easter gift, was a Red Wings bobble head! (you know our kids like hockey right!?!)

 Love this kid...I love that simple gifts in an Easter basket mean a lot to her. She was truly excited for each and every item.

 Joey cherished his Easter basket too. He LOVED that he got a few new decks of hockey cards.

Another super fun thing Megan got was a dice game called Tenzi We instantly became obsessed with this game! Even Grandma-great got in on the action and won on her 3rd attempt!

Joey loved playing too...but he didn't following the rules exactly. Silly boy.