Aidan's B-Day

April Twins Game

A rainy night allows for catching up on things. I've neglected posting for too long. Below are pictures from our mid-April baseball game at the Dome against the Devil Rays. Neighbor friends provided the suite, home plate tickets, and a underground parking pass across from the dome. We provided a bag of licorice.

Watching baseball from a suite is the way to go with little kids. They can yell and scream and nobody cares and escape is possible only through one door (which was guarded by six parents).

Seeing the game behind home plate made a couple things clear to me.
1. Baseball players are not huge guys. They are regular-sized guys with great timing.
2. The ball doesn't look that fast. Sitting behind home I was expecting to be amazed by the speed of the pitchers throws. On the contrary, it looked hittable.

The Twins lost but it didn't matter, I could sit through a 100-loss season and enjoy it from those seats.

April Showers

It rained last night. Hard. Between the wind and rain coming down sleep was difficult. But this morning was like "The Wizard of Oz" when Dorothy wakes up amongst the munchkins. Everything greened up over night. The moisture was needed and things look great, but now I have to mow. A co-worker told me it was a million dollar rain for the farmers. Not sure about that since most fields haven't been planted yet.

Jack had a soccer game tonight. Before going we had supper (leftovers from Aidan's party). Aidan insisted on having a candle to blow out with his leftover cake.

Speaking of the soccer, Jack's team did very well scoring lots of goals and getting a lot of kids involved. He put in a couple himself and had a great time cheering on his teammates. It's a lot of fun to see him so happy for his team. After goals he makes the rounds giving high-fives.

I happened to turn around in my chair during the game to see what was happening in the field next to us. I turned just in time to see a boy fall down in a crowd and take a kick to the face. Ouch.

Jack got kicked twice tonight and had his hand stepped on when he was in the goal. He was tough during the game, but one of the kicks came in warm-ups when a girl didn't like where he was standing and planted her foot in his leg. That got him to cry. It's a cruel world sometimes. But karma will get her-in the form of a ball to the head or a forehead zit on prom night.

Aidan's not content to watch the action. The playground adjacent to the fields calls and he answers. It's probably the least safest playground I've seen for kids his age. Lots of platforms with few guardrails and lots of kids running around it.

O'Brien Update

Hockey
Jack finished up his first season with a flourish. He had 2 practices and 3 games in the span of 8 days. Of course, this included the big Termite Jamboree.

The Jamboree stressed us out a little bit. Being first time hockey parents we didn't know how strict or relaxed the parent volunteer duties were. With family coming to town we didn't want to be stuck sweeping the stands while company waited at home. In the end it all worked out. We did our part and Jack had a blast scoring a goal during the Saturday game and playing Sunday in front of 12 family members.

As if that wasn't enough hockey, we watched the Cedar Rapids cousins play Saturday afternoon and evening at the Parade Ice Garden in Minneapolis. The pace was a little faster than what we see in Termites.

It's not totally over, yet. The team party is the 31st at a bowling alley.

The Boys
They continue to grow and do new things. Jack received his acceptance to the Kindergarten Extension program (All-Day Kindergarten) at his school. Aidan's vocabulary continues to grow. They've both been sick once or twice this month and the house seems a little too small right now. It's time for warmer weather.

Work
March is a busy time for Jodi and I. We both have parent-teacher conferences this month. A total of 4 nights plus preparation. Not a huge commitment, but more time away from doing the things we like to do.

Upcoming
My spring break is half over and Jodi's is next week. Tomorrow we go to see Suki's gymnastics practice and Saturday we go some neighbor friend's for supper.

Jack starts soccer on March 26th (picture night).

Must Keep Shoveling

We've shoveled the driveway three times today and it could be done again. The snow just keeps on coming. There is so much snow that our driveway resembles the continental United States- Appalachians on the east side, Great Plains in the center, and the Rockies on the west. The pile that Jack is on started last weekend when I shoveled all of it to that end so it wouldn't blow back during the night. It's about as tall as I am.



School was let out early in both of our disticts today. I was told about 10:00 this morning that we'd be let out at 1:50 (about 90 minutes early) and that I needed to start calling families now. At that point, learning was over. The kids did busy work (can't teach and talk on the phone) and I dialed away.



It has been fun though. We all made it home safe and have no where urgent to go. We did have a scare with the furnace. It started blowing out cool air around 6:30 tonight. I tried restarting it and turning up the thermostat. It sounded like it was taking in gas and blowing, but not igniting. I checked outside and the vents were drifted over with snow. After those were cleared I flipped the breaker on and off and crossed my fingers. It worked. I had visions off a frozen house with burst pipes or the house going up in a natural gas vapor cloud.



With the furnace running, we all went back outside to shovel again. Aidan loves to help and Jack loves to climb an jump. Jack got a snowmobile ride from Neighbor Steve. I'm going to try to post that on Google video when I have a faster connection and put in a link to it. He like it a lot and didn't want to get off. Aidan was concerned for his safety and kept backing away from the snowmobile yelling "Get off Jack, Come Jack."



The news said Chaska had over 13 inches by 5:00 tonight. We must be at least that by now. It just doesn't quit. The weather people say we're about half-way done with this. It will be fun for the boys to play in tomorrow since both of our schools are closed. We've never had this much snow at this house.

Another Pic From Varsity Night

I had this picture passed on to me by a parent of an older skater. It's pretty cool.

Ice and Snow

The snow did come. It didn't start until after 9:00 Saturday morning, but the weather people were right. It snowed large, fluffy flakes that looked like white bits of insulation. It wasn't easy to determine how much we got since it was blowing so hard from the east. Even today I see parts of our yard that are nearly bare or exposed old snow.

Thinking ahead, I went out to shovel Saturday night after supper. I thought it would mean less snow to shovel in the morning if it snowed all night like they said it would. I decided to shovel it to the west end of the driveway on account of the wind. However, when we all went out this morning, we saw that the snow pile I made last night acted like a fence and stopped the snow from blowing to the neighbors yard. In the end, we had just as much snow as Steve across the street.

As I wrote, the whole family helped out. With three shovels and four people I had to problem solve to keep the boys happy. That's why you see pictures of Jack with a window scrapper on the front steps. Aidan loves to shovel as long as the snow stays off of his face and out of his gloves.

Tonight we took Jack to the Skate With the Varsity Hockey Team Night. All of the squirt, mite, U-8 girls, and termites had a chance to meet the players. Aidan doesn't do hockey games well, so we hired the babysitter to come over. He was happy.

When we walked in to the rink the players autographed a team photo for him and he registered for some raffle prizes (he won a Wild pennant, cup, and hat-which Jodi had just bought). Once he registered he ran to the locker room to get out on the ice with the older kids.

It was a little nerve-wracking. They had the heavier pucks out (Jack uses a lighter puck for his level) and I could here them banging off the boards. I was sure he was going to get a puck off the forearm or in the gut, but he didn't. The worst that happened was getting laid out by "a big orange guy." One of my 4th graders saw he was hurt and helped him off the ice.

He was awesome out there. Tonight was the best I've ever seen him skate. I think he was really pumped up to be out there with the big boys. His form has improved so much and he whizzed through a puck relay where they had to zig zag around the cones with the puck, do the same coming back, and pass off to the next kid. I wasn't so sure about how he would do when I saw him lined up for that drill. He was one of the smallest 3 skaters out there (out of 75 kids and 25 varsity kids).

Later he had a slap shot drill where the coaches used a radar gun to gauge their speed. The varsity kids were hitting about 70 -75 mph. Jack didn't hear what he got, but it must have been at least 10 mph. Jack's favorite was the varisty vs. kids game. The rink was divided in half with a game on each end.

All the while Aidan was at home playing with the sitter. Jodi and I were impressed. The sitter had him fed, in his pajamas, and changed when we got home. That earned her an extra $2 on top of her base pay.

All-in-all another fast, fun weekend. I'll post more pictures when I have more time.