Tag Archives: ericiv

day 2775: a scrimmage between periods at a high school game.

day 2775: a scrimmage between periods at a high school game. I.

odin’s hockey team occasionally plays a brief scrimmage between periods of high school games. it’s a neat opportunity for them to play to the crowds and the parents of the high school players enjoy watching the young kids play while remembering when their own kids looked so little on the ice.

this was the last home game of the season for the boys high school team, so the arena was packed and boisterous since the boys were already ahead by several points by the end of the first period. exciting! ( odin is looking at the camera with a red mouth guard )

day 2775: a scrimmage between periods at a high school game. II.

just moments before hitting the ice!

the kids had a great time and maybe enjoyed showing off just a bit 🙂

day 2769: making up for the eggregious oversight of not taking a mighty mite hockey jamboree team photo.

day 2769: making up for the eggregious oversight of not taking a mighty mite hockey jamboree team photo.

i took a whole mess of photos at the mighty mite hockey jamboree and somehow, inexplicably, it didn’t even occur to me to take a group shot of everyone on odin’s team wearing their medals!

so i make up for it at the end of the following practice. we had to set up fast, ’cause the zamboni was bearing down us!

day 2766: k’nex. the end of The Age of Legos?

day 2766: k'nex. the end of The Age of Legos? I.

odin got a k’nex rollercoaster kit for christmas and we finally got around to putting it together . the kit has hundreds of interconnecting plastic rods and connectors and it was pretty intimidating to get started but odin made short work of it after getting the hang of how to read the instructions.

a few hours later and it’s was all done, complete with a motorized conveyor for the rollercoaster cart and plenty of loops and turns.

day 2766: k'nex. the end of The Reign of Legos? II.

it certainly looked cool and it prompted me to wonder if i was witnessing the end of The Age of Legos which is pretty close to heresy in our house.

day 2766: k'nex. the end of The Age of Legos? III.

since i’m writing this post a month after building the coaster, i can tell you it definitely didn’t herald the end of legos. in fact, after a few hours of watching the coaster go round and round and round, odin abandoned it in favor of his beloved branded building blocks never to look back again.

i’m not sure why especially since odin claims to still like the toy even though he never plays with it. maybe because legos offer more open ended play?

day 2765: scenes from the mighty mite hockey jamboree.

day 2765: scenes from the mighty mite jockey jamboree. I.

in our continuing adventures as hockey parents, we spend many of our weekends at hockey games. this time it was the “mighty mite hockey jamboree” at Winter Rec-Fest in la crosse, wisconsin.

in the tournament, “mite” players from around the region get together and play each other in quick games, 20 minutes each, 3 games in a round, 2 rounds total ( got that? so they play 6 teams, total. ).

it’s a great way for the young players to build up confidence and play a variety of teams with varying skill levels.

odin did a great job playing defenseman and even managed to score a goal!

here, he’s skating away from the net in the blue and white jersey after scoring his second goal in a game, ever ( defense doesn’t get as many opportunities to score a goal as offense )!

day 2765: scenes from the mighty mite jockey jamboree. II.

odin, sitting on the sidelines. they swap out players every two minutes. for this game, they split up the team into two separate teams playing “four on four”, allowing for two players to sit out every two minutes. if you think about it, it’s that’s a lot of skating over six twenty minute periods!

day 2765: scenes from the mighty mite jockey jamboree. III.

while he loves playing defenseman, he’s also been enjoying being the goalie. at this level of play they don’t need all the gear and the, er, goal, is to just get them used to trying to keep pucks out of the net. odin stopped quite a few goals and let just a couple get past him. given his love of defense, i wouldn’t be surprised if he wants to be a goalie after he gets a little more confident in the position, though it’s hard to say if it’ll be his favorite position since the defenseman gets to skate around a lot more which is pretty fun too 🙂

day 2765: scenes from the mighty mite jockey jamboree. IV.

even when you handily beat a team, it’s important to give them an honest “great game” and a “high five”. ’cause, as odin already knows, it’s no fun to hear “you suck!”

day 2765: scenes from the mighty mite jockey jamboree. V.

odin, right in the thick of the action! i have to admit that it’s big fun to hear other parents yell out his name when makes a great defense play ( he’s number ‘5’ ).

day 2765: scenes from the mighty mite jockey jamboree. VI.

odin is all smiles ( through his mouth guard ) getting ready to get back on the ice after a break beating all three teams they played in the first round.

day 2765: scenes from the mighty mite jockey jamboree. VII.

at the end of the tournament, everyone gets a medal.

day 2765: scenes from the mighty mite jockey jamboree. VIII.

after all his games are done ( they beat five out of the six teams! ), of course, there’s no way odin will leave the tournament before catching the other half of his team play a period or two their last games from the top of the stands.

day 2765: scenes from the mighty mite jockey jamboree. XIX.

yeah. but what about screaming at the kids on the opposing teams 🙂

day 2764: playing flute at school assembly.

day 2764: playing flute at school assembly.

odin’s school has a regular “all grade” assembly where the first through eighth classes perform a variety of artistic endeavors in front of the whole school and assembled parents. this week, odin’s class played an orchestrated flute song.

in addition to the general awesomeness of seeing him play orchestrated music, it struck what an ingenious trick the assembly is to get the kids used to thinking that it’s completely normal to play in front of an audience.

it’s such a great confidence builder that will certainly do them well later later in life.

day 2759: winter fun in wisconsin.

day 2759: winter fun in wisconsin. I.

odin has been cross country skiing for years and for years he’s been patiently waiting for us to get skis of our own. this year, he even wanted to visit santa to plea for him to bring us skis!

he delivered the skis, but didn’t bring any snow so it’s taken us awhile to get out and about.

how is it possible that i’ve never been cross country skiing before? it’s a lot of fun even though it seems to use muscles that have never been used!

day 2759: winter fun in wisconsin. II.

and there was time for some awesome sledding too 🙂

day 2759: winter fun in wisconsin. III.