The 2 hour window that the sun decided make a showing gave us just enough time for the kids to find 300 eggs in my parents backyard garden! This is the backyard before the chaos.
We even had a little hunt for the adults... a beer bottle hunt that is.
Well the regular season is over for 2010-2011 and now we enter what is commonly known as the second season (play downs). Last weekend the girls had a very good weekend of hockey. Though they didn't win their games, they were very competitive and managed to score goals in both games. The best part of the weekend was playing at the OHL rink that is olympic size ice! Lots of skating for that puck, going into corners and fighting along the boards.
preskate... practicing her breakaway.
First line out on the ice (she's right wing).
waiting for her shift.
with here line on the bench watching the action.
The local paper captured the stats from Maya's first goal game. I blurred out the other kids names you get the point. 3 points in one game.
Last night was the night that it finally happened. She has been wanting to score a goal since the beginning of the season (October or as we see it EONS ago). The last few games she has been the pest around the net and has made sure she was in position if there were any pucks around the net. She has come close a few times but last night was her night. She was so excited but I think her team mates were even more excited for her. The girls on the ice hugs and fist pumped with her in celebration and she led the way to high fives to all the kids and coaches on the bench. However, one goal just wasn't enough and she ended up doing it again from almost the same spot a couple of shifts after.
Hockey has been such a great experience for her, the older girls are just so encouraging to the younger ones, and the younger girls love the older girls to bits. It's amazing how the age differences (6-13) work so great together!
Last night Maya started her power skating lessons (thanks Grandpa). I decided to bounce her to the older group of kids (9-12) since she is as tall and more importantly the time worked for our schedules. It was a little daunting as many of the kids were rep hockey players and really, really good - they probably have take power skating for years and years and years. But Maya held her own, went through the drills and even went into to locker room with all the other boys (she thought that was very funny). Both her and John were excited to tell me all about it when they entered the door. And since she still had on all of her gear, I suggested that she go out and skate some more in backyard. Night skating is so much fun!
Last night was another night at the rink for our family of 5. We were there to cheer on Maya and her red team on. She is getting to know where she is supposed to be on the ice, she follows the play and she touches the puck more. Her turns are getting better and stopping is much better and don't always involve falling. She was even called on to take a face-off or two!
Last night was Maya's first official hockey game and she had a great time... her teammates were great with her telling her where line up, her coach and assistant coach gave her directions each time she came back to bench and every time she looked and saw her dad, she would see him smiling from ear to ear.
UPDATE: We came home to a message from Maya's coach saying that he had good news that Maya ended her first game with 2 assists! When we told her of her accomplishments... she asked "how did I do that?"
