Marvelous March :)

March is nearly over and I just can't concentrate ... I'm so excited and I just can't hide it!!  I'm about to leave on a jet plane with my 4 favorite people ;)  BUT I did want to re-cap the marvelous month of March before embarking on what will probably be a magnificent ending to marvelous March ;)

~ EMHA playoff's: Blake and the Saints finished off their season with the playoff's!  Many up's and down's with the biggest UP (IMO!) coming on Saturday, March 5th when the team beat the 1st place team in our division!!  This team had moved down from tier 1 and were undefeated!  The Saints played their best game of the season, it was amazing and the entire team, coaching staff and fans were WAY BEYOND excited!  It felt like we had won the Stanley Cup ;)  That exciting.  It may have helped that the boys were within feet of Mr. Mark Messier before the game and a few even got his autograph on their game sticks!  Messier was doing an interview for Home Town Hockey at the arena and everyone was pretty pumped to see him in person!! (although I think some of the mom's were slightly more giddy than the boys!)  I want to back up a bit before moving on to the rest of the playoff's - Blake was soooo sick leading up to the big win I just talked about.  He was sick to his stomach numerous times the Friday night before and Saturday morning.  Very weak, couldn't eat or drink.  I really didn't think he should go to the game and I didn't even know how he could physically play hockey.  Even during the drive to the rink, he fell asleep (which he NEVER does) and had a hard time waking up when we got to the rink.  First of all, when we were still at home, I told him that I didn't think he should play, that he needed to rest and then he'd feel better for the remainder of the play off games.  But he wanted to go.  So once in the van, I told him we could just watch the game ... but he said he was playing.  I was worried about spreading the virus to the rest of the team (earlier in the week anther player was down with a similar illness) but he had not been sick to his stomach since 6:30 am Saturday, so I thought he might be on the mend.  Before the game he drank approx. 1/2 a gatorade and ate 2 soda crackers.  He walked into the rink, put on his dryland gear and warmed up with the team and then proceeded to play one of the best games of his young hockey life!!!  I swear no one in the stands believed me when I told them how sick he was.  We were seriously amazed and impressed!!  I don't know how he did it, I'm not joking when I say he was REALLY sick.  He's a warrior!  So back to the playoff's!  We lost our next game and tied the last game.  With a win, we would have been headed to the final.  It was so close and a great game!  I'm so proud of how far these players came this year and most especially proud of Cal and Blake :)  Blake improved so much and was a very solid D-man.  He loves that position and worked hard every single game.  He's a total team player, not concerned with goals or assists, just determined to do his best every single game and practice and I could not be more proud of him!!!  Cal developed these players and worked hard every single day for this team.  He put 110% into the team and I loved watching him learn along side the kids and lead this fine young group :) He dealt with some difficult situations with such dignity and respect for everyone around him, I really commend him. I would have lost my mind and my temper but he really kept his cool.  So proud (did I mention that already?!) 

~ Veeteretz Ukrainian Dance Family Night: The girls, Cal, my Mom, my Grandma Kelley and I attended this event on March 5th (after being so sick and playing hockey, Blake was completely wiped out and headed home with my Dad.  He literally had nothing left in him.  He didn't even want to eat supper, he pretty much went to bed immediately!)!  We had sooooo much fun at the family night!  The food, drinks, entertainment and dance were top notch ;)  The girls had so much fun with their friends and Cal and his friend Eric were the best bartenders ;)  It was a great night. Em claims that she wants to dance next year, just so she can go to the Family Fun Night, lol!!

~ Ringette: Emerson and Reese finished up their ringette season!!  Emerson enjoyed ringette last year but this year she fell in love with ringette!  She absolutely loved every minute and she improved a great deal!  We are so proud of her :)  She can't wait to play next season and even asked me if their is a 3 on 3 ringette league that she can play in this spring.  So cute!!  There isn't for her age but I'm sure in the future, the opportunity will be there!  Reese is not sure if she'll play ringette next year.  She did so well this year, we are also very proud of her but she wasn't crazy about the games.  She told me that she likes the practices but not the games!  She also told me that she is happy when the other team wins because she would feel bad if they were sad.  I nearly died.  Such a sweetheart!!  I do wonder if competitive sports are her 'thing', I have a feeling they may not be!!  But we'll continue to introduce her to various sports and activities, as we try to do with all 3 kids and I'm sure one day she'll fall in love with something or maybe even a few things!!  She really loves her swimming lessons and she misses her music class, so we will have to continue on with those!  Secretly I hope that next fall she does want to play ringette but we definitely won't force her :) Both girls improved a lot this season and it was a pleasure to watch the learn and grow and Cal and I had fun coaching them! 

~ Other Saints business: The Saints mom's also had a ladies night out, in amongst the playoff madness :)  We had a gigglin', cocktail sippin', appetizer and dessert eatin' great time!! Many, many laughs and hilarious stories!!  And I don't think we even discussed hockey ;)  There were some fabulous hockey momma's on this team and I'm so glad to have met some new friends and to have grown closer with my bff hockey momma's ;)  God forbid we're not on the same team next year, I may cry.  lol!  We finished the season with a wind-up party on the 24th.  All the families and players came together for one last hurrah!  It was a great evening!

~ Wizards lacrosse: For some reason our lacrosse club decided to begin evaluations during the week of hockey playoff's ... geez louise!!  Fortunately Blake only had to miss one evaluation!  He's very happy to be back at lacrosse and I'm happy to be back watching ;)  I love this sport!!!

~ Report Cards and Demo of Learning: Report cards came home on the 18th and we attended Demonstration of Learning on March 23rd.  Blake and Emerson's report cards were phenomanal.  I could go on and on but I won't, other than to say they are excelling in grades 1 and 3 and we are extremely pleased :)  Kindergartener's do not get a formal report card so we had to wait until the Demo to see how Reese was doing!  She's is also doing great and getting ready for grade 1!!  Demo is always a fun night, it is so nice to have the kids lead us through their classrooms and to see how proud they are of their work :)

~ Visit with the Hrdlicka's: Near the end of the month, we snuck in a playdate/lunch with our bestie's.  It was great to catch-up and as a bonus, we got to take a peek in Brandon's 'Batmobile' aka RCMP dog handler Suburban!!  It's pretty cool, to say the least!  Blake was in awe ;)

~ Baseball practice: And just because Blake isn't active enough (bahahaha), he attended a few baseball practices this month.  The league he'll be playing in hosted drop in practices for 7-12 yr olds.  Of course, he had a blast and was lucky enough to actually get to play out side, as our weather has been so mild!

Throw in numerous playdates and birthday parties and there you have our March :)  We said 'see ya soon' to my parents at the beginning of the month, as they began their spring travels!  And now we wait for our Spring Break Vacay!!!  EEEEEKKKKK!!  Get me on that plane and in the sun ;)  Talk to y'all soon!!

~ Tracy