Bye Bye Betsy

Bob has finally donated his beloved Betsy to a charitable organization.

It was a very sad day for Bob as he said good bye to his friend of 10 and a half years -- one champagne '87 Merc 300 SDL

Fun New Game

Hockey Bowling anyone?
Liam has invented yet another new game...hockey bowling. This is a little different from regular bowling in the following ways:

1) you play in your socks instead of bowling shoes
2) you have a stick and a puck
3) the pins are stacked in fun, creative ways
4) you can either try to get the puck through the holes without knocking the pins, or you can try to lift the puck to knock individual pins

Needless to say tons of fun was had, and a big mess was made.

Liam at his leisure

Some of the ways Liam passes the time... Dr. Noonan doing his thing.

Bob and Liam built a backyard luge track. When I looked out the window and saw Bob with a shovel moving and packing snow, I thought they were making a backyard terrain park (which would not be far-fetched for these two). They ended up making a cool run that started on the deck, ran through the yard, around the shed, and ended at the side of the house.

After sledding, Liam headed in for a little exercise. Bob tried to get a photo of Liam running drills around the cones, but all the pix turned out a bit blurry. After his "warm-up", Liam invented a game where the cones are lined-up and the object is to knock them over with slap-shots.

Note:

I'm bummin' that I didn't have the camera this week the couple times we hit the mountain for some skiing. Liam has started to ride the rails -- he is a child with a mission who is practicing, practicing, and practicing some more until he gets the skill. Mommy took one jump with the kid and quickly realized that she isn't 20 anymore.

Valentine Day Show

This morning Liam's class put on a Valentine's Day Show for the parents. The show was followed by a party in the classroom. Turns out that Liam has a little bug, because following the party he turned green, got sick and then went home.

We think that he probably wasn't feeling all that well before school, but didn't want to miss any of the festivities. We should have been suspicious when he announced, "I feel GREAT!" first thing when he woke this morning.


The above photo was taken a couple days ago when Liam and Daddy were working on architectural masterpieces.

Do Rangers do Playdates?

Liam in his Sean Avery #16 hat watching the first period of the Rangers/Devils game this evening. (Poor little guy has to go to sleep at the first intermission -- we are such mean parents.)

So, at dinner this evening Liam asked, in all seriousness, "Mommy, I'd like to have a playdate with Sean Avery. Can you call him?" After Bob and I laughed, we had to explain that it isn't easy to contact a professional hockey player, and even if you could, he might be too busy for a playdate.

Junior Ranger All Star Day

Liam made a new friend within two minutes of getting out of the car. We hadn't even gotten in the front door to the Rangers Training Center.

When we entered the locker room it was fun to see that they had taken out the players name-plates and put on the names of the boys participating in the clinic. The boys were beside themselves.

The majority of the boys had on Ranger jerseys of course. Liam was one of the first ready to get on the ice.

Adam Graves giving Liam some one-on-one attention.

Liam practicing what Adam Graves taught him.

Liam with Adam Graves. He signed Liams jersey. Liam said he never wants to wash his jersey again. We let him know that it was signed with a Sharpy, so he is okay.

When we got back to the locker room we found a package with all kinds of goodies, including photos of his favorite players, stickers, a Ranger backpack, a hockey puck, a "Go Rangers" towel to dry his blades, and a certificate of achievement.

Immediately upon arriving home, Liam decorated his door with his favs and decided that his figure of Jagr (not a Ranger gift, FYI) would now guard his door. If Jagr is out, do not enter. If he is not, you may enter.

Liam was a Ranger fan before the clinic, but now that he has become a Junior Ranger All Star and "a part of the Ranger Family," he is more excited about his team than ever. He informed me that he wants to wear his ranger cloths (of which he is not lacking) every day so that everyone knows that he is a Junior Ranger.

Ah, the life of a boy

Don't know if you know that along with being a hockey player, chef, doctor, soldier, etc., etc., Liam would like to be a Bull Rider. This ambition started last December on our way home from Colorado when we met a professional Bull Rider in the Denver Airport. At that point he didn't even know what bull-riding was. Once he actually witnessed the sport he thought it was the coolest thing ever. Above he is practicing on Daddy Bull. Fun game for Liam, not so fun for Bob's legs.

The boys played a little hockey out back this evening. Liam wants to be a goal tender for the Pirates in the worst way. Poor guy is too small to fit in even the smallest goalie gear. His team has the gear, but only the larger of the seven-year-olds can fit in it. At least he can be the goalie at the Noonan house.