Shhh...don't let Old Man Winter hear me....

I saw a robin last night. That is usually the sure sign - I think spring might be here! I also saw lots of shorts and pasty white legs yesterday. In Minnesota, that only means that the temperature is above freezing.

It’s really funny how fast Minnesotans break out the shorts and pasty white legs. I’m not sure if it’s to start tanning those legs or to laugh in the face of Old Man Winter. I’m thinking that it is to dare Old Man Winter to bring on more snow and cold.

C’mon, Old Man Winter – is that all you’ve got? Bring it on!

It was 65 and sunny on Monday, 59 and sunny on Tuesday. Friday is the first day of spring. I think the old man is running out of gas.

Bush Cup FInals - Game One

**********UPDATE**********
We had a hard time getting scoring updates because our internet has been down. Thank God for Mike's Blackberry - we were able to occasionaly get some updates.

The 'Hawks came back from a 3-0 deficit to a 5-5 tie. Unfortunately, they lost 6-5 in sudden death overtime.

Next game - Friday 8:30 PM at the Rec Center. GO HAWKS!




Tonight is the first game in the MN Junior Hockey League Bush Cup finals. This is the first season in the four years that we have been following the Ice Hawks that we’ve actually had some competition. We finished the season in 2nd place behind the Granite City Lumberjacks.

The Bush Cup playoffs haven’t been a walk in the park either! The semi-final round started off looking like it would be easy with a 12-2 at –home win over the MN Owls. The next game was played in Isanti, so we watched the game over the internet. The Owls gave us a run for our money and beat us 3-2. We thought it would be an easy win for us but the loss brought the deciding game to the Rec Center on Sunday night. The game was close, with the Owls quickly answering each of the Ice Hawks goals. The game went into over time and resulted in the Ice Hawks winning 4-3. Talk about an exciting nail-biter! The win also secured a spot for the ‘Hawks at the national junior hockey tournament in Boston. Wish we could go to watch!

Since the Lumberjacks have home ice advantage, the series starts tonight on the Lumberjacks ice. We are hoping the game will be broadcast online but if not, we will be following the Ice Hawks’ website and the newspaper blog for scoring updates.

Game 2 is Friday at the Rec Center. It’s being held later than usual because another team has the ice – so I’m not sure if I’ll get to go. It might get too late for the kiddos, but we may go if Madison takes a good nap at daycare on Friday.

One cool thing that we heard at Friday’s game – an opposing player got a penalty and said to one of the off-ice officials in the box “You guys have a wonderful organization and fans; this is a really fun place to play.” It’s true – the Ice Hawks have a huge and consistent fan base. They cheer like crazy and most of the time it is clean and respectful. At away games, ‘Hawks fans usually outnumber the home team fans. The owners of the team are such nice people – they make us proud to be associated with the team.

For the first time ever, the Bush Cup will be displayed in the Excel Energy Center, home of the Minnesota Wild, with the team picture and roster. Even more reason for the ‘Hawks to bring their A-game and take it to the Lumberjacks!

GO HAWKS!!!

Because my Mom says.....

Since Cameron was born, Madison has been having a little trouble with hitting at daycare. We didn't learn about it until I went back to work and Madison had a few really bad days. Dawn finally told us after another parent complained that her precious peanut was getting smacked around. I can't imagine why she would have an issue with it. ;)

When we learned of the problem, we immediately cracked down on Madison. In typical Dad style Mike said "Madison, if you hit at daycare I'm going to spank you."

I almost choked on my dinner when he said that. Then explained to him why that probably won't be a very good solution.

We finally agreed on a discipline plan for the hitting. For every day that she got in trouble for hitting at daycare, we took away a favorite toy. It required two days of no hitting to earn the toy back. On the way to daycare every day, we had a lecture about how we don't hit. I explained to her that if she felt she needed to hit, she should just walk away.

I made her recite back to me over and over and over again what she should do.

If she did get into trouble for hitting, I also would make her apologize and hug the person that she hit when we got to daycare in the morning.

It only took a few days of this and the problem pretty much went away. In fact, we only had to take away one toy.

After four weeks, she now only has the occasional bad day.

Yesterday, while playing outside for the first time in months, Madison smacked little Tyler in the head with a toy truck and got sent inside.

So, we had the discussion in the car again this morning and I told her that she had to apologize to Tyler when we got there and give him a hug.

The first thing she did when she walked in the house was seek out Tyler. I overhead her say:

"Tyler, I'm sorry for hitting you with the truck. My mom says I have to give you a hug."

Then she gives a very stunned looking Tyler a big bear hug.

The truth is, Tyler probably doesn't even remember getting smacked in the head with the truck - because getting smacked in the head with a truck will do that to ya. It's just the principle - teaching her to own up to her mistakes and to apologize when she has done wrong - even if the only part she truly gets is "because my Mom says...."

More fun posts from the weekend to come - and an update on adorable little Cameron.

Learning Letters

Madison's daycare has started an informal preschool curriculum. Our provider is doing such a nice job with it, we may not even put Madison in pre-school. She told me that they were working on writing their names. Madison is one of the younger preschool aged kids in the daycare and Dawn said that although she does not write her name yet, she scribbles and says she is writing her name. Dawn says that means that Madison "gets it."

Cool.

She suggested we keep working on writing the name at home.

So on Thursday night, we sat down with some paper and pencils. I wrote out M A D I S O N across the top of the page and tried to get Madison to copy it.

She seemed really overwhelmed.

So I broke down each letter. We started with M. I showed her, line by line, how to make an M. Pretty soon her paper was covered in M's. So then I showed her to make a circle with a tail for the A. Pretty soon, the paper was filled with MA's. We started on the D - but we had been working for about a half hour by this point and she was starting to get distracted. So, we called it a night, knowing that we would keep working on it.

At daycare today, Madison surprised Dawn by writing Ma all over her paper.

Silly girl

Grandma and Grandpa Lee brought Madison a new Ice Hawks shirt for Valentine's Day. They took these cute pictures of her modelling the new shirt and I just had to get them for myself to share them on the blog. I really should get this kid into acting or something - she is such a little ham!

Firefighters to the Rescue!

Mike's mom emailed me a few days ago and said the brother of one of her co-workers happens to drive new firetrucks to the departments that are purchasing them. He was delivering a new truck to Canada this week and was stopping for the night to stay with his sister in Rochester. The co-worker invited Madison and her grandparents to come over and see the truck.

Madison was so excited! When I surprised her with the news that she was going to see the firetruck, I told her that the firefighters wanted her to check it out - to make sure it was good enough to fight fires in their town in Canada.

She got to climb up inside the cab of the big truck.

They even got to honk the horn!! Sorry - no sirens in residential neighborhoods tho....

I guess Madison was a little scared because the truck was so big - but she kept saying how much she fun she had seeing the big firetruck.

The not-so-subtle art of hint dropping

Yesterday Madison and I were acting silly while trying to make Cameron smile and giggle. So I said to Madison "Do you love your baby brother?"

Madison: Yes, I really love Cameron. When he gets bigger, we have to get another baby.
Mommy: Really, another baby?
Madison: Yes. How about a baby girl?