March Break (Part Deux)

March Break has been here and gone. It appears to have taken the heavenly, warm, sunshiney weather we enjoyed, with it. Please come back my fair weather friend and grace us with your  warm, shining and brilliant personality...pretty please?

Let's do a quick little wrap up of the second part of spring break. Wednesday was St. Patricks Day. Lucky Charms cereal for breakfast. Then we headed out to see the the movie - Alvin & The Chipmunks Squeakquel at the Princess Cinema in Waterloo with Max's little school friend Alex and his mom and sister. It turned into an all day outing with lunch at East Side Marios and then some running, exploring and playtime at Waterloo Park. There were alot of other people with the same idea because that park sure was Biiiiiiizzzzzzzzz-eeeeeeeee. I left my camera at home so no pictures from our outing.  We finished up the day with a visit at my parents. Max got to run and play in the fresh air and get in some good quality farming experience with grandpa.

We stayed for dinner and enjoyed my mom's delicous homemade pizza. For St. Pats dessert, we brought the rainbow coloured cupcakes that turned out very pretty and equally yummy! 

Thursday found us at an all day hockey tournament in Plattsville.

This was my first ever experience with a hockey tournament. I had no clue. About anything. And also that it would be an all day event. As in from 8:30am to 6:00pm. It was a long day. But a fun day. A very interesting day. Max's team played two games - at 9:00am and 11:00am. They won both games so they played in the championship game at 4:30. Plus they had a little skills competition at 2:30.

Keith was in Vancouver so not able to see any of the games. Technology is such a wonderful thing. I would text him through out the games, giving him score updates and little info tidbits about how his son was doing. And then I'd take pictures with my phone and send them to him so he could see (almost real time) what was going on. Pictures similar to the one below of the Maxter taking a face-off. Which both makes us laugh everytime we see it.

This was the little skills competition for shooting. There's the Maxter taking his turn...

And oh happy day for the little man. His team won the skills competition overall so they each got a medal...

And then the championship game. New Hamburg had two teams in the tournament and both teams made it to the final game. Just a little bit of friendly competition between the coaches. Their jerseys were almost identical so it got a bit confusing watching the game, if you weren't paying close enough attention.

And the final outcome? Max's team won.  Time to throw their sticks and gloves and pile on the goalie...just like the NHL...

 

Here they were getting their medals...Don't ya love the gloves and sticks all over the ice?

Little group shot of the tired munchkins. And tired they were. Wasn't a problem getting Max to bed that night.

So now I know how a hockey tournament works. I also realized that I've finally got the dressing and undressing of the little man down to a science (equipment and skates). Now that the season is just about over with of course!

Friday was a nice quiet morning at home. Max played to his little hearts content. I cleaned. And laundry'd. Not exactly the most exciting things to do but they both needed to be done. In the afternoon we zipped over to the grocery store and picked up a few things. We swung by the thrift store and dropped off two big bags of donations. And then we were Gerber Farm bound. Max just loves going out to the farm. Playing with Nicki (dog) and helping Uncle Chad and Grandpa farm. Over March Break we were able to get out there for evening chores three times.

Max's uncles and aunts are so awesome with him in the barn. I'm sure things would probably go a bit faster for them if they didn't have to be on the lookout for a little six-year old boy. But they take the time to patiently explain and help and teach him and he just loves it.

So this cow that Max is milking by hand (below) is very old. Uncle Chad lets Max help with this one because she is so quiet and gentle.

Putting the milking machine on...

When he's not busy helping to feed the cows or milk them or when he's not chasing cats or playing with Nicki, then you may find him sweeping up the milkhouse floors...

After chores, there's nothing like a good old jump on the trampoline with Aunt Vanessa...

And by the time they make it back to the house, Grandma's waiting with a delicious dinner. This time though it was just a quick snack. We were in a hurry to get back home because Keith's flight had landed in Toronto and he was on his way home. So glad to have Keith back under the same roof with us!

Saturday morning first thing, Max had a hockey game in town against Paris. Then the three of us headed into town to look at bikes before we had to get Max to a little friend's birthday party. Max has had his bike for 4 years. Completely, utterly, totally outgrown it. Time for a new one. We went to Canadian Tire, then Wal-Mart and finally ToysRUs before we found one for him. It's a bit of a challenge for him to ride this bike. His other one was SO little that he could do just about anything with it. Now he has to learn how to handle a bigger one. He likes to wear his quadding helmet because he thinks it's what extreme mountain bikers wear.

He's doing really good on his new wheels and has basically only had one incident like this so far...

Sunday...we went for a drive. A random drive. It was Keith's idea. Based on this premise. That we would always drive South. And so that's what we did. (We did something similar years ago...that time we would turn right every second road we came too. Crazy!) Anyway, this time we ended up at Long Point Provincial Park on Lake Erie. Yes...we ended up at the beach. Pretty much my perfect idea of a day! I'll try to post more photos later.

(And yes, I do realize that Max is wearing the same jacket he wore to help work on the farm. Not to worry. It got washed very well. We are sadly lacking in the spring clothing/farm clothing department. But I wasn't about to go shopping during March break with Max. Not my idea or his for that matter of a good time! So we just super washed everything every night!!)