March Break

Last week was the girls March break. It all started on Friday night with a 2 day hockey tournament. The girls played awesome but didn't get far in the standings. Monday was a play day for the girls with friends and Tuesday was the dentist and haircuts. Then came Wednesday!

We headed up to Collingwood ( 2 hours north of us ) to stay in the company house that is rented for the winter season. Thursday we had an awesome day of skiing. The girls had skied once last year and Kaitlyn and I skied a few weeks ago. I can't believe how great they did. Grace wants to try snowboarding next year. The snow wasn't the greatest because our temps have been going up and the snow is melting. Our friends Sean, Claire, their daughter Coco and good friend John Paul showed up on Friday night and stayed with us the remaining of the weekend. Sean took us all out the a Swiss restaurant for dinner on Saturday night. What fun that was!

We just love the Blue Mountains and Collingwood area! We are excited to be heading back for Easter weekend. Up here the Friday before Easter and Monday after Easter are holidays so we will be spending the weekend back at the Collingwood house with the Berkman and Dunham families! Can't wait!

An evening walk in the beach

On Tuesday we decided to take a little walk down by the lake. The weather was wonderful and it is amazing to think a year ago this time there was snow on the beach and huge ice banks lining the lake. This year has been such a mellow year weather wise. We can't wait to see what spring and summer has in store for us this year.

Hockey Tournament

This weekend was the 61st annual Young Canada Pee Wee tournament. Our girls played Friday night, they lost 6-4 but played a great game. They were goal for goal right up to the end of the game. The other team found some sweet spots and got a couple goals on us. The girls had a blast and were very excited because the team they played is one of the best in our league.

Saturday we were back down at the tournament at noon for our 2nd game. The girls played another great game against a team that was VERY physical! We stayed ahead right up to the very end of the game where we got 2 bad calls against us and had 2 girls in the box. That left the other team with the opportunity to tie up the game. The score was 2-2.

After the game the majority of the team went 5 pin bowling. Matt, Kaitlyn and myself had never been before. Grace got to bowl last weekend. I have to say it is ALOT harder than 10 pin bowling that we are used to but it was SO much fun! It was a great way to kill the 4 hours between the two games on Saturday and lots of fun to see the team having fun together outside of hockey.

We were all back to the arena for our 5:50 game. The girls were a bit tired but ready to get out there and getter done! They played a great game but just couldn't get the puck in the net. They lost 3-0.

In the end it was a great 3 games and they did much better than last year, they didn't score at all last year. We are so proud of our girls and what they brought to the ice this weekend. Today we are giving them all a break from hockey but will be back at it on Wednesday. We only have 2 weeks left and hockey season is over. Matt and I are having mixed emotions over this. We love hockey and being apart of this wonderful team of awesome girls. But we are also ready to be done.

Band Picture

Here is the band picture. Not a good picture of the picture but you get the just of it all.

Band and Hockey Updates!

Yesterday was game 2 of the second round for hockey. Game 1 we lost but game 2 was a different story!!! What an awesome game. Matt was home sick so I sent Kaitlyn off to horse riding lessons with a friend and I stayed to watch the game. The girl scored within the first 3 minutes of the game!!! What an awesome match up between the two teams. They were very evenly matched and fought the whole way through. It was very intense especially the 3rd period. The score was still 1-0 in our favor. We ended up getting a penalty against us with less than 2 minutes left in the game. So it was 4 on 5. Then with 1 minute to go the other team pulled their goalie so it was 4 on 6. The puck stayed in our end the whole time and our girls were able to keep it out of the net and WON THE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man I was almost sitting in the mom's lap next to me it was so exciting!!!!!!! The girls did so great and they were so proud of themselves. Our last game in this round is on Sunday. I know they can WIN this next game.

Today Kaitlyn and the school band traveled to Collingwood ( 2 hours away ) for the spring Music Fest competition. They have been practicing hard for the last few weeks on 4 songs that they performed today in front of judges. They rode up to Collingwood on a coach bus which in itself is exciting for Kaitlyn who has never rode on a bus like that. The group performed their 4 songs then were able to participate in a "workshop" put on by professional musicians. In the end KTTSP band won SILVER!!!!!!!! YEAH KTTSP!! Last year they go bronze. So I say next year it's GOLD. Kaitlyn really enjoyed herself and got alot out of the experience. They had a wonderful picture take of the group but for some reason I am not able to post it. I got it scanned but there is something wrong with the way it scanned and I can't figure it out. I think I may just take a picture of the picture so you can see what wonderful kids are in this awesome group!!

Matt and I are SO proud of our girls and the accomplishments that they have living here in Canada. It's been a wonderful experience, one that I think will live with our girls forever.