Month: January 2019

Although we held his party yesterday at Chuck E. Cheese (for the second consecutive year), it was today that our big boy officially turned 4! We had a big weekend that also included a dance recital for Elise and a hockey game for Ava, so it’s been nice having Grandma Amy here to celebrate everything with us. Unfortunately Enzo has been a little under the weather these last couple days, but nothing was going to deter him from living his best life at the party and having fun with all his friends.

We weren’t really sure what we wanted to do for Enzo’s birthday this year, so we decided to ask him what his preference was. We almost felt guilty when he said he wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese again, simply because it’s what we did last year, and it’s so easy for us, but we respected his wishes and made the decision that we would do something a little bigger the following year when he turns 5.

Elise and Ava were very excited to be going to a party, and used this an an opportunity to wear their favorite fancy dresses. They’re always looking for an excuse to dress up, so we told them to wear whatever they want. Elise wore a beautiful new dress from Grandma, and Ava wore her Easter dress, but punked it up a bit with a pair of black boots.

Part of the tradition in doing a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese is letting the guest of honor go into the ticket blaster, which is this big clear plastic tube filled with tickets. When they turn it on, a fan gets going and the tickets start blowing around everywhere. The goal is to grab as many tickets while you can, then use them later to cash in for prizes. Last year Enzo got the opportunity to go in there, and we expected him to love it, but as it turned out he was really freaked out. I remember getting a hilarious photo of him with his face pressed up against the glass screaming at the top of his lungs.

So this year when it came time to do the ticket blaster, they gave him the option of letting someone come in with him. When I asked him if he wanted to bring anybody, I was expecting him to choose one of his friends, but instead he said he wanted me to come in. Jessica was all for it, but required me to untie my hair so it would fly all around and look ridiculous while I was in there.

I stayed on my knees so we’d be on the same level, and did my best to get as many tickets as possible, but I didn’t figure out until nearly the end that I needed to lean forward in order to get the wind affect everyone wanted. Either way he loved it and it was very memorable. Overall it was a great day and we really appreciate everyone that was able to make it, as well as all the birthday presents of course. Again, next year we’ll be doing something bigger, but I’m glad he was able to have the day he wanted, and we always appreciate getting to spend time with everyone.

As far as today goes, it was a normal workday for me, but there was no school for the girls due to it being a “teacher work day”, so Grandma, Jessica, and the kiddos went to see Mary Poppins Returns at the movie theater. It’s kinda become a tradition for us to go out to a Mexican restaurant for Enzo’s birthday (I’ll never forget him wearing the sombrero on his first birthday), so after I got home from work we were able to all go out to our favorite spot.

Overall I hope Enzo had a very happy birthday and knows how much we all love him. He’s an incredible little boy that we are so super proud of.

As mentioned above, Saturday was a big day for both of our girls. That morning we attended Elise’s dance recital at a nearby middle school. While I wasn’t necessarily expecting to have an emotional reaction to it, seeing her run out on stage with so much natural joy and excitement instantly brought tears to my eyes. She just had the biggest smile and looked so happy – it was amazing, and it’s funny how your kids have the ability to tug at your emotional heartstrings in a way that nothing else ever could.

She made a point to sneak a little wave to us each time she exited the stage, and after the performance she was beaming. Jessica and I instantly felt bad that we didn’t have a bouquet of flowers to give her, but everyone (especially Ava) was showering her with compliments, and she just soaked that up. It was great to see her so genuinely happy, and as we’ve come to say, “living her best life”.

After Elise’s recital we had time to come home for only about 45 minutes, get a bite to eat, and then had to head back out for Ava’s hockey game. Over the past week Ava and I have been practicing shooting in the garage because she’s all about “elevating the puck” now. We’re currently using street hockey balls, which are easier to scoop under compared to a flat puck, and she’s really starting to get the hang of it. In much the same way that Elise showed so much natural joy from her performance, Ava gets that way when she sees herself improving at whatever she’s working on – and that stretches beyond athletics. Reading and math are also good examples of this, where Ava builds her own momentum and excitement when she starts improving at something.

We had a simple goal for this game, which was to just always be paying attention, always watching the puck whether we’re in the game, or sitting on the bench. She ended up doing awesome at this, and I can tell she’s starting to understand the game more. At this age their focus is on building athletic skill for the girls, rather than teach them the game of hockey, but it’s still good for her to always be engaged in what’s going on, and I’m so impressed with how she’s improving in that aspect.

She had a good game, but afterwards she admitted to mom and me about some trash talking she was doing on the ice. She knew it was wrong, which is why she told us, so we had to have a heart-to-heart conversation with her about how we treat people, and about letting our game do the talking. She was worried about us being mad, but we promised her we won’t be mad if it ends here. If it happens again, there will be consequences, but we were willing to make it into a learning lesson for now. At this point, the way I see it is that this is another thing you can add to the long list of life lessons and skills she’s already learning through hockey. Regardless of how far she goes with it, being part of a team at this age is teaching her so many things about life, teamwork, and discipline.

One more thing about Ava – we just found out from her teacher that, like Elise a couple months back when she was recognized for being respectful, Ava is going to be featured in a school assembly due to her scholastic improvements this year with reading and math. She has really turned a corner in these areas over the past couple months and her teacher wanted to make sure she received recognition. Obviously we were thrilled to hear this and are very proud of her!

Not much else has changed since my last post a couple weeks ago, so I’m keeping this one brief. Overall we’re doing great, and we couldn’t be more proud of each of the kids. They’re staying busy with all kinds of good stuff, and each one is growing up fast. Buon quarto compleanno Enzo! Ti voglio bene.

After an awesome holiday vacation in Colorado, it didn’t take long for all of us to get back into our normal routines, and in several cases, start taking on even more. While I plan on writing again very soon due to some exciting upcoming events, there’s already enough to dig into. Here’s how 2019 is taking off for us…

Since January is his birth month, we’ll start off with Enzo. Next week he will be turning 4, and I’ll be writing a post after his birthday celebration, but he’s been busy this month. As we’ve mentioned before, we felt like 2 days of pre-school per week, at 2 hours per day, wasn’t quite enough for him. Jessica did some research and ended up finding a new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) focused pre-school that had just opened in our area. After checking it out, Enzo really liked it, so he now goes there on Wednesdays. During his first class they did an experiment showing kids how to make water boil at room temperature. Then the next week they built a robot and programmed it to do certain things. We can tell he enjoys it, and we think he’ll get a lot from the curriculum, so it’s been a nice addition.

We were having a hard time deciding what to do for Enzo’s 4th birthday, so we ended up asking him what he would like to do. Turns out he really wanted to do the same thing we did last year, which was go to Chuck E. Cheese. We decided to go along with his request because we know all the kids will have fun, and it’s easy for us. Grandma Martin will be coming out to stay with us and attend the party, so it should be a good week. We’ve already decided that next year we will do something bigger for his 5th, but I think this year will still be a lot of fun.

One other thing with Enzo – we all went ice skating as a family yesterday and he did amazing. He’s skating on his own now without balance bars, and I can tell he’s having a lot of fun. Check out the video below.

Next up will be Miss Elise. In addition to doing great at school and dance, she is now taking figure skating classes with Mom on Saturday mornings. They’re not in the same class, but they’re on the ice at the same time, just separated into different groups. She deserves a ton of credit because she has already been moved up from level 1 to level 2, she doesn’t need balance bars, and she can make her way around the rink on her own. I love seeing her out there skating on her own and having fun.

Elise is also continuing to attend weekly dance classes, and we’re excited to attend her upcoming recital on Saturday! Grandma will be able to attend with us, which is great, and I’m looking forward to write about her performance in my next post. Overall I’m just really proud of Elise – she has matured a lot over the past few months and is flourishing, both in school and in her activities. Dance and figure skating definitely compliment each other, and it’s nice to see her keeping busy with things she enjoys.

Miss Ava continues to stay busy with school and hockey. On the school side, her growth this year has been really impressive. She is reading better than ever, and really enjoys math. From a hockey perspective, I can tell the extra practice we’ve been doing has been paying off. She recently had her best couple of games, and there was a moment in an extra game against a team from Portland where she got out on a fast break, received a pass from a teammate (which is rare at this level), controlled it at full speed (which is really difficult), and scored her first goal of the season. I screamed out cheering for her, then realized I was totally ‘that guy’ taking a kids game super seriously. I didn’t care though – she had the biggest smile on her face, and all I could think of is all the hard work she keeps putting in. It was definitely a memorable moment.

The following week she was out there playing, and I had to explain to her that she wasn’t paying attention and wasn’t engaged in the game. She was just kinda out there skating on her own. She didn’t really like hearing it, but took the feedback and went out there with a vengeance. When she is mentally engaged in the game, she does amazing, but at this age losing focus is going to happen. One of her coaches just recently said to me “In terms of raw athletic talent, Ava is one of the best girls we have. The trick is keeping her paying attention.” I thought he was dead on – when I watch and try to make an impartial evaluation of everyone, I look at Ava and say she’s got raw athletic talent, size, and toughness, which are all intangibles that can’t be coached. Right now she struggles with paying attention, puck handling, and shooting, but that’s totally fine because those are all things that can be coached. Sometimes I have to remember she’s barely even 7, but overall she’s doing amazing and I couldn’t be more proud of her.

One more thing with Ava: she ended up losing another tooth this week! After Mom helped her get it nice and loose, Ava finished it off by pulling it herself. As you can expect, she was really excited about it, and the tooth fairy made sure to leave her some goodies later that night.

Jessica has been keeping very busy this month, most notably by switching from El Gaucho Bellevue back to El Gaucho Seattle. The Seattle store will always be home for both of us, so when she reached out to them asking if they’d consider having her back, they were like “Yes, you’re always welcome to come home”. Tonight will be her second shift back at Seattle, and I’m happy for her because I can tell she is happy about the change.

In addition to this change at work, she has recently taken up ice skating lessons, and is learning to play the piano! She and Elise are going to the rink together for skating lessons on Saturday mornings while Ava, Enzo, and I go to the gym. Since Ava didn’t have a game yesterday, we all met up with them at the rink for open skating. Overall it’s great to see Jessica trying out new things, as well as continuing with other creative activities like rock painting. Obviously music and skating are both close to my heart, so it’s awesome to see her enjoying them as well. At this point all 5 of us enjoy getting out on the ice, so it feels like it’s only a matter of time before I bite the bullet and get us our own fancy skate sharpening machine…

Earlier this month Jessica purchased plane tickets for her and Enzo to go back to Iowa for a family visit in early March. They’re going to stay at Grandpa Rick’s house and are looking forward to seeing everyone. It’s too bad we’ll be split up for a week, but it’s not really feasible for the girls and I to go, so I’m looking forward to taking advantage of that time by doing some special stuff with them. I’m definitely going to take them to dinner and a movie one night, and I’m sure we’ll get out for some ice skating as well.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of taking the kids to Monster Jam for the second consecutive year. I have to admit that I totally enjoy it as well, and I don’t care what that says about me. Unlike a normal sporting event where you’re supposed to take the sport somewhat seriously, this is purely just mindless entertainment, but I love it. It’s like “Whoa, did you see how much air it got!?” or “Look how long he’s balancing on 2 wheels!” It’s super loud, and they do all kinds of different events, but the freestyle event at the end is the best. Grave Digger ended up doing a backflip, which was the highlight of the show. Although Enzo is definitely the biggest fan of monster trucks in our house, there’s no question that we all have fun at these events, so I look forward to taking them again when the time comes.

Lately I’ve been feeling like I need to add a little more hockey to my schedule, because only playing on Sundays with the beginners group hasn’t been feeling like enough of a challenge. I’ve been with this group for 2 years, and at this point I’m one of the most advanced players. While I enjoy that status within the group, I realize that the only way to get better is to play with people who are better than you. Most people from our group use it to learn the fundamentals, then go join a team in a league, and that was my initial plan as well, but the variable nature of game times in leagues doesn’t really work for me. I simply can’t go and play a game at 11:00pm in Kent on a weeknight, so I’ve been looking for a new drop-in game to play where I can advance my skills, and have a consistent game time to rely on.

Last night I played in the drop-in game at the Highland rink for the first time, and it was definitely the most advanced game I’ve played in. The reality was that I was the 2nd weakest player on the ice, and it was intimidating, but I stuck in there for the entire 90 minutes, and managed to score 2 goals in the game. These guys are all much more advanced than me when it comes to shooting, stick handling, and overall gameplay, but I’m able to stick with them because I have good cardio conditioning and I’m a pretty strong skater. Regardless of the sport you’re playing, it’s always going to be intimidating to step up a level (or 2 in this case), but that’s how you elevate your own game. I’m already planning on going back next weekend.

That’s pretty much it for now. It’s good to be back in the flow of things, and exciting to see us taking on new challenges. Enzo’s birthday and Elise’s recital are the two most notable upcoming events for us, so I look forward to writing about them. While it’s hard to believe we’ve reached the final year of the decade, I expect it to be a very good one, and for us to finish strong.