AHL All-Star Classic

This year the AHL All-Star Classic was held in Utica, NY.  After a brief hiatus last year (so we could go to Florida and announce Kenzie!), we continued our tradition of attending.  It turned out to be very fortuitous as we missed the great blizzard of 2015.  While the weather geek in us was a bit disappointed, we were excited to not have to dig out the car…  we ended up with 24 inches.  Eek.

We started out All-Star weekend with a quick stop in Boston.  Kevin’s mom and the girls hung out in the hotel while Kevin and I went to the Garth Brooks concert.  It was awesome!   The next morning, Kevin’s mom took the train home to Portland while the rest of us headed towards New York.

Sunday we went to Fort Stanwix. 

Kaitlyn built her own fort in the museum. 

We were the only people on the ranger led tour.  Kaitlyn was very interested and actually asked a few questions!

That evening was the All-Stars Skills Competition.  Kevin and Kaitlyn met Audie, the Utica Comets mascot.

Kenzie made her national television debut.  I got several texts that friends saw her on TV!  Kaitlyn didn’t make the TV, but she got her own special treat… more on that later…Everyone is showing their Portland pride

Our representative was supposed to be Alexander Bolduc, but he was injured the day before and unable to attend.  So Brendan Shinnimin was selected to go.

TJ Brennan (on the left) used to play in Portland.  In the autograph session he spotted my jersey and immediately knew which other former player it had belonged to.

Kenzie was entranced by the Manchester Monarch’s mascot Max.  Apparently we need to teach her they are our rivals.

The East won the Skills Competition.

Post-competition autograph session.  While waiting for the players, Kaitlyn was given one of the used pucks. 

Kaitlyn  got everyone’s autograph.

Shinnimin was impressed we came all the way from Portland.

Kaitlyn got a t-shirt that the mascots were handing out.  Had I know what was on the t-shirt, we probably would have had a bonfire with it. 

Monday morning we went to the Utica Zoo.  We pretty much had a run of the place.  All the animals came out to see us!  Some of them even walked up to fence and paced back and forth for us. 

That night was the All-Star game. 

The mascots’ game at intermission is always a hit!  This year they played broomball instead of hockey.

During the second intermission the mascots had a dance off.

The West might have won the game, but Shinnimin scored the first goal of the game!

Now about that special treat for Kaitlyn…  It was a good thing we saw Shinnimin at the autograph session because after the game he had a special present for Kaitlyn.  Another kid tried to grab it first, but Shinnimin pulled it away and moved it closer to Kaitlyn.

Kenzie is disappointed we lost.

Our last day, we made a trip over to Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Kenzie slept through the whole thing except for about the last 10 minutes.

Kaitlyn answered all the questions on the trivia sheet, so she got a free package of baseball cards from the store afterwards.

Someone just woke up…

Christmas 2014

Hopefully everyone has received their Christmas cards by now.  And I thought it was hard getting one kid to look at me and smile.  It’s practically Mission Impossible to get more than one to cooperate at once.  God Bless anyone with more than two kids in a photo, haha!

Here’s a few cute ones that didn’t make the Christmas card cut.

The girls in the Christmas best after church on Christmas Eve.  Kenzie definitely has that I’m up to something twinkle in her eye!

Santa came!  Mommy actually almost died getting all that stuff downstairs and putting the rocking panda together.  I also spent some time wandering the backyard in the rain with a flashlight breaking carrots into pieces and throwing them into the woods.  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised my fever spiked at 103.  Luckily I am feeling much better today.

Kenzie Claus’ first Christmas!

Some of our awesome presents!

Kaitlyn helping Kenzie open the present Kaitlyn bought for her.

I think Kaitlyn now officially owns every Frozen product ever made…

It was rather sad not having Twister with us for Christmas.  I had to pick up the wrapping paper right away.  He always used to like climbing into the pile and laying down.  We picked up his remains from the vet on the 26th.  They gave us a very nice ceramic with his paw print and name in it.  It brought a bit of levity to the situation when they handed him to us in a gift bag.  We will miss him very much.  Of course this means Kevin is officially the only boy in the house…  surrounded by 5 girls. 

Finally, Kenzie turned 4 months old the day after Christmas.  My big girl has her 4 month check up next week!

Pre-Christmas Fun

We’ve been pretty busy the last few days with Pre-Christmas fun.

It started Friday with the Christmas Fair at Kaitlyn’s school.  For the concert portion, the Pre-K and K classes sang Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Must Be Santa.  While we do have video, it’s Kevin’s job to download those so y’all will have to make due with just the photos for now…

Saturday we went to the annual Holidays at Hadlock.  While the rain did put a bit of a damper on things, we still had a lot of fun.  Once again the Red Sox topped the “Good List” and the Yankees topped the “Naughty List”.   We got a picture with Slugger.  Kaitlyn got a reindeer “tattoo”.  Kevin and Kaitlyn roasted marshmallows for s’mores.  And Kaitlyn won a key chain for tossing 3 L.L. Bean boots through the hole in the game board.  Due to the weather, Santa had to arrive by fire truck instead of helicopter.  Kaitlyn got a quick hug, but we didn’t get on the LOOOONG line to see him, since we knew we would be seeing him today.

This morning was the family Christmas party at the P.D.  Every kid got to sit on Santa’s lap and then got a present.  Kenzie’s present came wrapped in a box bigger than she was!  Kaitlyn wanted to know how Santa knew that she liked Frozen and Kenzie just wanted to eat her present.

After the party, we dropped Kenzie off at Mammy’s house and took Kaitlyn on a big sister “date” day with Mommy and Daddy.  We went to see Penguins of Madagascar at the movie theater.  Then we went to Fuji, a Japanese Steakhouse with a Hibachi grill for dinner.  Kaitlyn loved it!  The flipping knives, the fire, and the onion volcano were all highlights for her- and us too!