Making dreams come true - Kings 7th Player Opportunity

Our local BCHL hockey team, the Powell River Kings, in coordination with Westview Agencies as the sponsor, has an awesome program called the 7th Player and as of Saturday night both of our boys have had a chance to be that player! It was super easy for me to sign them up for (a quick two minute online form) and I'm so glad I did it. These kinds of experiences are what I believe the best childhoods memories are made of!

For those that aren't aware of what the 7th player is, here's the run down! The boys got a special jersey to wear and keep, then they got to go into the the Kings locker room before the game and listen to the team talk and get their photo taken with their favorite King! As if that wasn't awesome enough they then get to skate out with the Kings for the on ice warm up, then stand with them for the announcement of the starting line up, then get introduced as the 7th player, and then finally they get to stand on the blue line with them for Oh Canada. It is truly an incredible experience for minor hockey kids in our community and I am so happy that they each got their chance to experience it!

Jordie was up first back in mid-December for his special night! 

Getting ready to head in to the dressing room!

The jersey was huge and went down to his knees! 

He chose Hunter McKoy - who was one of the Kings that came with us for trick or treating back on Halloween as well! This kid is great and we all loved him when he spent a few hours with us that night. Kennedy still talks about the green M&M guy :)

Standing to sign the national anthem.I didn't take many photos...I chose to video more instead :)

Jordie's little buddy Henry was there in the tunnel waiting for him! 

Henry's mom Alicia is the Kings photographer and a long-time friend of mine and snapped some pictures of both of the boys too! Here are the photos that Alicia took of Jordie! 

He looks so serious waiting for his big moment to be introduced! 

I love this fist bump photo so much!

BIG smiles as he skated off when the anthem was done!

Video of Jordie's big skating debut with the Kings

Being announced as the 7th Player!

It was James's turn this past Saturday night and he was so excited...and SO NERVOUS for some reason too! Funny how each of our kids is so different! 

James chose Levi Glasman as his favorite player!

These are the photos that Alicia captured for me of James on the ice!

Standing waiting for the anthem to start! I think it's funny how far away James stood from the players!

Big smiles looking over at Alicia and his dad in the tunnel

Singing Oh Canada! Both of the boys were upset that they had to leave their helmets on for the singing of the anthem as they know the respect aspect of taking off your hat and are always super diligent about it, but also understood the safety rules of the Complex as well and why they weren't allowed to do it too! 

 He was so excited when he skated off the ice and said that the player closest to him said that he was a good singer :) 

Such a happy moment for our biggest guy!

Now James's turn to skate with the Kings!

And his turn being introduced!

Two things about this post:
1) Yes I cried when both of them skated out and when they were announced too. I wish the audio on Jordie's video to hear more of what they said about it!

2) If you are in PR and haven't signed your kid up to be the 7th Player yet.....do it! And if the spots are all filled up for this year, then do it next year! It was so worth the two minutes it took me to do it, and it's a night that I know my boys will never forget. 

Saturday smiles - We love Rocco

Such a great time at the Kings game tonight! We’ve turned a corner and Kennedy finally loves Rocco like most kids do. He’s the best mascot ever and has a heart of gold and is amazing with kids and adults of all ages.

January goals and how I did with them!

This year I decided I was going to simplify my life and get more organized. That includes a major decluttering of my house, buying less, keeping less, needing less! I also splurged on a more expensive planner that I could carry with me, rather than relying on my family calendar at home, and my phone calendar. I was hesitant to buy it until the nice lady told me to split the cost over 365 (actually 366) and that was the daily cost of it. That made me feel much better and I already feel like I've gotten my money out of it.

This is the beautiful cover of it!

And this was the January divider page, which made me feel so hopeful as I wrote out my January goals when I got the planner in the second week of the month. I'm feeling motivated and hoping to stick with it with writing the monthly goals I set out.

For January here were my goals:

Blogs - as many as I can
Including this one, I've done a whopping 27 posts this month! That is more than half the amount of what I did all LAST YEAR. I am LOVING the new routines I've started with making this a priority again in my life. Even if just sharing small insignificant things like James wearing James is important to me and I know years down the road I'll love that I made the time to do it.

Yoga - 1-2 class per week
As of tonight at 8pm I will have done 11 yoga classes this month. Some might not feel like that is a lot but for a very busy mom of three who did ZERO physical activity before, that is absolutely far and above what I thought I would be able to accomplish. Throw in there a massive redo of our basement, hernia surgery for hubby, weekend trip away with KJ, day trip to the Island....a lot of external stuff that could have prevented me from going, but I made the effort, I booked the classes and I just went, even if I didn't feel like it. Moving forward my goal is 3 classes per week (1 at VIU for the next 8 weeks on Tuesday mornings, and then at least 2 at Coast), and 2-3 short 20 minute walks per week as well. I want to start small so it feels manageable and not overwhelming to me. I know myself and that's the best way for me to not get discouraged.

More games/quality time with the kids
I am trying hard at this one, but it was a busy month and I didn't get to do it as much as I would have liked to, but I did get some card games in with each of the boys and some puzzle building with Kennedy, plus of course nightly reading too. The biggest shift to the quality time has been bedtimes these days. Since the boys separated rooms it's been awesome to spend that extra few minutes with each of them every night asking about their day. We call it Happy/Crappy (thanks Foster girls for the name steal) and each day they tell me the best part and the worst part of the day. I lay with them and get some snuggles before I move on to the next child. It's turned into a much longer bedtime routine but one I'm really cherishing at the same time. As the boys get older and time marches on I realize how very important this time is with them and how even on the nights I don't feel like doing it, it's so worth it in the end to have that connection with them!

Less phone and iPad time
I'd call this one a success just by the fact that I have found the time to do all of the above three goals, in time that I would have normally before spent some of that on my phone and iPad. Plus the massive basement declutter and clean out that happened the first two-three weeks of the month too (photos coming after I finish putting it all back together again!)

Overall I am super proud of myself for my January goals and how well I did with them! My goals for February are maybe a bit loftier but still very valuable. I'll do a blog post about that at the end of next month. Coming up this weekend will be a January photo recap (which I'm also committed to doing this year after seeing the cool photo memory stuff I used to do before I got so busy). I miss that and am committed this year once again to save our family memories in a meaningful way.

Such handsome boys

James has been bugging me for weeks to buy him some jeans so I did, not actually expecting him to wear them, but today he surprised me and he did. They look so good on him and hopefully this will be a shift away from only wearing sweatpants!

I thought they were so cute today in their matching minor hockey hoodies that I snapped this random photo of them on the walk to school. They are carrying flashlights because it was reading in the dark today during Literacy Week at the school!

The snuggle is real

These two love to snuggle so much and it warms my heart every time I see it. Last weekend they spent the night at Nana and Papa's house and when my mom went in to check on them the next morning they were laying in bed snuggling and holding hands. The love these two share is incredible and I hope they always feel this way about each other. He is still her favorite friend in the whole world and his hugs are by far the best and most sought after ones in her life.

These pictures were all snapped in the past two weeks. Just love them so much!

They love holding hands

I wish I was this cool

This little outfit just killed me today! Her little leather jacket and boots were just too cute, I had to share these photos of her taken today! 

Hehehehehe even her little grumpy face in this one is cute. She was sad cause she didn’t want me to go to work and was going to miss me too much. That’s what happens after 3 day weekends together! 

Sunday Smiles

A few photos from me and KJ’s trip to the city with Ang for the Paw Patrol Live show! I’ll share more photos in another post soon!