We Are The Champions…

of our men's hockey league.

Brian's team won their championship game handily Thursday night. The score was 5-1. They promptly went to celebrate at Buffalo Wild Wings, their team sponsor. Their trophy now has a home behind the bar.

End of the Year Celebration

Ben's school had another one of their great get-togethers. They had ten stations set-up outside and each classroom got to spend 10 minutes at each station. Trust me 10 minutes can be an eternity when the boys aren't feelin' it. Ben's favorite station was the rice tables – imagine sandbox toys in tables filled with rice. Neil's favorite was the bubbles. Truth be told, we decided the 10 minute rule didn't apply to us, so Neil spent most of the afternoon with the bubbles. Unfortunately I think Neil would chase bubbles off a cliff given the chance. I have to say I'm going to miss these events, but I'm sure their future schools will have something similar. By the way Ben has graduated for the Phonological class and will be receiving speech therapy at the local elementary in the fall for his expressive language.

Company

Donna and Dan came to visit following Donna's successful 1/2 marathon. Here are a few pictures courtesy of Ban and Neil. I think Ben has potential to be a good photographer. Neil is – well, a better model.

Fire Truck Show

We took the boys to the Romeoville Fire Truck show today. It was not as big a hit as Brian and I thought it would be. Maybe because there was very few trucks they could actually get inside. I mean why go see fire trucks if you can't fulfill, "Me go ride in fire truck?"

The Skittles passed out by one of the paramedics were a big hit though.

Neil made sure all of the levers, buttons, gauges and dials were really turned off.

Brian had to help Ben get up enough courage to go down this slide the first time.

It Takes a Community

Look what arrived today! Neil's cross stitch. I have to give a great big thank you to my mom – without her help this project might still be unfinished. Plus it's pretty special that we both get to put our initials on it.

With Ben's cross stitch I was pretty ambitious and did a lot of it it while I was pregnant with him. When Neil's turn came I didn't have as much free time. Good thing otherwise this would have had frills and flowers. So I didn't start this until after he was born and thanks to some encouragement from June, my sister-in-law, my mom and I did manage to finish it. (June told me she didn't finish a project for Gwen until she went to kindergarten, so I'm feeling pretty satisfied with 2 1/2.)

Another thank you goes to our friend Ruth Yheulon who always does a beautiful framing job. She's spoiled me with her workmanship, the things I've had done at Joann's or Michael's are definitely not the same quality.

Egg & Peanut Update

Not sure all of who I've shared this with, but we've run into some problems with introducing egg and peanut back into Ben's diet. The egg hasn't been too bad, but the peanut has been pretty unpleasant. Each time we've given him peanut he's spent the rest of the evening throwing up. Called the doc today and he said this isn't an allergic reaction – just an intolerance. He suggests we hold off another 6 months to a year before we try again. I think we'll continue with the egg ingredients, but no eggs by themselves.