Halloween 2015

For Halloween this year, Lucas was going to go as WWE wrestler John Cena. Then about two weeks ago, he announced that he wanted to go as Ra, a mummy on one of his favorite TV shows, Casper's Scare School. If you haven't heard of it, you're probably not alone. It only had 2 seasons and wrapped up in 2012 (haha, "wrapped." See what I did there?). The only reason Lucas knows about it is that it's currently on Netflix. Anyway, here's a picture of what Ra looks like.

And here's a couple of photos of Lucas in costume (designed by Marilu). You can probably guess which one is the Nikon and which was taken on the iPhone.

Unfortunately, we didn't think to get a picture of Lucas and his friend Zach until they had already started tearing off their costumes so that's all I can post on that front.

In closing, here's a picture of our pumpkins this year. As you can see, we went with a Minions theme. Incidentally, the painted one is a white pumpkin. In retrospect, I probably didn't need to spend the extra $1 on a white pumpkin if it just ended up painted, but hindsight is 20/20. Whatever the case, lots of kids complimented them so that's all I care about.

Another before and after

About 15 minutes ago, Lucas got one of his most drastic "before and after" haircuts yet. He wanted to get it cut short toward the beginning of the school year in early September, but we made him keep it longer for his school picture, which was today. We said if he did that, he could get it cut however he wanted (within reason...no stupid mohawks, for instance). Lucas decided on a John Cena haircut, and if you're not familiar with the WWE wrestler, he wears it in a very short, military cut. Here's an example:

So without any further adieu, here's the before photo of Lucas with his wavy locks...

...and here he is with virtually no locks of any type.

I'm not a big fan of it since I like longer hair, but he's loving it. So I guess that's what matters. At least he won't be complaining about hair getting in his eyes when he puts on his hockey helmet anymore.

Hockey's Going Great!

No pictures in this post, but I wanted to give an update on Lucas's hockey season. I gotta say, this year's almost like watching a completely different kid from last year. He's been a much more confident and aggressive player thus far, so much so that in his first exhibition game, Marilu said, "I can't believe that's our kid!"

He's not the fastest player on the ice, and he probably will never lead the team in scoring, but what he does have going for him is awareness. Last year, there was a kid on his team named Noah, and every time he was on the ice, I felt more confident for the Coyotes since he was always in the right position, whether it was for an offensive or defensive play. I told Marilu that that's exactly who Lucas has reminded me of so far this year.

The icing on the cake was this past Sunday, after Lucas's second exhibition game. His coach gave out post game "awards" for the first time, which went to the hardest working player and the smartest player, and Lucas was awarded the latter. Now I realize throughout the season, just about every kid will be named one or the other at some point, but he legitimately did earn it in that game. Hell, he probably had a shot at the former since he was backchecking like a madman, breaking up all kinds of scoring chances for the other team.

Anyway, the point of this post is just to say that I'm proud of Lucas and how far he's come in just a little over two years. This season ought to be a fun one, and I'll be sure to get lots of pictures!

It's the little things

While I am not a big fan of the cooling fall weather, Lucas has been looking forward to making a pile of leaves that he can jump in. Yesterday, he got his wish.

Team Name

I'm sure everyone is waiting with bated breath for this announcement so without any further adieu, Lucas's hockey team named themselves the Zombies. The coach had asked for suggestions from the kids during the week, and there were 4 variations on zombies (Lucas being one of them with Zombie Squad) so rather than a drawn out voting process, that's what they are. You can now return to your holiday weekend, be it Thanksgivibg or Colombus Day.

More Random Stuff from the Summer

Some random pictures from the iPhone taken this summer.

Lucas chugging down a root beer at what I believe is Jack Astor's restaurant. They have their own brand of root beer and bring it to you in a bottle so that narrows the choices down. (I was just looking at the blog to make sure I hadn't posted the next picture, and I realize I already posted this one since it was from his birthday lunch. Oh well, double the pleasure and all that.)

Showing off the street hockey gear he got for his birthday. It's actually seen a lot of use this summer since the kids have been playing outside a lot, particularly since school started.

Lucas shows off his photography skills with this shot of Marilu.

The three of us in a paddleboat on Dow's Lake. I don't know if we got a defective boat, or if they are just naturally hard to navigate, but man, that thing was a serious pain in the butt. Beautiful day though.

These last three photos are from a short hike we did at Fitzroy Provincial Park. It's quite a step down from going to Gatineau Park, but it's a bit closer plus there was a beach where we spent an hour or two so all in all, it was a good time.

Since taking these photos, I've lost over 20 lbs and Marilu is down quite a bit too. Woohoo for healthy living!

Let's Play!

And so it begins again. Lucas's third year of hockey, second in Novice. After his first weekend of practices, he's more excited about hockey than he's ever been in the past. It probably doesn't hurt that he knows several kids on his team (to be named next week...the team, not the kids).

The kids posed for pictures after practice today since the team gets $500 from Dodge for showing off their nameplate. That's why the jerseys are on backwards. 

If you haven't figured it out yet, Lucas is #5 on the left.

Hockey Update

We just received an email from Lucas's new hockey coach, and as expected, he made Novice B. One of his best friends from last year's team is also on the team so that should make things easier on Day One.

Anyway, that's all I have to say now. I'll post some more photos later since I'll be gone this weekend to Toronto to meet up with an old Army buddy.

A Cornucopia of Random Photos

Like the title says, several random photos from earlier in the year.

First up, playing Pandemic, a board game that is way too complicated for Lucas (13 and up, I think?), but he still likes trying to play it.

Feral boy.

Lookin' good!

At TD Place prior to seeing an Ottawa Fury game (Fury = Ottawa's professional soccer team).

Bringing Eggy to one of his soccer practices. Eggy was a stuffy in his 2nd grade class. Each child had a chance to bring him home and then took pictures and wrote about what they did together during the week. This was about as exciting as our week with Eggy got.

The family that plays video games together stays together...

In hockey news, Lucas finished his hockey sort outs this afternoon. He had another solid weekend, and we'll find out which team he is on in the next couple of days. Then they have their first practice next weekend. Like I've said before, he played well with the other B-level kids so I would be surprised if he ends up on anything other than Novice B.

A Story in Pictures

I'm going to try something a little different today. Last March, I took a bunch of pictures of Lucas playing in the snow (boo! hiss! we hates you, snow!). When I looked at them later on, I realized that they told an amusing story.

"Mmm, big icicle..."

"What you looking at, puny human?" (the fangs sell it)

"Uh-oh. I'm......"

"...falling!"

Nothing sadder than a boy beast with a broken icicle.

But wait!

Tasty!

"Mmmmmmmm"

"Me have big ice tongue!"

inexplicable ROAR!

"I'm gonna get you!"

"If I can't reach you, I'm going to eat my icicle in front of you. So there."

And the Oscar goes to...

The End. Hope you enjoyed.

In hockey news, the second weekend of sortouts wrapped up earlier today. Lucas played pretty well with other B-level kids so I expect he'll stick with them for next week's final sortout games. If you're keeping score, he ended up with 2 assists yesterday and a goal today,

Hockey, hockey, and more hockey

Lucas's hockey sortouts went well. While he wasn't one of the best kids on the ice, he was far from the worst, which is what we expected. On the first day of sortouts last year, he looked like he didn't want to be there and played horribly. He got sorted with kids that could barely skate in the second session, and that's when he started to play like he'd actually held a stick before. By the third session, he had played well enough to make a B team. Based on this year's performance, I expect he'll be playing with B-level kids in both the other sort out sessions.

On the topic of hockey, I wanted to post some pictures that I thought I had put up back when they happened, but when I checked the blog, I realized I hadn't. Back in April, Lucas's team the Coyotes got a chance to play on the Sens' home ice at Canadian Tire Centre. Just like the year before, the kids had a great time since they got to line up at the beginning of the game and hear their names announced over the sound system. It's a pretty cool experience. Anyway, here are lots of pictures of Lucas from that game.

Say what you want about Lucas, but he's a good sport. He's almost always first in line for his team when it comes to the after game tradition of shaking hands (or touching gloves, as the case may be).

After that game, most of the team stayed around to watch that night's Sens game. Between games, we had dinner at The Ledge, a restaurant on the top level of the arena that has a great view of the ice.

I think the kids might have had more fun clowning around in the booth than at their game.

My bad. This is where they had the most fun.

In more recent hockey news, this week we received a picture of Lucas that was taken at his hockey camp just before school started.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Sens, Mark Stone was arguably their best player during the second half of last season (Andrew Hammond being his competition for that title), and being a rookie, he's likely to have a very bright future. So this picture's pretty cool, even if Lucas doesn't give a damn about the Sens. :)