He Is Only In First Grade!!!

Turn the page and now it's September!!!  Fall is only three weeks away and that means hockey season is gearing up--at least for us little people. . .maybe not for the NHL.  But, hopefully so!

Anyway. . .

Thursday was Aidan's Evaluation Skate for the Mites.  There is no Mini about these boys.  Honestly, they all looked so huge!!!  Kinda like how Aidan looked with the Mini Mites. ..But, not anymore.  The boys range in age from 6-8.  There is a big difference between a 6 year old and an 8 year old.  I'm here to tell ya!  Aidan may be a big boy, for 6, but he is still 6.  And only has been for a couple of months. 

There were 140 boys skating for Mites positions.  Some will be on the Select Team that is a feed for the XTreme, but most will be on a House League team.  They were split, by alphabet, into three groups.  Aidan was in Group 2 and was assigned a green (his favorite color) vest with the number 23 on it.

 

As he was going onto the ice, I heard several boys around him talking.  "I just started third grade!" 

"So did I!"  "Me too!"  Aidan, eyes a little big, said, "I just started first grade."  Poor little guy. . .

Once on the ice, the boys were put through the paces: speed skills, foot skills, stick skills, puck handling. . .

Meanwhile, on the other side of the rink, the12 coaches watched and took notes.  Once all three groups were done, they conferred and did a "draft" picking and choosing who would be on what team.  We were told to go on home and that we would find out no later than the 4th what team we would be on and when our practices would start. 

We found out today, we are on the Grey team!!!  Our first practice is next Saturday at 3:30, but our regular practices will be Friday at 6:10 and games will be Sunday mornings. . .It's going to be a fun season!!!  (yes, Aidan is just as excited as I am.  I promise!)

This morning, we got up VERY early and headed over to the Ice House for a Shoot Out I had enrolled Aidan in.  It was free and I thought it might be a good experience for him.  Aidan was excited to do this, but this morning he wanted to "sleep just a little longer, Mama."

We had to be there by 7:00 (yikes) and the boys were on the ice by 8:00 for some warm ups. 

Aidan was ready, inspite of the short sleep!

Warm ups helped:

There were 16 shooters, Aidan among them.  And there were 4 goalies.  The boys were split into 2 groups of 8 each and then they were lined up.  They had three shots per goalie, for a total of 12 shots.  The 6 who had the highest number of shots would go on to the Semi finals at Kettler and then from there, the finalists would go to Verizon Center.  Knowing Aidan was likely the youngest out on the ice, AND he has never gone up against a goalie before, we didn't think we would go past today.  And we don't.  But, our boy made us proud anyway!!!

He didn't make any goals, but he had several close calls, including one that would have gone in between the legs of the goalie except the goalie moved his foot at th last possible second.  Aidan did extremely well!

I was especially proud of how he handled himself.  That was a lot of pressure on such a little guy!  Aidan had poise and didn't buckle under.  And he tried several different moves to see if they would work.  I imagine with some time, he will be scoring tons even with a goalie in the net. . .The thing I want him to always remember is to have fun.  Today was his first time skating with other boys who have been Mites for a year or two.  He just fnished Mini Mites 2 1/2 weeks ago. . .he is doing awesome.

In other news:

I noticed that by Wednesday morning, there were three little girls who had started coming to our bus stop from the stop before ours.  On Friday, we were a couple of minutes later getting there than usual. When we opened the doors, I heard one little girls say, "Oh yeah!  There he is!"  Hmmm. . ."Aidan, do you know these little girls?"  Yeah.  "What are thier names?"  I dunno.  (said with typical little boy disinterest).  Hmmmm. . .and one is a screecher, too.  : <  My sister assures me that goes away. . .

That evening, we were informed by the neighbor girl that Aidan sat next to the screecher on the bus on the way home. . .hmmm. . .

He's only in first grade!!!