Ice Time

Most kids decide that their favourite sport is something that they can play in the park whenever they want and all they need to practice is a ball of some sort.  Not me, that would be way too easy.  I had to find a favourite sport that involved going somewhere else to practice and train, somewhere cold and at crazy hours of the day.

I've just come home from Development Council in Oakleigh (that's ice hockey training for kids that want to join a PeeWee team).  I only started Council a couple of weeks ago and tonight I was evaluated.

The good news is… I am now ready to play PeeWee Hockey.
The bad news is… I have to get up really really early of a Saturday morning to get to training.

This first week, I will train with a team, then if the coach thinks I am ready, I can play in the team the following week.  So adding PeeWee to my training, let me tell you what a typical Saturday is going to be like.

I will have to get up crazy early, scoff some breakfast and head to the ice where I will spend most of the day.  First off I have training at Oakleigh that starts on the ice at either 6.30am or 7.45am, for peewee training.  Then I have to head in to Docklands for Development League at Icehouse where I have to be ready to jump onto the ice at 10.45am.  My favourite part of the day is what will happen next, the peewee match.  For the match, I will have to be at either Oakleigh or Icehouse by 12.30pm to get ready for the match at 1.15pm.  If the match is at Docklands I can hang around and have another skate with my friends just for fun.

Oh and as I am playing ice hockey all over the place, don't forget that Milla has her figure skating training.  She starts at 7.15am so on the days that I am at Oakleigh at 6.30am, she will have to catch a taxi in to Icehouse with dad!  She skates in classes till about 10.30am then just hangs out with her friends, skating about and having fun until we leave.

Now you would think that by now the day of ice hockey (and figure skating) madness would be done and we could go home and relax but it isn't, there is still heaps more to do.  Some days we (the Atoms - under 11 players) will get to do exhibitions games after the first period of the AIHL game at Icehouse, so that means we have to be getting ready at 4.30pm.  Then after the AIHL match, I have another training session and game at 7.15pm.  By the time that is finished and I peel of my sweaty stinky gear, it is after 8.30pm and I will have been skating around for what feels like a million hours and will feel like a zombie.  I am pretty sure that I will be more than ready to just fall into bed and sleep for a week but no doubt mum will insist that I have a shower first!

So there you have it - we can kiss our free time on Saturday's goodbye.  If you want to catch up with any of us, grab a jacket and head on down to the ice rink!

Love AJ Pickle

A holiday for Billy

My cousin Billy is having a sleepover at our place tonight.

My Crazy Cousin!

I hope he isn't this crazy when it is actually bed time!

Love Princess George

Edited to add - We had so much fun during the afternoon that by 6.30pm, Billy was so exhausted that he was sound asleep in the study so I had my own bed all to myself.  I was pretty tired too so I went to bed super early too! x

Gone Bush

We had a curriculum day today so instead of heading to school, we headed bush. Out to Werribee Gorge State Park to be exact.

Look around... This place is awesome!

We went wandering along the river track for a few kilometers, making heaps of detours along the way to look at interesting things, to imagine what lived in the caves or to throw rocks across the river.

For one section if the track we had to scrabble along some rocks at the bottom of a rocky cliff. We had to hold on to the cable that was attached to the rocks to make sure we didn't slip and fall into the river.

The best (and the trickiest!) part of the walk

It really wasn't that tricky but nan would have freaked out just watching us!

Just past the scrabbly rock area we found a nice little beach area to rest.

A beautiful place to rest, if you have time for rest!

Well a nice area for mum to rest for a few seconds before we found boulders we could use as stepping stones to get us to the other side of the river! Mum decided to come and see what we were up to. I don't think she was worried about what we were doing, but she did have her camera out just in case one of us fell in!

Jumping from one side of the gorge to the other

Luckily we crossed over the river and back (a few times) and didn't even get wet feet.

We could have spent all day exploring the gorge, it was amazing but we had to head back to the city - we had a dentist appointment to go to. Really, who schedules a dentist appointment on a day off school? I guess we will just have to come back and explore some more of the gorge another day.

Love Princess George

PS - I think we walked about 3kms each direction, plus another k of wandering (and trying to round up some sheep), 7kms - not a bad effort for a day off!

Waking the (almost) neighbour

It just seemed crazy that we would be just around the corner from Ellen and not stop by to say hello.

Sure it was still early in the morning on a public holiday but it was worth checking to see if she was awake. We couldn't remember which apartment was hers so instead of waking all of her neighbours, we tweeted this to her!

When she saw our tweet, we were here...

Since it was so early in the morning and we knew that Ellen was awake, we went to get coffee. Well coffee for Ellen and hot chocolate for us!

I am pretty sure that Ellen was happy to see us, even if it was early.

Thanks for the hot choccy Ellen, I will be the delivery girl any time!
Love Princess George

Lest We Forget

It isn't often that we are encouraged to get up early, especially when early is before the sun has even risen but today is a special day, it is ANZAC Day and we were going to the local dawn service.

Mum woke us super-dooper early, we put on our Scout and Cub uniforms, grabbed a croissant and a banana each before jumping in the car to head down to the local RSL. We (the Scouts and Cubs) had been invited to march with all the returned soldiers and their families before the service and then to go back to the RSL afterwards to have breakfast together.

It makes us really sad to think of all the people who were killed or injured at war but it is important to remember all of the people who have sacrificed so much so that we can be safe in Australia.

Thank you ANZACs,
Love AJ and Milla

How to fill in time

When we were skating today, mum and dad decided to get out of the cold and go for a wander around Docklands.  Somehow that walk became them imagining what it would be like to live at Docklands and they had a look at a few different places that we could live in if we ever decided to move.  When they came back to collect us they decided that instead of going back to our own house for lunch and a rest before going back to watch the opening round of the hockey, we would go out for lunch together.  Of course they told us all about looking at apartments so we wanted to look at some too.  Next thing you know, we are wandering around Docklands looking for display suites to play in.

First stop was The Quays.  We pretended that we wanted to buy a 3 bedroom apartment.  Just our luck, there were 2 available.  We chatted to the sales person and she showed us all the cool things in the building.  We really wished that we were going to live there, it looked freaking awesome!  The apartments themselves looked pretty cool, all shiny and new, with our own bathrooms but the coolest parts were in the 'residents club' - there was a swimming pool, tennis court, gym, library and even a cinema.  Better yet, it would be ready to move into by the end of the year.

When we finished looking at the display suite, mum and dad reminded us that we weren't really moving to Docklands, that we were really just pretending.  They kept on pretending and went to another display suite - New Quay Promenade.  This time the building hadn't even been started and it was pretty hard to imagine living in a place that wouldn't be built for nearly 2 years.  We got to choose who would have each of the bedrooms, had fun exploring the kitchen and the bathroom on display, as well as looking at all the really cool pictures they had.  It looked pretty nice, but it didn't have a cinema so it wasn't as nice as the first one we looked at!

If only we could move in to Docklands, we could easily go home for a few minutes in between ice skating things without any hassle…
Love AJ and Milla

A holiday at home will have to do

As much as we would like to, it doesn't look like we will find the time to take a family holiday to some far off exotic location this year and our frequent flyer points from our last big adventure are about to expire.  We didn't want them to disappear so we went shopping with our points instead.

It may not be a holiday to Macau, Tanzania or Guam but it will be great for a holiday at home!
Love Princess George

Splitting

About a kajillion years ago, back in the days that we were dancing, mum tried to offer us financial incentive (that means bribe us) to do the splits, telling us that whoever could do the splits first would get $10. I am pretty sure that she forgot about the promise she made but I didn't.

Now that I am a figure skater it is time for me to start working on my flexibility. Check this out... I can do the splits!

Dad couldn't believe that I could do the splits either!

Love a $10 richer (and a much more flexible than anticipated),
Princess George

PS - I am joining with IBOT (I Blog On Tuesdays!) for the first time ever!

Old (and perhaps a little crazy?)

SHHHH, don't tell anyone, but today is mum's birthday.  

If you ask her how old she is, she is likely to stop and think for a long time before she comes up with an answer.  For ages mum told us, and everyone else, that she was 27.   I think that she was 27 for about 10 years, even before she was 27.  Once we worked out that she couldn't be 27 forever, she started to use her real age for a while.  Apparently remember what her real age was was far too difficult so now she has decided that she will be 42 for a few years.

Don't believe her though, she really is only 38, but don't tell her that we told you!

Happy Birthday Mum

We hope you had a great birthday mum and will enjoy your relaxing weekend away

Love AJ and Milla, the best kids in the world 

Sunday Sport - Soccer is Back

Hooray, the soccer season has begun again.

I am obviously older than I was last year, so now I get to play in one of the Under 11s teams.

This morning I played with the Joeys.

We may have been beaten (3-0) but t was great to be back out on the pitch, running around with my friends.

Love Princess George

PS.  I will add a Flickr Guest Pass to all photos from each week to my Soccer Stars page if you want to see us in action.

Ice Ice Baby

I am so super excited, I have just come home from my very first private coaching at ice skating. My teacher, Amber, is awesome. She has given me a program (that is figure skating speak for a routine!) to practice and hopefully one day soon I will go in a figure skating competition. How exciting is that!

Well I have to go and practice some of my moves off ice!
Love Princess George

Hockey Camp in the Holidays

Now I had an awesome time hanging out in Yarrawonga but I had to come back last weekend because I had hockey camp.  I can almost hear you thinking, "What is hockey camp?"  Well it is a chance for me to hang out at Icehouse every day and play hours and hours and hours of hockey.  Pretty cool huh!

Ice time

I was there from before 9 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon.  When we weren't skating or playing hockey we would do all kinds of cool things like building parachutes for eggs, playing street hockey and even watch movies about hockey.  As a bonus, we kitted up and headed back out on to the ice for another game of hockey before we went home.  Not a bad way to spend my day!

Posing for a photo or stacks on the coaches?

I can't wait until next holidays when I can go to hockey camp again.

Love AJ Pickle

A Lesson for Mum

Dear Mum,


I know that you are a grown up and that you know heaps of stuff but you don't know everything.

One thing that you clearly didn't know is that light on the dash that comes on when the car is starting to run low on petrol is there for a reason.  I am pretty sure that reason is to let you know that you need to put petrol in the car OR prepare to walk home.  Sure when the warning light really starts to flash it is a suggestion that there is probably enough fuel in the tank to drive 50km but that doesn't necessarily mean that you will be able to drive a further 50km before filling up with fuel.  That suggestion to re-fuel is probably a good one to follow, even if we only have a 13.4km round trip to get home!

I do appreciate that you didn't stop for fuel on the way to pick me up from hockey because you didn't want to be late, I also appreciate that you didn't want to stop for fuel on the way home because I was super tired.  What I didn't really appreciate the walk home, in the dark when I was super tired, after the car chugged to a stop about a kilometre from home.

Luckily Dad and Wayne came to the rescue, getting some petrol and collecting the car.


Love an even more tired than expected,
Pickle Monster


PS - I think we should keep this handy, just in case you forget to take note of further suggestions!

Pyjama Rules

It is late in the day and mum and dad are heading home but I'm not, I'm on holidays and spending the rest of the week at nan and pop's house.

Sometimes, depending on where I am, the holiday rules change and one of these rules is about pyjamas. You see, nan and pop are fans of pajamas and they like me to wear them to bed EVERY NIGHT! They like pyjamas so much that they gave me a new pair for Easter, in case I forgot to pack any! If I was the boss of everything, I would happily sleep in some version of the clothes I wore that day. It saves so much time and effort if I do, it means that I can pretty much just get up and go the next day and ultimately it means that less clothes are put into the wash because I am too busy to put them away. This whole 'wearing pyjamas' thing means that I have to get changed. Or do I...?

I figure if it is expected that I wear pyjamas to bed, why not just wear them all day long, then I will save time and be ready for bed so much quicker!

Happy holidays,
Love AJ Pickle

PS - I thought that wearing my PJs all morning could be a good April Fool's Day trick but I was so comfortable that I decided that it could possibly be an every day trick!

On Holidays - a letter to Mum (and Nan too)

Dear Mum,

This photo shows the reason why especially during the holidays, I like to wear clothes to bed.

You see, being on holidays means I don't have to go anywhere at all, and with that in mind, I like to stay in my pjs all day long. This however does cause some problems every now and then. What happens if my friends drop in to hang out? What if I decide I want to go to the lake or the island? I lose valuable playing or exploring time.

I therefore propose that I wear normal clothes to bed for the rest of the holidays in order to maximise the amount of time I have to play/do nothing/chillax.
Love AJ Pickle (on holiday)

PS - can you please let nan know that wearing pjs all day long or wearing clothes to bed is perfectly acceptable 😊