A Day for Mum

Today is Mother's Day, so that means that we have to do everything that mum wants to do.  Luckily mum loves to do cool things.

Now most people get their mum's pretty things for Mothers Day but not us, we stocked up on some more Lego for mum.  Isn't it cool that a present for mum is something the whole family can enjoy!

An awesome Mother's Day present

After Milla's soccer game, we headed out to visit Grandma so we could have some fun and so dad could wish his mum a happy Mother's Day.  We could have stayed all day but since it was mum's choice, we headed back to Docklands to go to the hockey - Melbourne Ice were playing again.

Ice ready for action

And because it was Mother's Day, a heap of mum's got to do chuck-a-puck and mum was one of the lucky mums, along with Webby's mum and the Wong's mum.  Mum didn't quite win, but was a close second (just like Milla was when she did chuck-a-puck!) and was lucky enough to get a Melbourne Ice Chocolate Puck!

Mum's chocolate puck

After the game, which was 'freaking awesome' (mum's words, not ours!) we headed over to Harbour Town Hotel for some dinner.  Not only did we have a delicious dinner, mum was given a complementary glass of bubbles.  Not a bad way to end the day.

Bubbles for mum

Did you remember to do something nice for your mum for Mother's Day?

Love AJ and Milla

PS - this is one of the other things we did for Mother's Day, I think mum was pretty happy about it!

Atoms on ice

It isn't every day that a kid gets to play ice hockey in front of a packed house at Icehouse but luckily for me, that is what happened today.  My second hockey game for the day was a cross-ice demonstration game after the first period of the Melbourne Ice game.

AJ and the atoms in action

It was a little chaotic with heaps of little kids on the ice but pretty good practice to get used to playing in front of crowds.  

When I play for Melbourne Ice, I will be playing in front of crowds like this every week!

Love AJ Pickle

I'm a Pirate

Well I have to say that the long drives to Oakleigh have been well worth it - I am now a Pirate!  Not a pirate with a sword and a hook instead of a hand but a pirate with a hockey stick and a new jersey.

At training this morning my coach said I was ready to play in the game.  I was so excited, I couldn't wait.  Luckily the game was only a few hours after training!

This is me all kitted up ready for my first ever Pee Wee game.

It was pretty awesome playing in a real match.  It was so fast and so competitive, heaps more fun than training or even scrimmage.  I had heaps of ice time and even got an assist with only a minute to play.  The final score was 4 - 4.  

I can't wait until my next game.

Love AJ Pickle

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

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

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

Bring on the ice

It is nothing new to anyone that we LOVE ice hockey and going to watch games in at Icehouse. It isn't long now until the season starts and we can't wait.

Today we were treated to a match between the Australian team (that will be competing overseas soon) and the Victorian All Stars. We really couldn't decide who I wanted to win. Of course as Aussies we wanted the Australian team to do really well but the Victorian team has some of our favorite players in it.

The game was awesome and the Australian team did win. The most exciting part is that the season is almost back!
Love AJ and Milla

Go Ice Go

Well by now, I think that everyone knows that I love ice hockey and whenever I get the chance I go and watch Melbourne Ice play.

The Ice are about to head to Newcastle to play the finals but for a special treat they played a charity game to raise money for Kids Under Cover.  Instead of playing against a different team, it was Melbourne Ice playing against Melbourne Ice!  There were players from way back when Melbourne Ice first began 10 years ago as well players from the women's team and players in the Ice Academy (the development squad), all playing with the current Melbourne Ice players and it was awesome.

Normally at the AIHL games we watch, the refs make sure that the play is stopped for every penalty, for this game Army was being the ref and I think he was too busy laughing at all the crazy plays to bother calling any penalties!  He didn't even call a penalty when there were 2 pucks on the ice!  It did get a little crazy when there were about 40 players all on the ice at the one time.   Everyone was laughing and having fun, especially the players.

It was a great day at the hockey.  It was the first time that Melbourne Ice have had an Alumni game with the past, present and the future of the game all playing together.  They probably won't play the next alumni game for another decade.  Hopefully by then I will be training with the Ice Academy or playing with Melbourne Ice!

The highlight of my game was when Joey Hughes gave me one of the game pucks at half time!

Go Ice Go, head to Newcastle on the weekend and bring home the Goodall Cup.  

Chuck a Puck

Just in case you didn't know it, we are huge ice hockey fans around here and every chance we get we go to watch Melbourne Ice play.  Today was one of those days, game day.  Better still, it was the Melbourne Derby - Melbourne Ice were playing the Mustangs.

We knew that it was going to be a huge game and sell out so we bought our tickets early and went in to the game hours before the game started just to make sure we had good seats.  I was glad we went early, not just because we did get good seats but because I was asked to be in Chuck-a-puck at the end of the first period!

I was pretty excited to be in Chuck-a-puck.  I was contestant number 3 and I was pretty nervous.  We were all interviewed and it was shown on the big screen.

Finally it was time to Chuck a puck.  The first 2 contestants aimed for the target - a big bag of chocolates on the ice but their puck wasn't very close.  Then it was my turn.  I chucked my puck, it wasn't a great throw but it was much closer than the first two.  Contestant number 4 threw her puck and it was a pretty good throw, it looked to be about the same distance from the chocolate but on the other side of it.  The last 4 throws weren't really very good so it was between me and number 4.  I was pretty sure that my puck was closest, but her throw was straighter so the prize was given to her.  I was a little disappointed not to win, but I still had a great time.

Better still, it was great to spend the afternoon with my family, and extended family - Sarah and Fred AND the Melbourne Ice won the game 4-1.

All in all, a great day out,

Love Princess George

Another ANZAC Tradition

I know that there are lots of different traditions that help us to remember the sacrifice that the ANZACs made for all of us.  Today I learnt of a different tradition that is associated with the ANZACs, it is called 2 Up.  Now you would think that since I spent my early morning hanging out at the RSL that would be the place to learn all about 2 Up but it wasn't.

Guess where I learnt all about 2 Up?  At ice hockey.  Now I know you are probably thinking that I am way too young to gamble, but don't worry, we were playing 2 Up as a fun game, not gambling.  See instead of coins, we used hockey pucks.  Everyone had to guess if they were going to land as both heads (both hands in the air), both tails (hands on bums) or one of each.

I generally bet 'odds' - one head and one tail

The pucks were balanced on the end of a hockey stick by Liam (he's the teacher) and then tossed high into the air.  There was no money to win but if you didn't guess right, you had to skate to the other end of the rink and back before you could play again.

Come in Spinner!

It was a pretty simple game and it was easy to see just how much fun everyone could have when the only equipment, other than what we were wearing, was 2 hockey pucks!
Love AJ Pickle

AJ at the Ice

Now it is pretty obvious that I LOVE ice hockey and that I go to see my favourite team - the Melbourne Ice play whenever I can.  

Today, not only did I get to see Ice play, I got to do an Atoms training session between periods of the game.

It was awesome training in front of so many people.  

Hopefully one day I will be playing a real game of championship hockey in front of a huge crowd.

Love AJ Pickle

Boston College Eagles

I know that it was only last week that I said I wanted to be a pilot but I think I may have changed my mind.  Before I become a pilot, I will go to college and play ice hockey.

It was so cool to go to a game.  Not only was the game awesome, but just sitting in the crowd was so much fun.  There was a band that played and  the crowd cheered and chanted constantly...





Oh and there was a giant eagle wandering around the stadium.








Dad gave in and bought us merchandise when mum wasn't looking!

Best of all, there were awesome hockey players out on the ice!

After watching the Boston College Eagles play, I might even go to college in Boston and play hockey for them.


Check us out, we look like we belong here!

Love AJ Pickle