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

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

Friendly Soccer

The soccer season might be over but we were invited to play in a friendly match against one of the other teams in the competition.  Of course we said yes and a mixed team, some from blue and some from gold, headed out to play. 

It was great to be back out on the soccer pitch again.

 

Unfortunately we didn't win but we did have a great time playing again.  

Of course we sang our team song, this time at the start and the end of the game.  

Then the other team even asked us to join them for a team photo.

I love soccer and the friends that I have made playing.  I love that the other team thought that we were such good sports (we really are) during the season that they invited us to play against them in a friendly match.  I can't wait till the season starts again next year.

Love Princess George

Jumping High

Today was a school day but I didn't do any school work.  In fact I was barely at school.  I went to school early and jumped on the bus to go to the District Athletics Carnival.  I was competing in the high jump.

Nervously waiting...

I was pretty nervous, it was the first time I was competing in the District Sports and I have only ever done high jump about 3 times!  Now when I had a go at high jump at school, the mat we were landing on was about 30 or 40 centimetres high.  The mat here was ginormous, it was 80 centimetres high!

My event was the first event called.  I was the first person to jump.  The bar was set at 1.05m.  Off I ran and up I jumped.  Before I knew it I was over the bar and on the mat.

Success on the first jump of the day :-)

The other kids went next and every time they had a jump the bar fell down.  They all had a second jump.  Only one of the other kids in my age group managed to make it over the bar.

The two of us kept on jumping.  If I made it over the bar, then he would make it over the bar.  If I hit the bar, then he would hit the bar too.  

Almost! I think my bum got in the way :-/

We went from 1.05m to 1.08m and we both cleared it.  The bar was moved up to 1.11m but we both missed it.  They dropped it back to 1.10m and we both cleared it.

Made it this time :-)

The bar was moved it back up to 1.11cm.  I just missed it on the third jump, I clipped the bar with my heels but he made it over.  That means that he won the event and I came in second place.

They had to have a jump off for third place.  Everyone else tried their best but they couldn't make it over the bar at 1.05m so they dropped it back again and still no one made it so everyone else came equal third.  Because I got a place, I was lucky enough to get a ribbon and points for my school. 

Second and super proud :-D

 Oh and did I mention I had a cheer squad - Aunty Sharn,  Billy AND mum!  That was a pretty cool surprise!

Happy high 5s after the high jump :-D

I think I like high jump, I wonder if I can go to Little Athletics and learn some more sports, maybe one day I could be in the Olympics!

Love AJ Pickle

She Shoots... She Scores!!!

With only 4 weeks left of the soccer season, I was a little disappointed that I hadn't scored a goal.  Every week I work my hardest but I never seem to score.  Not long into the game today, I took a pass in the forward as I was running to the goal.  I didn't want to kick it straight to the goalie so I aimed wide.  Unfortunately it was a little too wide, but if you don't tell anyone, it actually looks like I am kicking a goal here! 

Kicking goals... Almost!

When I did actually kick a goal, mum was too busy cheering for me that she didn't get a photo of me kicking the goal.  She did manage to get a photo of me celebrating but I am behind the opposition!

Yippee!

This photo is completely our of focus - I think mum was still in shock when she took this photo of me running around with the hugest smile on my face! 

She scored!

Later in the half I did a great kick from the midfield, straight to another one of our players who kicked her first goal too.

Another assist

Three different players on our team kicked their first ever soccer goals in the first half of the game.  Unfortunately the other team kicked three goals in the second half so we drew the game.  I was so proud of my friend who had her first ever game in as a goalie.

Congratulating my friend

Of course we sung our team song at the end of the game.  I was so happy that I jumped the highest I have ever jumped.

Celebrating

I love soccer.  It is great to spend time hanging out with my friends, running around and having fun.
Love Princess George

Sundays in my City #4 - Soccer Sunday

Win Lose or Draw, whenever we play soccer we always finish up doing the same thing.

First we thank all the players in the other team...

High 5s All Round

Then we say three cheers for them, and for the ref too...

Hip Hip Hooray

Then we sing our team song...

Yep, the loudest on the team!

It is a great way to start a Sunday.

If you want to join in the fun of Sundays in my City too, click on over to Unknown Mami.

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

Bring it on!

We have been trying to do as many American things as we can during our holiday here.  Trick or Treating last week was awesome and very American; it was just like we have seen on TV.  Today we tried another typically American thing - we went to the football to see the Brookline Warriors play the Milton Wildcats.

I have to say that I am not a big fan of football and I had never even heard of American Football before but since the rest of the family were going on an adventure I figured that I had better go along too.  I am really glad that I did, not because of the football but because of the cheerleaders.

In Action

The cheerleaders were way more interesting to watch than the football.  They were really friendly too, they lifted me over the fence onto the playing field so that I could have my photo taken with them.

Milla is a Wildcat :-)

It was like being a part of Bring It On.
Maybe if AJ moves to America to be an ice hockey player, I can be a cheerleader.
Love Princess George

Hulkamania

Did you know that it IS possible for kids and dads to both like the same thing? Well it is!

When dad was little he liked to watch WWF - the old fashioned name for WWE on tv. Well guess what, I LOVE watching wrestling on tv.

Do you know what is even better than watching wrestling on tv?

Watching it in real life! Even the wrestlers from the olden days like Hulk Hogan are awesome!

Thanks for a great wrestling adventure.

Love AJ Pickle

Football Stars?

For the last few months mum and AJ have been dragging me along to Auskick. I really don't like football, but mum and AJ seem to like it. Luckily I am happy to go along and visit my friends there. This week at Auskick we found out that if our parents wanted to take us in to Etihad Stadium we could play in the half time Auskick games out on the ground. Naturally AJ thought it was the coolest thing ever. I didn't really want to go but decided that since the Bombers were going to play the Bulldogs it might be fun.

Well can you believe it, mum somehow convinced me to take my footy boots into the stadium, just in case there weren't enough players. Humph - they were a player short and I was convinced to play, providing I didn't have to do anything except for go out on to the field, I didn't actually want to have to play football.

Even though I wasn't 'playing' football, it was still exciting being down in the dressing rooms listening to the roar of the crowd up in the stands watching the real game. By the time we walked around to the other side of the ground and lined up in the race ready to go out onto the field I was feeling a bit nervous.

I played on the red team with my Auskick friends and AJ played on the black team with his friend Tiger.

Finally it was half time in the game and it was time for us to run out onto the field to play our game. AJ was great, he got a kick right after the game started and even kicked a point.

AJ had just kicked a point in this photo, that is him on the right.

Our team wasn't very good, but we were all having fun running around on the ground. All of a sudden our team got a free kick and the umpire tried to get me to take the kick.

I really didn't like the thought of taking a free kick and I got scared and started to cry. Instead of taking my kick I ran off the field and ran over to mum.

Later on in the game there was another free kick for our team and it was just in front of where I was. Even though I wasn't really paying the game I decided that I might as well have a kick.

I did an awesome kick and guess what happened? AJ marked it. He did the greatest kick and kicked a goal from the middle of the ground, it was awesome!

I may not have actually played football and my team lost, but I did have fun.

I was much happier when the game was over and I could go and relax with my Auskick friends.

Perhaps I will actually play Auskick next year, who knows?

Love Princess George

A Boy's Day Out

Mum has gone to work, Milla has gone to the city with Aunty Sharn and it was just Dad and I at home alone.  We thought about playing Wii all afternoon and then I remembered I still needed to try out my birthday present - my very own golf clubs!

Do I look like a golf pro?

We practiced our pitching and our putting and it was heaps of fun.  

I was pretty good at golf.  I wonder if I can convince mum and dad to let me do golf lessons as well as tennis lessons?

Love AJ Pickle

Advance Australia Fair

What did you do to celebrate Australia Day?

I went to Windy Hill to see the Bombers at their first training session for 2009.  All of my favourite players were there, it was fantastic.  I got lots of autographs, but the best part of the day was when my friend 'Little Jimmy' (James) and his mum were on the field singing the national anthem with the players.

Check it out!

Seeing the Bombers sure was a great way to celebrate Australia Day.  Sure we had heaps of people come over to our house for a barbeque in the afternoon, but did you see the Bombers?

Love AJ Pickle

Run, Run, Run

HURUMPH!  Dad is away this weekend so I had to hang out with girls and do girlie things all day.  Luckily it was raining and I wouldn't have been allowed to play in the park all day, so being dragged to DFO really wasn't that bad, just don't tell mum, Sharn and Ellen!  

By the time we finished doing all the girlie shopping stuff, it had stopped raining so we went to the Holland Park Alive festival.  It was fantastic.  There was a jumping castle in the hall and one in the pool (but I forgot my togs), footy players to have a kick with, friends from circus to teach us new tricks, music to dance to, heaps of friends to play with and a running race.  

I went in the under 9's running race.  We had to run all the way around the KensingTAN, the new running track that goes all the way around the park.  The track goes for more than one kilometre!

This is me and everyone else running at the start of the race.

I am still running, almost at the finish line!

I didn't win, but I ran all the way and had heaps of fun.

Milli wasn't interested in running, or playing footy, she was happy climbing.

For a day where I spent most of my time with girls, it was kinda fun.

Love AJ Pickle

Look Up

School is out and we are on holidays for 2 whole weeks.  There is so much to do, but first all the kids in the area had some serious park playing to keep us busy; soccer, climbing trees, footy, chasey, skipping and generally running wild.

Just as it was getting dark, some of the dad's decided to have a kick of the soccer ball too.  They are so talented that they kicked the ball into the tree.

Not just into the tree, but into the very top of the tree.

Looks like it might take a while to climb to the top.

Luckily we were able to shake the ball out of the tree.  It wouldn't be much fun not having all of my sports equipment to keep me busy during the holidays.

Love AJ Pickle

Playing Ball

Clement has been on camp with other big kids from other countries all weekend.  He came home this afternoon and we had a picnic in Circle Park for dinner then played ball.  

I got to stay in the park extra late AND play basket ball with Clement.  

Having a big brother is fantastic.  

Love AJ Pickle

Soccer

Instead of going to Kelly Sports this term, I get to play real soccer after school.  

My coach can do amazing tricks and he has already started to teach us how to do the tricks too. 

I can't wait until I am better at soccer than mum and dad!

Love AJ Pickle 

All Star

Tonight I went to the NBL All-Star Basketball game with AJ and some friends from Flemington.

It was awesome, they played lots of music and I saw all of the dancers on the court.  Oh yeah, I also watched the Aussies beat the International Import players.  

It was heaps of fun,

Love Princess George