A little more hockey

When AJ saw "Jeff - hockey" written on the calendar this weekend, he questioned Jeff using the language of a Mite 1. "You have a jamboree?"

Sort of. It was a tournament organized as a fundraiser for the Special Olympics.

I discovered it's a lot harder to take pictures of Jeff than it's been to photograph AJ. Jeff and his teammates skate a lot faster.

And so most shots of him were blurry, unless he was standing relatively still getting ready for the face-off.

The kids were very exciting to go to Daddy's games. Note that I didn't say they were excited to watch the games. They usually lasted about a period before the lure of the concession stand and games won out.

And since it was warmer to watch the game from the area where the games were set up, I generally caved in to their wishes.

Playing air hockey with his sister, AJ seemed to spend more time waiting for the disc to reach him.

Sydney's arms were just a little too short.

The final game of the tournament was a 4-4 tie when the final buzzer sounded, and so they had a shoot out. Alas, Jeff's team could use a little work in that area. The final score - they lost - 6-4, bringing their tournament record to one win and two losses.

AJ took the loss hard.

Sydney tried to comfort her brother, chirping out a nice little line she no doubt heard on a well-meaning cartoon. "It's okay to lose," she told AJ, "as long as you had fun playing."

"But I didn't get to play," was AJ's come back. "So I didn't have fun!"

And then more tears. "Now they'll never win a trophy!"

I assured him that Dad and his teammates were not crying over the final score. Just to make sure, Sydney ran to Jeff and gave him a hug when he emerged from the locker room. "Daddy, did you cry?"

It's going to be interesting to see what happens next year when, as a Mite II, AJ starts playing in games where scores are counted.