Dawn of the Hockey Mom

I knew this day would come. Caleb is finally old enough to play hockey league. We'd been preparing for this moment for more than two years. Ever since our almost three year old developed an obsession for hockey, and we started group ice skating lessons, we'd been working toward the collective end of one day playing hockey with a stick.

After a crash course in all things hockey, I now know how to tape a stick (thank you Youtube), and how to keep hockey socks up. Of course we went cheap on all of the equipment ... he is only five after all, but he is thrilled. He would wear it full-time if he could fit in his car seat all padded up, and if the elbow pads didn't itch and if he actually liked wearing a cup.

Now I find myself at the ice rink two hours a week -- on Monday's for mini mites practice, and on Saturday's for the weekly game. But this is only the beginning. Someday hockey may takeover our lives ... clinics, camps, traveling teams ... who knows what the future holds. I feel hockey mom-dom burgeoning.

Still I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. Although Caleb is holding his own, he is hardly a hockey prodigy. There are other kids that are much, much, much better.  We don't know their story either. Caleb has been playing hockey for a month ... they could be older, or playing longer, or have parents that actually ice skate. Their parents could have been grooming their progeny for hockey since birth ...  in fact we overheard one mom say to her son (who happens to be a fantastic skater), "in Russia we ice skated everyday and we didn't complain."

All that said, the most important thing right now is for Caleb to have fun, and he is having a blast.

Fun at the Mendocino Botanical Gardens with the Boys

Seems like an oxymoron, fun at a botanical gardens with boys. But the Mendocino Botanical Gardens with our boys was fun. Oh yes there is a plethora of flora and fauna (just deer), lovely landscaping and educational labeling, a large collection of rhododendron ... but my two tykes who had been cooped up for two days were also able to simply run wild for a few hours, which is exactly what they needed.

The Mendocino Botanical Gardens was recommended by my husband's co-worker who had grown up in the area. So as we made our way through the fussy gift shop (far too many glass shelves filled with glass knick knacks for any comfort considering my clumsy six year old) and forked over $38 for our family of four we almost said... ah we'll pass.

But a recommendation is a recommendation. And the sun was finally out and the boys need a good dose of mother nature. The Mendocino Botanical Gardens were a pleasant surprise.

You enter into the formal garden and exit through a gate on a coastal trail. The trail takes you to the Parrish Farm. David Parrish worked with Santa Rosa's own Luther Burbank before he moved his ten kids to Fort Bragg to raise potatoes and peas on the coast.  Now, if you didn't grow up in Sonoma County you are probably only mildly familiar with Luther Burbank. He was a botanist, horticulturalist and pioneer in agricultural science. His home in Santa Rosa was a staple on the field trip circuit and as I remember, he invented hundreds of varieties of daisies, as well as apples and potatoes.

The farm is very sweet, and definitely fun for the kids. Following a Big Blue Meanie sign the Gardens have created an adventure trail near the farm for kids that includes forts, giant eggs and other hands-on surprises. This was the boys favorite part. A good part of my childhood was spent playing in the woods behind our house with my neighborhood friends. And I do wish my boys had more opportunities to build forts and experience the woods the way I did as a kid. The adventure trail harkened back to a time when kids had easier access to nature, and although they couldn't build a fort, they could play in one, and they loved it.

It is funny, but when our boys are cooped up for any time they get a little silly and crazy. It makes for challenging travel in restaurants, lobbies, hotel rooms and stores -- anywhere you need a semblance of decorum. The Mendocino Botanical Gardens offered a needed outlet where the boys could just play.  It will stay on our shortlist of things to do in Mendocino with the boys.