Life with Boys

One thing that I've really had to take on since Aaron died is making sure that the boys still get to do all the things that they love, even though I'm not into it as much as they are.  When Aaron died I felt like I had to take on his love of footy and Hawthorn for him, and for the first time ever I found myself really interested in the footy. 

I was genuinely interested in the footy for quite a few years after Aaron died, especially as Hawthorn were doing so well, but the last couple of years I haven't really been following it as much.  Kobe and Harri love it just as much as ever, even though Harri has now switched teams and barracks for Greater Western Sydney. 

Even though I don't really follow the footy as much as I used to, I still love going to the games with the boys when Hawthorn play in Tassie.  We always go with my Mum and Aaron's Dad comes as well.  

At the beginning of the year Harri asked me if  we could go and watch GWS play, if they came to Tasmania.  I knew it would mean a game in Hobart, and told him we could go especially after he got free tickets through something that they did at school with the North Melbourne Football club. We were lucky that it was a beautiful winter's day on the day that they played.  

Harri was glad to have a chance to finally wear his GWS gear.  

Thanks goodness GWS won, because it made the trip down and back in a day, worth it.  

We went to another Hawthorn match a couple of weeks ago, and this time we just went with Aaron's dad as Mum has gone on a holiday to the USA for six weeks. 

 An old friend that I taught with in my first year out of Uni (21 years ago!) is a huge Hawks supporter, and was also on the Tassie Hawks Supporter Group committee with Aaron, just before Aaron died.  They asked Aaron if he would be a part of it by being the secretary, and taking minutes etc at their meetings.  Aaron was over the moon to be a part of it.

During the week before the last Hawks game, he rang me and said that he wanted to invite me and the boys to a Hawthorn function after the game.  He sponsors some of the players and they were having a function at the Silo Hotel afterwards, where he would be presented with a guernsey from each of the players that he sponsors, and then the players would spend time chatting.

It was so lovely of him to invite us along, and he made sure that the players all came over to meet us and got a photo with us.  I had to admit that I didn't know a lot of the new players, but Kobe kept telling me who they were.

 Harri had a chat to Tom Scully about why he left GWS to play for Hawthorn.

 I've been dying to give Kobe a haircut for weeks but he won't let me, as he says he's 'growing it like Isaac Smith'.  I told Isaac and he had a laugh and took off his beanie to show us that he just had a hair cut! I told Kobe that it must be time to get a cut then and Isaac said 'nah keep growing it' which doesn't help the situation! :)

 We were very excited to get a photo with Jeff Kennett. He was very friendly and had a chat to us before the players arrived.

 The players were really friendly and lovely to the boys and didn't mind taking the time to get photos.   I know how lucky we were to be able to go, and I really appreciate that people try to brighten our lives by inviting us to things like this.

After the Hawthorn function we raced off to go and watch the Southern Huskies play basketball.  They're a new Tasmanian team playing the New Zealand NBL.  We got free tickets to their first game and thought we'd go along to check it out. We absolutely loved it as the atmosphere is so fun, and the quality of basketball is high.  Kobe has gotten to know a lot of the players and you can meet them after the game.

After their last game they gave out their cards to the kids.  Kobe had a great time running around, trying to get all of them. 

I know that Aaron would love that the boys are still very passionate about footy and basketball even though he's not here to be a part of it with them.