Skating Party

Playing hockey

Last Saturday, we headed to our third annual skating/sledding party with our college gang. The scales have more than officially tipped and we are completely outnumbered by the new generation of short people. We were looking around the room as two big tables were filled up with kids and our friend Brian said, "Well, I know what we have all been doing for the last ten years. Well done, gang!"

We had nine families show up (and we were missing a few as well) and nineteen kids (with number twenty due in a few weeks)! It's so so awesome to still have the fun that we did in college - and to watch all our kids playing together. They really have a great time!

Learning to balance

Our buddy Phil and his neighbor flood their backyards to create a hockey rink each winter. Because of the weird winter temps, the ice wasn't great for anyone over 60 lbs to skate on. But it was perfect for the shorter skaters. We did discover a small flaw to our kid spacing method ... three beginning skaters and two parents is not the easiest task. Luckily, our friends were more than willing to help keep people upright!

Fiona was so focused and determined this year! We were really proud of her. She figured out how to keep her balance and worked so hard to skate on her own. She wanted to skate and nothing was going to stop her from doing it. She stayed on the rink well after most of the gang headed to the sledding hill and not even the shrieks of fifteen odd kids would deter her. We came home and signed her up for skating lessons the next day!

So happy!

Quinn and Declan also tested out the rink. Quinn did okay with me and did really well when Brad was helping her. She has the skill, but doesn't quite have the focus yet. Next year may be her year. And D was so excited to be on skates - with a hockey stick in hand. In his head, he was skating with the big boys. The sledding hill was much more enticing to these two and they had a great time taming the slopes with Dad while Fiona and I practiced on the ice.

Sidenote: two of the three Vs shoot left-handed. It was very confusing for me when I was assisting and they were holding the stick "backwards." Plus, every stick was curved the wrong way!

Once Fiona joined the sledders, Mike sealed his position as a favorite of five-year-olds by starting an epic snowball fight (or he is just a five-year-old at heart ...). Once we went inside, Phil made mac and cheese for dinner, there was serious playtime in the basement, and Quinn deemed it "the mostest fun stay home day." What a great way to spend a gorgeous winter day - skating, sledding, eating, and hanging out with some of our favorite people!

Epic snowball battle

Our group has grown a little ...

Q's Extracurricular Path

If it wasn't abundantly clear a year ago when I started investigating gymnastics programs, it is now MORE THAN clear that Quinn needs to be in gymnastics. Not necessarily in the "pinning gold medal dreams on a three-year-old" way, but definitely in a "stop doing front tuck half twists off my couch" way.

So ... Quinn will be starting up in a 3-year-old program at a local gym near the end of March. Recent events in the living room have reinforced her extracurricular preferences.

Scenes like this are a regular occurrence.
She walks backwards up his legs and balances on one foot.

Sometimes their escapades result in a double ice pack run

Hockey Day Minnesota: Duluth Edition

It's Hockey Day Minnesota - practically a national holiday in this house. It's in Duluth this year, so near and dear to Mike's heart. So, of course, the kids dressed the part. Let's hope all of Minnesota celebrating hockey can turn the Wild's fortunes around!

Riding in Circles

It hasn't been all day care and preschool drama around here. We've made time for fun too! A few weeks ago, we met some friends at the Mall of America to check out the rides at Nickelodeon Universe. Fiona had been there once - a long time ago, but this was a first for Quinn and Declan.

Their friend Max was a pro at the rides, so the girls happily followed his lead (and he was so proud to be the leader) on which rides were the "cool" ones. Fiona rode everything and shrieked and shrilled with glee. That girl emotes when she is happy. Fiona and Mike even rode the kiddie roller coaster and she immediately was campaigning to go on the big one. She didn't ... this trip.

Quinn rode a few and was pretty stone-faced on them. She had fun, but she wasn't going to give those rides a smile just because. You have to earn those smiles. Unless you are a cheerleader! It helped that Max's little sister is exactly Q's age, so she and Claire could tag along together and be brave as a team.

Poor Declan didn't get to go on many rides. So we made sure that the last ride of the day was the Merry-Go-Round. We found a row of three that all went up and down. All three kids had a great time and it was a lovely way to end our first real trip to the amusement park. It was also good practice, as I'm sure some day, we'll break down and get a family membership to ValleyFair. [Teenage Mike and Sara can't believe we live this close to our childhood paradise and haven't gotten a summer pass yet!]

Preschool Prep

In addition to interviewing new day care providers last week, we squeezed in attendance at the S-town School District preschool extravaganza to let Quinn check out the digs for the next school year. Fiona was more than happy to show her sister around the school and introduce her to every.single.person who works there. No joke - that girl knows everyone!

We had a great time checking out the STEM room, the classrooms, the cafeteria (where we had pizza for dinner*), and the gym. We ran into our neighbor**, which was super fun as winter can make you forget you have neighbors. We found Queen Elsa in the gym and the kids took a picture with her. Even better, the school mascot (Sammy the Saber) was there with some of the high school cheerleaders. I'm not sure we've ever seen Quinn smile as big as she did when they handed her a pom-pom. That whole "strangers should not look at nor touch me" did not apply to cheerleaders! Dec was very unsure of the mascot and coped by climbing into the lap of the closet cheerleader and asking her for snuggle. Our gang - apparently they like cheerleaders!

The unfortunate part of the evening was that instead of registering Quinn for preschool, I stood at the registration table, mouth agape, as a lovely lady tried to explain to me why the cost of the program had increased $250/month. Without getting into specifics, it is now VERY expensive. Like so expensive that we can almost send her to the Montessori school for the same amount. Like so expensive that we need to do some serious thinking on our game plan. The thinking was placed on the back burner while the great day care search commenced, but now that we've found a day care (holla!), we'll resume those discussions.

Two other interesting items of note from preschool open house:

*We made Fiona take a piece of pizza (both Mike and I were secretly planning to eat it). As usual, I made her take a bite. She got the funniest look on her face, those blue eyes sparkled, and she shrieked, "I love it." She's asked for pizza for dinner several times since then. While delighted, I'm also confused. And I was hungry. Because she ate my pizza! 

**Our neighbor K has a daughter who is just a few months older than Fiona. E is in Kindergarten this year and K works from home. I was talking to K at the open house and asked if Fiona could come over in the mornings before school in the fall and catch the bus with E. K thought this was a great idea. Until we discovered that somehow we are zoned for different elementary schools. Even though we live right across the street from each other. Sigh ... so I need to call the district to try to untangle that "fun" discovery.