Skating Party

One reason we only ended up staying one night at Great Wolf Lodge was because the boys really wanted to get home to go to the midnight showing of the new Hobbit movie.  The other reason is that no one wanted to miss our co-op Christmas skating party, which was Friday at 11:00!  All the older kids love to skate, and this was Faith's first year where she was old enough to skate!  (My own personal rule is that the child has to actually BE in TNT before they are allowed to attempt skating, LOL.) 

Anna was confident enough to skate by herself without holding onto the sides or anyone else!

All the boys took turns helping Grace and Faith.  Grace is exceptionally cautious and moves around the edge of the rink at a snail's pace.  But she rarely falls!  Faith did pretty well for it being her first time.  She is nowhere near as cautious as Grace!

Luke and Nathan not only helped our girls--they also helped Megan's daughter Grace skate around, since Megan (our Rivendell lit teacher) was working in the craft room the whole time.  They still had plenty of free skating with the McC boys!

Drew was extremely crabby.  He was definitely wishing he was at home, taking a nap in his warm snuggly bed, as opposed to in a cold skating rink!  Whenever I put him down on the floor, he immediately made a beeline for the rink.  Once he made it out onto the ice, where he fell flat on his face and (incredibly--who would have guessed) started crying.  But near the end, Nathan, Luke and Caleb took him out for several turns around the rink.  He loved it!  That was pretty much the only time he wasn't whining all morning!  He napped the entire afternoon after we got home.

A few years ago, the ladies in charge of the skating party started having some craft tables for the younger kids to do when they weren't skating.  It was such a great idea, especially for those of us with lots of littles who weren't skating!  This year there were several craft options, like a popsicle manger or Christmas tree, a beaded pipe cleaner star, and this all-time favorite that Micah is holding--a snowman made from 2 big marshmallows with a gumdrop hat, mini chocolate chip eyes and buttons, and a fruit rollup strip scarf.  Megan was in charge of that table, and it was quite popular!  Grace made one of these snowmen for Micah, which he promptly ate, and then later Nathan helped him make one of his own--which he promptly ate as soon as I took this picture.  Drew had a marshmallow too, and he was also happy during that brief moment of time. 

The skating is a great deal for us--an hour and a half of skating for $6 each, which includes skate rental.  And the time to visit with friends makes it even better!  It was definitely worth coming back home Thursday night!