I feel like I haven't been taking many pictures recently but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy! A few weeks ago I took Alex ice skating for the first time. I wasn't able to take any pictures but I at least wanted to mention it! She was excited to go and had mentioned it a few times before, so one Sunday afternoon the ice rink was having a Luau Family Day and it was only $10 for a family of 4 to go skate for the afternoon. I ended up going with my friend Ashley and her 2 kids (who had also never been skating). The kids all did great and had a ton of fun. The concession prices took me back to the old days--candy and pretzels were only $.50, and hot chocolate was only $1! Alex fell a bunch of times but didn't mind at all once she realized how many other people were falling too. I managed to stay on my feet the whole time despite Alex sometimes pulling on me to keep her balance, and by the end of the session she was skating a bit on her own.
The following week Desiree and I took Kellan and Adelaide to a Preschool skating session called Totsickles--it's super cute for little kids--they keep the ice kind of rough and let the kids go out onto the ice to play. They have a pile of snow and some beach toys, some sleds that parents can pull the kids around on, a hockey goal with a tennis ball and hockey stick and some other games. The kids can go out on the ice in their snow gear,right down to the boots, or they can put on ice skates and push a little walker around. It was too funny watching Kellan and Adelaide try out the ice skates--they had fun trying it out! When the kids are finished skating, they get to come in front of the fire for some hot chocolate, cookies, and storytime. Very great idea--we're taking the kids back again this week!
Here is a video of them getting going on their skates:
After ice skating we took the kids to this cute diner, The Poky Dot, that we'd never been to before. The kids got their food in little purple airplane shaped trays, and they were being silly together. Adelaide calls Kellan her "buddy" and I'm sure Kellan feels the same!
We've also been taking the kids to Marlon's winter kid's soccer clinic. We decided to let Kellan participate this time since he's almost 3 (although the clinic is really for kids ages 4 and up) and he was so excited the first day because he got to put on a soccer outfit and some soccer socks. He kept saying "I'm Big Enough!"
He has done pretty well during the skill drills they do, but he gets a little frustrated when they scrimmage at the end. I try to explain to him that he's in a group with 4, 5, 6 and 7 year olds so he's a bit smaller and slower than them--just give him a few years and he'll run circles around them!
Alex decided in the fall that she wasn't really interested in taking dance classes anymore (Sorry Renee and Lauren!), and she'd been asking to take gymnastics classes again. She had taken classes through her preschool when she was 4 and 5 and she really enjoyed it, but I had never been able to see her in any of her classes. So we signed her up to take some classes through the university's recreational program, and she's really enjoying it! She seems to have a bit more talent with gymnastics then she did at dance, so it's cute to watch her out there--I'll have to try and capture some on video to share.
So that's what we've been up to around here to beat the winter blues!
Very similar to my nephew Nolan's first experience, it was funny to see how little Alex actually understood about how the game of soccer worked. She initially got all mopey because a bigger boy took the ball away from her. After her first practice I explained how soccer actually works, and she was much more aggressive the next time she went! 
She's one of the shortest ones on her team (of course!) since it's made up of 4 and 5 year olds, so there are some boys that are at least a year older and a good head taller than her, so I'm proud of her for not backing down to them once she got the hang of the game a bit more. Watching the practices has been interesting--I give credit to the coaches who try to keep the interest of 10 4-5 year olds for an hour. At any given moment there were probably no more than 5 or 6 kids actually participating--the rest were sitting in the grass, getting a drink, going to the bathroom, or just hanging with their parents. Kellan has had a great time at the practices too--he could probably hold his own out there dribbling around with the bigger kids and kicking the ball in the goal! He truly is a natural (left-footed) soccer player!
