Faeries on Ice

So, we’re totally getting into skating of all sorts – after my recent foray into Roller Blading with homeschool group, we’ve gone to the roller rink a couple times more, and this week we went ice skating again with the Gold Coast home school group, which is vibrant and thriving.

Remember that Littletree is a long-time ice skating enthusiast, it’s great to see how she’s improving over time, and her confidence and skill level is improving so much. And since I’ve started skating more, I’m getting a whole lot more confident myself

I even got confident enough to teach a few of the absolute beginners in the group, which was great – I made some new friends along with practising skating :)

I even managed to get myself up to a decent speed going backwards, and then turn around to face forwards while still going in the same direction. Which I thought was a pretty great achievement, until I saw the awesome tricks Littletree is pulling off…

And of course we got into discussions about physics, gravity, friction, the laws of motion, and somehow, genetics while skating.

Skate!

Homeschool group meets regularly at the local roller rink, but since I’ve never roller bladed and only ever roller skated twice when I was a kid and both times managed to injure myself. I always sit with the other parents on the sidelines, saying that I prefer to maintain the integrity of my limbs.

But I can ice skate… well, at a very limited level – I can keep myself upright and going around the rink without falling over, remember, we’ve been a bunch of times before (no one pay too close attention to my choice of attire, that I only now notice is due for an update).

So I decided it’s time to try it out, and I gave my very first attempt at roller-blading a burl.

I started out a bit wobbly – being used to ice skating it took a circuit to get out of the habit of trying to push off and brake with my toes, and LIttletree gave me some tips

I did at least manage to keep my balance, and after one circuit hugging the guard rail, I was off and whizzing around

I had an awesome time, and got to do a few rounds with Littletree as well. Heaps of other homeschooling families showed up this week, including several new families, so that was great to have more kids on the rink as well.

I can’t wait to go again!!! Maybe I’ll practice a bit and join the local roller derby league…

Ice Skating in Wonderland

Yesterday I organised an outing for our Home School group to go Ice Skating.

Littletree was ecstatic! She’s been begging me to take her ice skating ever since the last time we went (18 months ago) and the time before that (two years ago).

I took Littletree around one circuit,

and then she was pretty much good to go – she had the hang of skating on her own, more or less.

She had a ball, going around with various friends

It was great that a whole group of us were there – it meant I had a load of witnesses for when I went ass-up and fell. It was quite a spectacular; I was pretty much standing still, and somehow managed to slip backwards, got completely airborne and came down hard, flat on my back and head. Ouch! Then I managed to fall over again, trying to get up. It was pretty funny though.

The cold meant there was a lot of haze in the air that we couldn’t really see, but shows up nicely in the flash. Littletree and her friend, Princess had a hot chai to keep warm, and then a big group of high school kids arrived, so we decided we’d had enough and left.

Since Littletree had also been begging to go to the big cinema to see the new Alice in Wonderland in 3D, and my main argument against going was that it’s really far to drive to get there (the same argument I use against going ice skating – it’s 90 minutes from our home), I decided to get the most out of our trip, and we went to see the movie after the ice skating.

It was showing in a massive shopping mall – I think the biggest mall I’ve ever been in, times 100! It was scary. Thank goodness I had the foresight to photograph where I’d left the car so we could find it again! We were there a bit early, so we played “spies” around the shops – I would pretend to be shopping and the girls were spying on me.

The two girls LOVED Alice in Wonderland! I have to admit, it was a pretty fun movie. I’m a Tim Burton fan, though I prefer his older stuff, but I also have a thing for Helena Bonham Carter – she makes an excellent Red Queen.

After that, we did the long drive home, exhausted. I’m still aching!

Walking on Knives

Yesterday we went ice skating with our local homeschool group and today my feet are KILLING me!

I realised something. When Hans Christian Andersen wrote that The Little Mermaid's feet would hurt like she was walking on knives, he meant rental skates! Man, I've no idea why they're made that way, but skates always make my feet so swollen and bruised.

At least Littletree had a great time, especially as one of her best friends came with us.

After the ice rink, we stopped in a great park I found for a picnic on the way home. The girls had a ball running around the rainforest, and climbing trees and stuff.

Happy Birthday Purple

Today is Purple's 38th birthday.

When we told Littletree yesterday that it's going to be her Aba's birthday, she said "people usually have a cake for their birthday. But you know, a whole cake is too much for one person to eat. You'll need someone to help you eat it."

So lucky we had her to help with that! LOL

We had a quiet day at home, made brownies, played Monopoly, watched some videos, played with Barbies.

I've been prety busy working hard on getting Liberated Learning running smoothly, writing more articles for Essence of Life, and I attended a birth via Skype last night!

Tomorrow is homeschool group - we're going ice skating again :)

Oh, and Littletree is just fine after her fall down the stairs. Thanks everyone who sent her well-wishes!

Princesses on Ice

Yesterday we went with some families from the Homeschooling group to the Ice Skating rink in the Gold Coast!

It's been Littletree's dream to go Ice Skating, ever since she saw the Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus DVD. She talks about it all the time. So, we made the mission to go up there, especially since Littletree and I are going away for three months, and we will be away for her birthday.

I was a bit nervous that Littletree would freak out and hate it in the first minute; the skates would hurt her feet, she would be cold, she'd slip and fall... but she was fine :)

Well, it was pretty wobbly at first, I haven't been skating since 1994 or something, but it came back fast (not that I was ever any good). We all spent the morning going slowly backwards, holding the kids' hands as they got more confident.

By the end a couple of the bigger kids were going out on their own, and Littletree was starting to get the hang of it. I even got a few rounds to practice my Wayne Gretzki impression. (Denzil, I hope you're reading)

One of Littletree's friends even made her a wonderful birthday present :)

A gorgeous hand-made reversible felt crown