Ice Skating

This winter, Kevin & Malcolm have been taking ice skating lessons together. I went and observed at the halfway point, and then again today at the final class. The pictures are from both times I was there. I'm sorry about the quality. I was taking them from far away and often through dirty glass.

Malcolm did wonderfully in his class, feels pretty comfortable on the ice, and rarely falls (unless it's on purpose). I was really impressed to see so much improvement between the two times I observed him.


The boys getting their skates on.



Waiting for class to start.



Practicing falling and getting up.



Skating with daddy.



Following a line the teacher drew on the ice.



Malcolm's favorite activity is picking up the animals off of the ice. He was very good at this and was pretty fast at picking them up and returning them back to their basket.



At the end of class, they have 15 minutes of optional free skate time. Today was the first time Malcolm wanted to stay and he and Kevin had a good time.



Coming off of the ice, he finally lost his balance and I happened to catch it.

The ice center has a concession stand, and Malcolm has been asking to eat there since the first class.  We told him that at the last class we would stay and have lunch there.  He was very excited to have his cardboard pizza and apple juice and even talked us into a push-pop on the way out.

Science!

Malcolm's preschool had a science fair a couple of weeks ago. For his project, he and Kevin did, "What Dissolves in Water?" They tested things out at home and Malcolm took pictures with our camera to document how things went.

The science fair was all hands on experiments. Malcolm walked around and did just about all of them including making a cloud, testing magnets, popping lids off of film canisters, having his finger prints analyzed, learning about seas shells, making rainbows, and much more.


Setting up his experiment.


Testing his out one more time.

Snow!

Last night we had quite the blizzard.  Kevin is out of town on his first ever business trip, so that leaves me at home, alone with two kids, in a blizzard.  I decide to make the most of it.  I have been promising Malcolm for a while that when we got enough snow, we would make snow ice cream.  We have tried a couple of times, but there has not been enough snow all at once.

Around nap time (1:00), I set out two bowls to collect the snow.  It was snowing steadily, but not too bad.  The forecast was for it really pick up around 3:00, so I figured there would be plenty by dinner time (6:00).  Was there ever!  I went out after dinner to retrieve the bowls...and couldn't find them!  They are somewhere in our yard, buried. I went back up to the house to have Malcolm fetch me another bowl, and the storm door was locked. Little bugger locked me out in a blizzard! After a lecture, hug, apology, promise to never do it again, and a discussion about whether or not we should even make ice cream, I went out and got the snow.

We mixed up the ice cream and the kids loved it! It was very tasty, but it doesn't keep, so I called and asked the neighbors if they would like some. I ran it over, and on my way found a drift in the yard that came up to the top of my knee high boots. The neighbor kids liked the ice cream too. The recipe is:

8 cups clean, fresh snow
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix well and eat right away.


Since Kevin is out of town, our wonderful neighbors said that they would clear our driveway and sidewalks for me. Hooray! It looked like a lot of work, and I'm so appreciative. Our back door was snowed in but we could get out the front, so I took the kids out for a little while to see all of the snow and just to get out of the house for a bit (they were getting a little squirrel-y).


Here is why I couldn't get the back door open.


This is the view out our back door. Obviously, we have a detached garage, and the giant swath of snow is part of our driveway.


The kids are on our driveway. The snow behind them is just what came down. The snow-blower blew the snow the opposite direction, so it is easy to see how deep the snow was.


Dorothy sitting on the sidewalk.


Malcolm was big help shoveling. He helped be dig out our back steps and shoveled the snow that was left behind by the snow-blower.


Here, he is trying to help the neighbor who was doing our driveway by digging out their sidewalk. He worked hard, but I think the snow-blower was faster.


After the shoveling was finished, each kid got a sled ride. Malcolm refused to ride with Dorothy, so she rode in her sled, then he rode in his. She likes to go faster than he does, so it was probably for the best.


Before we went in, Malcolm wanted to pull his sled down the sidewalk. Then we went inside to warm up and have hot chocolate and lunch.