Ice Skating

Ben's birthday was over President's Day weekend, so on Monday the kids and Paul had the day off. They had a free learn to skate/play hockey clinic, so we went with some friends. Ben has been asking for a long time to go ice skating and we have never taken any of them before, so it was quite an experience! The kids all did really well!   They started off pushing chairs around the ice, which gave them something to hold on to while they got the feel of it.  Although it would have been easier for the girls to hold the chairs with both hands, they both wanted to hold my hands as well. 

Ben took to it pretty well too.

Before long, Abbey was off on her own in her typical "I do it myself" Abbey fashion...

Juliette enjoyed it, but she really didn't like wearing the helmut and that made it difficult for her.  After a while, she just sat in the chair and asked me to push her around, which was also fun.

 

Before long, Ben ditched the chair and took to a hockey stick.  He was hitting the puck back and forth with his friend.  Unfortunately, his friend has been doing hockey lessons for about 3 years and skated very easily, which was really frustrating Ben.  He did awesome for his first time - I couldn't believe he was hitting the puck!  But his experience was a bit soured by comparing himself to his friend :(  We were very impressed with his skating though!

And our fearless Abbey also dropped the chair rather quickly and enjoyed skating back and forth on the ice.  I was so impressed!

Great job Ben!