Stella has been asking me to go ice skating for about 2 months. I remember when I was growing up we had a lake behind our house and we were always out there ice skating with family and our friends – we would stay out there for hours. As an adult I don’t think I have skated except for a couple of times when I was traveling in South Africa – no I really did ice skate while I was there. The family I was staying with would go to the indoor skating rink and so I went with them several times. So this past Saturday I took Stella skating. I had gotten a great deal on Living Social – skating and skate rentals for 2 and it was only $10! Stella had only been skating twice, neither one of those times was with me.
We headed out and found the skating rink – it was next door to a middle school. The middle school also had an outdoor and indoor swimming pool – Stella decided this would be a school she would like to go to. We got our skates, put them on and hit the ice. Stella was not so sure in the beginning – hanging on to the wall as we made our way around the rink. She then got a little braver and held my hand as we went around, grabbing the wall every so often. Then she got really brave and decided she wanted to skate on her own – she was doing great and then there was the first fall, then the second, rubbed her knee a little, take a little rest and then back to skating. She was doing great – figured out how to do a twirl and almost took me out on the first one. Now she was even going faster and faster and I was having a hard time keeping up to her with all the people.
They called a break so the Zamboni could come out and re-water the ice – Stella had never seen this before and was mesmerized! We also had some time to get a hot chocolate – yummy.
The break was over and it was back to skating. By this time my feet were killing me – the skates were a little too small, but the next size up was too big. I made a deal with Stella that we would skate for another hour, since that was about all I thought my feet could handle. There seemed to be a lot more people now and falls by one person were causing falls by many! Stella had a bad fall and I could not get around her so I used her to keep myself up
instead of falling on top of her – she was hurt, but she did not want to admit it. She got up shook her foot a few times and went back to skating – I could tell that she was hurting – I reminded her that soccer was starting the next day – her favorite sport – and that if her foot was bothering her maybe we should stop – we could always come back – she agreed.
We had the best time, laughing, smiling, spending time together and getting some exercise. When we got home we had some dinner played headbands. Headbands is a really fun game – you wear a headband with a card on it and then you ask the other players questions trying to guess what picture is on the card. I really want to wear the headband around town and see what kind of conversations it starts. Then we decided to play Boggle – a new game she got for Christmas. I love Boggle and remember playing often with my grandmother. Then to top the day off we watched a movie and then Stella was allowed to sleep in my bed (mistake on my part – I ended up in her bed!) I can say for myself that I get caught up in life and all the activities that need to be done, but I am always happy when I put it all aside and spend the day with my daughter – having fun, experiencing life, sharing memories – I never regret it and always wish that I would do it more often!

What a nice day ! Good for you for remembering what is REALLY important in life!
Va.
It was a nice day. I think we all get caught up in “life” and sometimes need to take a time out from it and enjoy what is closest!
A wonderful reminder to all of us about what is really important in life. This was a great blog about that because I could really get the “feel” of you and Stella being together. Really wonderful. Kudos.
Thank you. I think the game night that followed the day started something. I have been trying to get Stella to do a game night one night a week and so far I have not been successful. We have now had game night 3 nights in a row!!!!
What a special blog!
I’m blushing 🙂