Ice Skating

Today Zoey's preschool class took a field trip to go ice skating at Twin Ponds.  I'm not going to lie, I had my doubts about setting a group of 4-year olds loose on the ice.  Half of them run into the wall on a daily basis, just by walking.  I envisioned mayhem and was wondering if I would need to use my ER nursing expertise.

Skates on, ready to go!

 With her friends, Julia & Dante:

Pop Pop!

Well I was half right.  Luckily there were no injuries despite some pretty spectacular falls and faceplants.  But there was definitely some mayhem and it was hilarious.  Watching these 4-year olds wobble out onto the ice for the first time was hysterical.  For an incredibly accurate comparison, think Bambi on ice:

The kids were given these blue plastic walkers, basically training wheels for ice skating.  You skate behind it, using it for balance and pushing it forward as you skate.

I really didn't get many pictures of Zoey skating because I was having too much fun watching and then I was out on the ice myself (a recipe for calamity right there, even in my sneakers).  The kids were super cute with their wobbly ankles and crazy coordination.  Then they would finally get their feet under them and get going pretty well, get totally excited by that and so of course try to go faster, which inevitably led to their feet going WAY too fast and flying in a flurry underneath them.  Luckily the walkers kept them upright a lot of the time.  

However, Zoey was not really a fan of the walker and from the beginning wanted to skate without it.  There were guys playing hockey at the rink next to ours and Zoey kept pointing over there and saying "but I just wanna skate like those guys".   This is her face of annoyance and protest when I wanted her to try the walker for awhile to get a feel for her footing:

So I tried to help her skate a little bit without it, which was disastrous and hilarious.  First of all, I know nothing of ice skating.  I've been all of twice and I'm still amazed I didn't break my face or innocent bystanders in the process.  I was smart enough to wear my sneakers on the ice with Zoey.   But she was all impatient and wanting to go fast, which resulted in her legs somehow shooting straight out in front of her in rapid scissor kicks, waving one of her arms and clinging to me with the other arm.   She liked it, but she was also frustrated by not being immediately good at it.  

She skated for about 20 minutes and then decided she wanted to watch the men play hockey.   I can't decide if she was more fascinated by their fast skating or the fact they got to hit stuff with a big stick, she talked way more about hockey on the way home than ice skating.  But it was still a fun day to try something new, we had a great time, and there was no need to call an ambulance!