Ice Skating Party

At our New Years' party, Haley looked up at us with those big blue eyes and said, "Are any of my friends coming?"... aww, poor bean.  So we decided it was time again to organize something fun with her friends from Windy Hill.  Haley picked an ice skating party, on Friday night after Windy Hill.  The rink on the town green is open to anyone, and has lights after 5 pm, so it was a perfect meeting spot.  Plus, it is conveniently located right across the street from two pizza joints, so dinner was solved too.

We sent out an email invite, and a lot of Haley's friends came.  I don't think very many of them had tried ice skating before (Haley certainly hadn't really), and they learned that it was much harder than it looks to balance and propel yourself on thin little steel blades, but also that it was just as much fun to slide on the ice in  your boots and whack a puck around with small hockey sticks.  One of Aiden's friends from Mrs. Knapp's class showed up unexpectedly too, so he was happy to skate around with him.  All in all it was a successful skating party, with pizza and ice cream to finish it off.

Over the weekend, we got in Haley's last swim lesson at UVAC (she's passed all the levels for 3 year olds), Aiden's guitar lesson, and a nice lunch at Yama.  Aiden got a new fish (a betta) and we even made it to Mt. Sunapee for a few hours of skiing and snowboarding on Sunday.  Aiden and Andy are trying to master the magic carpet on snowboards before they try the chairlifts, and Beany and I work on her snowplow turns and stopping on the smaller bunny hill.  It's a learning year on the mountain for us, I think.  No more summit rides for a bit, but we are still having fun.  Plus there are waffle huts at both Sunapee and Ragged this season... what more could we ask for than a crunchy, chewy belgian waffle hot off the iron and drizzled in dark chocolate after a day on the slopes.  Mmmm...

This is haley after every skiing adventure

Not sure what they are doing with all the sticks

Molly and Aiden on a hike

Xmas "vacation" Week 2

Grandma Chris came to save us from having to take a second week off work while the kids are still out of school.  Actually, Aiden had a sports camp to go to, but there are no camp options for kids as young as Haley, so we really needed the help.  Haley and Grandma Chris spent all day every day together, Haley chatting incessantly about princesses and ponies and whatever else was going on in her head, and Grandma Chris just listening and chuckling most of the time.  Haley is pretty entertaining to shadow for a day.  Or five.

Haley in her Princess Sofia dress

There were tea parties EVERY day, of course, and lots of arts and craft activities.  On New Years Eve, we went over to the Anderson's house for dinner and then came home well before midnight.  The only two party animals to watch the ball drop at midnight were Grandma Chris and Aiden!  For the first day of 2014, which was absolutely frigid, we decided to go see Frozen at Smitty's Cinema in Tilton.  Smitty's is kind of like a combo restaurant/movie theater where you sit in big oversized chairs and order pub food while watching your movie.  We had never been there before, but I'd always wanted to try it.  Aiden (predictably) thought it was the bomb (what?  hot wings AND a movie? YEAH!) and Haley made it all the way through her first movie with only a minimum of hands over the ears and eyes anxiety during scary parts.  She did great, but I'm afraid she now has a warped sense of the "amenities" provided at movie theaters!

At Smittys

 Aiden had a good time at his camp, but he missed his new Chromebook (present from Santa) terribly during camp hours, so when he got home each day he was fairly shaking to check out new games and websites.  Obviously this level of screen-time will not last beyond the vacation week, so he'll have to go through a sort of withdrawl when he cuts back on watching YouTube offshore fishing videos and creating digital cartoons on ToonDo.  Should be interesting.  Vacation has just been extended by another day for him (icing this morning) so he's getting his fix on today too.

On Saturday we had our annual "New Years Eve" party... only this year not on New Years.  We also finally got outside towards the end of the week, when the weather at last warmed up above the single digits.  Skiing at Ragged Mountain with friends was a lot of fun, at least for Aiden and I.  Haley had a bit of a melt down on the slopes but we're hoping to turn that around as the ski season progresses.  Hopefully skiing with some of her friends will help motivate her to try it again, harness-free this year!

Post skiing crash