It's Gobbles Time!: Two winter days and a few randoms

This is really it, the last of the winter-time memories (besides Disney!) that I need to get down on paper. I'll start with two "day trips" we had- a few hours of fun at each but a lifetime of memories.

First, we went ice skating at the river rink downtown with daycare friends. It was during hubs' busy time at work but because his commute was short, he was able to meet up with us for the skating hour and I'm forever thankful he did because I don't think either of the kids would have enjoyed it otherwise.

When we first stepped onto the ice, the Lobster was all for it, decked out in a sparkly skirt like a natural performer, linking to her Daddy's hand and ready to go. Gobbles, on the other hand, had a terrible first lap and I just kept thinking, oh boy, what did we get ourselves into? After a few minutes of composing himself though, he began to get a little braver and relied on my hand instead of the wall, as I was able to catch him so he could fall "gracefully" instead of splatting on the ice. We started picking up momentum and going faster, Gobbles occasionally slowing to grab his girl D's hand and do a lap with her (and me and her mom flanking the sides). Hubs and I traded kids back and forth and we all had a blast. By the end of the session the Lobster was done, seeking out her friend K and K's dad, while Gobbles skated until the last call off the ice. On our last lap, he decided to go it alone, and made it pretty well, only falling once.

When the skating was over, hubs departed back to work and we continued the party at the "winterfest", where the adults had beer and the kids had cheese fries before enjoying some of the sideshow activities. It was a nice laid-back afternoon letting the kids enjoy something new and different with their friends, and, since Gobbles is still asking about more ice skating regularly, we're looking forward to it again next year.

Next up, probably a month or two later, we hit up the Crayola Factory with the Poozers. The kids are the absolute perfect age for this and I'd never been, so it was really neat to see the demonstrations and activity centers available. They made their own crayons with personalized labels, watched machines make custom two-tone markers for them, made various shaped crayons, model magic creations, and water color art, all which came home with us. We enjoyed coloring on ipads and watching our air animate on a giant screen for all to see. There was also a two story play-structure in the heart of the factory where they ran and played for a decent amount of time, Gobbles in charge to make sure his fearless sister and cousin were ok in the upper bowels of the place where parents couldn't fit to venture. After we were all sufficiently exhausted, we all hauled across the street to a seemingly hole-in-the-wall pub for what turned out to be a fantastic early dinner with craft brews, wings, sandwiches, and more. Another enjoyable day out!

Finally, despite a ton of running around and socializing this winter we had plenty of downtime too. Gobbles took advantage of his home days and, after completing all of his birthday and Christmas lego sets in record time, settled in to do puzzles, science kits, and more. Santa had brought him a little electronics set which basically has different wiring diagrams to follow and create various circuits to turn on an alarm, music, or a fan. He got the hang of it surprisingly quickly and loved showing me when he completed different projects.

Since the Lobster Roll moved up a classroom at school to the 3 year olds, she has progressed leaps and bounds on her letters, identifying and writing a good number of them, and finally spelling her name (which even gets me tongue tied still). I'm happy to see her confidence soar as she draws her stick figures and tells me detailed stories about what's going on in her artwork.

The crazy juggling of school and play is in full swing!