First ice-skating experience

HOW LUCKY ARE KIDS TODAY???

Both hubby and I have never tried skating of any form, or seen/touched snow (real or fake) but now, malls offer passes for the kids to ice-skate for just $60 worth of receipts per kid. By the way, there is a slot for adults to skate too... but *ahem* I think we'll fare even worse than our kids. Cannot lao kui you know. Hehe.

Anyway, after chancing upon the skating show a few weeks back, we decided that it would be quite an experience for the kids to try skating, especially since Mandy has been asking to skate since she watched Belle in Beauty and the Beast skate in the show some time back.

Mandy has always been the very cautious sort and I was apprehensive about whether to let her have a go at it. But well, never try, never know. As for Barry, well, I didn't want to let him go but I knew he would provide much needed courage and company for the girl. I just hoped he wouldn't break a leg or something, knowing how clumsy he is. Haha.

After many postponements, they finally skated, or rather, tried skating. When I told Mandy we're going skating the next day, she looked at me, eyes all big in astonishment, and said "But we have to learn first right?" On the way, I could sense she was excited yet nervous. She asked me "When we go there, somebody will teach us right?" Cautious Mandy at work.

The boy got quite tensed gearing up. He muttered that he didn't want to skate already. Later, Mandy also wanted to back out. But only for that moment. They actually really wanted to skate. They were all smiles after that and Mandy kept saying Barry looked very cute. I say, both looked incredibly cute!

They tried out their skates and clowned around.

And then it was rink time! Before even stepping into the rink, Barry tripped on the steps. One of the in-charge was following him wherever he went. He told me the boy was very young and he'll see how he goes. I presumed he was worried that Barry might hurt himself.

He wanted to hold their hands but my kids flatly refused! He must have thought my kids were so weird. All the others were either skating (didn't look like it's their first time in the rink) or holding on to one of the adult helpers' hands. Only mine were walking like zombies of Night of the Walking Dead.

The in-charge was looking very worried. Hehe. The kids were really enjoying themselves though, especially Mandy.

They stayed close to each other, holding hands most of the time. Then, Mandy felt brave enough to venture far by herself. She walked away from Barry, all the while grinning.

Barry looked for her, panicked, slipped and fell. He cried and wanted out. Mandy just couldn't stay in the rink without her didi. So she came out too.

After much persuading, they went back in. But STILL too stubborn to hold the guy and the other gor gors and jie jies' hands. So many people offered help to them you know!

You can see that towards the end, it looked as if they were about to hold hands with the helpers, but that was actually the end of their skating experience for Barry started to cry when the gor gor held him.

For my kids, it's usually 'both or none'. Either they do it together, or they don't do it at all. They are very close which is wonderful. But it can be a bit frustrating sometimes. Hehe.

Anyway, because they insisted on holding each other, when Barry panicked and fell (because the gor gor came near), he pulled Mandy down too. She had a very big bump. At home, I saw a big bruise on her butt. So.... ya. that kind of ended the whole thing, after 15minutes.

The girl still wanted to skate but the boy was frantically tearing off his ankle/knee guards and helmet, and proclaiming "I DON'T WANT TO SKATE ALREADY!". We didn't want to push it. Anyway, like hubby said "We brought them here to have fun. What's the point of making them go again if they won't have fun?"

He was not the least perturbed and we went snacking and shopping instead. Woohoo!

Still, I'm proud of you kids! That was brave of you! :)

Now, we joked about bringing them to skate all the time. In fact, everyday, we asked them if they wanted to go skate later. Barry will grin and go NOOOOOO. Mandy will tell me that she wanted to, but not until she's much bigger. Then, she will be able to skate like the others. Ha.