Face Planting: Ice Skating and Water Slides

Or Part 4 in a series designed to answer Jeff's Burning Question: What Exactly Is It That You Do All Day?

While my face did not get planted, the children had a rough go of it. Ice skating is hard. Well, the ice is hard, and since they hit it with alarming frequency, I think we can safely say they think skating is hard.

The children all took lessons as part of their PE curriculum at school and I (because, let's face it, what else do I have to do all day) invited myself along. There were three skating session. At the first session, I was the only mom on the ice with skates (the rest were in the watching booths, wondering why on earth they had left their skates at home). By session 3, we were a Mom Skating Force to be reckoned with.

I love the cones! What a brilliant way to get children out on the ice for the first time.

As a mother, I have to confess, the ice skating lessons were not my proudest moment. Basically, every time a kid hit the ice and spun out, their little faces a study in outraged indignation as their feet Wily E. Coyote-ed out from underneath them, it was all I could do to keep from peeing myself. They were hilarious.

I know, I know. That is seriously mean. But as they tumbled hither and yon, scattering across the ice like Yatzee dice, I tried (and failed) to keep a solemn face as I skated over to pick up first one, then another, and, well, heave whichever random kid came to a sliding stop near me back to their feet.

Hope loves skating. Tom basically hates it, but has resolved to learn to skate because all of his friends can. And, he says, because his mother has resolved to learn to ski even though she hates it. YES! Victory! I love setting a good example.

And speaking of setting a good example, please note that we are all wearing helmets. You might note that mine is a biking helmet. It so happens that I own a very nice ski helmet purchased at the end of ski season (SALE!!!) designed to protect my noggin whilst skiing and ice skating. However, when we arrived at the skating hall, one of the boys had with him only the biking helmet that you see perched on my head. And it did not fit him. At all. For whatever reason, my ski helmet fit him, so rather than have him miss out on his skating lesson, I passed over my ski helmet and secured his biking helmet to my noggin as best I could. The sacrifices a mom makes ... for some random kid ...

But back to this week. Friday night, after school, I rounded up a bunch of swimmers and headed off to the local indoor water spa. This place is newly opened, one of those EU funded deals that seem to be springing up all over the Czech Republic. It is an indoor/outdoor water park/spa that has a really nice baby pool, little kid pool, lap pool and water slide pool (indoor only during the colder weather, outdoor/indoor during the summer).

The pool is a toasty 28 degrees, so even I venture in to the water and partake of the incredibly awesome water slide, although, as I am designated photographer there are no photos of me. Although, let's face it, do you really want to see photos of me in a bathing suit?

Probably not. This crowd is much cuter.

And no photos of the awesome slide. Or rather, I have some, but since they are photos of the slide and I managed to time it perfectly so that no humans actually show up in the photos, I decided they were too boring to post.

Overall, the indoor water spa place is great fun, not too expensive, and not very crowded, even on a Friday evening. Below is the whirlpool. The outer circle spins around (quite fast!) while the inner circle is a place to hang out and play this bobbing game. You can kind of see what they are doing: the kids on the right jump as high as they can, then the kids on the left, this goes on until the water is sloshing around like a bathtub on the Titanic, popping the non-jumping kids over a meter in the air. Quite entertaining, and even better when you can get a couple of hefty grownups to participate (and yes, they think I qualify as "hefty.").

So, that was pretty much my week. Whew. I'm tired just thinking back on it all.

Tomorrow: Either I tell the truth and give you a glimspe of what I really do all day, or we head to the Canary Islands. I haven't decided yet.

Comments

[Monica]

Jeff must be so jealous!

[Donkaloosa]

Yes, you will certainly rot in hell for laughing at the kids when they fell on the ice, but it does sound hysterical. And you'll be in good company. I'm jealous, though, about that pool/spa/waterslide place.

[Debbie Hanson]

When I read "..a toasty 28 degrees", I thought 'toasty'? Then I realizes you meant Celsius, not Fahrenheit. I'm so unworldly.