Slip Sliding into Nine

This is a photograph from Mam's actual birthday. As is tradition in our house, I let her go pick out nine cupcakes at Sprinkles for the big day. Unfortunately, it was a really big day for her, with a new running program starting after school and overlapping with one of her first softball practices of the season. We had a late dinner out. She chose Afghan food...at the same restaurant where we'd eaten for my birthday just a month earlier. I was pretty sure she despised anything that didn't look like cheese pizza, quesadillas or macaroni and cheese. Perhaps she really is growing up.

But I digress. Thankfully, I'd planned Mam's birthday party for the weekend before her actual birthday and her cake was done in plenty of time. None of the midnight cake decorating that has gone on in more ambitious years.


The cute little local ice rink doesn't open for parties or public skating until 3pm. It's a great little spot with an outdoor rink. It's been there at least since I was a kid. I remember thinking it was a pretty magical place back then.

 It's not quite as magical when you're throwing a party and doing less of the skating. I made hot chocolate (and brought marshmallows, of course), brought the extra strawberries (which disappeared in minutes), some emergency cheese sticks and the cake. I figured that would be plenty for a two hour party. And it was...except that I should've brought more strawberries and less hot chocolate! The kids all drank hot chocolate, of course, but I probably brought enough to fill a swimming pool.Thankfully, I did get in a little skating with the birthday girl. 

She had a great time and only came off the ice for cake. All her best friends were there. She even invited a few boys...beause they're friends, not because she likes them...of course!

Sometimes, the parties I've had at home have felt interminable, but parties somewhere else always feel too short and like I didn't have to work hard enough to make it terrific. Funny that these are the ones they generally like the best! At least a few of them made sure I didn't get to be too much of a slacker!

Another Post About Cake

Ta da! One last ridiculous cake for the season. And it was rather sane, if I do say so myself. I mean...sane for me...which I guess isn't saying much.

This year, Mam wanted to have an ice skating party. Turns out, ice skating parties are far more economical than trampoline parties, so I wasn't about to refuse. Besides, I like ice skating.  And since I'd delved into the world of fondant penguins before, creating fondant penguins on ice skates seemed like something I could handle.

Mam insisted that she wanted a white cake...

with whipped cream and strawberry filling. 

I don't particularly love that combination myself, but I do as I'm instructed. Seriously though, how could this be better than chocolate?

I spent an evening crafting funny little penguins to skate on top of this cake. I had fun with it.

And never one to leave good enough alone, I decided these little guys were far too naked and dressed them in assorted winter ice skating attire.

As much as fondant-covered cakes look amazing, I'm not thrilled with how fondant tastes, so I got Mam to opt for frosting and created just a frozen pond out of fondant with some shiny glaze.

I don't know why, but I was oddly underwhelmed by this cake. Thankfully, a gaggle of little girls and a few boys thought it was pretty spectacular, gushing over how cute the penguins were and exclaiming in disbelief that it was homemade. 

And one little ice skater in particular with thrilled with her cake. And really, what else matters?

Packing it in

The holidays are mercifully over.

I've always liked Christmas. I like finding just the perfect present for people. I don't always succeed, but I enjoy trying. And sometimes I'm surprised when something I was excited about goes over like a lead balloon or something I gave little thought to is the giftee's favorite thing. I like the cookies. I like our big family breakfast. I like having a sparkly tree in my living room. I love having all the kids here, cousins and all.

I'm so glad it's all done. The holidays were difficult and awkward this year, despite all the things I still loved about them. I never got the icicle lights on the house. I'm too scared of the high peak above the garage. I didn't make truffles. But I did just about everything else, and then some. I didn't make it to yoga. I didn't make it to pilates. I made it out for one very short hike. I didn't fare too well.

I got a lot of sleep after the holidays. Then I finally made it to a pilates class and hired babysitters so I could spend some time at work. Things started looking up enough that I managed to make a fun last day of vacation with the kids. Starting with...

pancakes, of course. There's nothing my kids like better for breakfast. They won't even go out for pancakes if Mom's pancakes are an option. I'm very flattered. And now that I have a griddle built right into my range, I'm totally loving it.

Mam does not, however, like to be photographed while eating said pancakes.

After breakfast, I promised to take the kids ice skating. We have a really cute little outdoor rink that's pretty local, but it's open for only two hours in the afternoon for people who aren't taking lessons. I opted instead for the seasonal rink in our nearby "big city".

It's sponsored by Kristi Yamaguchi and Hawaiian Airlines, so I guess it's required that the rink be under the palm trees.

Friday was "Aloha Friday" and we got in cheap for wearing Hawaiian clothes. I'm so darned cheap, I actually went by Diddams and bought the kids leis to wear. We looked pretty silly out there ice skating in our "Hawaiian" duds and long underwear, but we had fun anyway.

Smunch may have complained bitterly about his skates being hard to skate in. He said he'd never had hockey skates before. But it's amazing how long children can be entertained by skating around in circles. It's California. It got kind of warm, the rink got pretty watery and Mam ended up very wet, but she still didn't want to stop. We stayed for an hour and a half and then I announced it was time for lunch.

I don't know a lot about places to eat downtown, but I knew one restaurant that would get them there, just with its name.

And it was a short walk from the ice rink. So they both had spaghetti and I treated them to Oreo shakes afterwards.

Somehow, our little adventure seemed to take up the entire day. I was so thankful that they had fun...and that I'd gotten to have fun with them.

Snow!

My children are truly deprived. As long as they've been alive, it has never snowed here. To be honest, I remember it snowing only twice in my lifetime. Once when I was Mam's age and once in 1999. And most people wouldn't even consider that stuff snow. It mostly melted as it hit the ground.

A couple of years ago, it snowed in the hills above our town and we took the kids up to enjoy the couple of inches of white stuff. They weren't that impressed. It was COLD. And, of course, we don't have much in the way of appropriate clothing for snow.

This year, we got wind of a possible opportunity to join my stepinlaws (Yes, I'm quite sure it's one word, at least in this case) at Squaw Valley near Lake Tahoe. Although the stepinlaws are a crazy bunch of people, I knew Daddy would want to spend some time with his dad (who spent almost the entirety of the holidays up there) and the kids were already asking to go to the snow, so we shopped the Lands End sale at Sears after Christmas and as soon as Karen and SPENCER! left, we headed to the Sierras.

Thanks to Junie B. Jones, the four-hour trip up there was a no-brainer. And as soon as we arrived, the snow clothes were on and the sleds and saucers were out on the hill behind the cabin.Daddy and Grandpa dug them a snow cave.Step-gram gave them snowball makers. They made liberal use of them quickly.I clearly need to learn some evasive moves while trying to take artsy photos with the new camera or Smuch is going to nail me. Mam decided maybe snow would taste good.We learned why snow bibs are a whole lot more practical than plain ol' snow pants when Smunch had a whole lot of trouble keeping his up.After an hour or so, everyone was cold and wet and we went inside, where the kids began a rousing game of Jenga with their grandpa.Guess who was winning...Considering that many of the stepinlaws are pretty hardcore skiiers, there was some significant pressure to sign the kids up for ski lessons the following day. Step-gram had even gone to all the trouble to provide us with all the registration paperwork...at which point we realized that two hours of lessons for two kids would cost more than $300. Yikes! But I thought I'd at least run it past the kids and see what they thought. It would've given Daddy a chance to get his skis out and hit the slopes himself, at least. But being left to my own devices with the stepinaws didn't really thrill me a whole lot.

Smunch, ever the timid one, insisted he wasn't interested in skiing. Mam thought she wanted to try it. The next morning, we went out to the ski slopes to take a look at the kiddie ski classes. Smunch still didn't want to go. Mam did. But then, maybe not without Smunch. Then I gave them the choice of going ice skating or skiing. They unanimously chose to go skating. My wallet breathed a sigh of relief, but a little part of me wished they were a tad more adventurous.

For the uninitiated, the ice skating rink at Squaw Valley is a really spectacular venue at 8200 feet. You have to take a gondola up to "High Camp" to get there.Although there was a lot of whining, some crying and a ridiculous amount of snot (thanks for stocking Kleenex, Squaw), Mam had a great time.and Smunch had his share of success before the wind kicked up and made it unbearably cold to be skating outside in the mountains in a completely unsheltered ice rink.There are lots of reminders that Squaw Valley was the venue for the 1960 Olympic Games.We went inside for some cookies, hot chocolate and coffee. I should have known that Smunch would find a sports page that would fascinate him, even if it's almost 50 years old.It was New Year's Eve, so we all headed off the mountain for a fine few games of Wii Sports and Ryder spaghetti.

We escaped Squaw just in front of a snow storm and while we could still get home in time to spend the weekend at home before getting back into the whole school routine. It was a fun time though and we left, already talking about when we might be able to get back up there.

Ice Skating

A number of my mommy friends have been taking their three- or four-year-olds to ice skating classes, so it seems at least fairly anticlimactic for me to post about my kindergartener going ice skating for his friend's birthday party. Truth be told, ice skating is not Smunch's thing. He loves the idea of it. I even took him once on a whim, to a local rink at lunchtime one day. The place was empty. We each rented skates and paid for entry. That $20 paid for him to skate around the rink once, clinging to the side the whole time.

This time was a little different. He's a little older and he really wanted to go. In addition, a number of his classmates were there. Unfortunately (for me!) a party like this really necessitates the parents coming along. Smunch couldn't skate on his own and it's not like they close down the rink for the birthday party. It was crowded and as quaint as this particular place is, it's small. So, I went and shelled out the money to get myself into the party. (Oh, wait, I forgot to pay, didn't I? Ooops.)

Here was the rough sequence of events for Smunch:













A brave smile and then it's the best time of all...

Zamboni time! (Thank goodness!)

Oh, and hot chocolate time, which ranks a close second to the Zamboni.

One more fall on his butt...
...and off he goes!
Hmm. Could learning to ice skate be a good metaphor for raising children? It's beginning to feel that way. It's all about the gradual process of letting go and being willing to fall and get up again, isn't it?