I don't really like playing outside in the snow but today I dug out my snowpants (still had the tags on from when I got them...I think while pregnant with Audree) and took the kids tobogganing. Usually I stay home with the baby while Rene goes with the older ones but his schedule has been so busy lately that there hasn't been any time. Luckily Lucienne LOVES outside. If she sees anyone putting on anything that remotely looks like they might be going out she runs to the front to get her stuff. She can put hats, mitts and boots on all by herself (many days those are the only pieces of clothing she's wearing at all) and can even kind of get her coat on in an interesting fashion statement kind of way.
So, the girls got off the bus, I told them to not get out of their stuff but that we were all going sledding. Evelyn pulled Lucienne most of the way on our walk to the hill (about 10 minutes from home) and Amelia pulled the other sleds. I'm sure we looked like a modern day Norman Rockwell painting.
I forgot how fun it is. It helped that today wasn't freezing cold and there wasn't an icky wind or snow/sleet/rain falling.
Lucienne's first run had her laughing at the bottom She refused to get out of the sled at all so she got to ride down AND up the hill. Thankfully we didn't have any wipe-outs with her or snow in the face so overall, good first experience. Amelia had a couple good tumbles, she always managed to get going backwards and Audree only had a couple of meltdowns. Overall, good time had by all. Next time I might even get more ambitious and bring our chubby dog...she also desperately needs to have some good winter exercise and she LOVES the snow.
Amelia's the only one who opted to continue with swimming lessons. Audree wanted a break and Evelyn is going to do gymnastics. When Amelia said she'd like to continue I jumped on that right away - not very often this girl likes participating in organized sporting activities. Turns out she's in a class full of boys, including the instructor. When I saw that I braced myself for the car ride home...and it came. She was not impressed with the dynamics of her class, not impressed at all. This level also seems to be much more hands off in terms of technique and focusing more on increasing endurance. She swam lengths for most of the 1/2 hour class. Again, not impressed.
It probably didn't help that she was pooped from sledding, or that she had hurt her leg walking Paris yesterday but I'm hoping that next week she'll still be looking forward to going. It's going to be a long 8 weeks if I have to coerce her to go every night.
I'd really like to come up with ideas of family exercising as opposed to paying and enrolling in "organized" sporting teams. It will get Rene and I moving and not always spectating, it will get the girls working together, and lets be honest, it will be way cheaper. We have a great gym space at the church that is virtually unused. A good friend of mine came up with the idea of organizing a co-op sort of rotation of sporting at the church. We would pick a sport, find someone (aka Rene) who could teach the rules and general skills and have them play it for 8 weeks or so. 30 minutes of skill then an hour or so of playing. Floor hockey, soccer, basketball, baseball, volleyball (maybe when the kids get older). We would just need to get a few families to commit and I think it would be a fabulous (and cheap...did I already mention that?) way of getting the kids exposed to different sports.
Some kids are naturally active and for others I think it's a learned skill to want to get up and kick around a ball. The key will be to keep it fun and hopefully we'll get all the girls on board.
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