First-time Ice Skating

We took Ethan and Caty to the local park today to try out ice skating! They have a nice big area made into an ice rink, and we had decided about a week ago that we needed to try something new during this rather long and snowless winter. We have snow, that's not the problem. The problem is that the snow is about a month and a half old, and majorly hard and nasty. So we found Caty ice skates at Play It Again Sports, Ethan's size was on clearance at Target, and today the weather was finally not bitterly cold and windy. Caty was really not looking forward to this adventure, but once she got some encouragement on the ice, she didn't want to stop! Ethan was excited, then he freaked out once his skates hit the ice. After some "forceful" encouragement for him, he got the hang of it too, and loved it! We brought a couple of kid-size chairs along for them to push, but Caty definitely preferred having her daddy helping her out. It was fun, a perfect day for it, and we even had some friends join us for skating/sliding around. They were the fun family, with hockey sticks and pucks! Maybe we'll have to find some used equipment for the kids to play with on the ice. Anyway, that was our grand adventure for the weekend. The kids are already asking to go again tomorrow!