Co-op Christmas Party!

I will be the first to admit I was not happy when I learned the Christmas Party for our co-op was going to be at the ice skating rink.  I just KNEW the kids wouldn't be able to do it and would whine and complain the entire time.  And my "the kids" I mean Noah!  :)  But once I realized it was on a Thursday and Joshua would be home to help I decided to give it a shot.  And really, the kids have been missing Friday School.  Which is super surprising to me, cause you know they don't really love going.  I think Noah has actually turned the corner as far as that is concerned and can't wait for the new semester to start.  Wy and Annie will still need a little convincing!  Anyways, the party was a smashing success!

Noah wanted skates right away, and was super excited to give it a shot.  He wanted me or Josh to go with him, so Josh got suckered into it.  Josh is HORRIBLE at any type of skating, so this was a big deal!  That's how you know he loves this boy, cause for nobody else in the world would he be willing to get onto the ice. 

Josh only made it about 20 feet or so, holding onto the wall.  He promptly hopped off the ice and removed those skates!  Luckily, that was all Noah needed to get his courage up to do it alone. Then we took a break and had pizza and cookies....

You can see Annie loves pizza! She was such a trooper and hardly cried or complained!  Which was a nice surprise cause at Santa's Wonderland earlier this week she was quite a handful. 

Wyatt was certain he did not want to skate until his friends started putting their skates on.  Then we convinced him just to get the skates and walk around on them without getting onto the ice.  Pretty sneaky of me, huh?  I just knew once he had them on he would want to give it a shot.  He only went a few feet and then was DONE!  A bit later on we realized they could rent these metal "walker" things to help them, which he loved.

He was really super brave - I know he had the walker but I was still quite impressed.  When he came off the ice he was quite adorable cause he sat on the walker bar to take a little break...

This was when he squealed with excitement cause he got to look at all of the ice shavings stuck to the front of the blade.  He screamed, "Wooooaaaah!  Look at all those icebergs on my skis!!"  Meanwhile Noah just took off and had tons of fun.  He was cracking us up cause he didn't skate properly - instead he skated just like he rides his skateboard.  Like kept one foot down the whole time and pushed repeatedly with the other foot.  It was too funny!  And of course he took the time to help Wyatt every time he fell over and needed help.  I love it!

We had so much fun!!  Noah was already talking about how he can't wait till next Christmas to have this party again.  And my heart was so happy cause he was thrilled to be around his friends.  We have a few friends we see consistently, but he really loves spending time with other children.  I was happy to see he actually had some friendships with kids that I didn't even know about!  First Class has really been such a blessing to us this semester.  I am so glad we came back!