31 Years Young

Since my birthday fell on a workday, we celebrated on Sunday. What I wanted to do for my birthday was to dust off my skates from the attic, for the first time in probably 5 years, and find out if I could still skate.

I could.

Another item on my list, though, was to get Miles on his roller skates for the first time.
He learned a kind of beginner's shuffle by the end of the night, as I taught him, one foot at a time, muttering "one, two, one two..." When we saw a little girl take a fall, he watched gravely and said, "She probably didn't go 'one, two.'"

There was some fear, but we went slowly and gradually, I went from holding onto him with two hands, to just one...

... and in the videos below, see him go between supports with no help at all! Watch him catch himself in the first video and avoid a fall.

This second video shows him just after a fall that brought tears. I was so proud of him for getting back on his feet! We're still at more of a shuffle than a glide, but to my mind, the main thing is to stay vertical and confident as much as possible. He professes to want to be a "fast-fast skater" like Mum someday.

Both kids got to enjoy the other attractions at Adventure World, including a bouncy house...

Skeeball (Adele would just walk right up and deposit her ball in the 1,000 hole, yes. Is there something wrong with that?)...
And arcade games:

DELIGHTED Adele got to do a driving game.

She LOVES cars, and was vrooming for a long while after this.

Don't tell Miles there are no quarters in his machine. Oh, and Jon's car came in first this game!! Go Pater Familius!

Yeah, she scaled this when no one was looking and was perched near the top before I caught her.

A beautiful sight...

Having a blast! Yay 31!

Before we left I had a couple more laps, and Miles and I did some figure skating.

The gentleman who worked there was so sweet as to give us three free skate coupons, I assume because we are such enthusiastic skaters. I suppose we'll have to come back!