Ice Skating w/5 kids in Japan...

That was my day! Looks fun, huh? It actually went a lot better than one would expect. Adam had to work, so me and 3 other moms took our kids ice skating today. We drove about an hour to the rink. We arrived about 1:00, and I was on the ice exactly 1 hour later...by the time I got skates, tied the girls, put and reput skates on the boys, put gloves, hats, etc, loaded Luke in layers and then the front pack, then smelled poop and had to unload, change clothes, baby wipe bath, and recloth and reload, then took Isaac and Jacob on an emergency run to the bathroom, then Jake had to go #2--that was fun w/ice skates & a baby in the front pack, balancing him over the Japanese squatter (#1 is a breeze for boys w/squatters, but #2 is a challenge!), then finally put on my skates, and then at 2:00 we were on the ice. Whew! It took a little convincing to get J out there, but he finally decided the sliding metal chair looked fun. Have any of you ever seen these in the states? I hear they have them, but they were a first for me today--and they totally saved me. The girls had lessons before coming to Japan, so they were fine, but it was the boys first time--you know, when they can't even stand on the ice w/out falling. So, thank goodness for the chair. But then a worker took the chair away after 15 minutes, because they rotate them, you have to get a # and wait for a turn. That totally opened a can!! There were adults and big kids out there pushing each other around on them. W/a lot of sign language I threw a little fit, counting my boys over and over for them, trying to convince them to just let me keep one chair, that I was an exception to the rule and needed one! Nonetheless, throwing a fit in a foreign country doesn't always do a lot of good...no chair. So, I had the girls keep getting me a new number every 10 minutes and we were able to keep a chair most of the time.

The girls made friends w/some japanese girls right off. It's funny how w/kids the lanuage thing isn't really that big of a deal--they figure it out and play together anyway.

Oh, and if you're thinking, "I can't believe they're not wearing helmets" or "I can't believe she's skating w/Luke in the front pack!", you can rest at ease that anything goes in Japan. And don't worry, I didn't skate w/Luke on front unless I was pushing the chair, so I wasn't going down.

Adam took Isaac on a daddy date tonight--they went to KFC and bowling--Isaac got a personal high of 106 (w/bumpers of course). He had a lot of fun. I asked him who knocked more pins down, him or Dad, & he said confidently "I did!"