A Four-Year-Old's Olympics

We've been having a lot of fun watching the Olympics with the kids.

Ryan loves the downhill skiing, bobsled, and snowboarding events (basically any sport involving speed and risk) while Lucie is mesmerized by figure skating. She discovered ice dancing last night and spent the rest of the evening showing off her twizzles, reminding me of walks to school with Aunt Rach and friends during our childhood Winter Olympics, leaping down the blocks while practicing our toe loops.

However, the action isn't just in Vancouver. A few local Olympic events include balloon tennis with friends:


Bucket balancing while wearing hearts from head to toe:

Hula hooping:


and the favorite when rainy weather turns warm, mud puddle creation and splashing:


I guess life is a series of Olympic events when you're four years old.

Sports Nut

I wouldn't say Ryan's obsession with fire trucks has been completely replaced with a love of sports, but it's getting pretty close. He still wants to be a firefighter when he grows up, though only by night. During the day, he plans to be on the baseball field.

Sports are at the top of Ryan's mind these days, especially baseball. He can turn anything into a bat and ball, tennis racquet or golf club. He spends his baths swatting a plastic ball with an empty shampoo bottle against the side of the tub (fortunately for Lucie the kids take separate baths lately) and then runs around in his pajamas trying to hit his plush baseball across the room with his stuffed dinosaur. Everything becomes a sport to Ryan.

We've been taking family sports trips to the park on recent weekends, bringing gear for a few different sports, including Ryan's favorite Christmas presents, his new baseball tee, ball and glove, and golfing set.

At long last, Ryan's multi-sport class started this past weekend, with Gigi in town to enjoy. We were beginning to worry it might never happen as it had been canceled twice already due to rain. Thankfully, the weather was gorgeous and Ryan enjoyed an opportunity to run around and kick the soccer ball with a new coach and friends. He can't wait for the week they play baseball.

Twinkle Toes

When she grows up, Lucie has decided she'd like to be a "ballerina teacher in the day and rock star in the night".

She came up with this on her own, likely from countless ballerina books we've read, and a particular My Little Pony book on pony rock stars (a new concept to us all) we once came across in the bookstore. Lucie loves to dance, and often entertains us with her "rock star dance" involving lots of wild motions, singing and laughing.

When asked what class she might like to take this winter, we were not surprised when she declared without hesitation, "BALLET!" She has never taken dance before, and had been asking to for a long time. So at last, we found a dance class.

The class and teacher are great, incorporating a little of ballet, jazz and tap instruction with stuffed animals, princess costumes, fairy wands and tiaras as props. All of the girls take class so seriously, furiously concentrating to get the steps just right.

Needless to say, Lucie loves dance class. Dancing with a stuffed kitty while decked out in a Cinderella costume and tap shoes is pretty much a dream come true for her. And, she loves any excuse to get dressed in her tutu.

Of all the steps Lucie has learned so far, my personal favorite is the"boogie moves", involving wild finger pointing, jumping and clapping. The at-home interpretation has an extra bit of spunk, crazy energy and giggles not always seen in class. It has "rock star" potential, for sure.

Snow!

Our long anticipated weekend in the snow with the home school preschool crew could not have been better timed.

Recent storms meant lots of activity in the mountains, and piles of fluffy, mostly untouched snow everywhere we looked. With blue skies above, the conditions for L & R's first snow trip were ideal.

Chris and I weren't sure how our kids would react to the snow. After the requisite fifteen minutes of getting everyone bundled up in boots, bibs, hats, jackets and mittens -- more clothing than they had ever worn before -- we hoped they wouldn't take one step outside and want to come running back in the house.

Fortunately, the opposite was true, and our kids, along with their four buddies, loved the snow.

They made snowmen. They climbed play structures covered in snow. They helped make their own sledding run in the backyard of the cabin. They stepped on ice to hear it crack, jumped in puddles, and ate mittens full of powdery white stuff (especially Lucie). They played tackle in the snow, and threw snowballs at each other and any unsuspecting grown-ups nearby.

One of the highlights was a morning spent at a snow play area and tubing hill. Our kids were a bit nervous to go down the hills (on an adult's lap) at first, but after a run or two, and a snack break or two, they caught the fever and loved it. We soon devised all sorts of fun ways to go down, in trains with our friends, sideways holding on to our friends' tube, and the most adventurous of all, head-first hanging on to Mr. Chris or Mr. Noah's back.

I loved it that at the end of the morning I had been down the hill with each of the six kids. It was so sweet to hear, "Miss MAY-gan! Miss MAY-gan! I wanna go with you!", and then experience the ride through a different child's eyes.

All in all, it was a great weekend to just be a kid, regardless of whether you actually were one or not (I just might be hinting at you, Mr. Chris), and play to your hearts' content in the snow.