ice skating with Royalty

The great adventure of the day: To the Land of Ice.

Also known as the local ice rink.

As I knew we weren't going to make it a full 3 1/2 hours, I passed La Princesita off as "5 and younger" to save a few cents and she, the Young Prince and I, the Queen, got our llama hooves sized right and skates donned.

It was a bit crowded, as expected for a Sunday, but I am sure it will be even moreso tomorrow with a day off for the local school district. It's one of the largest school districts in the Nation, so...

La Princesita appeared frightened of the daunting task at hand; her courage melting away faster than Frosty in the greenhouse scene. So Mamacita had to think fast; I could not hold both little creatures up by myself at the same time. So the Young Prince went to the bench, where he could stand and watch through the window the rink action, right at the entrance to the rink, and I could see him the entire time. That worked. Made it around once with La Princesita. Then dropped her there and took the Young Prince out for a spin. That worked. Then vice-versa. There were other mothers there with young children not skating at all, and they seemed to quickly see my dilemma so they stepped in to "entertain" one child while the other was out with me. We're all in this together, ¿no?

Quickly, however, La Princesita regained her brave composure and balance, and spent the last hour or so revolving around the rink at her own speed and pleasure. The Young Prince, also gaining his "ice legs" was soon able to allow Mamacita to only hold his hand instead of skating backwards in front of him to keep him up, and just glided like a pro the last hour. I think he was the youngest, or definitely among the very youngest, out there and did amazing well for his first time ever on ice.

We made it just over two hours. Amazing. It worked out. How wonderful that we are finally getting to that age of being able to do activities like this together!

Then a Buckies hot cocoa treat for the skaters, two of which had kind of royally icy buns (brrr) despite my attempts at layered, padded clothing.