The End

Friday--the last day of Spring Break--go big or...well we stayed home anyway so that doesn't work.  Nevertheless, I wanted to do one last super fun thing.  Originally we had debated between going to a Charlotte Knight's game and going camping.  But we debated too long and missed the tickets to the game, and after walking all day at the zoo Thursday, I couldn't bring myself to pack for camping.  So we brainstormed and found this deal: $25 for family of five to roller skate (rental included) and a pizza with a pitcher of soda.  Sold.

It was our best worst idea yet.  First let me say, the kids had a blast, in fact, they liked it so much they want to add it to our summer bucket list.  Next let me say, I was surprised they liked it.  And last let me brag about Rex a bit.  Rex stood on his skates for a maxium of 20 seconds before falling, but he refused to give up.  Everytime he fell, he got right back up.  And he fell hard.  He looked like he was trying to walk on water, up, down, up, down.  I almost wanted to tell him to quit and that we'd just go home and watch a movie.  It was hard to stand back and watch him fail, and fail, and fail, and try to stay postive.  I was just waiting for him to burst into tears of frustration all the while wondering how I would make it better.  But he just kept getting up and trying again.  He did cry for just a minute when they did some races and he was too embarrassed to race.   Greg and I didn't race either so he dried his eyes and went back out.  And then I almost starting crying because I was so proud of him and his perservence.

Alice on the other hand, was happy just to let Greg drag her around the rink. His back was pretty sore by the end of our adventure.  And Henry should have been left at home.  We put skates on him and he managed ok.  Unlike Rex's skates, Alice and Henry's wheels were screwed in so tight they barely turned at all.  We did, after the first 20 minutes of so, realize Rex's skates were actually broken so we got him different skates and had the wheels tightened up, but he still struggled.  Back to Henry: on the carpet he did ok, but he kept trying to crawl, which is not a good idea when everyone else has skates on too.

Anyway, we survived--phsycially and just barely emotionally, just barely.  And I guess we'll be going back over the summer--maybe without Henry though so each of the older kids can have some one-on-one attention.

Of course, Rex made a friend while Greg was with Alice and I was with Henry.