Ice Skating

 Believe it or not, this was Henry's first time on ice skates. You can watch a short video of him HERE. Or daddy had posted a different video on Facebook (hopefully you saw it).

We went skating for about 1.5 hours and Henry skated most of it. The first 20 minutes Henry would skate and fall down on purpose (like in the video) because he thought it was funny and was getting him attention. After a while I think falling on his butt (even if on purpose) was not feeling so well, so he stopped.

 He did not want to take a break, even when offered cookies. He just wanted to skate, skate, skate. It would be nice if we have a good year for skating and can go often to our ice park or to Morehouse Park in Owatonna, because both those places are free to skate and we already own skates for all of us. Really hoping we can get to our ice park in our town often because it will most likely be the least busy of all skating places and we can let him skate around without us hovering. I was always so afraid someone would knock him over and then he would get his fingers skated over. Freaked me out!

Look how little he is out there!

Wait until we take him sledding! He is REALLY gonna like that this year.

Ag Power Tour

 Henry has such a blast "driving" the tractors. Then the let the kids take real tractor rides and Henry got to sit on the managers lap and help drive. He is going to love when we go to grandma & grandpas next week. He couldn't get enough of tractors. And while we were there, one of his friends bought a toy tractor for his birthday present, so we'll see that that is in a couple of weeks.

Open Gym Gymnastics

 We are pretty happy (& lucky) that one of our area gymnastics clubs holds a preschool open gym gymnastics times. It is a great way for kids to get rid of energy and have a fun time. I know Henry has been loving going here and getting mom all to himself. We love to go down the TumbleTrak and jump onto the big squishy foam mat at the end.

Fall Toddler Time

 Henry gets together with two of his friends on a weekly basis for a Toddler Time Themed Playgroup. It is a group of 3 families and we rotate hosting responsibilities and whoever is hosting picks the theme and plans out a storytime, craft, activities, snack or whatever else they want on their chosen theme.

This was last Friday and the theme was Fall (leaves, bugs, pumpkins). The kids received ample outside time.

 Of course there were leaf piles and lots of silliness going on with them.

 Inside we did a couple crafts. One of them was making leaf imprints (which the older ones were better able to do, the younger ones just wanted to color their paper and tape leaves on, which is ok too.)

 Here you can see Henry coloring away. He loves to color, which I am very happy about. Maybe I will have two little crafters. :)

The snack was a ladybug made out of a grape, strawberry & mini chocolate chips. Very clever.

The previous playgroup themes were Planes (we hosted this one) and apples. This week we didn't meet because our larger playgroup had a tour at Ag Power (will be posted soon) and next week is MEA, so we won't meet again. But the Friday before Halloween we will be back together again.

Faribault Waterpark

Beaver Lake Beach

This morning we went to Beaver Lake Beach. It's a County Park beach about 20 miles from our house. It was our first time there. It was a nice little beach, on the small side but very clean and at the end of summer that is pretty important because lots of other beaches start to get gross.

Zollman Zoo

My friend Carrie & I took our youngest kids to Zollman Zoo in Oxbow park today while the oldest to were at Vacation Bible School. It was hot & sticky, but the kids really enjoyed getting to see the animals and not competing with an older sibling for mom's attention.