Ice skating

Fiona's been dying to try ice skating since seeing Disney on Ice a year ago. And now that we have a puzzle of bears ice skating, we talk about it nearly every day. Yesterday, we finally took her. An ice rink in Erfurt is pretty much like an ice rink in Haverhill- except, no boards (less of a crashing hazard, in my eyes) and serving beer and Gluwein (more of a danger, in my eyes, but since it's served EVERYWHERE I don't see how an ice rink would be different). Russ hadn't been on skates in a while (and, let's be honest, I am not sure he was exactly Brian Boitano when last he was on skates) and although I profess to be an adequate skater, I can't skate right now (convenient that I had no need to display my "skills"). I was a little worried about the balance, but they managed just fine. In fact, Russ was far more tired than Fiona.

One thing that Fiona noticed, though, was the little girl, about her age, maybe even younger, who was wearing "pretty white skates and a fancy dress." I had no idea that at her first skating experience, Fiona would notice the difference between rental and non-rental skates, but she did. I could have predicted that she'd love the skating dress, though. And she wants to skate like that girl. I told her it would take some practice. Fiona is convinced that the next time we go (which she claims is next Saturday!) she will be skating as well as the girl in the fancy skates and dress. I'm impressed with her ability, because she did gain a lot of skills in just a few hours, but I'm not sure that next week she'll be performing triple axels. But we'll see.