Pizza and Skating Party

Hannah had a birthday party to attend this evening for a friend in her class. It was for one of the two friends in her class she's gone to school with since the very beginning. The party was at the local outdoor fun village where there's miniature golf, batting cages, go carts, roller skating, an arcade, etc, etc. First, the girls had pizza and then it was off for an evening of outdoor rink skating.

Having only skated once before, staying on the carpet and really not even stepping out onto the actual rink, I was a little nervous for her to skate. We threw her bike helmet in the car and my plan was to have her wear it no matter if she was the only one or not. Once she had skates on her feet and she saw how uneasy they were, she had me go get her helmet out of the car, and wore it the entire time she skated. And no one made fun of her or said a single thing about it!

Watching Hannah skate, most of the time hugging the rink walls, brought back a lot of memories for me. As a young kid I used to go skating at the local indoor rink a lot. I loved it. However, in the 6th grade (I think it was 6th grade) I fell roller skating and broke my collar bone! That did it for me, I was 'gun shy' when it came to getting back on skates. Hannah's friends, and even the other girls in the party who didn't even know Hannah, were all so kind to her. They'd do a lap around the rink and then come and hang out with her as she skated hanging on the walls. They'd hold her hand if she ventured away from the wall, and they helped her get back up when she fell. Seeing that really touched me. THOSE are true friends of Hannah's!

Hannah and the birthday girl.At the end of the skating time, after the helmet came off, this is how sweaty her face was and her head was from all the hard work of skating, and wearing a hot helmet. Her face and arms and even her legs were filthy from the dust of the outdoor rink. Needless to say, she got a good scrubbing once we got home. Hannah had so much fun tonight! She wants to go skating again too! So I think a trip to the local indoor skating rink will be in our near future.