Ice skating in Alexandria

On New Years day we woke up early and played in the snow.  Late morning we decided to venture out and enjoy a little ice skating.  In downtown Alexandria is a shopping mall where they turn the entire patio area between the stores into a big ice rink. They rent the skates for a few hours.  Here the kids are getting all set up.

 Johnny is in the middle there with the beige hat with the snow flakes.  I was impressed with how well they all did.  If you look to the right of the lady in the blue coat, you'll see a penguin.  They rented these cute penguins that kids could lean on and push around to learn how to skate.

 Gracie in in the pink coat with red hat, and Livy is in the green sweatshirt.

 Since we were in the middle of this really nice shopping mall, and we had the skates for 3 hrs, we left the kids with a cell phone and went shopping!  It was a great afternoon.

The Big 8

I can't believe how my baby is now eight years old.  Johnny was born on Friday the 13th, January 2006.  To celebrate we invited a few of his friends from school.  They all brought nerf guns and played at the park until it was dark.  I bought an ice cream cake from B&R and used the "re-light" candles.  The boys thought it was hillarious that he couldn't blow them out.  Here Lexie is trying to help out her little brother.  I think we finally gave up and put them in a cup of water.