8

Elizabeth and I woke up in the local science museum on her birthday; we'd been there as part of a Girl Scouts camp-in. We left a little after 7:00 and headed straight to Krispy Kreme.

Elizabeth said that she wanted to go rollerskating later in the day. She got rollerskates for Christmas and has become obsessed. We feel like we are living in a house with Tootie from the Facts of Life:

It's just Elizabeth's preferred means of getting around the house. We have to make her take them off to come to the dinner table, get in the bath, sleep. BUT . . . as we've pointed out to some of our other children who shall remain nameless and who tend to want to give up any new activity they try if they aren't automatically perfect at it . . . Elizabeth is a poster child for the power of consistent practice. She could barely inch around on them when she first laced them up on Christmas morning, and after wearing them around the house literally every day since then, she has gotten really good at it!

I took the girls skating over Christmas break while David and Jacob were camping with Cub Scouts, and we had so much fun! I decided that this was something really fun and active that we could do together regularly, so I went out and got skates for Jacob, Caroline and myself. I didn't get any for David, because somebody needs to sit with the bags. Haha -- just kidding. He has a bit of a track record of winding up with crutches and assorted other orthopedic equipment when he partakes in activities such as this (bad knees), so I decided that I'd let him make the call about whether he wanted to try it. So far, he's happy doling out the quarters when the kids need a break from skating.

I was actually a fairly proficient skater back in the day. I grew up rollerskating in late elementary school and middle school, and then in college I started rollerblading after reading somewhere that rollerblading improves your skiing (it totally does!) I didn't rollerblade (or ski) much after college. Then just last year, in the midst of major decluttering, I finally got rid of my rollerblades. I figured that if I hadn't used them in 19 years I probably was not going to use them (that's my own personal variation to the professional organizers' "6 month rule.") I stupidly did not think about the fact that I had kids about to hit prime rollerskating age. I swear, decluttering somehow always backfires on me. Oh well -- it's probably for the best. I'm sure rollerblade technology has come a long way in the past 20 years, and mine were so old that they were probably made of twigs and acorns foraged from the woods. In any event, the new wheels are pretty sweet!

One thing about going to the roller rink is that the experience of going to the roller rink has not changed AT ALL in the past 30 years. The video games are the same:

They played Thriller and When I Hear Music by Debbie Deb. I was one happy girl. I just pretended that the Kavu bag hung across my body was actually a Jordache purse and I swear it could have been 1983.

Oh! And the kids had fun too. I got Jacob rollerblades instead of rollerskates, and he is doing really great on them, even if he doesn't think he is.

I think Elizabeth had a great birthday. We did everything she wanted to do, and because she is Elizabeth, the things she wanted to do were really fun. We ended the day with cupcakes arranged in the shape of an "8":

Happy birthday to my sweet, fun, creative, tenderhearted, smart, beautiful Elizabeth!