Aidan's snow day in Texas

Last week Aidan's class had a field trip to an ice rink in Austin. 'Ice Skating' you say? No. The field trip was for the kids to play in the snow. They basically shaved the ice with the zamboni and dumped it out into a snow pile. They made two piles at one end of the rink where one of the hockey goals would be. Then the kids could jump in and play. I had the privilege to meet Aidan's class there and play in the snow with him. He was equipped with his snow pants, snow boots, heavy jacket, and mittens. The only time he complained about being cold was when he got some snow (ice) in his mittens and sleeves. He fell down several times but never cried. There was an incident when he was in the middle of the snow pile and I was video taping him. I had stopped taping and looked at him and his face was beet red. This was the only time that I almost slipped as I scrambled to get to him worried that he had fallen and hurt himself. When I got to him he was crying too hard to explain what had happened. It didn't take long to figure out what had happened. He had some snow on his face, neck, and collar. Either he fell in the snow and face planted or some deviant little child got him with a snow ball. The latter wouldn't surprise me since that was the main thing that every kid was doing, pelting snow balls. I brushed him off and he went about his business.

Here are some pictures and videos from the event.

"Is it snow time?"

Aidan with Maddie, his field trip buddy. I was very surprised that he let her come up and hug him.

"Now what do I do?"

Aidan having fun. That is Miss Mackie in the red jacket, one of Aidan's teachers.

Aidan walking through the snow.

I like this video because he picks up a snow ball, looks for a target, and then takes off.

So after he played in the snow some I thought he might like to go and walk around on the ice. We went walking and it was very hard for him to walk without slipping and falling. This is where the fact that I am still 80% kid comes into play. I came up with a great idea. I said to Aidan, "Aidan lay on your back and I'll slide you on the ice." He laid down and didn't like it so I told him to lay on his tummy. This is where it gets good. With one hand grabbing his jacket between his shoulders and the other the fanny of his snow pants I slid him across the ice. This is the number 1 reason why Daddy rules and Mommy drools. He went sliding about 12 feet on the ice and came to a stop. He popped up and said, "Again! Again!" By this time several of his classmates had seen the 'slide heard around the world,' and came running screaming, "I want to do that." At first they all crammed together and it was hard to slide them, but then I noticed a big blue line on the ice (not quite center ice, sorry I don't know the hockey terms). I told the kids to line up on the big blue line. So then I had 7 or so kids lined up on the ice as I moved down the line chucking kids across the ice. It was funny when they would come to a stop they would immediately get up, turn around, and start walking back to where they started. The problem was that then they had another kid sliding towards them. So to avoid the 'bowling ball meets bowling pin' effect I had to aim one to the left then one to the right and so on. I was doing that for about 20 minutes or so until the kids, yes the kids, got bored with it. Of course Aidan never got tired of it, but eventually it was time to go. I had to get a video of it and everyone I knew was heading out of the rink. So I set the camera on the ice and hit record. Here is what I could get.