Right outside Richard’s office there is a big lawn, where they set up all sorts of fun things.  In the summertime there were giant t.v. screens where they showed Wimbledon, and I’ve also seen stages set up for outdoor concerts.  During the holidays they set up an ice skating rink so as part of our Christmas advent activities (that we ended up only doing about 1/3 of) we took the kids.  

Sadly we discovered that Simon wasn’t old enough, so Richard was the camera-man and Simon cried on the sidelines. I don’t think he was sad about not being able to ice skate, I think it was about some other trauma of some sort.  (He wanted “juice” which wasn’t actually juice at all, but alcoholic beverages he saw other people drinking and thought they looked enough like juice.) 

For the first few minutes I was having serious doubts about how smart of an idea of it was for me to go out with three kids who had never ice skated before, but we paid the five pounds for a polar bear and Cameron gradually gained some confidence,  

Cameron really got after it. He fell a lot but he would get back up and keep trying. I was proud of him.  He had pouted the entire train ride to Canary Wharf about how stupid ice skating was, but then he really had a good time.  It’s nice that he is at an age where he can change his mind about something, and he also doesn’t quite have the stubborn genes like one of my other children, who once he makes up his mind that he isn’t going to like something, he never will like it. I won’t mention any names…

Eli on the other hand was really excited to try ice skating, but I had my fears that all it would take was one fall and he would be done.  He doesn’t often like to take risks or put forth a lasting effort when something gets difficult or feels unsafe.  But he stuck with it too, and by the time we left was begging to go around one more time.  

Miriam was hot and cold.  She loved some moments and then would cry and panic a little in other moments.  As long as I kept her close to me she had a good time.  But her ice skates were either too big or too small or just generally uncomfortable which contributed to her misery. 

Despite each of their hang-ups all three kids were disappointed when it was time to go home.  So I guess it’ll be on the calendar next year too! (Except I think I’ll let Richard have the pleasure of being on the ice and I’ll stay behind with the camera and the alcoholic beverages. Ahem. Just kidding.)