You Can Call Me Rollergirl

Whaddya mean Rollergirl?  I thought you were my Mommy?!!??

This weekend we celebrated my niece Alexis's 11th birthday with a rollerskating party (her actual birthday was 2/21, but with everyone's wacky schedules, this was the first weekend that worked for my sister to do it).  I had not been on rollerskates since probably 1984!!!!  I did go through a long stint of rollerblading throughout the 90s, but had not been on those in at least 10 years either...so I was so looking forward to this party to see if I still "had it!"

At the complex, you had a choice of roller skates or rollerblades, and I chose to go rollerblades since I had used them more...recently.  Haha.  I was a little shaky at first, but quickly got my bearings, and impressed my niece and her friends...my niece and I had been texting back and forth while we were on our way to the party, and I told her that she and her friends could call me "Rollergirl" for the day since at one time I used to be really into rollerblading as part of my workouts.  I even did a 10K race one time, though I nearly passed out since the course was a lot hillier than I ever skated on.   She was like, "um, yeah, okay."  She didn't seem to be that impressed.

Well, I didn't fall, or hurt myself, at least on the skates!  And my niece did tell me at one point, "Aunt Suzie - you are really good!"  I am still not sure if she was serious or telling me that just to make me feel good and not so old.

This is me on rollerblades...making a funny face on purpose. 

Tommy had a blast watching us skate around.  He especially laughed REALLY hard and loud when Alexis fell in front of him a few times.  He had a ball that Daddy had won for him (yes, another to add to the collection) at the place, and he kept throwing it out into the rink and Alexis would go to retrieve it and fall down.  Needless to say, Tommy kept wanting to play that game!

The place had a bunch of arcade games, skeeball, and two big  moonbounce/slides.  I ended up taking Tommy on the moonbounce/slides, which was a workout for me.  Climbing up the ladder to the top of the big slide...holy smokes.  I have a 25+ pound kid in my stronger, right arm, while I'm trying to climb a ladder in socked feet while pulling the two of us up the ladder with my weaker, left arm.  I did not think I was going to make it several times during the climb.  John even said he was worried about me making it after it was all over.  Well, I did make it, and was quite  proud of myself!!!  I think running the stairs at work during lunch the past few weeks actually had me prepared!  Tommy loved going down the big slide, but there was no way I was going to try to make the climb again, so John tells me to go on the "smaller" one.  This had a little bit of an obstacle course you had to bounce around to get to where the slide was, which Tommy loved, since I kept bouncing and it catapulted him ahead of me.  He had the best laugh going!  But there was another ladder to go up...this one without any grips on the side to help me pull the two of us up to the top.  I had to grab the "rungs" on the ladder which were really just part of the inflatable.  I think it was harder to get to the top of this smaller slide, but I was still recovering from the bigger slide climb.  At the top, however, there was minimal room, and a big sign that you wren't allowed to go down with 2 people.  So I lowered Tommy down a bit, and dropped him down the slide on his own, where John was waiting to catch him at the bottom.  Again, the kid LOVED it!  I followed shortly after catching my breath.

Tommy decided to climb up the skeeball ramp to play his way

Had to put him in his leprechaun t-shirt - only get so many wears out of it before St. Patty's Day!

Throwing the ball back at Mommy

Walking like he owns the place

Ladder on the big slide I climbed up with Tommy...you can see my butt and legs at the top...nice.

Tommy on the small slide - all by himself!  Notice my hands at the top after releasing him?

Me after the smaller slide...I don't ever want to grow up!

Alexis in the "money" machine.  She won lots of cool  prizes on the pieces of paper she gathered.

Tommy climbed right up into the seat to drive the car while walking around with Daddy

After the party we went back to my sister's house for some snacks and to open Lexi's presents.  They have 2 dogs, Briar and Toby, who were barking like crazy when we all arrived.  Tommy thought it was the best thing, and was saying "bow wow" and "arf arf" and wanted to be in the middle of the craziness and pet the dogs.  He gave Briar hugs and was very gentle petting her. Toby is a bit crazier (he's a chihuahua and chews everything), so my sister did not let him too close to Tommy.  Raisin, one of their two cats who we rarely see, was on the couch, which Tommy managed to climb up onto so he could pet her.  Again, he was so gentle with Raisin, just like he is with Tux and Tails. 

Giving cousin Lexi a birthday hug

Exhausted, but happy...wasn't supposed to be bath night, but can  you tell by this picture it ended up as one?

Tommy giving some love to Briar
Tommy only napped for an hour on the drive to the party, and was partying all afternoon.  He did take a nap on the drive home, which was a little later than we would have liked, but  I'm glad he got the nap in otherwise by bedtime he would have been so overtired, it would have been an ugly battle, I'm sure.  But we had a fun day with everyone...and I still can't believe my niece is 11 years old already!  She is the best mother's helper when she is around Tommy!