Disclaimer: This post is several months overdue, as are several others. Hopefully, over the next several days, maybe weeks, we can get the Barrios presence on these here interwebs updated.

We took a page out of the Pierz's playbook and took the girls ice skating last weekend.  It's not that we don't come up with fun things to do with the girls on the weekend, but I have to hand it to Geoff and Colette.  They always come up with the most fun activities.  Ice skating had never really crossed my mind at this age, but if you set you expectations accordingly, you can have a lot of fun.

The girls had been excited about it for days.  We opted to take them to their ballet classes and then headed over to the rink.  In hindsight, this was a tactical error.  You see, normally we skip breakfast before ballet in favor of a small snack, and then, afterward, we usually do breakfast.  Because of the hours for open skating, however, we had to delay the late breakfast until after ice skating.  Needless to say, the girls were a bit cranky.

After getting past the extra drama, we had a lot of fun.  Next time we go, we'll have to investigate whether there's a session were they have the garbage cans for the little kids to skate with (the basically work like little walkers).  Without the walkers, Viv and I just took each of the girls and held them out in front of us while we skated along.  It worked really well, but it was a little hard on our backs.  Yes, we're getting old.  The first lap went really well.  The girls really liked getting scooted around the ice.  By the second lap, we started to try to get the girls to try to shift their weight over their feet rather than leaning back into us.  This was less for teaching them and more for helping our old backs.  As soon as we did that, the slipperyness of the ice became apparent to both of them.  The fear set in next, but then they calmed down and all was good again.

Ultimately, the hunger started setting in and we called it a success after five, or six, laps.  The girls then sat outside the rink, up against the glass, while Viv and I took turns doing a few more laps.  They got a kick out of us passing them as they looked on from the other side of the glass.

While we were getting their skates off, I asked Marielle whether not not she had fun.

To which she replied, "Dad, I never want to go ice skating again."

Turning 5

20 Things About Our Birthday Girl:

1. Pink is still her favorite color.
2. The girl loves art.  She could draw, paint, color, sculpt, etc. until the cows come home.
3. She loves her sister and puts her arm around her shoulders and talks in a sweet quiet voice to her when she is sad.
4. Quesadillas, chicken tenders, pizza and oxtail soup rank among the world’s best food as far as Ellie is concerned.
5. She made up a secret spy girl cheer for all secret spy girls.  The cheer, which is not as secret as the spy girls themselves, must be yelled at the top of your lungs and goes like this, “Go Go Secret Spy Girls!”
6. Her new favorite game is Rock Band II.  Marielle can rock out to Mud on the Tires, Any Man of Mine, and Don’t Stop Believing like it’s going out of style.
7. Still loves dress up.  Marc and I come home to find Marielle in princess attire almost more often than we find her in her normal clothes.
8. Is still barely on the weight chart for her age.
9. Her favorite toy, hands down, is still Nona.  Nona spends much of her day getting into all kinds of mischief with Marielle.
10. Is quite the little ballerina and looks adorable, if I don’t say so myself, in her little pink leotard and tights.
11. Is convinced she loves soccer even though she spent half of last season crying on the sidelines.
12. Wants to grow her hair out to be long and beautiful like her Auntie Sarah.
13. Her favorite song is Crush from the Glee soundtrack.  She belts it at the top of her lungs in the car, including all a cappella parts.
14. Has actually eaten several pieces, yes pieces, of fruits and vegetables this year.  Grapes and lettuce can now be counted among the foods that Marielle will eat.
15. Has become quite helpful around the house.  She is getting pretty good at putting her shoes and jacket away when she comes home and responds nicely, most of the time, when Mom and Dad ask her to help do something for them.
16. Her favorite television show is Phineas and Ferb.
17. Tells a great knock knock joke.
18. Loves being sung to when her teeth get brushed.  Lately her song of choice when she gets her teeth brushed is Hallelujah from Shrek.
19. Is super excited about Kindergarten and riding a school bus.
20. Is a very sweet, funny, smart, and beautiful little girl.  Her Mommy and Daddy could not be more proud.

Happy Birthday Marielle!!! We Love you!!!

Soccer Tryout

Disclaimer: This post is several months overdue, as are several  others.  Hopefully, over the next several days, maybe weeks, we can get  the Barrios presence on these here interwebs updated.

Marielle played soccer this last fall and is now looking forward to spring soccer which starts in a few weeks.  If you had asked me back in the fall if she was going to be excited about this spring, I'd tell you, "no."  The first few weeks went less than well.  She was very uncomfortable with trying a new sport, I think.  We kind of expected this since Field Day in her pre-school class went the same way.

After 15 minutes of coaxing, we finally got her out on the field, but participating was a different story.  At this point, I have to thank her assistant coach.  He was a big help.  He got her to join the rest of the team in doing warm-up exercises, and for the next three weeks he worked to get her out during the warm-ups and to participate in the games.  At first she would run the drills, but only if I ran them too.  So just picture me running alongside all of these little girls while all the parents of girls who liked soccer looked on with laughter.  By the second week, she did much better, and, for the second half of the season, she actually looked forward to the games.

Watching Ellie play was hilarious.  Early on, it became apparent that she hadn't yet developed that competitive spirit.  She spent many of her games out on the field picking up fallen leaves which she would then attempt to show her coach.  Or she would volunteer to get subbed out so that she could sit on the team blanket and sip her water from her new Camel Bak water bottle.  In between sips, she would ask us if she could have her end-of-game snack yet.  Then, by the time the game ended, Ellie typically wouldn't be interested in the snack because it was typically something healthy like an apple, carrots, or a granola bar.  But, I'm going to side with Marielle on this one.  I mean, what kind of a coach does that?  I sucked at intramural sports as a kid, but both us sucky kids and the athletic kids alike all looked forward to swiss cake rolls, twinkies, or oatmeal cream pies at the end of every game.  One week, Marielle walked up after the game with a bag of M&M's, or something like that.  Apparently, she had gotten them from the other team.  Yes, she begged the other team's coach to hook her up with a good snack.  I think her Oma put her up to it.

All in all, she ended up enjoying the season, and gained her biggest fan.  At the beginning of the season, Harper was sad that she was still too young to play, but by the end of it, she would cheer loudly for Marielle.