Had a wonderful weekend with the family, one of those lazing about weekends where things actually get done, time is spent with the kids, and where I head into a busy work week rested and energized. Yeah, those weekends don’t happen often, but I think I’m starting to figure out how to manage weekend family time better, and that is lending to a more relaxed and manageable me.

Erika decided to tackle pre-cooking a ton of wonderful food this weekend, making everything from cream of broccoli and potato squash soup, to stuffed pasta shells with spinach and ricotta, to easy lasagna tubes (so good!). She also made a huge batch of homemade pasta sauce to freeze as well. I helped by washing dishes. Yes, I’m actually pretty good at that.

While entertaining the kids, I also got caught up on some web-related stuff and watched a bunch of NFL wildcard games.

On Sunday morning, after Erika whipped up an awesome breakfast of spinach and feta omelettes, we decided to take the girls to a local park that had an ice rink poured where the summertime splash pad is located. Charlotte got skates for Christmas, and prior to Sunday, had never been skating before.

I on the other hand can’t get a skate around my right ankle since I shattered it playing highschool football (unless I get expensive, heat-molded skates), so Erika took Charlotte out onto the ice. I think all of Charlie’s gymnastic and dance training helped with her balance, as she picked up skating like a charm and barely fell. She did amazing for her first time out–and had a lot of fun too.

I spent time taking Claire and Maddy tobogganing, and dragging them around the park. I sure got a good workout from that. The twins also spent a lot of time “excavating snow stones” and placing them in their sled. Actually they did this for a very long time, totally content in digging up chunks of icy snow and stacking them up.

After Charlotte was done skating, she joined her sisters in snow demon making (I don’t call them angels).

Afterward, we treated the girls to lunch and then headed home to warm up.

Here is a really quick video I shot with our camera of Charlotte on the ice skates for the first time, and Claire and Maddy excavating “snow stones”.

What a great weekend.