Category: Skating

Thornhill Fun Skate – Part 2

Today it was back to Thornhill Community Center.  This time to cheer on Elspeth.  She woke up super excited that it was her day to skate.  That excitement lasted until about 10 minutes after she got off the ice.  Then she was tired (as you can see in the photos).  Once her snack kicked in she was back to her happy self.  She was also quite pleased to have a new ribbon for her board…although, she did object to the fact that it was not pink. She also competed in a new skating outfit because she actually grew out of the one that I made for her (see post on Winter Glitters from January).  I think that she looks right cute in this dress though.

 

Thornhill Fun Skate – Part 1

Our first visit to the competition was Friday for Katrine.  So, this is her post.  She had a lot of fun and came in fifth.  We were very proud of her (as you can see in the photo).

At dinner, she drew a picture of herself skating in her dress for the judges.  It was pretty cute.

Back to the arena tomorrow morning for Elspeth’s skate.

The Skating Fun Never Ends in our House

That’s right, even when we are not at an arena it is still all about the skating.  This time the girls found a box and Katrine thought that we could make it into an ice rink.  With a little bit of creativity and a lot of glue, the Attwood Arena was born.  Complete with an audience calling out cheers, tickets and medals.

Now it was time for the gala.  Both girls got in on the fun by breaking out every single toy that has skates….and a walrus!  Who knew that stuffed animals had such awesome skating moves?  The Barbie was apparently the headliner.  I must admit that her spiral was not half bad.

‘Skatey Bear’ shows off her jumps, ‘Skatey Girl’ demonstrates the ice splits move (also known as the cold bum move), “Ice Angel/Barbie’ breaks out her spiral while Walrus sits (totally different from the cold bum move due to the mass quantities of blubber involved).

Now that the show was done it was time to increase the role which our arena was to play within the toy community of our household through lessons from our resident coach….Barbie! (She really is a woman of many talents.  Never seen a coach whose skates fall off quite as easily though.)  The arena has been used by all of the Calico Critters, who interestingly enough can apparently skate in bare feet! Barbie has also coached a sheep and Katrine’s fashion doll Lily.

Big Sister Sheep is working on push together while Lily is more advanced working on a toe loop as being demonstrated by her coach.


Introduction the new and improved Skatey Girl

We have the dresses!!! (A special thank you to SamSam for thinking of us)

Got the gloves! (Finally found a pair small enough to fit her hands.  Stretchy gloves that don’t need to stretch.  Hehe)  Got the fuzzy sweater and funky leg warmers. Now I am ready to rock my shiny new skates!!!

Look! I can even go higher in these.  I am Skatey Girl!  See me fly!

 

World Figure Skating Gala in London

It was AWESOME!  I had an absolutely fabulous time with Katrine and my mom.  The skating was…well, the best in the world.  The company was great.  And then to top it all off, they even had a gluten free consession stall!!

First time that I have ever had a lot of choice at an sporting event.  Hopefully it is sign of things to come.

From the time when we turned off of the highway until we reached the arena there was great signage.  Katrine was almost dancing in her seat as we drove along.  Her excitement reached fever pitch once she saw this sign and ice sculpture. This is the sign which greated our arrival at the arena.

I was told by my brother that there were no bad seats in Budwieser Gardens.  He was right.  This is the view from our seats.  Every skater looked fabulous.

Last night Katrine made two flags for our trip.  One for herself and the other for her skating mascot “Skatey Bear”.  Both flags got quite the work out ever time a Canadian skater took the ice.

At the end of the gala all of the skaters came out for a last hurrah.  What a bunch of talent.  Their skills were fabulous.  The show was a joy to watch.

Elspeth, Glenn and my Dad?  They stayed home and played at the park.  I came home to another happy girl who had basked in her father and grandfather’s love and undivided attention.  All around a wonderful day.

Home from North Bay

After a long drive we are finally home.  The most exciting part of the drive?  Why seeing the sign for Katrine, Ontario of course?  Katrine sees her name in very few places so it is always exciting.

Have you guessed why we were all the way up north?  For skating of course.  This weekend North Bay is hosting the Make it a Date to Skate competition.  It seemed like a good idea to shake things up and get away from it for a bit so we signed up.  It was fun!  Mostly because a group of Katrine’s coaches skaters went up and we stayed together.  So it was not just about the skating but about the girls having fun.  Katrine with her friends and Elspeth playing at being a big girl.

(One of Katrine’s fellow skaters took the photos with the words.  I don’t have that kinda technology.  Looks really nice doesn’t it.  The one of my two cuties is from the pizza party last night.)

I suppose I should fill you in on the skating itself.  Katrine placed 8th for her spins (she kinda mucked one up…in that she did the wrong thing which makes it near impossible to actually win anything).  Then 2nd for elements.  Then 5th for her solo.  She was pretty happy with that place given that there were “really big girls in my group” (aka a few were at least 16).  Most important though, she was proud of her overall effort as were we.  Now a full month without competitions.  Sigh.  Notice, not without skating only no competitions.  Hey, I’ll take what I can get.

Battle of the Blades….at home version

Well, it is really battle of the off ice girls.  You pick the winner. 🙂 Contestant one is a mere three years old.  She is able to travel forward and backwards on ice and can jump.  Her dream is to be her big sister.  Contestand two IS the big sister.  Her dream?  To be world champion; well, that and to land her axel.

(This is my view of what happens every afternoon at home after our time at the arena.  It usually ends with both girls in giggles.)

1. Sit spin

2. Y Stand

3. Funny leg pulling thing (yes, that is my official term for this particular move!)

4. Spiral

(Had to cheat and use an on ice photo of contestant two, sorry)

 

Club Competition

Katrine had fun at club comp (although she did miss Elspeth).  It was nice to have her back together with her skating friends and she relished it.  Our big girl was all smiles yesterday afternoon.  The fact that she brought home some prizes also helped – two 4ths and a 6th for extreme elements, a 1st for individual elements and then a 1st for her solo.  Hopefully it will increase her confidence going into the competition in just over a week.

 

Winter Glitters: Part 1

Last weekend we took the family to Winter Glitters in Ajax.  It was a long but fun day full of what else but skating.  The big difference was that this time both girls competed.

Katrine has been really eager to get back into training since getting the all clear from the neurologist at the end of December.  That said, three weeks back on the ice is not alot of time to truly prepare for a competition.  She did a really good job on her solo given her circumstances thus far this season and we are really proud of how hard she has been working.  Unfortunately she finished 7th in her flight and was a bit dissapointed in herself.  Her disappointment was tempered by a fifth in team elements and a day spent with friends at the arena (which is why there are no photos of her from the competition because all of the ones from my camera have her and her friends in them so you will just have to wait for Glenn to post photos).

During the lull between Katrine’s two rounds of skating, Elspeth had her turn to compete.  She provided the comic relief.  In the end she went home with a “pink ribbon” for her efforts “just like Katrine”.  I think that having a ribbon and getting a chance to be out on the ice were banner events for her.

This skating is hard work.  Just look at how sweety I am. (Probably due to the knitted hat Grandma made you so that your helmet fits.)

Loving her coach after getting off the ice.

So proud

Here she was at her first competition:

This past weekend:

Katrine made us super proud this past weekend.  As you can see she brought home a fourth place ribbon; not bad for a kiddo who only started back working on jumps five days before the competition.  She was simply thrilled to be able to skate and to have skated clean.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that she continues to heal from the concussion and will be able to skate full force come January.