Sledding in the summer!

Wish I'd had my camera....

My daughter was babysitting yesterday, and called to invite me to go to a park with her and the little boys. We had fun watching them play on the swings, run in the grass and climb on the dinosaur "bones". The little guys are 5 years old and 18 months, and when we walked over to see the train we noticed people sliding down a small grassy hill sledding in the 80º heat!! They were riding blocks of ice with a folded towel on top!!

Totally new to me, but my daughter said they did a similar thing with blocks of ice at camp last year---only they hung onto the blocks of ice while laying face down with a partner holding their legs wheel-barrow-style---then they were hustled forward, spun around an end point & slid back to the starting point!

At the park, this group was sitting on their ice blocks, leaning back, holding up their legs & balancing with their arms out to get momentum for sliding down the hill. The little 5 year old with us watched a while, which prompted a nice teen fella to invite him to try out the ice. The little guy said no thanks, then climbed around on the train a while with his brother & the two of us. At one point he was watching the "sledding" again so I offered to ask if he could try. He then said he was "too shy". After some more climbing, he asked if I would go see if he could have a turn---it was too tempting for this "shy" guy! The nice teen saw he was interested again & offered his block and soggy towel. That was it, little N could have spent the whole rest of the day slipping down the hill! He had difficulty perching his little self on top of the ice---often the block took off while he plunked down with just the soggy towel, but he'd determinedly push the block back up the hill and try again! Luckily the group had lots of ice blocks, so they didn't mind in the least he'd taken over one. A young teenage girl even helped my daughter hold the leg & hands of little B the 18 month old so he could slide down a couple of times... Sweet memories :)!