Saturday, November 6, 2010

Miniature Golf

I took Jacob and our friend, P, miniature golfing last night. I was bummed when I realized I forgot my camera and my cell phone so there are no picutres. Neither of the kids had ever been miniature golfing or had a clue what to do. I think that actually made it more fun. No one was a lot more skilled even though the Jacob is 5 and P is 9.

We got our balls and clubs and I spent a moment teaching the kids the rules of the game. I then showed them each how to stand and hold the golf club so that they could putt the ball. Of course Jacob immediately lifted his club up like he was hitting a long drive and sent the ball sailing through the air (not bad for never hitting a ball before but bad for miniature golf). Jacob went off chasing his ball that was now bouncing all over the course and I got P started. The kids forgot the whole taking turns thing and just started hitting the ball until they finally got it in the hole.

I moved us to hole 2 and reminded the kids that we were taking turns and to putt the ball not hit it as hard as they could. I showed Jacob (again) how to hit the ball as a putt and the importance of not hitting it too hard. He nodded his head and the kids were off again. Not taking turns but having fun putting and not hitting drives.

We moved on to the third whole and I again tried to teach the kids about waiting for your turn and scoring. Again they just got too excited. I realized that I was the only one counting putts or even caring what the score was so I put the score card away and decided it was time to just have fun. I still tried to get the kids to take turns somewhat so that they wouldn't run into each other but I wasn't really strict. As long as they weren't right on top of each other, I let them just have fun.

We played about half the course and then got to the remote controlled boats. This was the end of golfing for us. It was a lot of fun to try to steer the big boats around the water. P and I kept getting our boats stuck but Jacob was a pro. He was able to get his boat to go where ever he wanted and even backed it into the "piers."

We finished the night with muffins, cookies and slushies. I am so grateful Jacob's friend, Lela, gave him the gift certificate for his birthday. We probably wouldn't have gone otherwise and the kids had a great time.

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