The One With the Roller Palace Fundraiser

This past Friday, Emmie and I took Bri and Kiff to the Roller Palace for a school fundraiser. It was the first time we did it and it turned out to be a great event.

It was excellent to see how far Bri and Kiff had come with their skating since last being here. Taking ice skating lessons certainly helped....but they got increasingly better as the night went on.

It was great to see them interact with their fellow classmates...and great to check in with parents, too.

However, it was slightly bittersweet because, after 37 years, the Roller Palace is actually closing this June. It had been a staple up here for years, much like Roller Kingdom in my neck of the woods growing up, and many of the parents at the school remember going here as kids. Wow! 


It will be missed....but, if this is indeed the final swan song for an indoor roller arena and fundraiser here, it could not pick a better way to go out

The One with the Roller Skating Birthday Party

Ah!!!!

We had one of those fun memories recently. Bri had her birthday party at the nearby Roller Palace. The local hotspot for birthday parties for decades in these parts, we had been told by many a parent that we would be spending some time here from Kindergarten on.

And sure enough, those parents were correct.

And, it was a ton of fun. it was the second time Kiff had been there...and he definitely wanted to be on his own as much as he could. As for Bri, she was spending an amazing amount of time on the floor, getting her patented move down. She has grown better over the year.

The party itself was a blast. The place helped to time it well: 50 minutes of skating 15 minutes of pizza, 15 minutes of cake, another half hour of skating and arcade games (they were a hit) - and even one person actually successfully pulled a toy out of one of those games that no one ever wins.

The party flew by - Bri had a good time - and before we knew it, it was time to go. Kiff wanted to play one more video game, so he and I went to the car racing game. As we left, it was clear - we were the last people to leave the place...besides the workers. 

I told Kiff, "Let's remember this moment."

So we looked around took in the fact that, for the first time, Kidd was "closing down a place."