Family weekend

I am truly enjoying Ontario's newest long weekend - Family Day, an election promise and one I do hope we keep. I need a long weekend in February - enhanced by the PA day on Friday, so it was a really long weekend.

I took Kate, Andrew and two of their little friends bowling on Friday afternoon while the babies slept. If it wasn't for the other darn four year old, I would have beaten the crowd at bowling with a mega high score of 109 points (yeah me!!!). I will admit I was hoping the kid wouldn't do well on his last round so that I would win. My two kids were WAY out of contention so I might as well have some fun. As always, my poor butt hurt a fair bit come Saturday morning - couldn't even put my pants on standing up for fear I would fall over and not be able to catch myself. Jim did make note that I need to start doing some form of exercise or I would get stiffer and stiffer (some of my fingers on my left hand are permanently numb, and my neck is sore), and much much less flexible as I age.

We recovered sufficiently (Kate, Andrew & I - babies sleep in the afternoon) to hit the ice at one of the many outdoor Toronto rinks on Sunday with my SIL and her two children. I had a blast. Despite not being near my skates in almost 15 years, I managed to not fall, or hit my head (one of Andrew's fears since I wasn't wearing a helmet). While I wouldn't say I raised my heart rate during the hour we were skating, it was nice to be outside having fun. Andrew's skating improved greatly but I did decide he needed to move up a skate size after I needed to tackle him to get his skates on his feet - thankfully, spare skates isn't an issue in this house as we seem to be acquiring a consignment store of skating goods. (Kuddos to 'the' nanny Jayne who got ALL of the skates sharpened on Friday while I was out killing my butt muscle bowling.)

We had so much fun skating on Sunday that we decided to head back to my SIL's house tonight. In part, it was mandated since I much appreciated my Mojitos last night that driving the second car home wasn't an option - I drink responsibly, it was decided well before I started the wine at dinner. Thus, Andrew, Kate and I headed back on the subway for a second attempt on the outdoor rink.

Our departure was somewhat delayed by a sibling outburst. I guess we had a bit too much of Family Day at one point this morning. One of Andrew's drawings (something about hiccups & Kate) got Kate in a fury which resulted in a part of a toy being thrown, with darn good aim and tremendous clip at Andrew's face. I heard the scream while putting Seanie down for his nap and came running. The few drips of blood from Andrew's nose seemed unworthy of such an outburst - but after I grabbed some paper towels from the counter and returned to the boy, it was obvious we had a gusher - there was blood everywhere, pooling on the wood floor and splattering on the carpet. He was screaming (hates the sight of his blood) and Kate was claiming she didn't mean to hit in the face (but did mean to throw the toy - got to work on the logic). A bit of pressure, a lot of salt & water on the carpet, and we managed to get out of the house for the rink.

A few games of shinny put a damper on the rink availability but it was so nice, again, to be outside.

A lot of restraint, with a focus on responsibility, got all four kids and two cars home again tonight. Kate does keep asking whether six years olds can be sent to jail for hurting someone - wondering if that has to do with the Andrew situation. I should probably play it up a bit like Jim to curb future outbursts but in good faith don't think I could pull it off.

So, to Family Day - a very worthy long weekend.