So, today, sick of illness and the indoors, I offered the kids the chance to have a fun family outing--sans dad, who is stuck at work--on the conditions that 1). it was something that all of us could do and 2). it was free.It was a bit of a job, given the criteria. Since the kids range in age from 1 to 15 years, finding an activity that everyone can do is a challenge. Thankfully, the littlest ones seem eager to take on "big kid" adventures, and the oldest is sweet enough to have fun doing "little kid" stuff. Actually, the "free" part was the hardest to accomodate.
When someone popped up with the idea to go sledding, we settled on it immediately. We spent the next half hour dressing children until they resembled the little boy in Christmas Story who is wrapped in winter garb so thoroughly he can't even put his arms down to his sides. The PBC was particularly annoyed by this as he could do nothing but lie there and scream.
The next part of the adventure consisted of trying to find the sleds. After a fruitless search of the garage, the children confessed to having left them outside, somewhere under the mounds of snow. Wherever they are they remain, since despite shoveling most of the yard we never did locate them. Finally, we loaded up in the car--now sans dad and sleds--with a couple of stadium seat cushions and a garbage can lid. To top it all off, we also took the 75 pound dog with a ton of pent-up energy.
The sledding was somewhat less than successful. The garbage can lid was a bust. It failed to provide any forward motion despite the assistance of a rather steep hill. The little seat cushions were equal failures UNTIL we hooked up the dog to one of them. Suddenly, with a little canine encouragement, we had a speedy way down the hill. The kids were in love with the rough and tumble (and I do mean tumble!) way down the hill, and the dog got some perhaps unwanted--although desperately needed--exercise while playing sled dog.
Overall, a successful hour of entertainment. And only you other mothers out there know just how rare and wonderful such a thing is.
