Mid-Winter Break

You'd think the experiences of the past month would make me a better mother. No doubt I've been reminded of the miracle it is to be blessed with beautiful, healthy children. My kids are awesome and I know I’ve been blessed way beyond what I deserve. However, I've felt like my patience has diminished instead of increased during these past few weeks, particularly with Abigail and Carly. I was looking forward to our mid-winter break last week with the hope that we could create some fun memories. I told each of the kids they could pick out a fun activity to do during the break. It was a brilliant idea - I couldn’t have hoped for a more successful and fun week with my kids.

Abigail’s activity of choice was to go roller-skating. We initially asked her to pick something else out, but on Monday decided to give in and headed to a roller-skating rink in Bellevue. Justin opted not to rent skates for himself, I don’t know how to skate, and Katie is too little. So that left the three big kids. They had a blast. The girls received rollerblades from their Grandma and Grandpa Fletcher for Christmas 2010 and by the following summer had the wheels worn ragged. They have been asking to go skating for years so this was a dream come true for them.

This was Jason’s first time, he started out pretty shaky, but after tightening his wheels a bit he was able to get around pretty well.

We kept someone by his side though for support and his sisters were really sweet to help him out.

We invited Grandma and Grandpa Fletcher to join us for Carly’s activity of choice – bowling on Tuesday evening. Justin couldn’t recall ever bowling with his Dad so it was fun to have him join us.

To our surprise Grandpa actually beat all of us in the first game with Grandma right behind – a humbling first game for Justin. By the second game the grandparents had lost their steam allowing Justin and I to take the lead (were talking low 100’s here so it’s still not much to be proud of). Abigail got good enough that we think the next time we bowl she should go without the bumpers.

Carly has a wicked curve ball making the bumpers essential.

And our little man sure can pound that ball down the lane.

Our sensitive boy had his feelings hurt shortly after we started the second game and refused to play anymore so Katie was able to jump in and take over.

On Wednesday morning Abigail surprised me by straightening up most of the house on her own – she’d pulled a similar stunt on Sunday by cleaning the kitchen and family room while the rest of us were laying around upstairs. I couldn’t think of a better way to start the morning. The girls were each invited over to a friends house that afternoon and while Katie napped I took advantage of the time and got several things accomplished on my to-do list. A fun and productive week – what could be better?

I found it funny that on Wednesday night Abigail looked around the house and exclaimed, “I had everything clean and now it’s a mess!”

Jason’s original activity of choice was having pizza for dinner and a movie night. Earlier in the week I let him watch Cars 2 while I cut his hair and Justin brought home pizza for dinner another night so it seemed he'd already had his special activity without any fuss. If there was any chance Jason would have felt he got the shaft that was put to rest when we invited one of our favorite families over on Friday night (including one of his best buddies). Usually we'd let the kids stay up and play til around 9pm then put them all to bed so the adults can play games or visit, but everyone (including Katie and two 2-year old twins) happily played til after 11pm.

Like I said, I couldn’t have hoped for a better week with the kids. It was so fun to go out and do some fun things that we are normally too cheap to do, but seriously, what’s $20 when you think of the memories and family experiences we created. Hopefully we can continue to make having fun as a family more of a priority. There’s no one else I’d rather hang out with.