Sunday Funday

Things that happened today:

1. I was woken by a voice saying, "Mommy, I am going to give you a beard." Then I heard the sound of scotch tape, and sure enough, someone was taping a beard on my mouth. The beard was actually a Magic Bag. It didn't stay on when I sat up.

2. We went skating at our favourite little arena, and for the first time Spilly skated without her trainer-thingy. This was mostly because Simon had just skated without his for the first time, and we were all making an excited fuss. The spirit of competition is alive and well in Spillsville.

3. We saw a deer run right across the highway in front of us. Luckily it narrowly missed several cars. It then jumped unbelievably high over a fence and vanished into the woods on the other side.

4. Spilly held a "Martin Luther King ceremony" in her bedroom this afternoon. We weren't allowed in until it was ready. There was a sign taped on the door that read, "CULOSD." When she finally let us in, every toy she had was marshalled in neat rows on the floor. Monty and Ribbon were both wearing hair accessories. She said a few solemn words. Then she asked that we take pictures.

5. Spilly cracked the eggs for the custard this evening, and they went into the bowl.

6. After her Daddy had carefully removed several outgrown items of clothing from Spilly's drawers, and put them in the discard pile, Spilly came upon them and was highly distressed. We later discovered them all back in the drawers. When asked about this, she explained she had done it for Donna. When asked who Donna was, she said, "My daughter, of course." Apparently Donna is going to wear Spilly's old underwear. I pointed out that it's customary not to share underwear, but Spills told me she was going to put it into the freezer until Donna used it, and it would be FINE.

7. Spilly informed me that Monty and Ribbon are husband and wife, but used to be brother and sister.

8. Daddy and Spilly had a difference of opinion about putting stickers on walls. Daddy finally said, "Now, who owns this house, anyway?"

"I do," Spilly said.

Daddy explained that in fact she didn't own the house; she just lived here.

A few minutes later, Spills came stamping down the stairs with twenty dollars given to her by her grandmother. She gave it to Daddy.

"NOW I OWN THE HOUSE."

Where's My Family??

So more crummy weather in our neck of the woods. Snow blowing in off the lake, coupled with the snow we were supposed to get anyway. And something out of Ohio that they're talking about hitting us now. Oh, and something bad is supposed to move in on Thursday night.

Today's weather warnings started, of course, once I'd made it to school. They were forecasting a really unpleasant drive home, with whiteouts and visibility less than a kilometre. So, in my wimpy way, I started trying to call my hubby from my classroom phone during recess. He's such a very good driver, and I'm such a very bad driver. My cowardly reasoning was, my little car could sit in the school parking lot overnight, and my family could come to get me.

But there was no answer at home. Very bad news indeed.

So I had to drive home, and it was as rotten as forecast. It was made even more rotten by the jerk in the huge Mac truck behind me, who didn't feel I was going nearly fast enough, and wanted to give me a big kiss in through the back window.

I got home shaking. Hubby was shovelling the driveway.

"I thought maybe you'd call for a ride," he said, quite surprised I'd made it home.

"I TRIED!"

"Oh!" He frowned. "Well...I guess we were out skating for awhile."

It took a second for this to register.

"On our rink?"

He nodded.

"Is it ice now?"

"Oh, yeah!" He proceeded to emote at length about our magnum opus, the backyard rink to end all rinks, that slopes sharply down toward the back fence, like the mother of all luge runs.

"How was Spilly on the ice?"

"Much better!" He described stumping around in his boots, holding on to a cackling Spills who had coined her variety of skating as "bottom ballet."

And I realized that the bad news was also good news. It was almost (almost) worth a rotten drive home if it meant that our little family had taken its first collective steps toward a wonderful new active hobby together. The rink has arrived!!

Things to do While your Parents are Trying to Build a Skating Rink

1. Figure out how to ride your toboggan off the back deck so it slides the length of the area Mommy and Daddy are stamping down, nearly knocking Mommy's legs off at the kneecap.

2. Turn your climber into an ice castle and dance around on it shouting, "I'm a Queen! I'm a Queen!"

3. Tearfully request your own shovel and then use it for three and a half seconds before placing it directly in front of a parent who is trying to stamp down the snow the shovel is now on.

4. Loudly point out that in weather like this it sure is nice to have hot chocolate.

5. Ask if Daddy is going to learn how to skate now.

6. Ask Mommy repeatedly if she will go under the climber to retrieve the soccer ball that has taken refuge underneath it.

7. Throw yourself into the snowbanks Daddy has just built up and then allow yourself to slide gently backward onto the ice, saying, "Aaaaahhhhhhh."

8. Place your toboggan directly in the path of whatever shovel is nearest.

9. Lie down on the ice and gloomily say, "I'm tired of skating."

10. Ask when we're going to go to the tobogganing hill.