We Survived MEA

We Survived MEA
By Allan Olson
It was nice to have a long weekend without having to wake the kids up early, get them fed and dressed and off to the bus or school before a certain time. There was no morning drama – or at least very little of it that we had to deal with, as there were no time constraints on the morning.
Of course, all that extra time together meant that there was also time for more fights, more time to irritate the parents because of the fighting or fits thrown because somebody wasn’t helping to clean, or someone else was being mean – and that was just the first two days off from school.
To celebrate the extra family time, we got out the Wii bowling game again, and all the kids took on each other. It didn’t take long to determine who was going to be in close contention. Each of them have their own method of throwing the ball, and each of them managed at least one strike. The game was decided in the tenth frame with big brother Nikolai forging ahead of his youngest sister Alivia, defeating her by just two pins, with both of them scoring over 150 points. Marcus came in a distant third, scoring in the low 100s. Abigail finished the full game and didn’t care that she was getting soundly defeated – a true sportsman.
Then came the actual weekend. Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday morning were spent playing with more cousins who came to visit our dwelling for the first time.
The two extra kids and their dad (my younger brother) arrived early Friday evening, and from then on it was chaos as we tried to let them expend their energy while at the same time not turn the recently-cleaned bedrooms into a state of total civil unrest.
Some of the time was spent playing outside, where the kids ventured up and down the road, the driveway and the yard. I didn’t pay too much attention to what they were doing, since there were no fits of rage. The two extra kids, ages nearly 7 and 10, fit right in with my brood of hooligans.On Saturday morning, the kids started right up where they left off, and were soon running around the house and yard in full force. Thankfully, we now have the room that they can do that. Later that afternoon, my brother brought out his rifle – time to get sighted in. I was going to sight my rifle in, too, but he grabbed the wrong box of ammunition from my parents’ place, giving me the ultimate excuse if I miss a big deer this season: I can just say my rifle wasn’t sighted in, and it was all his fault.
Next up was the shotgun, where we tested our marksmanship on clay pigeons. His skills were markedly better at this than mine.
Lastly, I broke out the .22 again, and we allowed each of the kids a turn at their own individual targets.
That evening found the adults and two oldest children playing an old game of Clue for the second night running. We discovered that I was, apparently, clueless.
It was coming down to the wire, and I thought I had it nearly figured out, when my wife solved the puzzle. Or at least thought she did. Nobody could prove her wrong. No player in the game had the accused, the weapon, or the room. Case closed. The race was on. I was closest to the solving point, and when I looked in the packet, two of the three were correct. Confusion! Which one of us messed up? I looked at the kids’ cards. My brother looked at his cards, and I looked again at the kids’. Then I looked at my own hand again, and threw it down with amusement at myself. I was the culprit! I had never been to that room, because I had the card in my hand the whole time!
Another highlight of the weekend was when my brother got soundly defeated by his youngest niece in dueling. “It doesn’t make any sense,” he said, amazed by how she beat him. I have no such illusions about their uncanny ability to take down a foe.
Overall, the weekend was great, and hopefully there will be many more fun days like this with family and friends.
Thanks for reading, and remember to watch out for those school buses. As always, feel free to drop us a line and/or a photo, and have a great week. For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Hunting Season to Remember

Image
A Hunting Season to Remember By Allan Olson The orange clad army headed into the woods this past weekend in search of the mighty white tail to attempt to fill the freezer with some tasty venison and I was no exception to this party. I too was clad in orange and out on the mighty hunt. Every year there are new stories to tell, old ones to bring up and memories made, some deer seasons for me, after over 20 years of hunting have faded into the background, one year blurring with another, not remembering which year I shot what deer or if I shot a deer. Of course there are a few years  stand out more than others and some are just a blur altogether. However, I find it hard to believe that anything will top this year’s remarkable deer season. This year, I had the honor of bringing Nikolai with me. Not just to sit in the stand, but to actually hunt, he was going to have the ability of harvesting a deer also. Recently he completed his gun safety certification and he wa...
Read more
Image
Thank you for being our friend Frey Olson May 19, 2018 - April 26, 2024 By Allan Olson 4.26.24 Thank you for being our friend, thank you for making us your forever home, if we could’ve saved you, we would’ve. Losing our four legged friends is never easy, in our house they aren’t “just a pet” they are our family. Frey, our nearly six year old English Mastiff came into our lives in August of 2018 and crossed over the rainbow bridge to be with others before him on April 26, 2024. Frey was our gentle giant, he was our protector, our laughter and most importantly I think it’s more than safe to say, he was Alivia’s best friend. Have you ever seen a teenager and a Mastiff sharing a twin size bed - or perhaps more aptly put the teenager getting what’s left of the bed when he’s in it. Or perhaps a giant of a dog, staring at her from the doorway of the bedroom saying, “it’s bedtime,” while she’s playing a game or watching something.  He was taught to react to “who’s here” or the alert of the...
Read more

Thankful for Family

Thankful For Family By Allan Olson published 11-24-10 Cass Lake Times Eat until I can’t eat anymore is the plan for me this Thursday. This is likely the case for many others as well. The food that will be prepared is just one of many things to be thankful for this week. I can honestly say I’m thankful for a lot of things in my life. I’m especially thankful for my beautiful little family. Do I always feel overwhelmed with joy while dealing with the everyday tasks of working and raising four children? I would be lying if I said yes. My children are great kids. They are great at making me smile with their questions and antics. However, they are also great at driving me up a wall. Asking them to help clean a room sometimes and it’s like you put them in a torture chamber by daring to ask for a little help cleaning up the mess they made. Other times they are willing, eager partners ready to help with whatever task you need them to. Of course, there are also those times when ...
Read more