Five Day Weekend


 Five Day Weekend
By Allan Olson
Another weekend just flew by – and it was not just any weekend, it was one that lasted five days for the kids. It wasn’t spring break, summer vacation or Christmas break – when you add on the snow day it was sorta like conferences with an extra day.
The children’s “vacation” started on Thursday with a day of terrorizing the house, throwing fits because they couldn’t sit where they wanted in the van, or some other silly reason. In all it was not a great start to the first day of vacation. And it was Nikolai’s birthday. He maintained pretty decent behavior; for some reason he wanted his birthday party to go off without a hitch.
The fun started on Friday afternoon – at least for Nikolai and the two school friends he invited to his small birthday bash. They were both at our house by 3 p.m., and they got right to it, playing games and legos and Wii games, watching movies and I’m not sure what else. They played outside, way in the backyard, building up a fort that had been started earlier last summer or maybe even the first summer we lived here. I thought they would be louder, playing in the snow with the sleds, but I was wrong. We taught them how to play spoons, and they got to personalize their own pizza with their own toppings, and they got to eat a P-40 Flying Tiger birthday cake made by his aunt. In all, they appeared to have a lot of fun and were really well behaved. The last kid was returned back home on Saturday, just over 24 hours after the party officially started.
Everyone was tired on Sunday, and nobody wanted to do much. Once again I got lost in a good book – a historical fiction. That is not usually my reading genre, but this one was greatly enjoyed. I started the lengthy book on Friday during the party and finished it late Sunday. All the talk about the work they did in the book made me feel lazy, so I made Nikolai join me with a shovel to clear the rapidly accumulating snow off the decks. We worked for probably 30 minutes and finally got it all done. As a reward, he got to stay up 30 minutes later, since I dragged him outside when he was supposed to go to bed. And working with his dad is kind of a reward, too – right? Okay, he might not think so now, but someday he will. As for my reward – I ate some more birthday cake and some chocolate chip ice cream. I waited until he went to bed, since he had already had cake (sans the ice cream). I know – unfair.
On Monday morning the news came from the school that it would be a snow day. I went out and shoveled away the new snow that had accumulated since Nikolai and I were out last. The kids kept pestering me to let them outside, but since I didn’t know when the neighbor was coming to plow the yard I made them wait. About mid-morning, he showed up, and I got bundled up again to go out. The kids started getting dressed immediately, and they were ready to go out long before he finished moving the large amount of snow that accumulated. “Is he gone yet?” I was asked repeatedly.
“Does it look like it?” I would reply.
Alivia nailed me on that question once. “Yes,” she said. I looked at her and then back over to where the plowing was going on, and she had me. “No,” I said.
But soon enough, he was done, and the kids headed out to enjoy some quality time in the snow, sledding down the huge new piles of freshly plowed white stuff.
We considered making a quick run to Bemidji to restock supplies and to experience a brief respite (cabin fever?), but it was not to be. The neighbor had plowed a path on our road out to the intersection, but we couldn’t make it to the highway – the rest of the road was still covered by about 10 inches of fresh snow! We returned home after I tried getting the van stuck and going off the road; thankfully, another licensed driver in our family is much better at backing up straighter than I am, and got us back on the right path. The snowplow finally went past our place at around 4 p.m. on Monday, so the kids will be going to school on Tuesday – thank goodness!
This weekend promises more fun. My brother and family are coming to visit, and it will also be another long one, with the kids getting Monday off for Presidents Day.
Thanks for reading, and remember to watch out for school buses on the roads; they are carrying a precious cargo – our children. Also please exercise caution when venturing out on the lakes. Thanks for reading, and have a great and safe weekend. For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com

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