Birthday Celebration


Birthday Celebration
By Allan Olson
We celebrated our family’s first birthday of 2015 on Saturday, February 7, when our oldest son, Nikolai, turned a whole 12 years old. The evening prior, my cousin and his family decided to make a short notice appearance. After a round of Yahtzee and a few rounds of beverages, I called it a night – apparently several hours before the rest of the adults – but that’s not really unusual for me.
The next morning I fried up bacon and sausage, my wife made eggs of choice for the guests, and we visited for a couple hours more before they left to continue their weekend plans and I headed off to work.
That evening my wife made pizza for guests who showed up for the birthday party – several less than originally expected, due to other plans. After everyone was fed, my wife and her mom took the birthday boy, one cousin and a friend to a movie while I stayed home with the other three kids. Personally, I think I got the better end of the deal, since I didn’t have to go out to see a movie I had no interest in watching.
Back at the ranch, I taught the kids how to play 10,000 dice (a.k.a. Farkle), a game I grew up playing with my grandma and others. Abigail had the hot hands on this night; the dice were rolling in her favor and she defeated us soundly. After that, we picked a movie to rent. The kids fell asleep during the show, and I’m pretty sure I dozed off as well before it ended.
I really wanted to go ice fishing on Sunday afternoon, and I thought (foolishly) that it would be a good idea to take the kids along, thinking they could either fish or play around on the ice. My wife wisely decided to stay home, and the kids and I headed off to where the Cass Lake ice fishing tournament had been held the day before. I busted open some of Saturday’s holes with a shovel and then headed in to get some bait.
We found a spot on the ice that I had marked with the GPS, and I got the kids set up for fishing. I had just started on the last rod when Alivia decided that there was something wrong with hers. Even though I asked her to leave it alone until I could fix it, she didn’t, and got it messed it up even worse, so I had to set up a different rod for her to fish with. Also during the initial “setting up” process, Abigail pulled one of her usual stunts and backed into a hole. “I didn’t see it!” she said. “Of course, she didn’t,” I thought to myself, “she walked backwards into it. She doesn’t have eyes in the back of her head!” Thankfully, her foot didn’t get very far into the hole and never even got wet. With that in mind, I’m pretty certain that when the day comes that I do decide to go spearing, I will most definitely not be bringing her along!
We had been fishing for all of about 10 minutes when Marcus decided that he had to use the bathroom, and not the type convenient for little boys out on the ice. I informed him he would have to wait. About 10 minutes later, he was complaining about having “the urge” again. By this time, all of the kids had quit fishing. We would have to pack everything up, just for a bathroom break. Frustrated, I gave up. We packed it all in and headed for home – after making a bathroom stop for Marcus, of course.
I really wanted to try and land a couple fish with the kids, but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. The idea of taking the kids ice fishing by myself turned out to be not such a good one; it was not enjoyable.
That evening the kids and I played another game of dice, and this time I emerged victorious after Nikolai had held the lead for most of the game.
With the kids getting a few days off of school, I’m sure we will be working to keep them entertained this weekend. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and they can spend some time in the great outdoors.
Thanks to everyone for reading, and as always, please be safe while enjoying your favorite outdoor recreational activity and on the lakes, and remember to take pictures to preserve a lifetime of memories. Remember to drive safely, and watch out for those buses carrying our children. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com. You can also follow us on twitter @cltimes or look us up on Facebook.


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