Tuesday, January 05, 2010

How to take the kids out to play



When I woke up this morning there looked to be a decent layer of powder on the ground, so I thought it might be fun to take the kids outside to play in the snow. Of course this was a multi-step operation:
Step 1: Called my Mom and arranged to go to the mall together to pick up some snowpants for William.
Step 2: Negotiated with William re: getting dressed. He was keen on going to the store, but did not want snowpants. I talked about all the fun stuff you can do with snowpants on: making snow angels, sledding, etc.
Step 3: With Mom's help, dressed children in pants, shirts, socks, boots and jackets and put them in the car.
Step 4: At the mall, bought the first pair of snowpants we saw. They were half-off. Score!
Step 5: Had lunch in the food court, thereby negating all snowpants savings.
Step 6: Took William to the bathroom in the food court, complete with child-sized toilet, twice.
Step 7: Kids fell asleep in the car on the way home. Carried them to their beds.
Step 8: Waited for the kids to wake up.
Step 9: Negotiated with William re: getting his snowgear on. When I told him I didn't know where the toboggan was to go "sledding" he freaked and refused to get dressed.
Step 10: Looked for toboggan in crawlspace. No luck. Called Adam to inquire as to whereabouts of toboggan. No idea.
Step 11: Compromised with William. "We'll get our stuff on, and if the toboggan is in the shed we'll go sledding. If not, we'll just play outside." He seemed to go for it.
Step 12: Looked for Jadzia's mitten in the closet.
Step 13: Looked for Jadzia's mitten in the car. Found William's hat and mitts.
Step 14: Looked in the closet again. Did not find Jadzia's mitten, but found a pair of William's old mittens which were tied together with string. Opted to use those instead.
Step 15: Retrieved children's jackets from their respective bedrooms.
Step 16: Dressed both children in snowpants, boots, mitts, hats, jackets. During this process, Jadzia took her mitts off three times.
Step 17: Found Jadzia's mitten lying in plain view in a place I had looked twenty times.
Step 18: Went into the backyard with the kids.
Step 19: Put Jadzia down in the snow so I could look in the shed. She happily crawled around until her mittens got snowy and came off.
Step 20: Retrieved the toboggan from the back of the shed. This involved climbing over two bicycles, a collection of pool noodles, and various large unidentified shed junk.
Step 21: Used the toboggan to slide down the slight incline of our backyard. One adult and two kids sledding down a 5 degree hill. Wee!!
Step 22: Made snow angels.
Step 23: After about ten minutes, went inside.
Only twenty-three steps? It felt like more. In any case it was all worth it. No, really. I love winter. I can't wait to go tobogganing down a slightly steeper hill. Maybe I should buy myself some snowpants too.

4 comments:

Columbia Thorndale said...

I'm exhausted after reading that list

Super Happy Jen said...

You were exhausted before reading this.

Kate said...

oh kids and winter is such joy. I remember when I worked in the infant room and we had 10 babies to get ready for the snow, as if that was hard enough I often had to get 15 toddlers ready in the same day. But it is worth it, and you are teaching them so much to become happy healthy people, so way to go!

I suggest some Jen Snow-pants, William might be more into his if everyone has a pair.It worked with in the kindergarten class every time.

Just think next time it will be much easier to go outside and play, cause you did all the hard stuff this time.

If your sled has a rope, the wee kids always enjoyed just being pulled around without a hill. Bonus its awesome exercise for you!

Hey Jen, on a side note can you explain to me why awesome has an "e" and awful has no "e" I am always struggling with those words and mixing them up.

Super Happy Jen said...

That's a good one. I don't know. A word with no Es is just awful.

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