Sep 30 2007
Family Fun
Last night the school hosted a family fun night for the middle school kids to get to know each other through game playing. Social events are so successful with a bunch of preteens who wander around aimlessly and don’t talk to each other. Everyone started out having ice cream in the cafeteria and then moved into the gymnasium to play games. Gabe went into the gym ahead of me while I was talking to some of the other parents in attendance. When I finally got into the gym, I found Gabe sitting forlornly by his game and he told me, “I don’t know why they named this family fun night.” Where are the Briens when you need them? I saw Josiah talking to a kid in his class and got my hopes up that he had asked him to play a game. But no, why would he do that? Josiah’s teacher set up a game with her son and I made Josiah go over to join them. I finally found a little girl to play a Spongebob version of Life with Abby, Gabe, and I, but the length of the game proved too long for her. Abby’s teacher pulled the large jump ropes out and Abby went over to twirl them, so kids could jump double dutch. She was doing great when her teacher was on the other end, but then a boy in Abby’s class insisted he could do it just as good and took the teachers spot. For the next 30 minutes, the kids attempts to jump in were futile because he couldn’t get the rhythm of the ropes. Some other kids were playing a form of keep away with the only ball in the room. There were three adults playing Dutch Blitz who needed a fourth, but I was stuck as the Spongebob banker and couldn’t join. By the time the kids gave up the Spongebob game, the Dutch Blitz cards had been put away. “I don’t know why they named this family fun night,” I thought. The only one enjoying himself was Zeke who had found the Uno Attack game and was busy pressing the button and shooting cards at himself. On the way home, I instructed my children that they had to be more willing to go and talk to kids and ask them what game they wanted to play. Abby replied, “That’s just not my personality.”
Feeling that we had not had enough family fun, I decided that today we would go on a family bike ride. I was not deterred even though I knew I had to put air in the tires, straighten the handlebars, put the foot peddles back on, and teach Gabe to ride without training wheels. I thought, “How hard could it be?” When Dale called for his weekly chat with the kids, Zeke was sobbing into the phone in between statements of “Mommy mad angry”. Hard for other people, no. For me, oh yah. I did manage to get the bikes road worthy with some help from my neighbor. The hammer isn’t actually helpful during bike repair, but it made me feel better to bang a bike with it. Gabe had his first bike riding lesson and survived the sticker bushes and wipe outs. Five years ago, I taught Josiah and Abby to ride a bike when Dale was going to Korea. Now, I’m teaching Gabe to ride with Dale deployed to Iraq. I’m hoping that when Zeke is old enough to learn, Dale will actually be here to enjoy all this Family Fun.
Sounds like good old Army mandatory fun. You know it’s a good function when you make a Lieutenant cry! Gabe wasn’t sounding too thrilled about bike riding when I talked to him on the phone. He may have survived, but I don’t think he had fun there either! All in all, a pretty tough day for Gabe!