You Give Me (Cabin) Fever!

With Hurricane Ike making its way through our area late Friday night and Saturday morning, a weekend of fun activity was looking quite bleak for the Chopin brood. And when the power went out at 9:00 am and there was nothing to keep us occupied, we feared we'd be ailing from cabin fever. And at 9:20am, as if angels from heaven appeared chanting "Alleluia", the power came back on and the cool winds of heaven blew upon us (the A/C came back on). With the breath of cool air came inspiration. The cure for cabin fever...bowling, anyone? And so, Gus, Beedle, Gracie and Dad made their way to Lafayette Lanes for a late morning of bowling. When you have a birthday party at the bowling alley or attend one, they give each partygoer a pass to have a free game of bowling every month for a year. This also comes with 4 free tokens for each of them to go hog-wild in the arcade. We've been trying to take advantage of this as often as we can. In our opinion, there was never a more perfect morning. It was a ghost town in there; it was as if they were open only for us. It was only midway through the game that other patrons starting filing in. Of course, more often than not, most of kids' excitement comes from putting on the wacky shoes and picking out their loud-colored bowling balls. Beedle chose an olive-green ball which he affectionately called the Hutlet (Jaba the Hut's son in "The Clone Wars"). Gus and Gracie agreed to share a hot pink ball. Pink for power! They did quite well. Gus really enjoys bowling. Although the bumpers were out, Gus rolled quite a few shots that never touched them. In fact, one of such shots resulted in a strike. Of course everytime they knock down any pins, they run back to see what animation is created on the screen. Sometimes the pin will cut in half (a split) or a pirate ship will sail real fast in a straight line (a spare) or, my personal favorite, a trapeze artist swings and knocks over all the clown pins (a strike). Beedle's attention span was better than average today and he really seemed to enjoy himself. Gracie, Miss Independent, wanted to do it all by herself, but then quickly realized that Dad's help isn't always the worst thing in the world. When the game was over they made a beeline for the arcade. They accumulated a good bit of tickets (165 to be exact) which resulted in a luxurious prize--a miniscule pack of Skittles and a Fun Dip. They were extatic! Not wanting Daddy time to end, I decided to take them to one of my favorite eateries--BJ's Pizza. They enjoy BJ's, as does Daddy, and they always get to hear about all the times Daddy and his family ate there while growing up. They will surely be tired of these stories soon. As we waited for our pepperoni pizza and hamburger for Beedle, I decided to take advantage of our together time by being a little creative and at the same time trying to have a little fun. I grabbed a small stack of paper plates and began to draw different faces on the plates--happy, sad, angry, scared, etc. I had them take a plate, put it in front of their face, and the others had to guess which feeling was being portrayed. By the way, I majored in Interpersonal and Organization Communication, so this is really about the only time I get to use anything I learned from it--pretty pathetic, I know! As they were guessing the feelings, they had to acknowledge what particular facial expressions indicated their decision (ex: angry face had slanted eyebrows and was not smiling). This seemed to go over very well and I felt like I was for once contributing constructively to their social development. And so the pizza and burger came and they scarfed everything down, I am sure because of the serious mental energy exhausted in their communication exercises. With bellies full, we made a quick stop at the store and the gas station (before gas prices skyrocket) and headed back to see Mommy and James. I must say I cherish the Daddy time I get to spend with my kiddos. They are really good kids with wonderful hearts. Today was no different--they still don't cease to amaze me!