Belated Easter and kids' activities

This morning I dropped Neve off across the street from her school.  I watched from the van as she crossed the street with the help of the crossing guards and then kept walking towards the school stairs.  Suddenly she slipped on some ice, and instantly two of the patrol kids ran to her, helped her up, made sure she was okay, and even dusted the snow off her clothes.  This is so unlike me, but as I watched how kind they were to her, I got tears in my eyes.  I'm blaming my emotions on the Boston bombing (and every other violent crime that comes to mind again at a time like this); I couldn't help but despair about what is WRONG with people, and then seeing such instinctive kindness reminded me that the number of good, caring, decent people way outnumber the bad.  So that's what I'm going to focus on.

And then I will update my blog.

Since my parents got back from Florida on the Easter weekend, we planned our family Easter for last weekend instead, so Dan flew out from Vancouver to join us.  We packed his itinerary so full that he probably needed a holiday after his holiday.  On Sunday we spent the day at parents.  The whole family was there except for three people: Dan’s wife Jenn, who is in London taking care of her sick mother, and my niece Cheryl and great-niece Nixi, who was recovering from the flu.  It was too bad they couldn’t come, but 21 out of 24 isn’t bad.

My mom made her annual Easter baskets and also her special chocolate Oh Henry eggs, which is a tradition that must never end.  The kids hunted for chocolate, people went on the zip line, played games, and rode Jim’s mini-ATV.  It was a fun day.

On Monday, my parents and Dan came over for lunch before heading to the airport.  It was so good having him here, and nice that it will only be a few months until his next visit.

There were a few other things going on this weekend as well.  On Friday, The Chamber had a big 140^th birthday celebration.  We had a luncheon with 850 of our members, with Rick Mercer as the guest speaker.  He was a great speaker and the whole luncheon was a big success.

Chloe had her last cheer competition of the season on Saturday.  Her arm was pretty much all better after spring break, so she got in a couple of practices before the competition.  A bunch of friends and family came to watch, which Chloe was thrilled about.  The bad part was that one of the girls who was supposed to “base” (lift her up for the stunts) was grounded the night before, and her mom wouldn’t let her come.  I don’t like to question anyone’s parenting (haha, who am I kidding – I love questioning people’s parenting) but I hope this girl did something heinous and evil that was worthy of this punishment, because it affected the entire team.  The coaches had to alter the routine, girls had to switch positions, and Chloe could only mock the stunts on the ground instead of in the air.  The mother who grounded the girl took away her phone and computer and didn’t even let her call her coaches or teammates to let them know she couldn't come.  However, teenagers can be resourceful when they want to be, so she somehow (smoke signal? tin can telephone?) managed to sneak a message to one of her friends, so the coaches had a few hours to figure it out.  They did great under the circumstances, and Chloe still got to be at the top of the pyramid, so she still got her minute of glory.  

Since cheerleading is over for the season, there was a banquet at the Radisson that night which she got all got fancy for.  They also had a team wind-up a few days later, where Chloe received the "Team Choice Award."  Probably the best few days in Chloe's life so far.  Can only go down from here.

Showing off her sparkly eyeshadow

On Saturday afternoon, Spencer had a fencing tournament.  Scoring points in fencing is still a bit of a mystery to me, but according to the refs, he did really well and ended up getting silver (2nd). 

He was so pleased, as was I; not so much because he won a medal, but because it was a huge confidence booster for him.  He's been having a tough time with school the last few days; there are a couple of projects he's working on that he has a lot of self-inflicted anxiety about. One of the projects involves putting together a brochure for health class on the topic of ... stress.  The irony is not lost on him, but does nothing to relieve his stress.  This has been an ongoing issue this year that escalates whenever major assignments are due.  He has had (and continues to have) professional help, but Dale and I are struggling with helping him manage his anxiety on a day-to-day basis.  Lots of deep breaths and focusing on the fact that this will pass!

I will end with a picture I love taken at Easter at my parents'.