canada day

Today is Canada Day. No big deal really. Other than the fact that I have tremendous guilt about not planning anything super fun with my kids to celebrate this great country we live in.

As a child my dad would take us every canada day to the fireworks. We thought it was awesome! We would stay up late and stop at the treat store and walk up the big hill and park our butts on the side of a grassy, pokey hill and wait. It seemed like forever, we'd wait and wait and wait. Then they'd do the little 'warm up' thing they do, which always falsely got our hopes up.

After I started having kids my dad still carried on with the event. I would go and the man as well. It was fun. Then we moved to Edmonton. I thought I'd carry on the tradition.

So one year, probably 2001, I put the kids to bed and went to bed myself. I set the alarm for 11 (yes, it is weird that I did that, I see it now) and got up, got the kids up. The man decided he was too far gone into sleepland so he bailed. Shocking......

It was still light out. We drove a bit, walked a bit. Threw out a blanket and sat. I had sippy cups and snacks for my two kids who were 4 and 2. And then we waited. And waited.......

I'm sure the fireworks were awesome, I don't remember at all. I just remember the hard parts. Like waking up after being asleep for an hour and a half and waking the kids up and leaving at 11:30 at night. Making them walk so late and so far. What was I thinking? But what I remember the most was how SICK I was the next day!

Holy crap! Was I SICK! I thought I had West Nile. I had received the warning brochure in the mail a few days before and read it so it was on my mind. I was vigilant about protecting the kids but at those fireworks I got eaten alive and then I got so sick. I was a rash away from West Nile. I'm usually pretty tough but when I get sick, which is so rare I get SO sick and then I think I'm dying. It is melodrama equalled only to that in the Twilight movies.

I haven't been to the fireworks since.........

And, I have no desire to ever do it again really. Maybe when the kids are older or something and it is less traumatic to get them there.

The older I get the less I want to take four or five or six kids to big crowded events. The driving, the parking, the not losing of the children thing. These small worries kill my desire for fun. That and the fact that the man is ALWAYS working which means I do it alone. My poor kids, they don't know what they are missing.

So today I took Cicely to Beehive camp. Paul is here visiting with Chandler. The man is at work. Shocking. And so I only have three kids. I looked online to see what was going on and found some really great things to do with kids. But the driving, the parking, the walking, the not losing the children thing is cramping my get-up-and-go.

I want something safe, low key and not chilly or windy to do. I think we'll go to a movie.........

My poor kids.