Sunday 20 July 2014

When Anxiety Rears Its Ugly Head....Celebrate National Ice Cream Day!

Oh Anxiety, what would we do without you?

Well, today, we wouldn't have had delicious sundaes from McDonald's!

First let me take you back to last year.  A local church was having an Egyptian Festival, which piqued the interest of Kiki and Boy 1. Both are interested in history and the Boy just loves Egypt in particular (though Greece is his absolute favourite).  Unfortunately, last year Miss Hollywood was ill and we were unable to go.  So, this year, when the flyer for the Festival arrived in the mail box, we were giddy at the prospect of finally going.

Things didn't go quite as expected.....

First of all, as I stated yesterday, my two eldest girls were off to their grandparents for Friday night and most of Saturday. This left today, Sunday, as our day to enjoy the Festival.  Uh-huh.  Well, that was the plan. After getting four of my children out the door a couple minutes later than we had hoped, we arrived at St.Mary's Church, the location of the Festival.  Pulling into the parking lot, I first noticed a group of people, in the little yard.  People that obviously knew each other.  Hmmm, I thought.  Then I glanced up at the back of the church, where the entrance was located.  There were more people gathered....they all knew each other too.  They all looked as though they regularly attend St. Mary's.  They all looked Egyptian and that they were just attending their normal Sunday at church, which happened to be celebrating their culture this weekend. Now for a shy person like me, this was NOT cool.  Perhaps, if I had brought a group of people, it would have been fine.  I was interested in seeing all of the neat stuff that was advertised in the flyer, but felt very much like an outsider attending a church function.

I took a deep breath was getting ready to park the car, when Kiki had the biggest panic attack.  I mean, she slunk down in her seat and tried to hide, while constantly saying, "I can't do this, I can't do this..." And so I awkwardly, did a 3 point turn with curious eyes watching me, from both the back seat of my van and from the parishioners outside the car.

Instantly, I went into quickly-let's-come-up-with-a-new-plan mode. I immediately thought about the free McDonald's ice cream cone coupons that I had at home.  Then, I thought, screw it - let's go for ice cream sundaes instead! Now, Miss Hollywood never wanted to come to the festival, Boy 1 did not seem to mind after all, once he saw that the church had nothing Egyptian looking on the outside. Only Boy 2 was a bit ticked off.....until he heard about the ice cream.

I then took the children to beautiful Andrew Haydon Park.  It is gorgeous and peaceful there (future blog post to come shortly about the beauty of the park). The children didn't appreciate the view as much as I did. Boy 1 at one point exclaimed, "I feel like we're barbarians, out in the wild!".  (Someone has had a wee bit too much computer time over the past few days!!) Within five minutes, the same child was yelling, "This is the best place in the world!!!", as he discovered the wonderful play structures on the grounds.

Eating Sundaes on a Sunday

What fun it was to watch my children run and giggle while playing tag and, later, Sandman.  Of course, they squabbled during the games as well, but regardless, fun was had by all.  Even my 18 year old was running and playing.  It left me feeling grateful for my precious babies.  It made me feel blessed to have this life. And extremely fortunate that we didn't go to the festival, but instead spontaneously made our own fun.


Boy 1 & Kiki exploring the play structure.

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