Quiet Saturday

We Rowes had a lovely Saturday - the third in our new house, but the first on which we didn't have a multitude of urgent duties to perform.  In fact, we were lazing around in our pajamas until past 11am, which turned out to be just a tad embarrassing as a neighbor on our road knocked on our door to greet us and invite Julia for a play-date tomorrow.  The only person who had real clothes on was Ethan, but that didn't stop us from inviting the neighbors in, nor did it stop Julia from bringing the neighbor boy (who she knows from school) down to her bedroom to check out her Harry Potter wall stickers.  Yeah, yeah, I know, we moved off of a busy road full of transients, renters, and single parents, and we're now in a true suburban neighborhood full of huge houses and families with kids, but it just goes to show you: you can take the Rowes out of an eclectic neighborhood, but you can't take the eclectic out of the Rowes.

At any rate, once we were actually clothed and the essential errands had been run, we had some time for family recreation.  The girls really wanted to try riding their bikes down to the elementary school, since we are finally in a low-traffic area.  I offered to take them, and Ethan planned to come along too, provided he had a minute to run inside and do a few things.

One of those things was apparently testing out how loud our piano sounds outside the house.

ETHAN: (pulling open a window as the girls and I stood at the end of our driveway, ready to bike/walk off to the school) Court?  Can you just tell me how loud this sounds?
ME: Okay.
ETHAN: (closing the window)
MADELEINE: (with the utmost confidence, before Ethan had even managed to walk over to the piano) It's pretty QUIET!

What would we do without her wisdom??

The girls weren't interested in waiting for Ethan to actually physically join us, so we decided to head off without him.  That turned out to be a HUGE mistake.  The kids have only ever ridden on sidewalks before, seeing as our old road was teeming with traffic, and the idea that they could actually ride in the road on our new, quieter street was a completely foreign concept to them.  Madeleine stubbornly insisted on sticking to the sidewalk, while Julia, in a blind panic, tried hopping on her bike on the road only to crash to the ground in terror the moment she even started pedalling.  At this point, Madeleine was stuck trying to get her bike over a big bump in the sidewalk, wailing "MaMAAAA!  MaMAAAA!", and Julia was screeching in horror about the fact that she doesn't KNOW how to ride on roads, and I was trying to quiet both kids by yelling "STOP!  Everybody just STOP and LISTEN TO ME!"

So, basically, we're making a really great impression on our new neighbors, all around.

Thankfully, Ethan hurried out of the house shortly afterwards, so that I could walk alongside Julia while she biked down the road, and he could hang back with Madeleine.

The kids had a ball at the playground, and were both beaming with pride over their first time EVER biking along the road to get from point A to point B.  Once the sun really started to hide behind the trees, however, Ethan thought we should head back home.

ETHAN: Okay, girls, let me tell you something.  If we head home soon, we'll have time to make popcorn and buy "How to Train Your Dragon 2" on the tv.
BOTH GIRLS: Yaaaaaaaay!  Let's go home NOW!

Madeleine's memory was definitely short-term, however; upon returning home, she lamented, "But Mama!  I don't WANT to go inside!  I want to go play out in the backyaaaaaard!"  I reminded her about the movie, which reset her memory and got her all excited, once again, to do family movie/popcorn time.

Until, that is, it was actually movie time.  As Ethan made the popcorn upstairs, I purchased the movie on our play-room tv.

MADELEINE: (totally oblivious) Mama?  What MOVIE are you buying?
ME: Honey.  "How to Train Your Dragon 2."  Remember??
MADELEINE: Oh!  Yeah!

I think Madeleine has pretty much proven her sheer and utter genius on all accounts today.

The girls loved the movie and the family time, with each girl taking turns cuddling up with each parent.  When I had Madeleine in my lap, I was especially taken by her complete investement in the emotion of every scene.  When things were precarious, Madeleine's face was creased with worry, and when the dragons did something silly, her face would burst into a radiant smile.  She made sure to address the dragons as old friends, having seen "How to Train Your Dragon 1" many times.

MADELEINE: (bursting into laughter) Oh, Toothless, you're so RIDICULOUS!

I think the whole Rowe family needed a low-key weekend day after the stress of our move.

Even though Julia just shouted up to me, from the play-room, wherein Madeleine was sobbing: "Mommy?  Madeleine says there's NOTHING to do in our new house and she wants to PAINT but she can't find a PAINT-BRUSH!"

I guess you can't please all of the people all of the time.  But for what it's worth, we spent many pleasant moments all together today, for which I am very grateful!