Evening ritual

Over the winter, our evening ritual consisted of driving home from work in the near dark, making dinner, then all of us flaking out in the playroom or living room a bit. Usually with the TV blaring. Then hustling the kid upstairs for a bath when they needed it (which turned out to be not very often, thanks to Mal's eczema) and putting them to bed.

Now that it's nice out, I hope this becomes our new ritual: picking the kids up a little earlier. Getting home when the sun is still gloriously high in the sky. Letting the kids run around the back yard while Chad BBQs and I fix the rest of dinner in the kitchen, watching them out the windows. Doing a quick clean-up and then heading out for a family bike ride. We circled the whole path last night, which took forever, since Liam had to stop to point out every duck and rabbit he saw, and I had to stop anytime we passed one of the old lilac thickets on the path to breathe in deeply: some of them are huge, easily 50 years old, 15 feet across and at least as high, and you can smell them coming long before you can see them. Once, Liam got off and walked his bike a bit because he said he was tired. But then he got back on and pedalled the rest of the way home. Mallory seems to really enjoy the view from the back of Chad's bike as well. There is an ice cream shop that is not too far of a ride away from our house... I hope Liam can work up the stamina soon. Having a destination in mind would make the trip even more fun.