The kids endured several major wipe-outs yesterday on the first sunny day of spring.

Like everyone in the neighbourhood, we saw the sun, we heard the forecast, we grabbed our helmets, threw our snow-pants in the shredder (we’ll need them again by Tuesday) and oiled bike chains, blew air into tires, matched bubble wands with soap jugs, squished sidewalk chalk crumbs into somewhat usable sketch sticks, had a snack followed by a nap and then hit the driveway.

And hit it we did. Each of the kids fell (hard) on the driveway as though they had forgotten how spring worked.

Ellie assumed the only way to dismount from a bike was to dramatically dive into prickly bushes.

Hanna found every obvious mud patty and most of the hidden ones and managed to fully soil her clothes while carving several holes in some new-ish pants.

Hanna and I did play a friendly game of tennis and I have to say I am now equally matched with my nine year old. I had no idea she was a prodigy but that makes way more sense than me sucking.

The worst injury happened to Chloe. In an effort to protect her head while approaching a neighbour’s puppy, I attempted to place her helmet on gently and ended up fumbling/dropping/slam-dunking it on her head which prompted an echoing, smacking sound a split second before instant tears.

The very tool meant to protect her (the helmet, not me) was the thing that hurt her the most.

Oh spring, your irony isn’t lost on me.