Ball-ie Paint

When I was about 10 years old I remember being told by my horse riding teacher that she was expected to Jump Judge that weekend and that she would love some company, if I would like to go along with her. I was both very excited and somewhat confused by this, first of all I felt very important to have been asked and, as it was a horsey activity, I didn't need to be asked twice, and secondly Judge, who was one of our horses was no jumper, so I had NO idea why we might be jumping him. As it turned out we were to sit near a jump on a cross country course and ensure that everything was as it should be during the event, hence jump judge. Anyway I feel that Shannon had a similar experience this weekend as Sean, his brother Dean and some friends had all decided to go Paintballing. Well, Shannon knows what paint is, and she knows what a ball is, but during one of her imaginary phone calls to her imaginary friend (this IS normal, she is 3) she said: "I am going to ball-ie paint today!" Not sure she had ANY idea what she was headed for!

Nonetheless, off we went to Crestholme Paint Ball where Shannon and I stood in the vague drizzle laughing at grown men and their children shooting paint pellets at each other and yelping in pain every time they got hit! It was great comedy - the men were gunning for eachother (no pun intended) and most of the girls just hid behind the shelters too afraid to move. Brad aimed a direct hit at Sean's head which has resulted in a wonderful egg, though at the time all you could see was pink paint. Everyone is covered in bruises and welts and I am not sure I see the fun in that! What I did see was some men, who prior to this had been fairly stressed by life in general, run around playing at war, and all came away full of humour and completely relaxed by the end of their session! So to all the wives and girlfriends out there - if your man is a little stressed send him out for paintball and he will come back laughing like a little boy at Christmas! Shannon said to Sean when all the fun was over: "Have you finished shooting all your friends Daddy?" I think we will have to teach her to add "with paint" into that sentence!

The perfect end to a perfect afternoon for Shannon was that she got to sit on a beautiful, tiny little pony - Shannon is OBSESSED with riding (no questions where she gets that from) and had been begging me all afternoon to be able to ride the pony. When we got home she said she would like to watch a movie and then promptly fell fast asleep. Hmmmm, I am sure Sean and I will be signing our lives away next year when we sign her up for proper riding lessons!