Weekends have become more chaotic for us of late. The lils are in hockey, so we spend many hours at the rink between Thursday and Sunday. Saturday is generally the busiest day, as the lils are on the ice in consecutive (and EARLY) timeslots. It means that we go as a family, and I hang out with whoever is not on the ice, and Willy hangs out with the lil on the ice, as he is also helping to coach both groups.

While having both of us at the rink means that no one ever sleeps in, it does mean that we can work together to get the lils on and off the ice with all of the gear that they came with. The dressing rooms are packed with tiny hockey players whose gear, at times, literally flies off. It helps to have that extra person to verify that everything that arrived at the rink leaves the rink.

Willy took Woo to hockey solo on Sunday morning, as Goose and I were at home putting the finishing touches on her birthday party. Timing was tight, as Woo was on the ice until just before the party was to start, but he and Willy made it home in record time, largely because they elected to have Woo come home in his gear. He walked in the door and the gear explosion happened here, so it was easy to see that everything made it home. After the hockey bag was stowed, I tidied up his coat and boots, never noticing that the boots that came home were not his at all.

I must have looked at the boot mat forty times over the course of the day as I welcomed Goose’s friends, tidied as their tornados blew through, then as I helped them get dressed to leave. Never once did I notice that the boot were very similar, but not Woo’s. These were older, more worn and had a slightly different pattern on them. Neither of us noticed until Willy got a message from the other boy’s mom, letting us know that she had Woo’s boots, so we made the second switch later that night.

When Woo woke up the next morning, he was very amused to hear of all the switching that had happened. He too, was unaware that the boots were not his. Apparently we are not the most observant family in the world, despite the fact that the boots have very visible labels from our friend Mabel inside each foot. They were what his teammate’s mom used to identify the boots as ours. Thank goodness for our friend Mabel, these boots are just the latest items that have made their way home to us this fall, all because they were marked with Mabel’s label. Here’s hoping the hat that Goose lost tonight is the next on that list!