End of May update

Man, this month has been overwhelmingly busy! The kids have 3 more days of school and have had all kinds of end of the year projects and field trips and activities. Both kids were really upset that they were going to miss Field Day at school for our Chicago trip last week. It was rescheduled due to rain so they had it yesterday. Kaylin also had the Trashin' Fashion show where all the 4th graders make costumes out of trash and then have a fashion show for the school. Kaylin, of course, made a fairy costume.

The neighbors left Wednesday for 2 1/2 months in Poland. I sort of felt obligated to let the kids play with them, even staying up late on school nights. Today was my first weekend day without the neighbor kids and it was quite relaxing! We'll see how the rest of the summer goes. I will probably be thrilled to have them back :)

I'm no longer in the cast at all and my foot is much stronger and better. It's great, but it also means I have to make up all the weeding and other similar gardening I've skipped out on during the past 12 weeks at work. This weekend starts a summer full of keeper chats that are fun and good for the visitors, but they cut a good half hour out of my work time.

We finished our mini-vacation last weekend with a trip to Racine Zoo to visit the zebras I used to work with. A sign at the entrance stated the rhinos would be on exhibit until 2:30 and then the zebras would be on exhibit the rest of the day. We explored the zoo, ate in their restaurant, explored the zoo some more and finally 2:30 came. We watched the rhinos go into their barn and then waited for the zebras. And waited and waited... At 3pm, a keeper and an intern came out to do a public giraffe feeding. I waited another 15 minutes for the keeper to be free to talk. I found out that Brandy, the very old zebra, died a year ago. A bit surprising, but not a total shock due to her advanced age. TJ was still alive and kicking, but where was she? The giraffe keeper radioed the zebra keeper to let her know I was waiting to see "my" zebra. I then watched as the zebra keeper furiously prepped the yard for TJ. It was pretty obvious from all her stomping around and glaring that she had no intention of putting the zebra on display that day and that I was really cutting into her time. Yeah. Tough crap. I was told the "zebras" would be on display or I wouldn't have bothered driving up to Racine. TJ was looking good and it was great to see her. The zoo was really fun and I was glad to have visited.

The zoo's right on the lakefront, so we walked down to the beach before heading out of town. Logan refused to believe Lake Michigan was not an ocean. We had a good time looking for rocks. Logan found the perfect rocks to throw in the water and Kaylin found the perfect rocks to collect. Yesterday I grabbed Kaylin's jacket to wash and found about 15 pounds of rocks in her pockets. I didn't realize she smuggled THAT many home.

By the time I got home from picking up Sadie it was 9:30pm and I had to work Sunday. I have no regrets about our very fun weekend, but it wiped me out to have no down time and a very busy week at work. I was too tired and overstimulated to sleep well all week so spent this weekend relaxing and taking the kids to a Signs of Spring walk at Forest Park Nature Center. Now we're going to play a family baseball game in the front yard and then I'm going to bed to read. Gene and the kids are off the next two days. The last day of school is Thursday. I took Thursday off so will have a three day weekend. Yippee!!