I have become something of a celebrity at the kids' day camp. I mean among the youngest, most impressionable campers, not the cool and sophisticated Over 8s. I was signing the kids in earlier this week and a little boy approached and very seriously stated "You work for The District." Um, what? "You work for The District." Uh, yeah, I guess I do. I have to admit that I've never once thought of the park district as "The District." I think The District sounds much cooler and I will use it from here on out!
His younger sister then approached and said "You have giraffe pee on your shirt." I laughed a little and assured her that my shirt was clean. I then made a comment about how if she was still there when I picked up the kids I might have giraffe pee on my shirt. She looked totally confused and the counselor started laughing at me. I looked down and realized the logo on my uniform shirt is the letter P with a giraffe head in place of the hole inside the P. Giraffe P. Ohhhh. Whoops. I made a potty joke and the kid didn't even get it or mean it that way.
The best was today. The District Kid approached me again this morning. He walked up and said "You work at the zoo." I said yes. He stuck out his hand. I was a little confused, but I went ahead and shook it. He looked at his hand, looked me in the eye and said "I'll never wash this hand again." Wow. Dramatic and a little embarrassing, but since it's quite likely I'll never hear those words again, I'm going to go ahead and feel flattered.
THEN, as I was getting into my car, another kid yells "Hey Logan, tell my mom that your mom works at the zoo! Tell her what animals she works with! Lions, right?" So yeah, to a few 6 and 7 year olds, I'm cool. Sweet!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
The Popcorn Rules
In most situations, Kaylin is well-behaved. She has a tendency to get exuberantly happy and loud when excited, but usually follows rules. She's never been one of the disruptive kids at school. Kaylin's not a daredevil and is careful with knives and stoves and fire and watching for cars while she's playing. However, Kaylin's no little miss priss. She questions authority when she needs to and has always had her own way of doing things. My point is that she doesn't go out of her way to make trouble. That's why we were so surprised to learn of her persistent rule-breaking in one crucial area- microwave popcorn.
I had to work a fundraiser event for a few hours last night and got home around 9pm, tired and hungry. I had a bunch of little tasks to complete so opted for quick and easy microwave popcorn. Kaylin smelled the popcorn and by the time she asked for some, I had already eaten most of it and was tossing the rest to the dog. She made her own bag. It was while she was giving it a moment to cool that we learned about (dum dum dummmmmm) The Popcorn Rules.
There are six Popcorn Rules and she failed to follow five of them! Rule number one is Do Not Use Popcorn Button. Whoops. Rule two is to place bag "this side up." Hurray! She managed that one. Rule three is Set Cooking Time For 1 Minute 45 Seconds. Obviously, she used the popcorn button! Rule four is Don't Leave Microwave Unattended. Whoops. Rule five is Open Bag Carefully Away From Face. She ripped that thing right open and sniffed the steam! And finally rule six- Children Should Not Prepare or Handle. Hmmmmm.
I teased her that in the microwave popcorn making arena she is a persistent rule breaker and that surely one day the Popcorn Police will show up to take her to Popcorn Prison. Logan immediately corrected me- Popcorn Juvy.
Sigh. Yet another parenting failure...
I had to work a fundraiser event for a few hours last night and got home around 9pm, tired and hungry. I had a bunch of little tasks to complete so opted for quick and easy microwave popcorn. Kaylin smelled the popcorn and by the time she asked for some, I had already eaten most of it and was tossing the rest to the dog. She made her own bag. It was while she was giving it a moment to cool that we learned about (dum dum dummmmmm) The Popcorn Rules.
There are six Popcorn Rules and she failed to follow five of them! Rule number one is Do Not Use Popcorn Button. Whoops. Rule two is to place bag "this side up." Hurray! She managed that one. Rule three is Set Cooking Time For 1 Minute 45 Seconds. Obviously, she used the popcorn button! Rule four is Don't Leave Microwave Unattended. Whoops. Rule five is Open Bag Carefully Away From Face. She ripped that thing right open and sniffed the steam! And finally rule six- Children Should Not Prepare or Handle. Hmmmmm.
I teased her that in the microwave popcorn making arena she is a persistent rule breaker and that surely one day the Popcorn Police will show up to take her to Popcorn Prison. Logan immediately corrected me- Popcorn Juvy.
Sigh. Yet another parenting failure...
Friday, June 11, 2010
Summer Camp
I've been quite a blog slacker the past several weeks! This week was filled with transitioning from school to day camp. Logan was beyond thrilled to find that his favorite camp counselor from last year, Jimmy, is back! Logan loved Jimmy so much last year that Jimmy "almost" convinced Logan to be a Cubs fan rather than a White Sox fan. Gene might have had to get violent! Or sent Logan to live with Ben :)
Kaylin spent most of the school year whining for me to quit my job solely so she could sleep in later on school mornings. Suddenly she's up and happily dressed, sunblocked, hair brushed, shoes on, teeth brushed, bag packed and in the car five minutes or more before our required leaving time of 7:25am. The exact time she dragged herself to the car for school carrying her breakfast and hair brush. The girl loves camp! This is her 5th year and it isn't getting old. The first week is always the least exciting, but they still went to two movies and one water park. Next week they're scheduled to go to the Riverplex and Splashdown to swim and the Riverfront fountain to play.
Logan started coach pitch baseball this week. His coach takes his job SERIOUSLY. They practiced twice this week and had warm-up exercises with jumping jacks, push-ups and base running. They practiced hitting and batting. I'm thrilled because it seems like this guy will actually teach them to play the game. Tee ball was adorable and hilarious, but I think Logan's ready to learn the rules of baseball. The coach told the boys at Thursday's practice that Saturday would be their first game. He was mistaken and it's actually a practice. Coach left like a 5 minute message on our answering machine, apologizing for his mistake and making sure the boys all know it's only a practice so they're not too disappointed.
Work's been a crazy blur, keeping up with regular work and neverending weeds. The piglets are two months old now and are getting huge. They are going into the yard with the other hogs and it's incredibly cute. Everyone should come and see them! I have two more weeks of work before our summer vacation to Ohio. We're going back to The Wilds where I did rhino training in February so I can see the place up and running and without 3 feet of snow on the ground. I'm really excited! We're also planning to do a bunch of stuff in the Cincinatti area and will hopefully stay at the Great Wolf Lodge on or around Kaylin's birthday. She wants to spend an entire day at MagiQuest. (Yawn, lol.) Of course, I want to go to The Wilds, Cincinatti Zoo, Newport Aquarium and Indy Zoo. Hee hee, is that sooo much to ask? At least if I go to Indy Zoo (to visit a friend who works with their new cheetahs) Gene and the kids will likely go to the Children's Museum instead.
Kaylin spent most of the school year whining for me to quit my job solely so she could sleep in later on school mornings. Suddenly she's up and happily dressed, sunblocked, hair brushed, shoes on, teeth brushed, bag packed and in the car five minutes or more before our required leaving time of 7:25am. The exact time she dragged herself to the car for school carrying her breakfast and hair brush. The girl loves camp! This is her 5th year and it isn't getting old. The first week is always the least exciting, but they still went to two movies and one water park. Next week they're scheduled to go to the Riverplex and Splashdown to swim and the Riverfront fountain to play.
Logan started coach pitch baseball this week. His coach takes his job SERIOUSLY. They practiced twice this week and had warm-up exercises with jumping jacks, push-ups and base running. They practiced hitting and batting. I'm thrilled because it seems like this guy will actually teach them to play the game. Tee ball was adorable and hilarious, but I think Logan's ready to learn the rules of baseball. The coach told the boys at Thursday's practice that Saturday would be their first game. He was mistaken and it's actually a practice. Coach left like a 5 minute message on our answering machine, apologizing for his mistake and making sure the boys all know it's only a practice so they're not too disappointed.
Work's been a crazy blur, keeping up with regular work and neverending weeds. The piglets are two months old now and are getting huge. They are going into the yard with the other hogs and it's incredibly cute. Everyone should come and see them! I have two more weeks of work before our summer vacation to Ohio. We're going back to The Wilds where I did rhino training in February so I can see the place up and running and without 3 feet of snow on the ground. I'm really excited! We're also planning to do a bunch of stuff in the Cincinatti area and will hopefully stay at the Great Wolf Lodge on or around Kaylin's birthday. She wants to spend an entire day at MagiQuest. (Yawn, lol.) Of course, I want to go to The Wilds, Cincinatti Zoo, Newport Aquarium and Indy Zoo. Hee hee, is that sooo much to ask? At least if I go to Indy Zoo (to visit a friend who works with their new cheetahs) Gene and the kids will likely go to the Children's Museum instead.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Summer!
Ack! It's summer! I am officially the parent of a middle schooler. Yikes!
The kids went to school from 10-11 yesterday. One stupid hour. I suppose the weird late start time was so the middle/high school could go for their hour and still run all of the buses. My neighbor who teaches middle school was already home to drop off her daughter at 10am. Both kids were glad to go because they pretty much spent an hour eating candy and cupcakes. Their desks and classrooms were already cleaned out so it was an hour of fun.
Pawpaw picked them up at 11, took them to lunch and then fishing and (unexpectedly) swimming at his lake. Sadie and I joined them at the lake around 2:30. Sadie LOVES to swim. I'm not sure that she's ever had to jump from the side or a dock to get into the water before because she was really nervous and excited, barking her goofy head off before I'd finally throw her off the dock or else she'd awkwardly jump/fall from the bank and swim and swim. Sadie had a love/hate relationship with Logan's orange life jacket and kept grabbing the "pillow" part of it and trying to drag him to shore. She managed to pull him under for a second, scared him and that was the end of the novelty of swimming with the dog. Dad found him a different life jacket that Sadie wasn't interested in retrieving and the fun (mostly) resumed. Sadie finally jumped off the dock once and learned to gracefully jump from the side. It was suddenly 4:30 and I realized we needed to boogie home because the kids needed to be showered and changed and fed before Logan's baseball meeting that was all the way across town at 6.
Logan is starting coach pitch baseball this year. I'm not completely sure what this entails, but I'm pretty sure they will be learning the actual rules of the game and the various fielding positions rather than the chaos of throwing 20 kids into the field and everyone mobbing every ball that was tee ball. (Sigh. I will miss tee ball!) He will practice TWICE weekly with a game on Saturday. Ugh. His practices start at 5:30 and I'm lucky to have left work by 5:30 during the summer. That means two days of packing both lunch and dinner for the kids. Oh, and remembering the baseball gear in the morning. Fortunately, Gene will meet us at the field so I will be able to skip some of the practices if I'm really disgusting from work.
Camp Zone starts Monday so today I will drag the kids to Walmart and stock up on lunch items and swim gear and sunblock. I also need to try to find breakfast foods they will actually eat. They will be outside running around all day long. Kaylin will need to eat a little more than picking at 1/2 cup of cold cereal. We will leave for camp at the same time we left for school (7:25am) so I have to find something easy and potentially portable for Kaylin who likes to roll out of bed at 7:05. I love three months without homework or school obligations. I hate packing lunches. I'm usually in charge of both dropping off and picking up the kids from school because it's on my way, but Gene can do either if needed. Camp is right in front of the zoo so it's ALWAYS my responsibility. Hmmmm. Summer is crammed with activities. When swimming lessons start in July and baseball hasn't yet ended, we'll have a couple of weeks of Monday-Thursday practices/lessons right after work. Yep, I still prefer summer to school. At least when we're home there are NO homework obligations! All the extras are just fun.
The kids went to school from 10-11 yesterday. One stupid hour. I suppose the weird late start time was so the middle/high school could go for their hour and still run all of the buses. My neighbor who teaches middle school was already home to drop off her daughter at 10am. Both kids were glad to go because they pretty much spent an hour eating candy and cupcakes. Their desks and classrooms were already cleaned out so it was an hour of fun.
Pawpaw picked them up at 11, took them to lunch and then fishing and (unexpectedly) swimming at his lake. Sadie and I joined them at the lake around 2:30. Sadie LOVES to swim. I'm not sure that she's ever had to jump from the side or a dock to get into the water before because she was really nervous and excited, barking her goofy head off before I'd finally throw her off the dock or else she'd awkwardly jump/fall from the bank and swim and swim. Sadie had a love/hate relationship with Logan's orange life jacket and kept grabbing the "pillow" part of it and trying to drag him to shore. She managed to pull him under for a second, scared him and that was the end of the novelty of swimming with the dog. Dad found him a different life jacket that Sadie wasn't interested in retrieving and the fun (mostly) resumed. Sadie finally jumped off the dock once and learned to gracefully jump from the side. It was suddenly 4:30 and I realized we needed to boogie home because the kids needed to be showered and changed and fed before Logan's baseball meeting that was all the way across town at 6.
Logan is starting coach pitch baseball this year. I'm not completely sure what this entails, but I'm pretty sure they will be learning the actual rules of the game and the various fielding positions rather than the chaos of throwing 20 kids into the field and everyone mobbing every ball that was tee ball. (Sigh. I will miss tee ball!) He will practice TWICE weekly with a game on Saturday. Ugh. His practices start at 5:30 and I'm lucky to have left work by 5:30 during the summer. That means two days of packing both lunch and dinner for the kids. Oh, and remembering the baseball gear in the morning. Fortunately, Gene will meet us at the field so I will be able to skip some of the practices if I'm really disgusting from work.
Camp Zone starts Monday so today I will drag the kids to Walmart and stock up on lunch items and swim gear and sunblock. I also need to try to find breakfast foods they will actually eat. They will be outside running around all day long. Kaylin will need to eat a little more than picking at 1/2 cup of cold cereal. We will leave for camp at the same time we left for school (7:25am) so I have to find something easy and potentially portable for Kaylin who likes to roll out of bed at 7:05. I love three months without homework or school obligations. I hate packing lunches. I'm usually in charge of both dropping off and picking up the kids from school because it's on my way, but Gene can do either if needed. Camp is right in front of the zoo so it's ALWAYS my responsibility. Hmmmm. Summer is crammed with activities. When swimming lessons start in July and baseball hasn't yet ended, we'll have a couple of weeks of Monday-Thursday practices/lessons right after work. Yep, I still prefer summer to school. At least when we're home there are NO homework obligations! All the extras are just fun.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
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!!
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!!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Whooooo! I'm out of the cast! I'm still supposed to take it slow and easy for a while, but the cast is history. Supposedly. My foot and leg are doing much better, no longer nearly so weak, but I tried to run at work last week (hurry from point a to point b) and my entire leg nearly gave out. I'm not that strong yet.
We're currently on a sort of anniversary trip to Chicago. Because we bought a brick for the World Series plaza (or whatever it's actually called) we got a great price on game tickets with free parking, free food, and best of all, a parade around the field. The parade was weather-permitting and of course it was raining, but we were lucky and got to do it anyway. It was probably one of the highlights of Gene's life, getting to be out on the field and having his picture snapped in front of the bullpen, in front of the dugout, in front of home plate, making "the catch," touching the grass, etc. It was really cool and really fun. The rain mostly let up and it was just misting throughout most of the game (otherwise it was actually raining.) Our seats were under cover so we didn't mind. The White Sox lost to the Angels, but made a really good comeback so it was an exciting game. We all had a great time.
Before the game, we went to Millenium Park and shopping on Michigan Avenue. Hahaha, well "shopping" for our family anyway. We went to the Lego store, the Hershey store and the Disney store. The least magnificent shoppers on the Magnificent Mile... We found some great Lego deals and got a bucket of assorted Hershey's miniatures for Logan (well, for all of us, but nobody loves it like Logan.) The kids played for a looong time in that fountain with the big faces that spit water. It was a lot of fun and I learned my leg will hold up for a long walk as long as I don't try to run.
Following the game, we had no definite plans. Gene was worried about traffic because the last game he and the kids went to, they were stuck in the parking lot for over an hour. That was a Saturday night in the summer. It was also a fireworks night. This was a rainy Thursday during the school year and we pretty much cruised right out of the parking lot and onto the highway. We had discussed surprising the kids with a night at KeyLime Cove waterpark resort, but had only considered it for the following night because duh, the baseball game finished late! However, the traffic was so minimal, we drove out to Gurnee in no time (and honestly didn't pass any exits with marked hotels.) I figured we might as well just go. I'd see if I could get a deal due to the late hour. The deal wasn't as good as I had hoped, but I'm sooo glad we stayed the extra night! We all got to sleep in and then go to the waterpark for a couple hours before lunch. We practically had the place to ourselves! There were no lines for slides, the lazy river was empty, we were the only people in the basketball pool. Gene and I even spent some time in the adults only hot tub and had our own personal lifeguard.
We left and went to Gurnee Mills Mall for lunch and to look around. The kids love playing on the boats and in the tents at Bass Pro Shops. Kaylin wanted some more school uniform skirts identical to the ones I bought her at this mall last year. I found 3 in her size! Otherwise, we're just not big shoppers so we came back to the hotel and played in the arcade, played in the room, went to dinner and then the kids went back to the waterpark for another two hours. Last night it was PACKED so Gene and I opted out. We took turns watching the kids while the other spent time in the room.
Today we're planning to drive up to Racine Zoo to visit my former zebra buddies. I've been meaning to visit them for a year and a half, but the plans always fall through. Today we're going to do it! I am a little worried about getting lost. I copied the MapQuest instructions on how to get there and then get home. The directions home filled an entire page before we even get on an interstate highway. Confusing! I'm sure the kids will swim a while before we go and the drive home is 4 hours in good traffic. I'm kicking myself for not taking Sunday off! Oh well.
Happy 17th anniversary, Gene!
We're currently on a sort of anniversary trip to Chicago. Because we bought a brick for the World Series plaza (or whatever it's actually called) we got a great price on game tickets with free parking, free food, and best of all, a parade around the field. The parade was weather-permitting and of course it was raining, but we were lucky and got to do it anyway. It was probably one of the highlights of Gene's life, getting to be out on the field and having his picture snapped in front of the bullpen, in front of the dugout, in front of home plate, making "the catch," touching the grass, etc. It was really cool and really fun. The rain mostly let up and it was just misting throughout most of the game (otherwise it was actually raining.) Our seats were under cover so we didn't mind. The White Sox lost to the Angels, but made a really good comeback so it was an exciting game. We all had a great time.
Before the game, we went to Millenium Park and shopping on Michigan Avenue. Hahaha, well "shopping" for our family anyway. We went to the Lego store, the Hershey store and the Disney store. The least magnificent shoppers on the Magnificent Mile... We found some great Lego deals and got a bucket of assorted Hershey's miniatures for Logan (well, for all of us, but nobody loves it like Logan.) The kids played for a looong time in that fountain with the big faces that spit water. It was a lot of fun and I learned my leg will hold up for a long walk as long as I don't try to run.
Following the game, we had no definite plans. Gene was worried about traffic because the last game he and the kids went to, they were stuck in the parking lot for over an hour. That was a Saturday night in the summer. It was also a fireworks night. This was a rainy Thursday during the school year and we pretty much cruised right out of the parking lot and onto the highway. We had discussed surprising the kids with a night at KeyLime Cove waterpark resort, but had only considered it for the following night because duh, the baseball game finished late! However, the traffic was so minimal, we drove out to Gurnee in no time (and honestly didn't pass any exits with marked hotels.) I figured we might as well just go. I'd see if I could get a deal due to the late hour. The deal wasn't as good as I had hoped, but I'm sooo glad we stayed the extra night! We all got to sleep in and then go to the waterpark for a couple hours before lunch. We practically had the place to ourselves! There were no lines for slides, the lazy river was empty, we were the only people in the basketball pool. Gene and I even spent some time in the adults only hot tub and had our own personal lifeguard.
We left and went to Gurnee Mills Mall for lunch and to look around. The kids love playing on the boats and in the tents at Bass Pro Shops. Kaylin wanted some more school uniform skirts identical to the ones I bought her at this mall last year. I found 3 in her size! Otherwise, we're just not big shoppers so we came back to the hotel and played in the arcade, played in the room, went to dinner and then the kids went back to the waterpark for another two hours. Last night it was PACKED so Gene and I opted out. We took turns watching the kids while the other spent time in the room.
Today we're planning to drive up to Racine Zoo to visit my former zebra buddies. I've been meaning to visit them for a year and a half, but the plans always fall through. Today we're going to do it! I am a little worried about getting lost. I copied the MapQuest instructions on how to get there and then get home. The directions home filled an entire page before we even get on an interstate highway. Confusing! I'm sure the kids will swim a while before we go and the drive home is 4 hours in good traffic. I'm kicking myself for not taking Sunday off! Oh well.
Happy 17th anniversary, Gene!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
More of the same
Sunday morning I woke up and ran around getting ready for work. It was just about time to leave and I sat down to put on my boot. But it felt ridiculous to put it back on after going the whole weekend with it off! My foot felt fine and I just couldn't put the stupid thing on. I took it with me just in case I needed it, but I really didn't. Monday I didn't work. Tuesday I didn't wear the boot. Wednesday I worked a different "string" that involved different surfaces and I wore the boot part of the day. Thursday I wore it most of the day because I was expecting a large delivery of grain (50# bags of rhino chow) that I knew I couldn't/shouldn't unload without the boot. The delivery never came. It's Friday morning and both of my feet hurt! I started the week thinking I may never wear the thing again and ended the week realizing I will probably have to keep it around a while. AHHHHHHHHH!!! So frustrating...
I used Mother's Day as an excuse to get myself some of the new Playmobil African safari sets. They are COOL! Some of the new animals are water buffalo, gazelles, flamingos, wart hogs, ostriches and hyenas. The base of each set is part of a river and they all connect to form one large river. Obviously, I'll have to buy them all :) I like to build the sets and look at them. Fortunately, the kids actually like to play with them and Kaylin especially has been playing nonstop with the animals.
The kids have had a busy week. With the school year wrapping up, they have a lot more activities and a lot less actual work. They've been spending the car ride home arguing over who had to do the least amount of work during the day and who has the least amount of homework. Kaylin got to go on a field trip to the skating rink for several hours yesterday. Logan is going to the Riverplex today. Kaylin's going to tour Lindbergh (her new middle school) today. I finally got my summer vacation request approved so I will be signing both kids up for camp and swimming lessons and signing Logan up for baseball today. Ugh. There will be two weeks this summer when Logan will have camp daily, baseball Monday, Wednesday and Saturday and swimming lessons Tuesday and Thursday. That's too much activity (for me anyway) but he wants to play ball and needs to learn to swim better.
I used Mother's Day as an excuse to get myself some of the new Playmobil African safari sets. They are COOL! Some of the new animals are water buffalo, gazelles, flamingos, wart hogs, ostriches and hyenas. The base of each set is part of a river and they all connect to form one large river. Obviously, I'll have to buy them all :) I like to build the sets and look at them. Fortunately, the kids actually like to play with them and Kaylin especially has been playing nonstop with the animals.
The kids have had a busy week. With the school year wrapping up, they have a lot more activities and a lot less actual work. They've been spending the car ride home arguing over who had to do the least amount of work during the day and who has the least amount of homework. Kaylin got to go on a field trip to the skating rink for several hours yesterday. Logan is going to the Riverplex today. Kaylin's going to tour Lindbergh (her new middle school) today. I finally got my summer vacation request approved so I will be signing both kids up for camp and swimming lessons and signing Logan up for baseball today. Ugh. There will be two weeks this summer when Logan will have camp daily, baseball Monday, Wednesday and Saturday and swimming lessons Tuesday and Thursday. That's too much activity (for me anyway) but he wants to play ball and needs to learn to swim better.
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