I feel like my weeks are jam-packed with work, picking the kiddos up, dinner, baths, quality time, bedtime, clean-up, Mama's time to un-wind (aka - hide in the bathroom & read)...I am exhausted at the end of the week. When we have a weekend or a day with nothing planned & no obligations, I am usually 100% on-board with my family's desire to just stay home & do nothing.
However, Olivia's complaint of "I haven't had any fun this summer" has really been stickin' in my craw. (isn't that the saying?) It really kind of honked me off. I know I should just chalk it up to #1 she's 7, #2 she's an emotional girl, & #3 her bestie went to Disney 2 weeks ago. I'd love nothing more than to take the kiddos to Disney for a fabulous week long vacay. There are many reasons why we aren't this year - remember 2011 rules.
My kids are pretty easy to please, so I aimed low. I had it planned out in my head - we were planning a trip to Amish-town. There is aneat quaint little place we could go - Rockome Gardens. I thought the girls would love it. Don't get me wrong, it's no Disney Land. And by we were planning, I mean Jarrett & I briefly talked about going there Friday night at like 11:00 pm as I was about to drift into a vicoden induced sleep & he was looking online at old farm equipment. It went something like this:
ME - Hey we should go to Arthur & Arcola tomorrow afternoon. Go to Rockome Gardens.
JAR - Is it a free weekend? I'm not paying $10 a pop.
However, Olivia's complaint of "I haven't had any fun this summer" has really been stickin' in my craw. (isn't that the saying?) It really kind of honked me off. I know I should just chalk it up to #1 she's 7, #2 she's an emotional girl, & #3 her bestie went to Disney 2 weeks ago. I'd love nothing more than to take the kiddos to Disney for a fabulous week long vacay. There are many reasons why we aren't this year - remember 2011 rules.
My kids are pretty easy to please, so I aimed low. I had it planned out in my head - we were planning a trip to Amish-town. There is a
ME - Hey we should go to Arthur & Arcola tomorrow afternoon. Go to Rockome Gardens.
JAR - Is it a free weekend? I'm not paying $10 a pop.
ME - I don't know, probably not....snoring & drooling starting about .5 seconds after that
In my head, that meant the day was planned. We were going to Amish town & we were going to have a fabulous time. Albeit, the dead of the summer & no shade. But they have a delicious ice-cream shop. Plus they have a little bakery on the grounds that has the best cinnamon rolls ever.
We wake up Saturday morning, Jarrett has to go do his banking. I am a lazy butt in the mornings on the weekend so I hadn't showered yet. I thought Jarrett might wait for me to get ready since the bank is in the direction of Amish town. But he was antsy to go get it done. While he was gone, I cleaned the house. And by I cleaned the house, I mean I de-cluttered the kitchen & found that I actually do still have a counter top. And I had the girls put all their crap in their rooms. I also cleaned the girls' room after that because evidently a tornado hit the south-west corner of our little house.
Then I waited...patiently for the first hour anyway. Thinking, surely Jarrett would be home any minute. At 2:00 I had met my limit of waiting patiently. I text him "thought you'd be home by now - we are leaving to go without you". Jarrett called me, where are you going? Did we have plans? I thought this was a nothing to do day? Funny thing is that he was practically just to our road when I sent him that. He says wait 5 minutes.
Then we couldn't decide if we wanted to pay $30 (Rachel is free) to go sweat our butts off & then pay extra for ice-cream & cinnamon rolls. Jarrett & I took Olivia when I was prego with Rachel - we saw all we needed to see in like 45 minutes.
Olivia was onto us. She can sniff out a plan of going somewhere like a bloodhound. Where are we going? Are we going somewhere? Daaaaaaddddy, where are we going? Maaaaammmmmaaaa, what are you guys talking about? The idea in her head, we were going to the big Wal-Mart. She was literally ecstatic at the idea of going to Super Wal-Mart to pick out her new bookbag for school. It's the simple things, no?
That was it, we were going to Super Wal-Mart. As we start our 30 minute trek south, both girls are asleep within 5 minutes. Jar & I decide, if we are going we might as well get a decent meal out of this. Enter, Hickory River Smokehouse - real Texas barbecue. Yum. The girls wake as we pull into Wal-Mart & are so excited. (seriously, I love how excited my kids get over the most mundane things.) We look around for a while, Liv gets her bookbag. Rachel gets a new wallet. Jar gets an Illini shirt, I get nothing...boohoo. Then we go eat.
As we are leaving the restaurant, I give Jar-O the side eye. I whisper - let's go to the little zoo. $5 a piece. Olivia is tired & wants to go home. Rachel is crying because she got disciplined for being, well, for being a 3 year old & not wanting to sit to eat her dinner. It was a total surprise when we pulled into the zoo parking lot. Olivia being our backseat reader screamed "THE ZOO!!! RACHEL, WE ARE GOING TO THE ZOO!!! THANK YOU MOMMY & DADDY!!!"
We arrived at the zoo 5:45 pm - they close at 7:00 pm. We had the whole place to ourself. Awesome timing!!! We rode the carousel, we enjoyed the little petting zoo, we loved the wolves, we loved the zebra, we saw a baby calf born that same morning, we saw a baby wallaby, we were scared of the snakes. It was an awesome time.
In my head, that meant the day was planned. We were going to Amish town & we were going to have a fabulous time. Albeit, the dead of the summer & no shade. But they have a delicious ice-cream shop. Plus they have a little bakery on the grounds that has the best cinnamon rolls ever.
We wake up Saturday morning, Jarrett has to go do his banking. I am a lazy butt in the mornings on the weekend so I hadn't showered yet. I thought Jarrett might wait for me to get ready since the bank is in the direction of Amish town. But he was antsy to go get it done. While he was gone, I cleaned the house. And by I cleaned the house, I mean I de-cluttered the kitchen & found that I actually do still have a counter top. And I had the girls put all their crap in their rooms. I also cleaned the girls' room after that because evidently a tornado hit the south-west corner of our little house.
Then I waited...patiently for the first hour anyway. Thinking, surely Jarrett would be home any minute. At 2:00 I had met my limit of waiting patiently. I text him "thought you'd be home by now - we are leaving to go without you". Jarrett called me, where are you going? Did we have plans? I thought this was a nothing to do day? Funny thing is that he was practically just to our road when I sent him that. He says wait 5 minutes.
Then we couldn't decide if we wanted to pay $30 (Rachel is free) to go sweat our butts off & then pay extra for ice-cream & cinnamon rolls. Jarrett & I took Olivia when I was prego with Rachel - we saw all we needed to see in like 45 minutes.
Olivia was onto us. She can sniff out a plan of going somewhere like a bloodhound. Where are we going? Are we going somewhere? Daaaaaaddddy, where are we going? Maaaaammmmmaaaa, what are you guys talking about? The idea in her head, we were going to the big Wal-Mart. She was literally ecstatic at the idea of going to Super Wal-Mart to pick out her new bookbag for school. It's the simple things, no?
That was it, we were going to Super Wal-Mart. As we start our 30 minute trek south, both girls are asleep within 5 minutes. Jar & I decide, if we are going we might as well get a decent meal out of this. Enter, Hickory River Smokehouse - real Texas barbecue. Yum. The girls wake as we pull into Wal-Mart & are so excited. (seriously, I love how excited my kids get over the most mundane things.) We look around for a while, Liv gets her bookbag. Rachel gets a new wallet. Jar gets an Illini shirt, I get nothing...boohoo. Then we go eat.
As we are leaving the restaurant, I give Jar-O the side eye. I whisper - let's go to the little zoo. $5 a piece. Olivia is tired & wants to go home. Rachel is crying because she got disciplined for being, well, for being a 3 year old & not wanting to sit to eat her dinner. It was a total surprise when we pulled into the zoo parking lot. Olivia being our backseat reader screamed "THE ZOO!!! RACHEL, WE ARE GOING TO THE ZOO!!! THANK YOU MOMMY & DADDY!!!"
We arrived at the zoo 5:45 pm - they close at 7:00 pm. We had the whole place to ourself. Awesome timing!!! We rode the carousel, we enjoyed the little petting zoo, we loved the wolves, we loved the zebra, we saw a baby calf born that same morning, we saw a baby wallaby, we were scared of the snakes. It was an awesome time.
And since we were on a "we are super cool parents" roll, we stopped at a little mom & pop ice-cream shop on the way home.
Nothing to do day, I challenged you & I kicked your ass.
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