Don't Pet the Animals

Spring break.  Ya' gotta love it.  80 degree weather at the very beginning to trick you into only packing warm clothes and no jackets so you can be totally un-prepared when the snow and sleet hit. I pretty much wore the same pair of jeans and sweats and my one sweatshirt I grabbed going out the door pretty much the whole six days.

Spring break. Completely triggers the "let's fight over as many stupid things as we possibly can- to get on every last nerve in mom's body" in kids.  Usually within the first 3 hours of the first day.

Spring break.  An excuse to consume 12 bags of chips and  13 Mountain Dew's while you play 14 hours of Xbox in the dark.  All to meet your Spring break goal of "beating the game."  Yes, that was my oldest son's goal of spring break.  I don't even want to put in writing how many hours he played to accomplish this.  I'm sure the back lash I would receive would sound like, "AND HOW MANY HOURS DO YOU LET YOUR SON PLAY VIDEO GAMES?!?!?!"  I plead the fifth.  It's spring break.  His daddy tries to keep him in check by saying, "You know son, when you get to heaven..." and Jonathan cuts him off quickly and says, "Jesus is gonna say DUDE......YOU are so COOL."

Spring Break.  Starting the day freezing cold.  Leaving for a petting/drive thru zoo thinking that surely it will warm up. But 3 hours later it's still freezing cold. You wrap your one year old in a blanket to pet the animals trying to make the trip worth while, as the smarter ones stay in the warm car and catch up on their sleep. (That would be the college students.)

Gentry Zoo - It was a petting zoo and drive-thru zoo all rolled into one.  Pretty cool place tucked back in NoWhere Arkansas. Now, we had 10 kids with us between the ages of 1 and 19.  Somehow all the little ones ended up in my van and the 4 oldest were in my dad's car.  Which was why probably the sign confusion. If there are signs up that say "Petting Zoo" and then other signs that say "Keep your Windows Rolled Up"  "Do Not Pet the Animals" - which ones are the little kids only going to see? Of course its the "Pet the Animals." And then for some reason they were the only ones who saw the signs that said, "Stick Your Fingers in the Animal's Mouth" and "Chase them in front of the workers." (Which they did the first 3 seconds we were there.- Has anyone else ever been kicked out of a zoo?)  The kids in my car only saw the latter two signs.  I got the privilege of seeing a camel poop 2 inches from my window.  What I didn't see was this little fat-bellied pig who parked himself in front of my van... and I had no idea if he had moved.  And I had just said,  "I wonder if any of these animals have ever been run over?" Lucky for little fat-bellied pig, he got out of my way.

Notice my nephew fingers  close to the camel's mouth.  This folks, is how kids end up on the news from zoo animal attacks.

Notice the baby lion licking his chops.  He's thinking "kid, I'm gonna be able to bite your head off just as soon as I get a little bigger!"

Crystal Bridges- FREE art museum on the spring snow day.  Except for the $12.50 you would have to pay to see the Norman Rockwell display which I had psyched myself up to see.  My sweet husband had totally offered to get me the ticket. But somehow knowing 10 kids were outside waiting for me and probably destroying the rest of the exhibits made me pass on this time. We took everyone through the free exhibits.  Did I mention we had at least 5 kids 10 and under.  And mostly boys? I promise you the five year old little boy could drag the rest of boys to every picture with a nakey bottom on display.  And then there was the giant life-size statue of the nakey woman.  And whose idea was to drag all these kids through this? Oh yeah, mine.

Chuck E. Cheese - Where we went when Crystal Bridges was a bust. (Literally...hahahaha!! okay, so the little boy sense of humor has rubbed off on me.  What did you expect?!?) All I'm gonna say that's its a great place to let your kids take care of your kid.  I had to convince Sarah that she would have a less likely chance of getting stuck in the tube with Elisabeth than ME. Besides, I had to sit down and nurse my old person's headache that I acquired the first five minutes I was there.

I told Jacob to play with her after she walked up to a stranger's game of bowling and took their ball and ran off with it.  I dropped a token in their cup along with an "I'm sorry, I wonder who's kid that is?" to make up for their interrupted game.

Good thing for Elisabeth she has older brothers and a sister.  Or her life would be way more boring than it already is.

Every day.  Full of fun, laughter, a few tears, a few fights but that is what spring break is all about.  Trying to keep all the kids occupied and happy in the snow and sleet,  and secretly envying all the Disney World and beach people who are posting all their glorious warm pictures on facebook. (My brother was one of those beach people.  I let him know he was missing out on so much fun in the cold at the zoo.) But I wouldn't trade it.  I had all my kids home. I was with a whole bunch of people I love. We spent our days with cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles and friends and we ate and ate and ate.  We "swelled up like ticks" - as my sister told me after a big meal.  I swear she is so funny - she was quoting Honey Boo Boo all week.  (We just have so much to be proud of in the south don't we?)  We made our way home last night. We were not 5 minutes on the road and  little E had to puke all over the car.   Because of course no vacation would be complete without a kid puking in the car. And in Elisabeth style, she made sure of that!

My pictures and my times with all four kids together seem to be less and less.  That is what makes these kind of weeks so special.