Happy St. Patty's Day

Honestly, this isn't a holiday I particularly care about. But for once, I actually put the kids in the themed shirts my mother in law always sends for the holidays AND took a picture. I expect you to clap for me now of course :-)

And here is a sampling of the St. Patty's Day stuff they did at school last week:



We're on spring break this week. We haven't done much of anything. With gas prices as high as they are, our days have pretty much centered around NOT using our car. We did ride our bikes to a nearby park, which meant a 9 mile round trip ride. Garrett rode his own bike. That kids just loves to go!

We went to the zoo today with Leanne. I'd like to say we had a blast, but it was almost more work than it was worth. Summer was crabby as all get out, but the kids still had fun and it was nice catching up with Leanne.



Garrett filled his marble jar this morning and got a Superman book that I found at the dollar store. He keeps telling me how much he loves it, which is fabulous. Especially since he was helping me MOP THE FLOORS this morning in order to finish filling that jar. BEST IDEA EVER! This morning he was not interested in putting the book down during pictures, just as Summer was not interested in putting down "Bear" with his St. Patty's beads.

We've rounded off our week with a lot of time spent in the pool. Its getting warm here, and with the later sunsets, I've even been able to hit the pool twice for some laps, which has been nice and relaxing. Summer is just around the corner! Other than that, I'm re-reading the last few books in one of my favorite series in the anticipation of the newest book coming out on Monday. Rounding off the week with much needed adult time in the form of a dive trip with the neighbors and a drive to Fort Myers on Sunday for work.

Catching up . . .Zoo last Thursday

I have NO IDEA where this week has gone. I haven't gotten that much work done. My house is clean, I THINK my kids have had fun, but I really can't remember details of this week without a considerable amount of effort. I've spent a lot of time cleaning . . . I am a HORRIBLE housekeeper. I'd rather play with my kids than clean. But as I mentioned a few posts back, I started this Motivated Moms thing that has helped me get my butt in gear in the cleaning department. So I GUESS that is where the week is gone. I know a lot of the week has passed with screaming, sitting on the ground tantrums on Summer's part. That certainly has contributed to my frazzled, exhausted state at this point.

Big weekend planned-making some sweet treats for Garrett's class on Monday for their Valentine's day party. Monster Jam for the boys (I am so very bummed not to be going). Hopefully a fun active date for Brad and I on Sunday morning. Since I'm terribly behind on posting pics, I am going to schedule some catch-up posts for the weekend . . .

These are from our trip to the zoo LAST Thursday. Thanks to Jennifer for taking the pictures, I forgot my camera. Its pretty fun to watch Summer's reaction to the animals now, she thinks they are all the coolest things ever. She looked at the huge python and said "Look, Mommy, Snake! I wanna hold it" The thing could EASILY have made a meal out of her, which made it pretty funny.
She likes doing dare-devilish things and demanding "LOOK! TAKE A PICTURE!" All of the bravery Garrett had at this age, and absolutely no sense of self-preservation. Oye.
Garrett with Abby and Gabby
And if THIS doesn't make me want to cry . . . I forget Garrett is only 4 sometimes, it feels like he is far bigger. We have some interesting conversations (example: One day this week we discussed, googled, and learned about the various things orcas eat. Completely random question on his part, and we both learned quite a bit).

Compare that to this one, from WAY back in Dec 2008.Feeding the giraffes was a hit, as always.

Garrett was obsessed with the baby one, for whatever reason.
HAPPY FRIDAY!

Zoo Fun

We went to the zoo today and met up with friends Monica, Alora, and Corbin. Garrett and Corbin are good buddies, and we haven't seen each other since BEFORE our trip to St. John in September. Alora and Summer seem to be made of the same naughty-girl cloth, which made the excursion both refreshing (no, I am not the only one with a crazy little girl) and insane (where'd they go???)




This one pretty much sums up Summer's devil-may-care attitude. She is standing on top of an elephant. Insanity.


We went to the Members Only showing of the new "Scoop on Poop" exhibit. I found it to be crass. Picture videos of various animals pooping. Yeah. Really. And then there was this, which Garrett found hilarious:
But the outside part, which I assume was only for this one day, was pretty cool.

Identifying skulls (Garrett correctly guessed this one was a big cat).
There was a matching game involving containers of poop and pictures of animals. Although I did not watch this closely (chasing Summer down), Garrett must have done well because he got a little poster.

There was also a poop race--of course Garrett wanted to do that. You scooped poop and filled up your bucket. Garrett was the smallest AND slowest of course, but he took it very seriously and had a great time. Although at the end, he said "Pee-eww, I am never getting that close to poop again!" When I got home from my run this afternoon, we had a message that he won a $5 gift certificate to use at the zoo for his participation, which was nice.



Leaving the zoo resulted in a meltdown on Garrett's part, but at least he cried and threw a tantrum while walking back to the car. All in all, a decent day at the zoo. I was a little nervous about going, since Summer is such a handful and we haven't gone too many places since she was potty trained. I must say though, I am STRONGLY considering one of those little leash backpack things for her. I simply can't keep an eye on Garrett when she is around, because if I stop looking at her for one second, she will be off. AND she totally doesn't listen, which is not cool. Really, the word "brat" fits her well. Going to have to work on that.