Marshmallows for Easter

We had a fantastic Easter Sunday at our zoo! We woke the Heathens up around 8am so that we had time for "bunny activities" before we had to get ready for church.

As always, the Easter Bunny hid several eggs that the Heathens couldn't find. And even the Asst. Zookeeper and I really had to look (and think back carefully) before we found the last two elusive eggs. You would think we would learn by now - but, no.

The Easter Bunny brought the Heathens their Easter outfits for church. Heathen #3 had his new sweater vest on for a total of 3 minutes before he got chocolate down the front. I was actually impressed that it took him that long.

The Heathens always get candy for Easter breakfast. I know it's a bad idea every year, but I can't help it. Who wants a bowl of cereal when you just got a basket of chocolate?

At church, the Heathens were pretty well behaved, especially when taking into account their chocolate intake. And we were actually early for church! As the Asst. Zookeeper proclaimed it, "Another Easter Miracle!"

During the service, Pastor called all the children forward for their "chat." And he always gives them something on holidays. This Sunday, those kids hit pay dirt. They got a baggie of jelly beans, a chocolate cross, a beaded cross necklace, and gummy candy! Can you tell that Pastor has a sweet tooth?

Heathen #3 was the last kid in line to get his candy from Pastor. As he was sliding back into the pew, I didn't even think, I automatically asked, "Did you tell Pastor 'Thank you'?" And of course, Heathen #3 turned to the front of the church and yelled at the top of his little lungs, "THANK YOU PASTOR!!!" I'm so thankful that our older church goers love children. Otherwise, we'd have been strung up long ago. Pastor simply smiled, said "You're welcome," and went right back into his sermon.

After church, we headed for the IN LAWS house - I'm so thankful I never have to cook holiday meals. It's so much more fun to play with all the kids! It was at their house that I finally got the picture of my Heathens in their outfits.

And after our meal, the IN LAWS broke out the Easter gifts for everyone. Most people give others flowers or candy at Easter. Not the IN LAWS. They give out weapons. The first year it was water guns. In the years since, we've received an assortment of dart guns, foam disc guns, anything that shoots something. And the battles are always in the house because it's usually muddy or snowing.

This year was marshmallow shooters! Everyone - children and adults alike - got a marshmallow shooter and a bag of miniature marshmallows. And there were 27 of us at the house for dinner. The rule is that we have to get the kids weapons running before the adults are allowed to get ours out of the packages. Not that we really listen very well.

There were marshmallows everywhere. Every room in the house was littered with miniature marshmallows. It was great! After two hours of shooting marshmallows at each other, we spent two hours picking up marshmallows off the floor. The IN LAWS are planning to have their carpets cleaned professionally this week - you stick to the floor with every step!

Dinosaurs!

This weekend, we drove the Heathens to State College to see Walking with Dinosaurs. It was amazing! Our seats were not the greatest - ours were the cheapest! But we still had a great view.

The show involves 15+ animatronic dinosaurs - all made life size! The large ones are "driven" by teams of two or three people inside, while the baby dinosaurs and the smaller ones are actually people in costume. It was fantastic and the Heathens absolutely loved it. It was a great field trip for the zoo!

You can really see the size of the dinosaurs in the shots where the paleontologist is visible. This was at the Bryce Jordan Arena and the dinosaurs FILLED the floor. In this video, the baby T-Rex is an adult male in costume - and he looks tiny!

Egg Soup

On Thursday evening of last week, we sat down with the three Heathens to dye Easter eggs. Three dozen eggs, ten cups of vinegar-smelling dye, two wire egg dippers, a spoon, and LOTS of paper towels. I had the best evening.

Heathens #1 and #2 use the white crayon including in the kits and they decorate all of their eggs. Each one is unique - and in the case of Heathen #1 - has it's own name. Heathen #3 just gets an "L" on each of his to identify them. I'm not much for drawing.

Heathens #1 and #2 are self sufficient at this point when it comes to dying Easter eggs. The only job that the Asst. Zookeeper and I have at this stage is to sit at the same table and make "oooo" noises of being impressed. Heathen #3 is still a little more hands-on at this point. But this year, he declared that he "do it all my byself!" And so he did... And I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time.

He didn't understand the concept of putting in one egg at a time. His coloring cups always had AT LEAST two eggs a piece. And he smashed them down with his hands to keep them under the water.

Usually, the Heathens only break one or two eggs during this process. This year, they broke ALL of them, except one of two. Heathen #3 kept smacking them on the table. The other two kept dropping them. I even dropped one at one point - right onto the cat that happened to be walking under the edge of the table. Thank heavens she isn't white!

All the egg dying only took about an hour. We had a lot of muddy colored eggs at the end of the process. Heathen #3 had blue hands from the wrists to his finger tips. Heathen #2 spilled the cup of blue dye - which ran across the table and splashed onto the dining room floor. Thank heavens we have hardwood floors and it was easy to clean up!

One of the last eggs that Heathen #3 dyed was broken before it even went into the coloring cup. He proceeded to make egg soup with it in the pink dye. After coloring eggs now at our zoo for 11 years - this was still a first for us!

Racing wooden cars

This past weekend was our cub scout pack's Pinewood Derby. Anyone with sons in scouting knows that this is a BIG deal. Each boy is given a kit with a block of wood, axles ans wheels. They are supposed to turn the kit into a car and then they race them.

Well, with three Heathens in the house, we now have to build three cars. Plus the Asst. Zookeeper also helps the other boys in his den. The week before the Derby, all the poor man does is build cars while the Heathens play with the electric sander and sand scraps of wood into powder.

The boys had a good time on Saturday. We got there around 9:15 and we were done and out by 1:30. All things considered, it went pretty well.

Heathen #1 was slightly disappointed in his cars performance. He liked the old track better - it's our second year with the new track. Here's a video of his car (winning of course). His car was sort of electric green and it had a fin on the back.

Heathen #2 was happy with his car, until he lost the first time. Then we had to have a temper tantrum. But here is his car winning. It was a purplish pink color.

Heathen #3 spent the morning trying to escape outside because he wanted to play - it was a nice morning. So by the time it was his turn to race, he was pretty well "baked." But his car did pretty well. It was "owange wif dwagons" as I was told.

And I had to post this video. The cars racing belong to Gavin and Landon. But it's Tristan's crab-walking that I love.

It was Tristan's last official year for the Pinewood Derby. Next year at this time, he'll be in Boy Scouts. If that's not frightening, I'm not sure what it! He'll have to race in the "extra" category if he builds a car next year. That's where Gavin and Landon were racing this year. And next year, Gavin will be in a Tiger den! God help us all!

All Before 8:30 am

At some point in the night, Heathen #3 woke up. And he didn't come looking for me. He decided that he was hungry. So he went downstairs and got a container of leftover rice out of the refrigerator, got himself a spoon, and returned to his bed for his pre-dawn snack. This is why I found a half eaten container of rice and a spoon in the hallway, and why his bed was full of rice.

Sometime after the rice-eating incident, he decided that he needed to fix his hair. So he went into the bathroom and got out Heathen #1's tube of Mohawk gel. This is super-grad stuff. And he put half a tube in his hair and plastered it to his head. I guess he decided that he should wash it out, because then he smeared hand soap in his hair as well. He explained this to me later when he was being questioned.

Then he decided to go back to sleep. Which explains why the rice was glued to his head this morning.

Move ahead to 7:30am. I had gotten up and jumped in the shower around 7 and at this point I was waking up Heathens for the day. This is when I discovered Heathen #3's antics in the early morning hours. I put him into the tub and started trying to wash the now steel-like glue-mess out of his hair. He basically glued his hair to his scalp with a plastic-like stuff. He answered questions while I scrubbed. He was not overly cooperative and we ended up slopping water over the edge of the tub. Quite a bit of water, in fact. Enough that the kitchen ceiling started to drip.

Now it's 7:55 and I have Heathen #3 reasonably unstuck that we can go about our day. As I'm drying him off, Heathen #1 sticks his head in the bathroom door and announces that he needs to be driven to school early this morning because it's his turn to work in the school store. He has to be there at 8:15.

No one has eaten yet. My hair and make-up are not done. And I have a sobbing, slightly porcupine-looking Heathen wrapped in a bath towel and trapped between my knees.

I sent Heathen #1 downstairs with orders to get himself and Heathen #2 a package of pop tarts. I picked up Heathen #3 and we headed for his bedroom to get him dressed. Downstairs I could hear the screeching of Heathen #2 because there weren't enough pop tarts for both of them.

Downstairs I went with Heathen #3 tucked under my arm. I talked Heathen #2 into a Ziploc bag of dried cereal and prepared a bag for Heathen #3 as well - I knew what was coming if I didn't.

I ordered the Heathens to put shoes on and gather backpacks. Assuring Heathen #3 that we would come back home and finish getting ready for the sitter's, I went around the kitchen corner and into the living room. This is where I discovered that Heathen #1 had found a key in our junk drawer and locked the deadbolt on the front door - with the door open. And it wouldn't unlock. My front door would not close. Thus we left the house with the front door hanging open and raced for the elementary school.

I pulled into the school lot at 8:18. After I let the boys out of the car, Heathen #3 and I returned home so that I could finish getting ready for work. Then I took him to the sitter's house. I was so thankful when I got to the office this morning.

Just Overwhelming

It's definitely been one of those days. Where everything is just overwhelming. I seem to be one step behind and exhausted since I woke up this morning.

Last night, I went to bed when the Assistant Zookeeper left for work at 9pm. I didn't even put on pajamas or take out my contacts. I curled up under the blankets and that was it. And I didn't get out of bed until 7:30 this morning. That should be plenty of sleep.

Yet all I can think of today is the lists of this I still have to accomplish, either at home or at work. And the lists just keep growing.

At work:
film festival grant package
WRH education strands - times 3
And I'm going to stop there because those two items alone are over a month of work.

At home:
LAUNDRY!
changing the sheets on the beds
clean the bathroom

And other stuff:
candy to drop off at Carol's house
17 gingerbread costumes to make
scout camp registration forms to organize
errands to run

I think I need an extra day in the week. If I could only figure out how to clone myself, I'd be in good shape. By the time I get home at 5:30 or 6, I'm pretty well toasted for the evening.

Guess I'll just keep my head down and keep moving. :) It's always worked out in the past!

States = Mohawk

Today was a first for our zoo. Heathen #1 joined the swim team at the YMCA this fall and has been in the water four or five days a week ever since. At one of the regular season meets, his 200 medley relay team qualified for the district meet! He was ecstatic (and so were we) and he conned a trip to Chuck E. Cheese out of it.

This morning was the district meet. And last night we had to set the clocks ahead an hour last night as well. And the meet was an hour away from the zoo. And Heathen #1 had to be in the pool at 7am for warm-ups (at least initially - but I'll get to that part).

So... I set my alarm for 4:30 in the morning. Because, of course, I had to shower and do my hair and make up. It's not acceptable to be seen otherwise. But I've mentioned my weakness in this area in another entry and will let it go here. So the alarm buzzes at 4:30 in the morning. And the Asst. Zookeeper and I didn't go to bed until 12:30. Needless to say, the snooze alarm got slapped.

At 5:00am, I pulled myself out of bed and dragged myself to the shower. It's amazing how water wakes you up and makes you feel better about getting up at an ungodly hour. And I started to get excited. This was my heathen - going to districts! WOW!!!

After dressing and prepping, I went to wake the Asst (the danger of which is mentioned in previous blogs). However, when I went into the bedroom, he was already awake! This was the first bit of proof that I had that he was as excited as I was. :) He headed for the shower and I headed for the bedroom of Heathen #1.

Flipped on the light, called his name a few times and he was out of bed! WOW! He headed downstairs to gather his stuff for swimming with hardly a grumble. It was like being in the twilight zone.

Into the bedroom of Heathens #2 and #3. Here I bogged down a bit. Heathen #2 was surprisingly chipper and happily got dressed, gathering up an array of junk to take with him in his backpack. He wasn't the issue. Heathen #3 was.

Usually pretty happy at wake up time, he was rolled in a blanket like a corn dog. And he wasn't coming out without a fight. I managed to uncover parts of him one at a time to dress them. He then immediately pulled them back into the blanket cocoon. Can't say that I blame him. It was horribly early - even for me.

I wrapped Heathen #3 in a blanket and carried him downstairs. After socking and shoeing the Heathens, we packed into the zoo-mobile, and headed for the swim meet. It was 6am. And then we learned that I had done one of those "Dani" things. One of my stupid, didn't look closely enough, things that I am famous for at our zoo.

I got the driving directions out in the car. The second sheet of paper had the lane assignments for warm ups. Tristan's team wasn't scheduled to warm up until 7:50. Not 7am. We could have slept for almost another hour. But the Asst. Zookeeper smiled and said that for once we would be EARLY!!! Something that is not often accomplished at our zoo.

Upon arrival at the natatorium (the fancy word they give big pools at colleges), we got Tristan registered and situated. We really didn't have that long to wait until his team went for warm-ups. When he headed into the pool, we headed to the stands to watch. Watching kids warm-up is hypnotic. It's similar to a perpetual motion machine. They just keep going and going and going....

Then the meet started. His event was the second of the day. There were 9 teams of boys (ages 9-10). They were seeded in 9th place. Which, in my opinion and the Asst. Zookeeper's, was wonderful! All they could do was improve their standings.

They swam in the first heat against two other teams. And they took third place with a time of 2 minutes 41 seconds. But they didn't care. They got out of the water very excited and pumped up that they had done well. It was really cute. Or as cute as four 10 year old boys can really be.

It turned out that two of the other teams were disqualified for mistakes. Which put Heathen #1's team into 7th place! And they QUALIFIED FOR THE STATE MEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was so excited. And the Asst. Zookeeper was so proud! I couldn't have been happier for him. He loved swimming so much when we were in high school. And for him to see Heathen #1 do that well and be that excited was great for me. I'm not sure who I was more excited for - it could go either way.

Well, that wasn't the big end to our day. Not yet! When the Asst. Zookeeper was swimming, if he made it to the state meet, he could get his hair cut any way he wanted. And he had told Heathen #1 the same thing. So after stopping for breakfast, we headed for a haircut. At this point it was only 11 am.

He wanted a mohawk. And I gave my blessing. I don't think it mattered if I gave my blessing or not. I think the Asst. Zookeeper would have over-ruled me in this instance. So my 9-year-old now has a mohawk. And we stopped at the mall to get lime green spray for this mohawk. And it is REALLY green.

I would pay to see the faces at the school tomorrow morning when my green mohawk wearing son walks down the halls. It would be entertaining. :) Once I get the pictures, I'll add them. It's well worth seeing.