Eyes On the Tiger...

Wow, spring break has been good for the most part. A few blowups have happened, but isnt that part of family life anyway? Weve played, enjoyed staying up late, sleeping in, shopping trips, homemade milkshakes and so much more!

Yesterday we took the flock to a big cat refuge a few towns over from us. This is one of our favorite places to go. It isnt anywhere near as big as the zoo and they have guided tours telling you about each of the cats they have. So much more interesting and the kids learn something new every time we go.  

This was our favorite big cat shot of the day, its amazing to think that a tiger, even in the wild will eat several pounds of food a day, and then spend 20 hours or so lounging around and napping!

This is one of my favorite shots of the day, Dede just looks so thoughtful and reflective. Its not often that the whirlwind comes to a complete and utter stop in this manner. I think I took this as the intern was telling us about how our favorite tiger from last year had passed away. His name was Puppy and he had such a goofy personality, he "talked" to and showed off for us as we stood watching him. 

To me this is one of those places that is a big families dream. We  can get a years family pass for cheaper than we can get in for one days visit. Those are always great deals in my book.

Its a great deal as far as the flock is concerned too! 
Yes, we are THAT family, you know the ones... we dress similarly quite often, not because its cutesy, but because its so much easier to put your eyes on your flock when they all match to some degree.

What's An Hour?

An hour.... at times it seems like forever, other times its passing in the blink of an eye. Look forward to something and that hour passes as slowly as the changing seasons. Spending time with the one you love? That hour will never last long enough. Take that hour away completely and you have a houseful of little lambs who will spend the next week trying to adjust their sleep patterns. 

Thank goodness time change coincided with spring break this year. Sissy and the princess seem to be having the most trouble adjusting. Its amazing how something like that can throw their little inner time clocks so out of whack. I'm sitting here now waiting for the princess to enter that magical place in dreamland where she can be moved to her bed without waking up. I don't think we are far off.... 

She is very well equipped, a paci in her mouth and one in each hand! Some nights that is just the only way to keep those little hands still, she often wakes herself up searching for something to hold, her blanket, her shirt, most often her paci which is when she wakes up because she pulls it out of her mouth. 

We have had a very good start to our spring break around here, Mimi has her first formal dance coming up in a couple of months, it just makes my heart ache to think of my 7th grade daughter attending a formal dance! I took her out yesterday for her birthday lunch and a bit of window shopping and... well... we did more than window shop lol. We found her the PERFECT dress at a FANTASTIC price and there was just no way I could pass that up. So of course, any woman knows that the next stop is SHOOOOES! So she is now ready for her dance, whether momma is or not.

We took part of the flock out to eat tonight, half of the lambs are off having sleepovers. What good is spring break without a sleepover or 2? While we were out our waitress actually fussed at one of the lambs for using manners and saying "Yes Ma'am" and "No Ma'am" and that her mother had given her a name to be used, not replaced with a word like that. I was in such shock that I almost responded to her in an ugly manner, I mean, I myself had been saying "Yes Ma'am" and "Thank you Ma'am" to her. My first thought was how dare she undermine my position as a parent. However tho, I politely told her that our children have been taught to use their manners and to respect other people. Why is it that so many people are uncomfortable when people use manners? Yes, I know it is common place for hatred and ugliness to be the norm, but you would think seeing a teenager using manners, being polite and having respect would be something that an adult would appreciate BECAUSE of all that ugliness we see every day. What really got me was that she said absolutely nothing to the people she went to after us who were rude and hateful to her. As we left I wished her a goodnight and shook my head as we walked out the door. 

Once we got home the princess once again reminded us that you don't need a bunch of expensive toys to have a good time. I snapped this shot of her bypassing her toys to play with an empty peppermint bucket.

And now that the little princess is good and asleep this tired momma is off to catch a bit of a nap before the rest of the household wakes up.