Adventures in the Rain

I picked Snow White and Sleeping Beauty up at school today. They were exhausted, hungry, wound up, and talking non-stop. And, you would have been,too, if you had, in the past two days, walked about eight miles (in the rain), visited a museum, a stadium, and an historic downtown, slept at the zoo on industrial carpeted cement floor(in the dolphin dome building, no less!), with one hundred other nine- and ten-year-olds. (Okay, so really it's the teachers who were truly exhausted. Bless their souls!)

I was sad to not go this year. When Cinderella went on the same field trip two years ago, I joined the other out-of-their-minds chaperons and slept for roughly seven minutes at the zoo. And, I had a great time. Truly. The kids were great, the trip was fun, and I loved watching Cinderella learn and have so much fun with her friends. This year, I knew that I just could not make it without intravenous Excedrin, so I opted to stay home and send the girls with competent, undrugged chaperons and our old digital camera.

They had a fabulous time. They told me all about it; who said what and where their favorite things were. Their favorite animals to visit were the sharks they could pet. They didn't have to tell me, though, I just knew. Probably because I'm their mom, and I just know that kind of stuff. Oh, and this sort of tipped me off:Roughly 18% of their pictures were of the sharks. And five more were of the signs in the shark room. They also enjoyed the "cute sleeping polar bear who was the cutest thing ever" (they went on like that for a minute, but I'll spare you) and the penguins, as well as other interesting museum exhibits. Snow White even snapped a few "just rainy day pictures."
I am so glad they had a great time. And, equally glad that no one floated away or drowned in the torrential rain.

It was strange and quiet here with just Cinderella, King, and me. We went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse, just to do something different with Cinderella. (And, different it was--have you ever tried to eat out on a gluten-free diet? We'll just say it was interesting, and different. Not bad. Just slow and unseasoned, which was fine, considering it wasn't brown rice and broccoli. I was very happy. Anyway, I'm off on a tangent. Now where were we?...) By this afternoon, I think even Cinderella was happy to have her sisters back with us. I think they were glad to be home, too. So glad, that it took almost an hour after they got home for them to find something to argue about. And if that wasn't a blessing that made the whole trip worth it, I don't know what is. Maybe we should send them somewhere else to sleep once a week...