Whobody has an attitude problem?
I do. I throw a tantrum when things don't go as planned.
It is sad, but true.
(but that really isn't what this is about…)
So…this was a few weeks ago (big surprise, huh?). BUT, the weekend before Jason started "harvest" we made a family trip to the pumpkin patch in Decorah. It is awesome…if you haven't been there, you should go. We went last year without Jason…but this year I wanted to make sure he got to go too.
It was a Saturday morning..there was a high chance of rain here…but Decorah only had a 3% chance for the morning.
So, we loaded the kids up for a surprise family fun day… and took off. The kids kind of hate this…in all honesty.
They say they just want to know where they are going…I say…too bad. Figure it out! And, they actually do! Keaton gets out a map and follows along with which turns we take, and which towns we are heading towards and then they make guesses based on that. We DO tell them when they guess correctly. Nash's guess is usually Disney World.
I love to surprise them. But, as I said, they hate it, I shouldn't say they all hate it, just Lola. She is just a loud complainer so it makes me feel like they all do. :) For the record, she would complain if she knew where we were going too. We are working on this little girl though….
side note: if you offer her once scoop of ice cream, she will ask if she can have 2 with sprinkles on top…and a brownie.
Always trying to get more. If we would have told her at the house that we were going to the pumpkin patch…she would have said "can we go to Jumpin' Janes instead?" which would have just irritated me… SO, we keep it a surprise.
(Aha…it seems I am in a rambling mood today…)
Anyway…as I said, 3% chance of rain. Well, we ALMOST got to Decorah, and we could see dark clouds…of course…rain chance was quickly changed to 80%. We went to Pinter's anyway…mostly because we were already there.
We got out of the car, and it was freezing, and windy, and damp, and we were all underdressed. We unloaded everyone and headed in. There were only 3 other people there (other than the workers). We started in on the "fun"…but, please note…it wasn't fun.
A character flaw of MINE is that if things aren't going as planned, I get frustrated, disappointed and grumpy.
Then, I somehow manage to completely ruin an event.
Nice, huh? I swear, sometimes I feel like a toddler throwing a fit. That was me that morning. I had pictured a wonderful last "family day" together before harvest began…and here we were shivering in the rain, trying to enjoy things without getting completely soaked.
And then, it started to rain.
Keep in mind folks…the plan was to spend the morning at the pumpkin patch, and then go eat lunch, and drive home during the beginning of nap time.
Not. so. much.
It started raining enough that the pumpkin patch couldn't be enjoyed.
It didn't help that my attitude STUNK either.
So…we headed into the snack area to regroup. We all had a cookie, and some hot chocolate (and coffee)…and watched it rain. Jason decided we needed a restart… so we hopped into our car, and slowly drove back into town to go out for lunch
(right after we finished our cookies and huge drinks).
Mabes (my fav.) opened at 11…so we drove around until then and went to Mabe's for an early lunch.
Nothing helps my bad attitude like a
Pepsi and some pizza.
For real.
Oh, and sunshine.
We finished lunch quickly, and by the time we got back to Pinter's, the sun was out, and things were drying off. Yay! Our trip wasn't wasted. I had a much better attitude…and we restarted our family fun day.
(I seriously hate it about myself that I flip out when things don't go as planned…augh.)
SOOOO….here are the pictures.
It really was a WONDERFUL afternoon. Instead of getting home at 1…we got home at 4….but other than that, it really worked out great. Dirx was a trooper in the stroller….
The kids love the tires.
Wow…a decent picture of all 5 of them. They are so cute!
Cruz tries to break the world record for how fast someone can go through
$0.25 of goat feed.
They spent SO much time in these "Roly Poly" things.
Here are some pictures of the races that they did.
Nash pushing Lola and Cruz pushing Keaton.
This is usually how they all pair up.
Keaton and Cruz always stick together, and Lola and Nash.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Dirx is thrown into the mix.
Keaton really is SUCH a great big brother to Cruzie. He raced him here…
…and let him win. My heart melts thinking about it….
Below is a picture of Dirx in the carrier…riding on me.
Story…Jason hung out with Cruz because the older 3 wanted to go in the corn maze SOOOOOOO bad. Seriously. So, I thought…how bad could it be?
Bad.
Really Bad.
Make no mistake, I am sure that a corn maze can be fun… probably.
As I said, it rained in the morning.
We were all wearing flip flops.
The maze was mud. mud. mud.
So much mud, that we could barely lift our feet up to take steps.
We would stop every so often and use a corn stalk to try to scrape the 70 pounds of mud off of our shoes.
Did I mention I was 'wearing' a 30 pound sleeping baby.
It had also warmed up, and there was no breeze in the maze.
And….Dirx puts off a lot of heat.
My grumpies came back for a bit…but I held them in.
The maze was huge. I mean, huge.
I don't even know if it would have worked well if it wasn't muddy.
Maybe just me and Keaton. Maybe.
It was huge.
We were in there wandering around for almost an hour.
The kids finally decided they were "done"
SO…I did as any good mom would do…I figured out which direction we needed to head to get OUT…and then I held the corn stalks apart…and we fought our way out.
Not through the exit.
Just through the edge of the field.
Yes. I was THAT person.
(With a baby carrier on,
and a 4, 7, and 9 year old following me.)
I was NEVER so happy to see grass. My legs seriously hurt from walking in the mud. I truly should have taken a picture of our feet. Literally… there was probably at least 3 inches of mud caked on the bottom of each of our flip flops.
I got a little grumpy…but hopefully the kids remember the mom that was willing to take them through the corn maze…not the mom who got ticked because it wasn't all what she imagined.
Hopefully.
Phew…I am anxious just WRITING about it.
Luckily Dirx slept the whole time…and then woke up happy…Cutie Patootie.
So, we chilled in the corn the rest of the time… I had to share this picture, because Cruzie makes THIS face all. of. the. time.
And…Mr. Blue Eyes.
There were some older kids burying themselves…
so Cruz decided to give it a try. He is hilarious.
He got corn EVERYWHERE.
Then he kept posing saying
"mommy the wommy….take a picture of me."
(yes, his nickname for me is Mommy the Wommy. And he is Cruzie the Woozie. Nash is Nashie the Washie. Daddy is Daddy the Waddy. Keaton is Keato. And Lola…well, she is just Lola. In case you were wondering.)
I think here he actually envisioned that he was completely submerged in the corn…
like a pool.
Mr. Proud.
Lola joined us for a while..and filled her shirt with corn.
Nice.
All in all, our day was great.
I wish I hadn't ruined the morning with my bad attitude.
Jason is going to read this and just laugh,
because I do it all of the time. I am trying to stop.
I can't expect things to always go as planned…especially with 5 kiddos.
We live and learn.
And…of all the things I learned that day,
the most important is this:
Never go into a muddy corn maze…in flip flops.
And…check your attitude Mommy the Wommy.
