Mammoth Cave

Our family took a trip this weekend. Actually it wasn't a trip, it was an adventure. :)  We drove an hour and a half to Cave City, Kentucky, to visit Mammoth Cave.  W-O-W!!!

Let me stop right here and just disclose that I am an EXTREME claustrophobic. Two years or so ago I had to have an MRI; I was TERRIFIED, and I was in the "open" (yeah, right) MRI machine. I had to have a Valium just to be able to do that. So why in the world am I agreeing to go inside a cave for TWO HOURS on a 1-mile hike???



The entrance to the cave on our tour (not the original entrance)



Tight spaces...narrow staircase...deep breaths, Misty...deep breaths...



Down 280 stairs (no joke), 250 feet below ground



Little Cave Men





Dub and Bo were fearless, of course




W-O-W, was it worth it! Even with all the tight spaces.



Yes, Little Lady came also ~ she did great!

The bus ride was one of the best parts, according to Dub and Bo

We stopped for a snack, then headed home. Little Lady didn't make it (she didn't even finish her sucker first!).

I'm so glad we went. It was awesome! We even plan to go back, maybe over Spring Break.

Love, The Kirby Adventurers

One Of Those Mornings

What a wonderful, lazy morning. Jason had to go to work, of course (which is weird anyway because we've had so much snow he hasn't had a full week of school since early December), but the boys and I were laying around, watching cartoons, thinking about what we might do to pass the time today. Little Lady was even still asleep, and I was going to let her sleep since she wouldn't have to take such an early nap because we wouldn't have to pick Dub up from school today.

We lazily came downstairs at about 8:00, a full two hours after Dub and Bo usually get up on a school day. Dub started playing on the computer, Bo started playing with cars, LL was still sleeping...and I happened checked my cell phone.  Our next-door neighbors, who carpool with us to school ~ they take the kids to school, and we bring them all home ~ had texted me at 6:52 this morning, asking if Dub was going to school today. What?, I thought. There's no school today! So I texted her back. Surely she had discovered that she was mistaken, there actually wasn't school today. I even felt kind of bad for her because she has a full-time job and would have to figure out what to do with her kids since she hadn't realized there was no school today.

Oh, no, she replied, there IS school today! They had come to get Dub at about 6:50, just like normal, even rang the doorbell and beat on the door, and when we didn't answer, she texted me but eventually went on without him. We never even heard any of that. We were too busy laughing at Curious George, I guess.

I still thought something must be wrong because I was so sure there was no school today.  I looked at the only school calendar I had handy, the February lunch menu. Sure enough, it looked like today was a normal school day. My head started to spin. It just couldn't be right...it was supposed to be parent/teacher conference day! But according to that calendar, the conferences were scheduled for this coming Tuesday. Still thinking that I was right and the world was wrong, I tried to find the paper that told when our conference appointment time would be ~ and even it actually had the nerve to have Tuesday's date on it.

Coming into the realization that maybe I was the one who should be pitied, I told Dub what was going on. Talk about devastation. That poor boy was the saddest little guy in the world at that moment. He actually cried, and I don't mean crocodile tears or a whiny cry, a genuine heartbroken cry. I felt so terrible for building up our day of non-stop play, and playgrounds, and bicycles, only to have to tell him "Never mind, you have to go to school." I was heartbroken for him.

So he got ready, although the entire time he was kind of begging me to let him stay home because he didn't want to go. "Well, I'm sorry Dub, but you have to go. Even Daddy doesn't want to go to work sometimes, but he has to." I had to grab LL out of bed, and give her a half a banana to eat on the way, still in her nightgown. She wasn't phased in the least, by the way. Dub was "only" an hour and a half late to school; our excuse note said the truth ~ that we really thought there was no school today. Jason thinks I just assumed there would be snow days today and tomorrow, which actually also makes sense.

To kind of atone for my big, fat mess-up, I promised to come eat lunch with him today. At least that put a smile on his face. By the time we saw him at lunch, he was over his disappointment that today was not a free-day. He was his usual goofy self, thank goodness.

I still have no idea why in the world I thought there was no school today. And I still feel so disoriented. I think there really actually was no school today, it's just an early April Fool's Day joke. An elaborate one, granted, but a reeeeaaallllly good one! Way to go, MJ Elementary! You got us good! I'll be thinking of a good one to play on them....

Let It Stop! Let It Stop! Let It Stop!

Can you believe how much snow we've gotten this winter???  Metro Schools, where Jason works, had four built-in snow days.... Today marks snow day number 11. At least I think so, I really quit counting weeks ago.  Dub gets so frustrated whenever he hears that school is out because apparently he's heard that these days will be made up in the summer, and he's worried that he won't have much of a summer break (me too, actually).  We've had snow cream so often that it's starting to be as annoying as vegetables at supper time: "No, you cannot have a banana until you finish your snow cream!" Well, that's not true, but we've had it a LOT.

And we used to have a snow day "tradition" ~ whenever snow would be forecasted, when everyone else would hit the grocery stores to stock up on milk, bread, etc., we would go and get chips and ingredients for Ro-tel dip, or some other mutually agreed-upon treat like that.

This year, Jason just hasn't been in the mood for this tradition. In the beginning of this winter (or actually, the end of the fall when all this snow started), whenever I mentioned it, he would just say, "Nahhhhh...." Now I don't even mention it.  It was bothering me at first, like he was sending subliminal messages that I really don't need to eat that stuff. But today I got to thinking, if we'd had Ro-tel dip every snow day this year....

This would be me!!!

Unfortunately, it almost is anyway, but that's a whole 'nother story.

Here's our recipe for snow cream, in case you were wondering.

About 6-8 cups of FRESH, WHITE snow :)

1 can sweetened condensed milk (like Eagle Brand)

1 tsp vanilla flavoring

Mix it up, divide it up, eat it up...it's so good! Oh, and you can add chocolate syrup if you'd rather have chocolate. We're a vanilla family. :)

Y'all have fun with your snow, whatever way you choose to enjoy it! And stay WELL!!!

"One-Zero-Zero"

Oh wow, has it really been more than a month? It's been a busy month, I guess! All those snow days and Christmas holidays...wow, I've really been working super hard.  :)

I write in a journal every night because I want to remember the fun parts about raising all these little crazy monkeys. I thought about making a post about some of the highlights from that journal, but Bo and I just had the funniest miscommunication, so Bam!- just like that, I have a new post! Yippee!!

Bo is 4 years old, and I still make him take a nap every day. He does not want to take a nap, and honestly, he doesn't always need the sleep. But trust me, he needs to have a nap time every day. Actually, I'm the one who needs the break, but it's easier and safer to make him stay in his room than it is for me to lock myself in my room. And since Little Lady takes a nap, Bo goes when she goes. Serenity, at least for a little while.

Since Dub is a car rider after school, we've had to adjust our nap schedule to work in going to pick him up. Bo and LL eat their lunch at about 10:00 (YES, I am aware how early that is! But it's not so bad since they get up at 6am), then they go to nap around 11. We have to pick Dub up at 2:00, so that's plenty of time for a good 2 hr. nap, plus and hour or so of wake-up time. LL usually sleeps til almost 2, anyway.

So anyway, since Bo is learning his numbers and has the numbers "1" and "0" down pat, I tell him what to look for on his digital clock. The problem is, it's 11:00 when I put him down...

Me: When the clock says, "One-zero-zero" (1:00), then you can get up.
Bo: But it says "one-zero-zero" now.
Me: No, it says "one-ONE-zero-zero," not "one-zero-zero."  There has to be only ONE "one."
Bo: There has to be "one-one?"
Me: There has to be only one...."one." Not, "one-one," but only one..."one."
Bo: Mom, it says "One-one-zero-zero!" Can I get up now?
Me: Not until there's a "one" by itself, and then "zero-zero" after it.
Bo: Oh, so it has to say, "one-zero-zero," but only one "one."

Yes!!!  Wow, it felt like that conversation went on longer when we were actually having it...I guess my mind compresses things.

What's so funny is, we go over this almost every day. Not quite the same dialogue, but the same explanation.

My little Space Cadet. :)