Monday, March 03, 2008

duck, duck, GOOSE

Yesterday was an amazing day at the Babcock household - and in Kansas in general. Somehow, for the first weekend in March, we had beautiful 75 degree weather. Yes, 75. That's not a typo or written in some weird non-Fahrenheit degree or anything. 75 degrees! As Jim Carey said "b-e-a-uuuu-tiful!"

To truly enjoy this weather, we all had to get our butts dressed and out the door. Not so hard for yours truly, as I had already been up at 7, up to the church by 8:45 (late again!), singing and shaking my booty at 10:15 for KidStuf and through a great church service at 11:15. I picked up lunch on the way home (sometimes I feel like a bad mom for this one, but it makes everyone happy when I do it, so maybe it's not that bad!) and back home 1pm. After we ate I told Joe - "we need to get outside and moving before the rain hits or I'm taking a nap." - knowing that this would leave him in full stead of the insane tornadoes, he got everyone dressed and out the door by 2pm!

We went to SMP (Shawnee Mission Park) and tootled around there until we found the geese. There's always some there, we just had to find the right little pond. With a bag of stale hamburger buns (why do we buys these? we never eat them!) we headed in for the boys' first (memorable) endeavor with these goofy geese.

I showed them how to tear up the buns and throw them out into the pond. It went on as expected - geese fighting over the pieces,pieces not quite making it to the pond, etc. Then, the geese got bold...

Em & Joe were at one side of me and the boys to the other. The geese came up by Joe and walked around behind me to the boys. I was trapped - and laughing hysterically. Thomas kept backing up, saying "I don't have anymore bread gooses. Go away. Don't eat ME!" and Travis just had big "deer-in-the-headlight" eyes. We convinced the boys not to run away, the geese don't eat little boys and just to keep throwing the bread. Travis tried to recover a piece from the ground a goose let him know it was HIS by throwing out his wings and squawking. Travis just stared at him and backed up. Joe & I were still laughing. Emily was flashing back to her own first time and getting chased by a goose - who was trying to get her butt.

Eventually of course, we ran out of bread and the boys were a little worried. Once the geese saw we were done however, they started back into the water. We wandered off, the boys taking a big lead, butting lots of ground between them and the geese. Joe snuck up on them and pinched a fanny - I've never seen Travis jump so high! For the rest of the day, we kept trying to see who could "goose" each other.

After the geese, we wandered over to the "beach" and threw rocks into the water- I think Emily actually held the distance record and I threw out my LEFT arm since I couldn't grip with my right hand. [I hate getting old!]

We got back in the car to go home just as the rain started. We drove around in the rain, just enjoying the semi-quiet and non-fighting that was occurring. We drove to McDonald's and got shakes for the kids and cones for the parents - I forgot just how yummy Mickey D's ice cream is! Also, it was much cheaper than Sonic, Dairy Queen or Sheridan's!

When we got back home, Travis decided he HAD to take a nap and wanted me to lay down with him. Since Em & Joe were watching another of her CSI: Miami Season 4 DVDs, we laid down on the family room floor with pillows and blankets. Tom joined us and was the only one to actually take a nap [after insisting he didn't need one!].

We topped it off with a dinner of hot dogs and mac & cheese (seriously, sometimes the easiest things really ARE the best!) and some serious snuggling/reading before bedtime.

All in all - it was a good day to be us. And now, it's back to winter with 35 degree weather. (sigh...)

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