I have determined for myself the best way to take my kids to the zoo, and it boils down to laying out to them what we will do before we ever pull out of the garage. I wish I would remember to do this for everything we do in our lives, but that is asking a lot of my addled brain.
Today the "plan" was to visit the splash park, see the new sea lion & seal exhibit and get a treat of some sort. I packed our lunch to reduce expenses and had everyone in their swimsuits under their clothes to avoid the dreaded fiasco that is changing clothes in the teeny-tiny bathrooms by the splash park.
And the "plan" was explained when everyone was buckled in. M was the only one to object.....ha-ha, like he has a say to begin with.
The great thing about having this plan is that I can always refer back to it when the kids get a notion to do something else. "Um, remember we're doing X, Y and Z, not Q, R or S." This doesn't mean the kids don't balk, but they don't balk as long or as loud.
And I find that when we stick to the plan, if we are able to throw in something extra and unexpected, I shine like a rock-star. We managed to squeeze in 3 extras since the kids only stayed at the splash park a grand total of 10 minutes. (Note to self: Quit taking them to splash park. A lot of wasted preparation and sunscreen application.)
The first extra was seeing the lorikeet exhibit. I splurged and bought 2 cups of nectar (1 oz is like $2), but it was so worth is because G got to hold the cup with me and see a bird drink it up close.....6 inches from G's face. The bird looked right at G and went, "TWEET!" G thought this was hilarious!! And a bird landed on N's head for the very first time.
Our second extra was when I splurged again and bought the kids Dippin Dots instead of the normal soft-serve cones.
And all this splurging only set me back $10, which is nada for 3+ hours of fun at the zoo.
Finally, the third extra was playing on the playground.
And the best thing of all is that after a morning like this, the kids are sufficiently tired that they let me be so I can blog about what a good time was had by all.
2 comments:
I splurged on the dippin dots for Grace last time as she was so excited. With all the extras at the zoo now we usually have to determine which paid extra we will be doing. Last time it was the dinosaurs. AC can't wait to try the new zip line.
Susan
I love being able to spice up a regular trip with an extra or two. We also do well when we have an ahead of time plan for an outing, but I don't always have a natural inclination to plan ahead.
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