I Take My Children to Get Tattoos

The great thing about getting older

is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.

-Madeleine L’Engle

But they did get airbrushed tattoos, which lasted over a week.

We got to play in the Count’s Splash Castle for two whole hours before the park opened.

There were only three or four other families there, so we pretty much had the run of the place.

We went down the water slides forty-three thousand and eight times. I counted.

I have never been so exhausted by 9 a.m. in my entire life.

My children have probably never been so clean, and most likely never will be so clean again.

We’ll look back on this as the cleanest day of our lives.

We were there for a segment on the local Fox morning news, and like an idiot I didn’t think to have anyone tape it for me. I’ve become so used to everything being available on the internet!

I didn’t exactly elbow anyone aside to get my moment of fame. By the time they were taping, I’d had eighty-two million buckets of water dumped on my head and I’m sure I was looking mighty purty.

Every time that bucket would get me, I’d scream. I just couldn’t help it. I am a sissy.

I may have enjoyed Sesame Place even more than my kids did. They are at an age where it may not be so “cool” to admit you are excited about seeing Cookie Monster and Grover.

At my advanced age, however, I have no such inhibitions.

Moments before this picture was taken, my oldest son melted with embarrassment and withered away into nothing, as I shoved my camera into his hands and yelled- YELLED, people-

“BERT! BERT! IT’S BERT!
JACOB, WILL YOU PLEASE TAKE MY PICTURE WITH BERT??!!”

Please, do not judge. I love me some Sesame Street.

This trip is one of a series. As I now work from home, I’ve been rewarding the kids with one day a week of undivided-attention Mom time. I’ll be posting in-depth about each of these trips on another blog, if you are interested in the details.