We woke up anxious to go, hoping to see the joeys and budgies, not daunted by the grey skies that were threatening a little rain. Not daunted, that is, until the skies opened up and a monsoon came forth. My heart sank. Punkgirl would be so disappointed. I wracked my brain for some indoor activity that would tempt her as much as THE ZOO. It would have to be something really awesome, and my funds were limited--after all, the zoo was going to be free, so I didn't budget for more than a little gas!
I thought and thought, jotting down ideas and sweating a little. Coffeeguy suggested pedicures, which would have been great, but being notoriously cheap, the value for my money didn't appeal to me. Ok. I had two bowling alleys a few towns over that were pretty cheap, one tenpin, one candle pin. I had the arcade the next town over. And then there was the mall, right in my town, but again, funds were limited, and Punkgirl is pretty particular about where she spends her time. I could go from hero to zero in the blink of an eye, and I knew it.
I hemmed and hawed, and came to Punkgirl with my list, anticipating an angry sulk that we were going to miss the zoo. I was pleasantly surprised that she was ok with missing the zoo because "I don't really want to get all wet in the rain, so the animals probably won't want to either." I gave her my choices, mentally calculating the amount I would be wasti--er, spending. As a last minute throw-in, I mentioned we could go to Pinkberry. For those of you that don't know, Pinkberry makes fabulously flavored frozen yogurt with a plethora of toppings, ranging from fresh fruit to chopped coconut to mini m&ms. It's yummy, fairly inexpensive, but no way a replacement for the zoo.
Unless you're Punkgirl. Her eyes lit up, she said "Yes, yes, yes!" before I even finished my sentence, and we were settled. I asked her if she was sure, and she looked at me as though I had lost my mind. I made out with spending less than ten bucks! Thank you Pinkberry, for being magically delicious!
Now, what about Happyboy? Well...I'm sorry to tell you that Happyboy was grounded. Summer is here, so he's testing me to see how I will respond, and yesterday when he told me he would do his chore IF I told him where we were going, and I of course replied "Do your chore and I'll tell you where we're going!" I gave him to the count of 5, which was very generous on my part,...I warmed him that if he didn't do his chore he wasn't going...and once he didn't do as he was told, I had to follow through with my threat. He wouldn't have gone to the zoo, and he didn't get to go to Pinkberry. He took it mostly well, even when he thought we were going to the zoo, although he asked me to "take lots of pictures!"
Anyway, the zoo was just one of many planned activities. We are going to go crazy and decorate the house like different countries, eat new foods, learn new words, and do arts and crafts geared around different countries. I am sure I am looking forward to it more than either Punkgirl or Happyboy!
Suck at home moms, what do you do to make the summer fun?
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