Whoa...

Spring is here!!! Well, its the first day of spring, but since we now have 4 inches of white stuff on the ground and its still snowing, it doesn't feel much like spring. And to think, just two days ago it was almost 70 degrees!!! Crazy. I love winter. I love the seasons, but enough already!!! We Johnsons need to play outside!

St. Patrick's Day was pretty uneventful around here. I wanted to take the kids to the parade, but it ended up being pretty cold and rainy so we stayed home. We made green Jello Jigglers instead which was just as good! We made sugar cookies with green sugar too. Not a good idea since I seem to be the only one around here who eats them. Those cookies tend to influence my Weight Watchers points in a negative way, but they are so good.



Cash loved the green "jellis".



Riley liked to play in it, but when I got her to try it she gagged. How can she not like Jello? And green Jello at that?! My favorite in college was green Jello with pears. She got that from her dad I guess...he's a Jello hater too!


This little one missed out in the Jello fun. Didn't feel like cleaning it out of his hair and ears so I gave him some green Vegetable Straws instead. He was okay with that.

On Thursday it got up to almost 70 degrees like I said earlier so we took a trip to the Kansas City Zoo. The kids I used to nanny for were on spring break so I took them along with me. I was laughing on my drive to the zoo because I felt like I was driving a school bus. They were all so excited and so LOUD! It was great though. Great to be outside and great to be together with a bunch of good kids!

Sam, Riley, Cash, Kami, Daniel and Tripp

Kami, Sam and Daniel were really a lot of help with my 3 little ones. Cash and Riley were able to walk almost the entire way through the zoo by themselves since I had help chasing after them. Usually they are confined to the stroller because I like to have them all strapped down! =) That is just easier for me, especially when there are so many people around like there were that day. Spring fever hit the KC Zoo for sure.

We saw a lot of animals too which isn't usually the case at the KC Zoo so we were lucky.

Kami cracked up because she thought my stroller was so funny, along with many other people we saw throughout the day. It is pretty crazy how many people take a second look, make a comment or ask me where I got my stroller.

One time one of our friends said he felt like he was walking around with a rockstar or something. That is how I felt the first time I saw a mom with her Valco stroller. I had to get to her to ask her where she got it and then I had to have one. I have the Valco Tri Mode Twin with the Toddler Seat. It is a little big, but it is awesome. Like I said, I like to have a place to strap them all down if needed. And, it was going to be needed on our zoo trip! I will explain in a bit...

I mentioned that my kids walked pretty much through the entire zoo. Well, they ran a lot too. It was getting close to 1 o'clock which is around their nap time. They had basically eaten snacks all day, not really a good lunch, but they seemed okay.

Seemed, being the key word.

We decided to stick around for the Sea Lion show at 1:30 and then we would go home.

We got our spot and everyone was good. All of a sudden Riley started crying because she wanted to ride the carousel. Well, the carousel was $2 and I had no cash. She was in major meltdown mode.

So I told the older 3 that they could stay and watch the show while I took the little 3 to go to the Shazam to get cash. One the way there I was trying to explain to Riley that we had to go get money if she wanted to ride, but she just saw us walking away from everything.

Walking away from the sea lions, walking away from the carousel, walking away from her sanity. She went nuts.

Screaming, throwing her body about and twisting around in the stroller so much that she was getting tangled up in the straps. They were up around her neck and she was literally strangling herself. I was trying my best to get her out of that mess without looking like I was torturing her right there in front of all the other zoo patrons...on the busiest day I have ever seen at the KC Zoo.

When the kids came back from the show, we took off to the car.

I got Riley all strapped into her car seat which was not easy, but she was slowly losing steam.

I got everyone else all buckled in, got the wheels off the stroller, got it loaded up and we headed home.

Then it started again.

Riley wanted her sweatshirt on.

She was screaming and telling me to "top da car".

Kami quietly told me that she thought I should just stop and put her shirt on.

It was a 30 minute drive home.

So I stopped.

I cautiously began to unbuckle her, ready to grab her if she tried to escape, but she calmed down even more as I set her free. I got her sweatshirt on and she even thanked me when I was done. She asked me to wipe the tears from her eyes which is her new thing. When it gets wet under the nose piece of her glasses it really bugs her.

So I wiped off her little face.

And once again we were headed home.

She was asleep in less than 5 minutes after being in the car, fighting it all the way.

But it was finally quiet.

And there was peace.

Amen.