Living, Breathing, Snot-Producing Birth Control

This past weekend, John and I babysat my brother Matt's, and his wife Sharon's, three kids, Eric 11, Emily 6 and Julie 4. It was for the most part a lot of fun.

Eric had a swimming lesson Saturday morning, then we went to Culvers for lunch, and then to Grant's Farm. Grant's Farm is a lot of fun, even for grown ups because they have free beer. I especially like bottle feeding the baby goats. The kids (maybe I should say children) liked it a little less than me. Eric climbed the fence, Emily wouldn't even go in the pen (as you can see her and John on the outside of the fence feeding the goat in the picture) and Julie gave her bottle up to one tiny little goat that carried it around triumphantly. After Grant's Farm we headed to McDonald's Playplace, struggled at Blockbuster trying to find three movies the five of us could agree on, went back to Matt and Sharon's house, watched Sponge Bob Square Pants, Spy Kids 3-D, and I fell asleep before we could watch Ray.

On Sunday we woke up, ate scrambled eggs with cheese, went to Church where Julie has bible study, Emily goes to some special place during the gospel, and Eric asked before the first reading, "is it almost time to go?" Then we headed out to the Zoo. They were all happy Nascar was not on (Eric especially) because he would have rather stayed home and watched the race. John and I had to raise our hands at least 5 times in the minivan to verify that we did not like Dale Earnhart Jr. (I'm pretty sure Julie says Durnhart Jr.) The Zoo was awesome, the kids loved the penguins, and the carousel, and some big yak like thing chasing this little deer like thing. On the way home, the kids wanted to go to McDonald's again, and John told them we were taking them to the dentist, then to the doctor to get shots, and then to Bangladesh so they could work in a sweat shop and make Nike shoes all day long. At one point in the minivan they were chanting "McDonald's, McDonald's" and John and I were chanting, "Bangladesh, Bangladesh."

My favorite parts of the weekend were when Eric told me he wants to go to Purdue and be an engineer to design a hover car, when Julie told me she loved me twice, when I got to drive the minivan (I became protective-good-driving-mom like driver) when Emily and Julie let me put their hair in ponytails, and when Emily told me she wished John and I could be there everyday because she was having so much fun. The worst part of the weekend was when I was holding Julie, waiting for the zookeeper to feed the sea lions, and she sneezed on me like five times. My hair and jacket were slimed. Then I put her down, and she wiped her nose on the back on John's jacket.