I'm Exhausted.

This morning and early afternoon we had a Safari here. Seven 9-year olds came over, and we celebrated L's birthday. It was in Feb, but that was my busy time at work, so we waited until we could have a calmer schedule, and play outside.

They had pith helmets, binoculars, sunglasses, squirt guns, flashlights, compasses and bug pencils as their goodie bags. I hid reptiles in the grass and they had to find them. We had a cool treasure hunt, and even at 6:00 this morning I came up with cool clues:

The next clue won't give you a rest
It's in the tree I like the best.
To figure out which one, you'll have to think.
I can see it from my kitchen sink.
The biggest, the oldest, the roundest you'll see
But it's not the closest, it's far from me.

and

This used to be a place for food
Now it's looking pretty crude.
Since it's creepy, I did decide
To hide the clue just outside.
(I had hidden it outside the grain bin)

We ate bugs made of string cheese and chow mein noodles, spiders constructed of hot dogs, ants on a log with peanut butter, celery and raisins. I made a cool cake in the shape of a snake. We had worms in dirt (gummy worms in crushed up Oreos) and animal crackers.

We played games like animal charades and a jumping relay, plus the squirt gun play and the treasure hunt.

And now I am exhausted. B and M went to the store and bought the ingredients for M to cook us all supper. They also brought me my mother's day present-- a hammock! B says it's big enough for the whole family!! I am tickled pink. I think it's going to be a weekend of R&R-- what better way to celebrate!

Also, I have the whole week off next week! I'm going to work hard on the walls inside. I really want to get busy on them. It will really make a difference in my perspective, plus it will be so much easier to take small baby steps toward being "done." At this point, the next step is so drastic, time-consuming, and requires such a big block of time, that we have put it off for a long time. It will be a big weight off of my shoulders to have this part of the project done.

And I have turned off my email from work-- I actually put an auto-responder on my email! For you who know me personally, you know that was a big, big deal. I'm trying to not be the workaholic that my genetics dictate that I am...

I think I could get used to it!

We saw an oriole today. L said he saw one yesterday, too. We've nailed some oranges to a few trees, and hope to see him around here more often. He's a beauty!

Hope you have a great mother's day weekend. Those who are moms, or those who just have moms. : )