May 19, 2017

(click here for today's pictures)

• Alyssa Kate and Reagan said that they were awake until 2 last night and I certainly believe them. I went up at one point because it sounded like they were having a dance party on our heads. They were laying perfectly still when I made it upstairs but the dance party continued all night long. Apparently, they were laying in the perfect spot above our heads to make a squeaking sound come from our ceiling each and every time that they moved around in the middle of the night. I slept very little due to this and due to the fact that I didn't want to miss my alarm this morning.
• I guess I was more concerned about being the last one to Hot Springs than being worried about missing the alarm. We were actually the first ones but it took a lot of scrambling around to have everyone ready and fed by the time that we left. We dropped Whitman off at Nonna and Pops house and he was so excited to be spending the day there.
• We were the first of our group to make it to Magic Springs. Candice had planned us a little field trip to Magic Springs. I am not sure how educational this field trip was but it sure was a lot of fun. 
• After getting our tickets and entering the park, along with 100 more bus loads of kids, we headed to the theme park area. Some kids rode the bumper cars and others headed over to the little planes and carousel. Afterwards, we rode the log ride. There was another roller coaster and possibly a few other rides before we stopped for our lunch.
• When lunch was finished, some of the big kids went off to ride a roller coaster and the rest of us walked to the water park area. From there we started to let the kids go off in groups or pairs to ride a ride and then come back and check in with us. Even though there were 6 mothers, we still had 17 kids (3 little ones stayed home). This made it a bit difficult to keep up with who was where with whom. We managed and made it home with all of our kiddos. Though I did panic occasionally because I would count my crew and not get the right number. Even thought I knew that Whitman was at Nonna's house, I still would try to count 6 but would worry when I only came up with 5 Dennies.
• In the water park, we parked our stuff in a kiddie area and the little ones loved playing on the slides and in the water. Keaton was only able to do one other slide in that area-and she did it over and over again. Charlotte and she did this ride at least 4 times by their selves-imagine those little girls hauling a huge mat up 4 stories of stairs to slide down a massive slide. They loved it.
• Speaking of Keaton, we saw a little girl who looked just like her. It was spooky the similarity. I didn't get a picture but their hair and cheeks and build were just so similar. They always say that everyone has a twin and this was definitely Keaton's twin. 
• The park closed at 4 so around 3, we all moved our spot-some went to a roller coaster, some went to different water slide and others went to the wave pool. At the end of the day, we all met back at the wave pool and the kids stayed in the pool until the life guards closed the pool and the park.
• We took a group picture and then headed to our cars. I passed out drinks to my crew and we hit the road heading home. We picked up Whitman and he was not too happy to see us. He wanted to stay at Nonna's house and then he wanted to go somewhere else. He even refused to get out of the car-until I forgot about him and turned the lights off and went into the house.
• The kids vegged for a bit and then we passed out supper just as the neighbors came out to play. Everyone played outside for a bit but Whitman ended up inside by me on the couch. It didn't take too long before he was fast asleep. I tried to wake him up but then I saw that it was 8 so I just let him snooze.
• I looked over and saw that Robby was asleep in a chair and after Campbell ran in to say that they were going to play at the neighbor's house, I went on and closed my eyes too. We all stirred again (not Whitman) at 9. Robby fetched the kids and we threw them in the showers.
• Robby decided that he would run to Kroger to buy some big Gatorades for all the soccer kids for their last game (yes, we know that it is probably going to rain). I tucked the kids in and they were pretty exhausted-I am too!