Finding humor in life is of the utmost importance for survival, of this I am certain.

Asked what I wanted for Mother's Day I responded with the sweetest (and looniest) answer ever, "I want to spend it with the ones who have made me a mommy". Now lets be real here, that is not a dumb answer, however, wanting to take them to the zoo one day and deer park, rock climbing, and picnicking the next may have bordered on the lines of insane! Crazy as it was my brave husband loaded up eight children and his parents and off we went with our mini zoo to the the real zoo. Is it any wonder why people stare at a family with two wheelchairs, three cinnamon, one dark chocolate, and a handful of peach folks (descriptives given by our youngest) all with their own creative ways of dealing with other humans? The good news is that we survived, no animals were stolen or released - not for a lack of effort, and no cotton candy was consumed.

Well that went so well we thought we ought to do it again and this time lets go bigger! Lets take a 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 12, 13, and 17 year old to Taylors Falls and climb on rocks and go nature adventuring. What the????? Who's idea was this?!
Sure enough that super hero husband of mine loaded up the van again with our small herd and we were off. Prepared for whatever life was going to hand us, we had our first aid kit, stroller, Ergo baby carrier,  wheelchairs, bug spray, sunscreen, cooler filled with pre-made lunches, pullups, and extra clothes. We were set!
We forgot the magic fairy dust that makes that many children not kill each other in the van, cease from attacking random people and animals at the deer farm, oh yes and pooping in a sculpture garden. There is now a family in need of therapy after seeing 'art in action' from our youngest guest. I then realized I, along with the fairy dust, also forgot any sort of bag in case the need to pick up human feces may arise.

They all make me a mommy, a laughing lunatic, believer of miracles and fairy dust, humor seeking, need of a stiff drink, and never more blessed mommy that is.

Next year please remind me to go the spa route!