How to Get Really Sticky and Cold

Sometimes you have to read the fine print when purchasing a Groupon.  I was excited when I got my daily email notice and it was for a discounted admission to Hogle Zoo's Zoo Lights - I love going to Zoo Lights!  However, I didn't notice that the Groupon expired the first week of December - we really had to rush to fit the outing in our schedule and we were forced to go during a week of extremely freezing cold weather.

I think I did pretty well in preventing a miserable outing for the kids by making them all wear their snow suits despite the lack of a single snowflake on the ground.  Plus hats, gloves and a scarf or two.  We were well bundled. The girls were fine but Stomper grumbled about this.  Of course, he's the kid I have to bribe just to get him to wear a sweatshirt on top of his tee shirt every morning as he's leaving for school.  I guess he's more warm blooded than I thought.

All was well with our outing - the lights were lovely, the crowds were thin and the kids were happy.  Until they spotted the cotton candy hanging in the window of the snack bar by the big cats.  If you frequent Hogle Zoo at all you'll know that the cats are located at the single farthest point from the main gates you can go.  And silly me, I indulged them.  Of course, this means that the kids all pulled off their gloves in order to pluck at the puff of cotton candy and then suck it off their fingers.  So their fingers not only got completely sticky and pink but also wet and thus freezing cold.

I had so hoped we would have a night without tears and truly for the most part we had a great evening.  But for the last 15 minutes of our visit the Preslars could be seen running from one end of the zoo to the other while carrying at least one sobbing, sticky and pink child. Bundle was the most miserable of all but she seems to have forgotten that part and now asks me multiple times a day to take her "To the Zoo Lights Tomorrow."  Previously she had just asked to go to the zoo, but she's thrown the lights in there ever since our outing.  Lucky for me she has not figured out the actual meaning of the word "tomorrow." And since she never asks to go today, I can usually say, "Okay, we'll go tomorrow!"