Saturday, March 29, 2008

Family Fun

We're in the middle of a weekend called, "Family Fun", and it's basically a very short, activity-filled two days of family togetherness, planned and executed by moi, paid for generously by the husband.

And it's going so well! The whole thing is a secret, and we've just been going from one thing to another and the children don't know what is happening next.

The details and costs:

Friday "kidnapping" from school at 1pm..........free
Butterfly Gardens on Bogue road.................parking, $3
Clara's restaurant (old train depot, and a train went by!)............$44 with tip
Preuss Pets (huge pet store with amazing exotic birds, fish, reptiles and...kittens)......free
Horton Hears A Who with popcorn and pop.........$38
The Dairy Store on Farm Lane....................$15
Driving around MSU campus playing the Airport Game.....free
*the Airport Game was created and named by my brother Crydo. Basically you people-watch until you see someone with a slight resemblance to a famous person, a friend or a relative, and then you shout out, "There's __________!" Unfortunately for the husband, the children enjoyed pointing out people with bald heads, very plump bodies or people with large and poufy heads of hair and shouting, "There's Daddy!" There was no rhyme nor reason to pointing out people who looked like Daddy, it's just that he can take a joke I guess. Another popular person to find was, "There's Molly!" anytime they saw a blonde headed, pretty girl with her hair pulled back, smart jacket and backpack. There was a definite "Molly-look" to a lot of those college students.

Now today there is a lazy morning, a brand new puzzle set up on the card table ($7), and this afternoon we are visiting the Scrap Box, a recycling place where you can fill a large bag of anything from the store for $6.50. It's a big building full of cool stuff that businesses usually just throw away - but children love making arts/crafts from it. I can imagine my Aunt E would love this place!

If we have time we're visiting the U of M Law Library (hahaha). I know, sounds super-cool. But it's free. If you go in and ask for a Visitor's Pass, you can walk around the whole thing. I heard it sort of looks like Hogwarts, and there's a whole subterranean level to check out. It could be one of my famous ideas that goes over like a lead balloon....

After that we have tickets to the Ann Arbor film festival ($46), where we'll watch the Family showings of several film shorts in the Michigan Theatre.

On the way home, we'll go to Los Tres Amigos, and I have to laugh here....the children have been begging to go to this restaurant because apparently their grandparents took them and they loved it. We really never eat out as a family so this is a special treat for them. I looked up the AA location on the internet and read really good reviews for the restaurant except one that says,

"I'd rather be stabbed in the stomach than eat here ever again."

hahahaha. Always an adventure....

Peace!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow - stabbed in the stomach?? Good luck on that one!

Your Family Fun sounds like its going great!! Look for Dorothy at U of M - she's in the law school there. She'll be the one that looks like a brunette Molly.

mrc-w said...

Can I be a surrogate kid this weekend? That sounds like such a blast! That is so funny about "looks like Daddy" and thanks for the nice description of "looking like Molly" :) You guys are sweet!
I LOVE THE DAIRY STORE!!! Did you watch them make cheese? It is so much fun!

kool kenna said...

oooh sounds sooo fun! so glad you played the airport game. you know we went to florida w/ our youth pator and husband well we played that the whole time and then once they left they kept plating it and at the airport they were like hey theres that guy from the sandlot and it really was him!

Janice said...

i love reading your blog and am so impressed by how often you write! you rock!

Janice said...

hey i took my kids plus 2 of joann's and went to preuss pets, marshall music, butterfly house, and the dairy store today. mucho fun! thanks for the great ideas!