Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Manners and Cache

Would somebody, ANYBODY, explain to me why people don't say, "excuse me" to my kids when they're standing in the middle of the aisle? Instead, the offended party stands there silent with her cart, waiting for me to notice her. When I finally do notice her, she gives me one of those smiles that says, "I'm smiling but on the inside I'm thinking I want to yell at your kids to MOVE IT". This happens ALL THE TIME. It frustrates me to no end. I want to look at the adult and say in a condescending voice, "Say, 'excuse me please' and they'll move". But I don't. I'm not the kind of person who can say that but boy do I WANT to. It happened to us three times in Walmart today and we were literally in there for less than 10 minutes. Do they not see the holes on either side of my kids heads and realize that they must be EARS? Arrrrgh. OK...guess that's a pet peeve of mine. ;) Do me a favor, ok? Next time you're in the store and someone's kids are in your way, PLEASE look the kids in the eyes and say, "Excuse me, hun". Just for me. Try it. Maybe we'll start something where kids are treated like they have ears and brains. :)

Onto other things...
The kidlets and I went on our first geocache today! It was based on Harry Potter and since Matthew is reading through the series, it was a really great one for our group. We were supposed to meet a friend today but he got sick and since the kids were disappointed, we decided to do this instead. So I plugged in the coordinates into my new spiffy GPS and we found our way there. Its location was in a local park that we know fairly well and it was pretty easy to find.

"Which direction now, Mom?"


Harry Potter Cache


You've heard of the game show Cash Cab, right? Well here are the CacheKids inspecting their treasure.


In most caches you'll find a logbook where you sign your name and date and leave comments. Then in the container you'll find all sorts of odds and ends. You take a treasure and leave one in return for the next person. There were Happy Meal toys, small stuffed animals, stickers, toy cars, etc. My kids picked out a spider ring (Matthew), a princess tiara (Rose) and a die (as in the singular form of the word dice) (Jade). We left two magic rings and a key chain that Hubby brought back from Vegas that had "Treasure Hunters" printed on it. I thought it was especially appropriate. I guess I'll have to start a box for keeping trinkets specifically for geocaching.

Though it was ccccccold (Jade's complaint) and muddy (Rose's complaint) and in the woods with bugs (Matthew's complaint) and I worried about copperheads the whole time (my complaint), we did have fun...and Linnae didn't complain once...not even when I was carrying her and my big camera and my GPS and cell phone and car keys (not that I'm complaining but it will be much easier when she starts walking!). But in spite of our minor complaints, we did have fun and are looking forward to the next hunt.

2 comments:

Mama Kautz said...

we too homeschool~eclectic, not entirely unschool....and also started geocaching recently. The kids have said I am addicted :( but it is SO much fun
Team Kautz

Jen E said...

I agree. I always say excuse me and most of the time, the kids will move and the parents usually apologize. It's just simple manners. We try really hard to teach them. Scott is better than Sara at "ma'am" and "sir" but they both call their elders "Miss" or "Mr". Our schools also help to enforce it but it really is our responsibility as parents. Glad you guys are enjoying the Geocaching. Sounds like loads of fun!!!