Ok, so my Perfect Kite Day a few weeks ago probably made me a little cocky-I’ll admit it. I thought, Hey, I can handle taking all 3 boys to the Tulip Festival by myself. No problem. We’ll have another wondeful day. I imagined them running gaily through the tulips and sitting together smiling sweetly for the camera. Then we would ride the horse drawn hay ride through the tulips with the sun shinning and top it off with an ice cream treat. Everyone would remember this day and look back on it with fond emotions. Now, if you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you’re probably beginning to see that my wonderful plans for my children usually do not go the way I want.
This day was sadly no different.
My first mistake was talking up the Tulips to little boys and convincing them that it was going to be “Fun.” From the moment we got there the older boys did nothing but whine. “When are we going to do the “FUN” stuff?” “Can we stop taking pictures now?” “I want to go do something “FUN.” Apparently, FUN, as defined by a little boy does not involve walking around looking at beautiful tulips while your mother makes you stand still and smile into the bright sunlight. Blue Jeans was not willing to cooperate either. He would not even stay near the tulips long enough for me to get a good shot because across the pathway from the tulips were…horses. Right now ANY furry/feathery creature emits loud grunting and pointing from Blue Jeans. The earth stands still whenever he sees an animal and we have to stand and point (and grunt) for 5 minutes. He stands at the window half the day grunting at the birds, squirrels and occasional raccoons in our backyard. There was never a chance for the tulips with horses around.
After cajoling for a while and eventually forcing them on pain of death to stand still for some pictures I gave up in utter frustration. Blue Jeans was completely covered in dirt and the older boys were complaining so loudly that people were starting to stare. After being there a total of 15 minutes after having driven 60 to get there I was already DONE. I told them they could forget about the ice cream treat. In a last ditch effort to save the expedition, I forked over the money to ride the trolley. We did manage to have a rather peaceful non complaining ride and the boys enjoyed being up so high above the tulips. As a perfect ending to this not so perfect trip, I managed to back the van over our stroller and broke it in my rush to end the misery.
Now, a few days later I can look back and see that expecting the boys to be interested in a bunch of flowers for longer than about 2 minutes was not really fair. My expecations, as usual, were too high. Someday, hopefully before my children are all raised and gone, I’ll be able to bring my expectations, both of my children’s abilities and my own plans of grandeur down to an earthly level. The tulips, at least, cooperated with me and were just as beautiful as ever.
Short n Sweet 
Wow, Those flowers are beautiful! I\’d go there with you anytime. I\’m jealous, tulips are my favorite. I know how the \”high expectations\”/ miserable failure thing goes. Most things we do my kids say were horribly boring, even if they had fun. It kills the joy I tell ya.
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