kaleidoscoping chaos...: "Club"bing in Jersey!!

Come on everyone... FIST PUMP!!!! to the techno disco beat!!!

or rock on up to the tee at the first hole for mini golf... whatever swings your club!

While at the Jersey Shore this weekend, we did what every other respectable group of cool kids did - we went mini-golfing. On Saturday night, my buddy was going to take her 3 kids to their usual hang out, Flamingo Mini Golf.   They are serious regulars and often win the tournaments there. I thought about it and I was like, what the H... why don't I take my crew too! I told her I thought I would tag along, she looked at me a bit hesitantly - I asked her whether she thought I could wheel a stroller around the place for Vera. She wasn't sure. I asked her if she thought it would be crowded because I knew that wouldn't work for Jonah - she wasn't sure... So I called. The guy who answered the phone was totally awesome. He insisted the stroller would be fine!!! He was like, listen lady, the place is totally wheel chair accessible, your stroller will be fine. Then I mentioned my mischievous 3 yr old... do they have clubs for little ones? was it crowded? what did he think? Again, he was like, listen lady, we have clubs for him, the place is totally chill, it isn't crowded... he basically was like, quit yapping and get on over here... so we did!

Before we left, my buddy recounted a story to me about her oldest son, when he was 3, she took him mini golfing and they had to leave because he just kept running all over the place... I was getting nervous...

For no reason - it turns out. It was awesome! Jonah loves mini golf. And he is quite good at it. Vera really enjoyed it too! Jonah was given the cutest little club, perfect size for him and blue ball. He waited his turn, after J and N but before F and A. He sat on the "waiting bench" when he was supposed to. He held onto his blue ball. He kept his club down and did not hit anyone with it. He was fascinated by all the "props" (what do you call all the mini golf things anyway). He kept staring into the little house asking where all the people went. Every time he went up to putt his ball, we taught him to address the ball and say, "Hello Ball!" just like Ralph Kramden from the Honeymooners (it is a classic - see it here).

After 18 holes, Jonah hit his last ball in the last hole and won a lolly pop! He was ecstatic!   Let's just say that mini-golfing was a total "hole in one" and we'd do it again!

Don't worry folks, my life is not perfect. I always try to push the envelop just a little too far. We decided to go out for pizza after golfing. By now it was after 7pm and I should have known better. We were at the beach all day and hot and tired. When we got to the pizza place, Vera threw up. I cleaned and changed her and thought she might have gagged herself as I had forgotten to give her her pacifier in the car. We get into the pizza store and Jonah proceeds to have a serious and complete meltdown because he doesn't want water in his cup... and while he is doing so, Vera throws up again (because I had put her in her pjs and given her a bottle of milk-stupid me). I collect my motley, gross and hysterical crew, throw them back into the car. We leave our buddies at the pizza store and go back to the house. In the literally 8 minutes it took to get back to the house, they both fell asleep.

Mini Golf - excellent Idea
Pizza after mini golf - disastrous Idea
Sleeping kids - minor relief

Vera seemed to recover the next day. I think it was being overtired, feeling the heat, and eating too much... but what the hell do I know.

Next time, maybe I won't reach so far... although I guess my kids ended their evening exactly like those kids on MTV's "The Jersey Shore"- you know, puking and passing out... maybe it has something to do with the geography of it all.

(For those Jersey Shore fans, please note that we did do a ton of GTL when we were out there - except our gym was at the playground, our tanning was at the beach and our laundry was done by moi!)