Florida's best entertainment (take that, Disney)!

Florida was quite the escape. And not just because my spirits needed lifting and it was pleasantly warm and sunny and we did a lot of great activities (more on that later this week).

The actual best form of entertainment—and distraction—were the kids.

Max toted around this Denny's menu for most of the trip because it pictured spaghetti, which he ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For real. Extra credit: Spot the "Max" and "Caleb" he asked me to write on it.

Max also had ice-cream every single night because we found a Stone Cold Creamery and he was so psyched it looked exactly like the one by our house. Halfway through dinner, Max would inevitably look up from his spaghetti and say "Ice-cream!" just to make sure we'd remember to take him there.

Sabrina kept calling sunscreen "sunscream." I decided not to correct her for the pure entertainment value, though I will certainly do so before she goes to college.

"Come here, Max, I need to put on your sunscream," she said every morning. And she did.

During car rides, she entertained us by reciting commercials, thereby confirming my suspicion the child has been watching way too much TV:

"Nationwide is on your side."

"Subway. Eat fresh!"

"They are happy, Happy Nappers, and they love to play with you!"

Max, meanwhile, was both entertained and terrified of the daily Mass Sliming at Nickelodeon Suites Resort, in which a gigantic bucket hanging above the pool area dumped a massive amount of green stuff onto a crowd (yes, I have photos). Max ran back to our room right before it tipped over and watched it unfold from the window, which faced the courtyard. Then he kept talking about it.

"LIME!" he'd say. ["SLIME!"]

"Was there a little or a lot?" I'd ask.

"ALAH!" he'd say. ["A LOT!"]

"What color was it?" I'd ask.

"EEEN!" ["GREEN!"]

He even slept with a little tube of it.

Even at her most obnoxious, Sabrina never failed to amuse. One day, as we were driving, she started begging us to let her see Ringo while we were in Florida. Dave told Sabrina it could wait till we got home.

"Daddy, can I borrow your phone?" she asked, sweetly. A minute later she asked, "Mommy, how do you spell don't?" Then she handed me back the phone:

Maybe I shouldn't have, but I laughed and laughed. Dave wasn't quite as amused.

Sabrina asked for the phone again.

Now Dave was amused, and I laughed so hard I cried. And it felt really good.

Share: How have your kids entertained you lately? What have they done that's made you smile or crack up?