Spring Break

As some of you know, we were off school for TWO WEEKS for Spring Break.

WHY??? You may ask. Well, I have a theory. I think it is so that families who have two households (divorce) can have time with the kids. There are two weeks for Fall Break, too. Two weeks is a nice vacation for a non-custodial parent.

For us -- it's a little LONG. And, more so when finances are tight and traveling is out.

BUT, we did have fun this Spring Break! The first few days were rough, as we got used to the change in routine. After that, we relaxed and enjoyed it.

Some of the things we did included:
* Blew off all promised play dates. We didn't really PLAN this. It's just that we ARE a play date unto ourselves. LOL! It never occurs to me to arrange play dates in order to amuse my children. They handle that very well, themselves. I teach them ALLLLLLL the time that there is NO excuse for an intelligent person to be "bored." And, it is not my job to entertain them. They are VERY good at that! So, apologies to all the mom who mentioned play dates to me, and did not hear from me. It just never occurs to me! Sorry. :-(

* Did have one FUN play date. This was with our friends who have the new baby sister "R" in my previous posts. Two of the daughters are May and Irene's ages. The girls are very close friends and we MISS each other terribly since we became Chinese School Dropouts this year. It was SO GOOD to see the Merry Band running together. They had a scavenger hunt, made charm bracelets, playing in the snow, jumped on the little jump-o-line, baked brownies, and just played in the toys. All the girls had a blast!

* Played games. LOTS of games! Mostly, we played Life and a card game called Popcorn.

* Visited Grandma. We spent a couple of afternoons at Grandma's house, and she taught us some card games. May LOVES to play popcorn!

* Went to the movies. We finally saw "The Tale of Despereaux." It was fun!

* Tried to go to another movie ("Marley & Me") but never did make it there, because the SNOW (and more snow!) prevented us from going out. Truthfully, I was rather glad about missing this movie, as I have been warned by countless Other Mothers that the ending will make us cry. I would rather see it at home, where I can bawl my eyes out freely, and not feel inhibited by being at the theatre.

* Did yoga. Yes, yoga. The girls asked me what yoga is, and I had them drag their small play mats out as I popped in a yoga DVD. They were all REALLY good at yoga!

* Played with food. We made Meat Men for dinner one night. Meat men are pieces of lunch meat that you decorate with facial features made of condiments, pickles, cheese, etc. and then you eat them! It is fun. Give it a try.

* Watched it blizzard, tried to play in the blizzard, shoveled snow, played in the snow. I think it must have snowed more during those two weeks than it did all winter long! It was GREAT!! I had been wishing for more snow! Go ahead -- blame it on me. :-)

* Probably the biggest thing we did was to set up a bedroom for May. The three girls had been sharing a "sleeping room" and had a playroom in the bedroom next-door. But, May decided she wanted to have her own room! This is HUGE. She is feeling safe and secure! She is growing up! This is very cool. So, we took down Irene's double/full bed and stored it in the basement. Irene moved to Janie lower bunk and Janie moved to May's upper bunk. And, May moved next-door to the former playroom. But, not before we moved alllllllllllllllllllllllll the toys out, cleaned, rearranged, etc. Our entire main floor of our house seemed to be FILLED with plastic bins that were FILLED with toys. But, both bedrooms are getting into great shape now. And, all the girls are happy with their new beds. It is more hectic for ME at bedtime, as I need to read in two rooms. But, I'll live. :-)

* We got the girls some new winter hats on clearance. Tis the season! The end of the season!

* Chris took each othe girls for some special one-to-one Daddy time. Mostly, they just ran errands and went to the Library. But, time ALONE with Daddy is special! This always brings to mind my Daddy Dates at Michelle's ice cream parlorwith my Daddy when I was a little girl. He would wear a suit and I would wear my best dress. He would buy me a butterscotch sundae. These are sweet memories to me in a variety of ways. I hope my daughters look back on special times with their Daddy with the same smiles when they are grown up.

* We also did our usual crafts and stuff.

All-in-all, it was a nice Spring Break. And, we were all quite ready to have school start up again on April 6th!

Pictures will follow in other posts.

-Holly