Spring Break: Day 10: Mall & Park

The last day of spring break!!! Yay!

We started the day at the mall for a quick hair cut for the boys. Blake got his summer crew cut!
And T didn't want anything cut at all, but we agreed on a short trim!



Then we headed to a great park not to far from the mall, for lunch and some playing!




Iz isn't sure what she thinks of wood chips (or faux wood chips in this case-recycled rubber tires). She can't walk well on them and I won't let her eat them, so she's basically not a fan of them at all!!
While I have fully enjoyed the last 10 days, there is a part of me that will truly enjoy the 2 hours tomorrow morning when both boys will be in school. At the same time, I've enjoyed the freedom the last 10 days have given me...no rushing home to meet the bus, or rushing to get out the door to get to school on time. Most of me is greatly looking forward to summer!!

Spring Break: Day 8 & 9 Easter

Days 8 & 9 of Spring Break were also Easter weekend. We spent the days dying eggs, hunting for eggs, and hanging out with the family.

Decorating the eggs




T reading his clues to find his eggs and basket

Blake, looking at his clues in his eggs to find his easter basket.

Izzy with her easter egg and basketT & B with their easter lego's

Trevor's eggs, including a purple one for Izzy, a ladybug, and a Star Wars wrap.
Izzy all dressed up watching her brothers play outside

Izzy's new hair bows from Aunt Kate. Nothing says easter like hair bows with skulls!Building with Scary Steve's Lego's

And wrestling with Scary Steve

The one weird part of the weekend... After dying the eggs, Daddy was unsure of what to do with the egg dye. You see in the past 3 years he's always taken the dye outside and decorated the snow with it. But this year, NO SNOW!!!! Yay!!

Spring Break: Day 7: Zoo??

Today was predicted to be a BEAUTIFUL day. In fact, the whole week of spring break was beautiful weather-wise. All week we took advantage of that, and it worked great! Because of our schedule, I decided today would be a good day to visit the zoo. However, I didn't take into account that today was the first day of spring break in the state where the zoo is located (not the one I live in) or that today was Good Friday.... bad idea!

We got up and out of the house early, and headed for the zoo. The kids were excited since they love the zoo and friends were going to meet us there. We got almost all the way there with no issues, and had already heard from one friend that they were there already. Suddenly, a mile and a half from the entrance (and one turn) traffic became TERRIBLE and we stopped moving. According to my GPS we went .3 miles in about 20 minutes. At that rate, we would have been sitting in the care for about 2 more hours! No thank you!!

So I bailed on the zoo, and on our friends (SORRY!), and quickly racked my brain for alternate activities. And so we ended up at the Children's Museum in the city, one which we'd never been to before. Great choice, and it was surprisingly empty (maybe because it was inside and people wanted to be outside enjoying the weather?). We did eat our lunch outside, and got some great views of the lake nearby, so I think it was a win-win situation!!

B & T checking out a motorcycle and all making all it's parts 'work'
T building some train tracks, with Iz helping (i.e. destroying)Iz LOVED this! It is a life-size (almost) train that the kids could get inside and push buttons and levers to hear all the typical train sounds (whistle, horn, steam, etc.). On the side, was a crank that turned to simluate pistons moving. Izzy loved watching them turn and the various toys pop up and down. She eventually figured out how to turn the crank herself. Anytime someone turned it, she would run over to the window and SCREAM at the toys!!

T & B playing the the 'ball area'. It was an area where there were tons of golf balls and lots of different things to do with them, like build tracks for them to go on, or use various built tracks to see what effect it had on the ball(ski jump, rocking horse, etc). They spent tons of time here and all 3 kids loved it!
Iz liked pushing the 'golf cart' that was there so you could walk around and pick up the balls from all over.
In the music area, you could actually conduct this orchestra (the baton had an IR connection I think) and they would play slower or faster depending on how you conducted. Very cool...especially when the song they were playing was the Star Wars Theme!!
Trev shopping at the grocery store, with Izzy's help

Blake working the Deli counter at the grocery store. Man can that kid make some great sandwiches!Iz rocking out and playing the drums and cymbals!
B working at the post office. He spent tons of time here working the loading crane, and cranking the packages down the line
T being a mechanic. He had to change out the leaky muffler, take off old tires and put new ones on (the screw gun made pneumatic noises), put in a new air filter, add coolant and oil, and put on a new license plate. He spent forever here and loved it! He says he was practicing for when he grows up to be a mechanic!!!

It may not have been what we planned, but we had a great time there!

Spring Break: Day 6: Dentist, Park & Swimming

The morning of Day 6 started with a brief interruption of our fun festivities with a trip to the dentist.

When I scheduled this visit I was less than thrilled that it was during Spring Break, but it seems our dentist, and kids only dentist, has certain scheduling requirements. Children 5 and under can only come before Noon. Since T gets home at 11:45 am from kindergarten, that's not going to happen on a school day. When I pointed this out to the receptionist, she said "then have him skip a day of school". Oh yes, education isn't important. Dental hygiene is much more important!! I declined the miss school option, and scheduled for Spring Break. Ugh! But at least the appointment was early in the morning and wouldn't impact much of our day!

The visit when great, both boys got x-rays and have NO cavities! They were well behaved, and got clean bills of (dental) health! I really like how this practice caters just to children, has child size exam chairs, and lots of other kid friendly features. The kids are their usual bit skeptical to go at first (who wouldn't be-it is the dentist) but once we are there, they love it, go back for the cleaning on their own, and do a great job!

Ah, but when the visit was done, the fun had only just begun. I went to schedule their next visits, for this fall, when Trevor will be in full day school! Ahhh... Trevor can't go in the morning, Blake can't go in the afternoon, and NO exceptions will be made. And they take a one-hour lunch break, so no scheduling the last morning appointment and the first afternoon one!!! (But that was a good thought, thanks E!). So I'm destined to take two drives there, 30 minutes each way, with Izzy in tow both times (and this will be the case for the next 3 appointments-year and a half until B is 6). Or of course, I could take them to a practice close to home without being kid friendly. Ugh...the choices!!

Anyway....complaining over, back to Spring Break!!!

We joined friends at their house, and walked with them to a nearby park. It was hot out and the boys were wearing jeans. So they complained most of the time about being hot and no shade! Who knew that would be such a problem here on the first of April!!! After a long time at the park, and lunch with friends (thanks L!), we headed home.

We ended the day with more swimming lessons. T has become very comfortable in the water and really enjoys swimming lessons. I've been told that he can move up to the next level finally!!! Blake, well he has fun...but he's not super comfortable putting his head/face in the water yet, so back to the same level next time around! Still 1 out of 2 ain't bad!
Practicing kicking....which means we get to splash the teacher!!

B jumping in...


And swimming for a toy (with the teacher holding him of course)
T jumping in! (he tries to go as high and far as possible!)And swimming for a toy, without being held (but with a floaty on!)

Spring Break: Day 5: Library, Coffee, Park, Soccer & Dinner

This morning actually consisted of not a dentist visit, but much more fun activities.

First we headed to the library, to return our old books and get some new ones. The boys love the library and have a great time finding weird books on dinosaurs, lizards, glowing sea creatures, graveyards, the Titanic, and a variety of other topics. We got our books, played a little in the play area (kitchen) and headed out.

Next we headed to a local coffee shop. This was their last day of operation, and since I go there at least once a week while B is in pre-school (and T in school too) they know me, and my mommy-friends, pretty well. We all stopped in to have some last coffee, muffins, and even home-made custard. The gals who run the place even had some easter treats and and egg hunt for all our kids! They are awesome, and we'll miss them, the great coffee, and the nice hang out spot!

From the coffee shop, we headed to a nearby park for more playing in the BEAUTIFUL 75 degree sun and some lunch. All the kids had a grand time playing, climbing, running, and getting sun burned! Oopsies!

Iz started out sitting on the blanket we put out for her and the other babies....
Later she moved, to somewhere more comfortable (I guess!)...

Blake preferred to dig in the wood chips under the slide, rather than play on it!!Trev is (of course) much more of a conformist...using the play area as it was meant to be used!

Lunch time...We had some lunch and eventually headed home for Izzy to take a nap. At home, the boys rode their bikes for a while and I got some gardening done (yay!). T got ready for his first soccer practice of the season. Daddy stayed home with B and Iz while T and I headed off. Arriving at practice we found out that the 5/6 year olds have been combined with the 4/5 year olds, so T is one of the oldest and tallest on the team (except for a friend from Kindergarten who makes T look tiny!). T is also one of the only boys! The coach is a different one than the fall, and from what I saw at practice he focuses on some different skills, so I think that will help T grow as a player.


I left T at practice, with Grandma there to bring him home, and I headed out for a girls night dinner with my old colleagues. It was a nice night out to catch up and to have some ME time!!!

Spring Break: Day 4: Splish Splash!

Today will hopefully be one of the highlights when the boys look back on this years spring break. We're not the type of family who will probably ever go to Florida or on a cruise for Spring Break, and this is not the type of place we go to on a regular basis, so hopefully, they enjoyed it.

We drove about an hour north to a local hotel water park. I tried not to tell them where we were going, but T would NOT go to sleep, so I had no choice but to tell him. They were SUPER excited the whole ride there. We met up with a few of our friends and spent 6+ hours there... definetly got our money's worth (which is my criteria for a good time)!!

T & B have definitely changed in the last year or so in regards to water parks. A few years ago they ran from big buckets that dumped tons of water, and they barely wanted to go near sprayers or water guns. Now, they seek those things out, and ADORE being soaked and pounded by the water!!
It took some arm wrestling, but eventually they stopped for a brief lunch break. They CHOWED everything in site!!

The highlight of the day was the was the water slide. The first time down one of the moms' went with two of the kids. Then the kids realized they could go down without us, and they weren't scared AT ALL!! They went up and down more times than I can count, and there were a good 60-75 stairs to the top (think of all the exercise they got!). 4 of them (3, 4 and 5 years old) went down probably 15 times or more, in various combinations. At times it looked like, Blake and his two girlfriends running up the stairs, or Trevor and his two little siblings flying down! It was just awesome that they were able and willing to do it on their own and have so much fun. They're growing up!!
Izzy was with us, and the best I can say is that I hope she isn't scarred from this trip to the water park! It wasn't a highlight of her week, that's for sure. She spent most of the day in the baby sling, holding on to me pretty tightly. Early on, she didn't have any desire to be in the water, but by the end of the day, she was willing to stand or sit in it. But any splashing was NOT tolerated! At one point, we were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and we got doused by the big bucket. She was NOT happy to say the least!! But lunch time proved to be a highlight of her day!
At the end of the day, we had eight tired, hungry, happy kids...who wanted to know when we could come back again!!!

Pardon the Interruption

We interrupt this program for a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. Or actually, we interrupt this blog so that Mommy can rant!!!

While the park visit yesterday was mostly fun, I have to get this rant off my chest!! The park was FULL of 12-16 year old kids who were playing chase and hide-n-seek ALL over the park. This particular park is a wooden park that has lots of staircases and turrets and towers.

The big kids were running super fast, jumping over various obstacles, muscling their way over fences, and not paying ANY attention to any of the other people at the park. Oh and they were cursing enough to make me blush (and those of you who know me, know how foul my mouth can be!!). They were making me CRAZY!!!!

I guess I should be glad they were out in the fresh air getting some exercise and not sitting in a basement playing video games or smoking... BUT I was annoyed! Heck there was even a mom there that was ENCOURAGING them.

As I rounded up my boys to leave, I was explaining to them that we were leaving because of the big kids. Because I was worried that they would get hurt. Another mom heard me and came over to chat. She mentioned her son had been kicked in the head by these teens. I was SO livid and I was ready to go scream at all the teens!!!! Don't make Mama Bear mad!!!

But the boys were half way to the car, so I had to leave. Maybe it was for the best that I didn't take on a pack of 16 year old boys.....

We now conclude this test of the Mommy Rant System and return you to your regularly scheduled spring break programming! Thank you for your time!!

Spring Break: Day 3: Fire, Peanuts, and Park

Monday, the first 'true' day of spring break, we went on a 'field trip' to the Fire Station. We did a tour of the same station a few years ago, but I thought the boys would enjoy doing it again, since they don't seem to remember going the first time! Apparently (I say that a lot!) I was wrong. Trevor spent most of the time saying, "Lame!" and Blake wasn't nearly as excited as I would have expected of a little boy obsessed with trucks. Later Blake explained he likes CONSTRUCTION trucks not fire trucks or anything else!!! Oopsies!!

None the less, we saw fire trucks, pumpers, ladder trucks, and ambulances. The boys got to walk thru a couple trucks and the ambulance, and they got to see where the firemen eat, sleep, and work. Izzy seemed to like it, but the boys were a little ambivalent.

Sadly, I forgot my camera for this part, so I'm waiting for some pictures from some friends!

From the fire station, we headed off to a local restaurant for lunch. The boys call it "The Peanut Restaurant" as they have baskets of nuts on the table, and you get to throw the shells on the floor! This was probably the highlight of the day for them!! I was just happy they were happy, and that they didn't feed Izzy and nuts!! They also have a bunch of arcade games, including a "play til you win" claw machine, so the boys came home with some cheap trinkets that make them happy!!! (Trev is now sporting his first gold chain, a la "Mr T"!!!).

Finally, we wrapped up the day at the park. It was cool but sunny, so we stayed for a little bit and had some fun!!

Iz hanging out driving the wooden boat
Blake staying "safe" by not walking on the wood chips (some game he and T were playing!)
My little girl posing!
What a FUN day!!