2010 Spring Break

A few snapshots from one of our best weeks ever...

For Spring Break the kids were so excited to go hiking to a place that actually had water, thanks to all of the recent rainfall. We spent very little time hiking and most of our time rock-hopping. Colin managed to shrink his pair of canvas shoes by "accidentally" falling in numerous times. He kept saying, "Sorry. I didn't mean to do that." We finally just let him walk around in the mossy muck. He certainly is all boy. :)

I came in to check on the boys at bedtime and found Zach in his bed with a flashlight reading a book. All the other kids were sound asleep. He is so dang cute.

We took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch on one of their Spring Break days. Zach absolutely loved this rocket ride. The kids combined their hundreds of tickets afterwards to try and get some better loot, and they still only ended up with tiny plastic trinkets. Thank heavens my kids are easy to please.

St. Patrick's Day always seems to fall on the kids Spring Break, and we try to do it upright at our house. The leprechauns always visit and leave a treasure hunt or play a trick on our kids and they love it. We also always make green pancakes. This year we made the pancakes, but completely forgot to add the green food coloring. Luckily I had also made rainbow cupcakes, a recipe I found on the Family Fun website. The kids loved them. I, on the other hand, cannot stomach anything that is a unordinary color, and these cupcakes looked too akin to something the kids would create out of playdough. They were fun to make though.

Colin pulled out tooth number two! He is so great at it too. We are so used to the girl's tears and huge anxiety. Colin, though, just yanks his out and yells out his success. Love it!

The boys helped Mike wash the van. Their version of "helping" mainly included dumping rocks into the sudsy water, but I don't think Mike minded a bit, he is very particular about how a car is supposed to be washed. Two things that Mike will always be superior at... washing the car and ironing. I am sorry to say, but in comparison to him, I sorely lack skills in those areas. Of course, I don't really mind being second best, because, guess who does all the Sunday ironing at our house?

These two pictures are of the kids on St. Patrick's Day morning. Above are the boys with their treasure that they found, and below are all the kids reading their instructions from the leprechauns. That morning I was kind enough to mention to the kids that their Dad forgot to wear green and they chased and pinched him all the way down the hall. I'm sure he'll return the favor sometime, somehow. Later that day the boys and I went down to our neighborhood park which is pretty much covered in clover. After searching forever, Colin finally decided that four-leaf clovers only grow in Ireland.

The kids enjoyed all the wind over Spring Break and took their kites out several times.

Monday night (of Spring Break) we set up the tent in the backyard and Mike and the kids slept outside ("baby" and I chose to sleep on the couch in our family room). Everyone came in the next morning talking about how noisy our neighborhood was (mainly from birds and cars). We had thought that it was pretty quiet, but a tent has a way of magnifying every sound.

We didn't get the fire lit in our stove on the back porch until Tuesday night, but the kids were determined to roast marshmallows anyway, so we pulled out the big candle and let them have at it.

Colin played extremely well on his last soccer game, and finally got what he had been waiting for the whole season, his trophy. He was so proud of it, he even took it to church the next day. His primary teacher told me that all of the other boys were jealous, not because of his trophy, but because their mom's had insisted they leave theirs at home. Too funny.

We spent friday evening at Red Mountain Park. The kids got to feed the ducks and Chesley got to play some basketball. She certainly has the endurance for the game, all of us were worn out from running back and forth on that court and quit long before she was ready.

Another day we took the whole family bowling. We only paid for an hours worth, but that ended up being the perfect amount of time for Zach. Emma was in the lead for the first half of the game, but Mike managed to squash us all in the end. It was a blast! My only regret? We totally forgot the camera.

The rest of Spring Break was spent with us just being us...

Emma teaching school to her stuffed animals...

The boys, playing like boys...

And Chesley, getting her rain "high". She cannot soak up enough of it when it manages to land in Arizona.

And, as usual, I spent an entirely despondent day when they all returned to school.

I love having all of my crew around.

Only 7 more weeks until summer vacation.