Spring Break Slows

We don't really do whole lot of traveling.  Maybe we are just a big bunch of homebodies?  Right now, the kids are pretty happy to just stay at home when there is a break from school.  Except for going to Hawaii--they always want to go to Hawaii.  Some day?

We did not go to Hawaii for our most recent break from school.  No, we just stayed home and enjoyed the lack of schedule.

We discovered a new game: BananaGrams.  The big kids are pretty good at it and Will always kicks my butt.


Colter loved having all of his siblings around all day.  He was taken on lots of walks in the wagon, perfected his peek-a-boo game, learned some wrestling moves and tried to pluck out everyone's eyelashes.

  
We made a trip out to a local park with some friends.  We'd never been to this park before!  How have we missed it for so long?  The park is up on a big hill--the views are lovely--and it is windy.  Coolest of all, there is a BMX bike track.  Lorien and Wyatt (on their non-BMX bikes) raced around and around the track, working hard at being reckless.  




                                          Can you see the bike basket on Lorien's bike?  Yhea, she is pretty hard-core.


Our darling Clare turned seven years old!  She was not happy about having her birthday during spring break.  She sure does love school.  We tried to make it up to her. She picked tacos for dinner, had a sleepover with her cousins and a family birthday party.  The cousins were so sweet, they took her out for ice cream and picked flowers for her birthday.  Lorien took charge of Clare's birthday cake.  She designed and decorated the cake...it was very pink.



We did make make one trip to the beach.  I told the big kids to take their swimsuits if they thought they would be getting in the water.  They assured me that they would not be getting wet--too cold!  We were there for 10 minutes before Clare was soaked head to toe.  To tell the truth, Clare is the biggest chicken when it comes to water.  She doesn't even like to dip her toes in the waves.  It is a comfort to me when we are at the beach, she is the one kid I never worry about being swept out to sea.  This trip, however, Lorien talked Clare into coming down to the waters edge to jump over the waves.  Two waves, two jumps, all was well--on the third wave Clare lost her balance and a fourth wave was quick on the heels of the third.  Clare was soaked--and terrified.  I hadn't even spread out the beach blanket.  The big kids were not far behind her.  Their saltwater soaking was more intentional but just as frustrating since they didn't wear their swimsuits.

Colter really loved the different textures of sand.  

Spring break brought on the blooming of all the trees in the neighborhood.  I spent the week sneezing and being generally snotty.  The kids went outside one morning to shake some of the petals off "the pink tree" in our back yard because it looked like snow.  When gently shaking the branches within their arm's reach didn't make a blizzard of petals they decided to get a broom so they could whack the branches a little higher up.

Can anyone else see the disaster waiting to happen?

Lorien took one big swing before Wyatt decided she was terrible at clubbing trees.  He stepped in to take over the arbor beating right as she took her second pinata-busting swing.  Thankfully, Wyatt's arm was not broken but it was one-heck-of-a-walloping.

Can you see him doubled over in pain?  Why isn't his mother out there to comfort him?  Because someone has to take pictures...

Will spent one afternoon hitting practice golf balls with Wyatt and Clare.  No one got hit with a golf club or any of the golf balls--also no windows were broken.  Success!


Wyatt had to finish a local history project over spring break.  One afternoon while he was writing about the responsibilities of adults and children in the pioneer era of our area he muttered "If the kids had to do all the chores, what did the grown-ups do?"  I told him the adults did chores too...he did not look convinced.



Easter was the last thing to happen during our spring break.  We went over to Dave and Angela's house for Easter dinner and an outdoor egg hunt.  We also played keep-away Adults vs. Children--because nothing says "Easter" like hip checking your nine-year-old son to keep him away from the ball.