Spring Break Mania

My goodness…what a whirlwind spring break turned out to be!  Our kids had a full ten days off, starting with Good Friday.  With our continued cold, damp weather, I was a bit worried about being able to keep the hooligans entertained WHILE CONTAINED IN OUR HOUSE.

Thankfully, most days were sunny, even if we didn’t make it into the 40’s.  My kids were so thrilled the snow had melted from the trampoline, they spent hours practicing for American Ninja Warrior on it. It has netting around it, so they don’t bounce off onto their little hard heads.

But I did plan a little something for each day, and big somethings for a few of them. Here’s a rundown of our break, and a couple of scrapbook pages I made so I can prove my mother-of-the-year attempts to their future therapists.

Day1: Good Friday.  We had a quiet day, except we went to see “Oz, the Great and Powerful.” All the kids were enthralled and couldn’t drag their eyes from the screen.

Day 2: We colored and decorated five dozen Easter eggs, and then I didn’t have time to make dinner so we went to Famous Dave’s for our favorite barbeque.

Day 3: Easter!  Filled with Easter baskets, church, egg hunts, ham and asparagus risotto, and fun. And then it snowed, AGAIN, as we were inside watching “Hop” AGAIN.

Day 4: The kids had money the relatives sent for Easter that was burning a hole in their pockets, so we shopped for and built new Lego sets. And we had lunch at Culvers.  Have I mentioned that my kids are actually fun to take to restaurants? They sit in their seats, have real conversations with us, and we often even get compliments from the waiters on how well-behaved they are. Of course, at Culvers there are no waiters, but the busboys always stop to chat.

Day 5:  They had Tae Kwan Do and received invitations to test for their high purple belts, then we went roller-skating to burn even more energy. I skated for the first time in like 30 years…without falling.  Success!

Day 6: Princess Thundercloud had gymnastics, then we met some friends for pizza and games at a local restaurant. It was chaos, of course, but lots of fun.

Day 7:  We went to Chicago for a mini-vacation. It’s only a couple of hours away, but we tend to forget it’s so close and think we have to spend the night. We explored Cantigny Park, which has lots of military vehicles to clamber all over, as well as a very good museum about the 1st Infantry Division. There are also gorgeous gardens and the house that you can tour, but we skipped those this time.  All for only $5 parking. It’s the best!

And we went to see The Croods, just to counteract any educational benefit the kids gained from Cantigny.

Day 8:  The Museum of Science and Industry was overwhelming!  We had planned to meet some friends there, but it was so crowded, it was all we could do to keep our hooligans in sight.  We had a blast learning about tornados and tsunamis, space junk, and the German sub there. Not to mention all the other exhibits we tore through! We’ll definitely have to make another trip down…or a dozen!

Day 9:  Heading back home, we detoured by the Jelly Belly Warehouse in Pleasant Prairie. They provided a nifty tour, as well as a bag of samples for everyone.  We tried a whole bunch of other flavors at the Tasting Bar, including Tabasco (which the hubs said was curiously good combined with lemon) and Maple Bacon Taffy.

Day 10:  One of the first graders had a birthday party…a perfect ending to the week…yet more roller skating.  We came home from that and celebrated the melting of (almost) all of the snow by grilling outside for the first time this spring. Then everyone collapsed and rested for our return to reality.