Spring Break at home

We stayed home for Spring Break last week. It is too busy to get away. The kids have been asking to take a trip, but they will just have to wait. We took things pretty easy, sleeping in and having fun. I required minimal chores and practicing. I think they enjoyed it. I hope, because it's back to school tomorrow.

 We're starting to get a warm day here and there. Thank goodness! The winter is nearly over.

They begged to set up the waterslide, but we compromised with attaching the hose and spraying them down. 65 degrees is not warm enough to set up the slide. I think they figured that out when the ice water from the hose hit them.

               With all the painting I was doing, I could only manage one activity each day.

One day I bought Frozen and we watched it together with popcorn and friends.

One day I bought three kinds of ice cream, a special treat.

This day we went to Steak & Shake with the family. They go out to eat so rarely, that it is good to get a little practice on how it's done.  We had recently been invited to the Moore's house for a Sunday dinner, so they had heard the long list of do's and don'ts already. (along with the list of rewards and threats) But we reviewed them again. They were pretty well-behaved. It's not easy though. I have not been the best mom at teaching manners unfortunately.

Both dinners went without too much humiliation, although we did have a few interesting moments while playing Apples to Apples with the Moores. Apples to Apples always gets a bit crazy and frustrating with our family, but we assured Geoff and Brother Moore (who plays one game per year) that we would only play up to 3 cards. As Geoff revealed the cards for his adjective (can't remember which, but probably something like "cuddly") he noticed that the card for Dracula had blood all over it. Nice. We laughed and everyone looked at their hands so we could discovered which of us was wounded. It was Trevor. Paper cut. After washing up, cleaning the card, and applying the bandaid, we were still finding bloody cards. It was rather disgusting. We grabbed all Trevor's cards (the game was brand new) and Maren cleaned them up. Then there was that moment when Alec jumped up and yelled, "I'm a bug!" then went back down to the floor to act like one. Everyone laughed, but I knew the time was rapidly approaching when we needed to make our exit.

They had a few sleepovers, play dates, and family meals.

Max is only getting cuter.

This kid often has a Band Aid on his forehead.

This is not an uncommon sight.

 The big kids helped me last Thursday with a field trip to the St. Louis Zoo with 9 preschoolers. They were excellent helpers and we lost not a single preschooler. I can't complain at all. They were amazing.
As a reward, my kids got to go to The Lego Movie.

The hammock made with the bunk beds didn't exactly work out.