Fall Break

This year, for some inexplicable reason, we have 3 days off for "fall break".  In the past we've always had one random day off in October which they have referred to as fall break and we've all kind of just rolled our eyes and thought of it as another teacher development day.  When I realized that we would have this little break I definitely had mixed feelings about it.  On the one hand, having a few days off from the morning chaos and the afternoon of homework would be nice but on the other hand 3 full days of keeping my kids entertained and my normal household duties up to snuff did not sound so fun.

A couple days before the break a friend asked one of the girls "are you excited for fall break?"  Her answer broke my heart... she said "I am, but mom's not, she likes it when we have school."  how sad is that?  I felt so bad.  So I turned my focus back to what's most important, my kids and family   The house isn't that big of a deal.  It will get cleaned eventually.  Just maybe not so much over during few precious days with my children.

I started out coming up with elaborate ideas of places to go.  Seaworld... did you know it's almost as expensive as Disneyland.  Ok so how 'bout just a quick trip to the beach... 6 hours each way and  Seth only has one extra day off and we have to be back by Saturday morning for Soccer.  What about camping?  Camping with Nash?  Sleeping on the hard ground with a bad back?  Maybe not.  I have to admit I actually said a prayer.  I told Heavenly Father that I knew this wasn't a trial or tribulation but I also knew that He cared about our everyday happiness and that He would help me figure this out.  He does.  And He did.

Wednesday I woke up and promised myself that today was about them,  about them knowing that I wanted to spend time with them and that they were more important than a clean house.  So we played some wii, we packed a picnic lunch and went to the park, we went to Goodwill and got ideas for Halloween costumes and we watched a movie on my bed with popcorn.  It wasn't perfect.  I still got frustrated a couple times but it was fun.

Picnic at the Park

I realized while we were there that I had taken a picture of the kids at this same park about a year before. We re-enacted it , or at least tried.  They have grown so much.  And apparently the park got a new swing.

Thursday Seth took the day off and we went to the Children's Museum.  I have been a couple times for field trips with the girls and we went with Seth's mom and sisters a couple years ago but I didn't realize that for Mckay and Luc it had been 2-3 years and Seth has never been.  It was so much fun.  We weren't in a rush, we just hung out and played.  We left for lunch at a great little pizza place downtown and then went back for a few more hours.  The afternoon was so nice, all the school groups had left and we practically had the place to ourselves.  And we only lost one kid and only for like 1 minute.  Not bad overall.

6+ Hours of uninterrupted fun for all

The girls favorite place was the Pizza Parlor.  I (pretend) ate about 18 pizzas, 14 salads and 21 desserts! This is also where we lost Nash, he was done eating pizza and left to find the climbing structure.

Today we're just hanging out at home, running a couple of errands and then Seth and I get to go golfing this afternoon to celebrate 10 years as a couple.  We don't normally celebrate this but Seth texted me this week to tell me we'd been dating for 10 years this week and we thought it was a good reason for a date. I haven't golfed in a very long time.  Could be interesting.