Spring Break 2017
The kids' spring break was this past week (and one day). They had the week before Easter off and then the Monday following Easter. Jacob forgot about getting Monday off. On Saturday (the day before Easter), I mentioned us having lunch on Monday with Donnie at his work. "But we have school," he replied when I brought up the possibility of lunch. I was happy to inform him that he would still be on spring break on Monday.
The kids' spring break was not especially exciting or special. One of the best things about having children who dislike school a great deal is that when school breaks occur, the kids are so pleased to not have school that they don't care (too much) if nothing extravagant is on the agenda; the joy is not having school. Anything fun above and beyond that is gravy.
The weather was incredible the entire break. While spending a week on the beach would have been divine from a sand/ waves/ water et al. perspective, we didn't need to head south to experience warm weather. We had temperatures ranging from the mid 60's to the low's 80's. It rained one morning (Tuesday- I kept a loose weather journal) but the day cleared up and the day turned out to be a nice, mild day.
The kids had a great break, I think. I know that I did. We all spent some time together but we did plenty of activities apart. Here's what the kids did, for the most part:
Jacob- while it seemed like 80% of Springboro kids were in Florida over the break, many of the remaining 20 (or so)% were among Jacob's friends. He basically had a 'Boro bro week. He hung out a lot with friends in his grade and some kids who are older whom he's friends with but doesn't hang out with a lot. It was sort of like a bonding time for the bros who didn't make it to Florida. They stuck together and hung out. They went out to eat, played video games at each other's houses, played basketball outside in driveways and in parks. Heaven knows what all else they did. That's the version that I heard, lol.
Abby and Alyssa- the girls were together for a large part of the break. They walked into town a couple of times for lunch (The K opened up recently) and to get coffee at Heather's. I would have loved to go with them but going into town together was something that just they wanted to do. They rode a bikes a little but for the most part, unless they were walking into town, they stayed inside. They played Minecraft together, watched movies and hung out together. I sent them to the basement one morning to pick up the detritus of one of their play activities. At first they sulked about cleaning on their break but all too soon I heard music from the basement and the sound of their laughter. While they undoubtedly would have had a better time together with sand at their feet and the ocean steps away from them than with shag carpet at their feet and a dirty basement right in front of them, it's nice to know that they can still have fun together if the latter is where they find themselves. They also spent some time with friends. Abby went to a dance friend's house one afternoon and Alyssa had a sleepover with one of her soccer friends.
One thing I found disconcerting was that because it was so warm, it felt like the kids were on summer break. Yet, the school year activities were in full swing so we still had to watch the clock to get the kids to their activities. Last week, Alyssa's soccer team began practicing three afternoon/ evenings. So, I had to monitor the time to get her where she needed to be. Abby also had dance and Jacob had soccer training (although his was modified quite a bit because of spring break). It was definitely spring break and not summer break. Those carefree days aren't quite upon us :). Spring break gave us a taste of freedom from physically being in school and homework and drama and all that other stuff that the school year entails. Fortunately, the kids are done with school for the year next month. We are all looking forward to that!
I have numerous pictures, many of which are from activities that I'm going to write a separate post about. So for now, here are some real doozies in terms of excitement from the week:
On the last day of school before the break, Alyssa had a sleepover at her best school friend's house. I took the opportunity on Saturday morning that Alyssa wasn't home to assist Abby in cleaning up her room. Normally, on Saturday mornings, if the girls don't have somewhere to go (dance practice or soccer) and they start playing together, I let them play because it's the beginning of the weekend, they've just had a week of school, etc. Basically, I let them be lazy. I realized that the girls' room were bearing the fruit of me letting them be lackadaisical. Abby's room needed to be cleaned, stuff needed to be sorted, organized, thrown out, etc. With Alyssa being gone Saturday morning and all of spring break ahead of us, I didn't feel bad about making Abby spend a couple of hours in her room to get things done in there. One thing that bothered me in her room was a stack of books she had near her bed. I'm glad she has a collection of books and enjoys reading, but she needed a place to put them. There was one area in her room that would fit a small book case in it. The bookcase would have to be small both in terms of width and height. I took measurements of the area and knew the dimensions that the bookcase couldn't exceed. I was going to order her one but we decided to check out our local flea market to see if we could find one there. We walked into the flea market and this little bookshelf was in the first booth that we saw when we walked in the door. I bought it because the price was right and the size was perfect. The paint job isn't perfect and I'd like to repaint it. That will wait, though. Abby likes it and it looks good in her room. And those books have a place now :).
On Monday morning of break, I made the girls clean the basement and instructed them to throwcrap stuff out if they didn't use it, like it and/ or it was made in China and wasn't American Girl Doll (AG doll stuff is made in China but I'm saving all of their AG stuff). Abby's break was off to a great start- cleaning her room on Saturday, the basement on Monday, what would Tuesday hold for her? This was the morning that the girls worked in the basement to clean it up but ended up having fun (as much as you can have while cleaning up a space). They managed to throw quite a bit of stuff out. Here's our trash haul from the basement and Abby's room.
One afternoon, we contemplated going to a movie. Upon further discussion regarding going to the movies, Alyssa and I came to the conclusion that what we wanted wasn't to see a movie (there was no movie we were pining to see) but rather to eat copious amounts of popcorn. Some Orville Redenbacher's butter flavor popping oil, some shortening, a cup full of popcorn kernels, an oil stained pan and lots of butter later, we had ourselves some good tasting popcorn. Although not quite as good as movie theater popcorn, we paid considerable less money for this experience, we didn't have to watch a movie that we didn't want to see and we didn't have to leave the house. Win, win and win, except that I had some clean up to do (should have made Abby do that and continue my mean mom cleaning trend!!).
Just another day in paradise Springboro, OH during spring break :). Sixty five and sunny is a wonderful way for the weather to be.
Kings Island opened for the season during our spring break. We couldn't go due to soccer but we did renew passes and enjoyed this treat that reminds me of KI- strawberries and cream. We used to buy strawberries and cream when we bought meals at the park.
And while strawberries and cream are tasty, sometimes nothing beats the sheer unhealthiness/ deliciousness of chocolate chip cookies. Alyssa woke up unusually early during the break and one morning when she was up early, she was bored because Abby was still asleep. We hadn't made cookies in a while and when I suggested that we make some, she was all in.
I'm going to do a couple of additional posts about spring break. We did do a couple of activities over break besides cleaning and eating unhealthily which is all you'd think our break was about from this post!!
The kids' spring break was not especially exciting or special. One of the best things about having children who dislike school a great deal is that when school breaks occur, the kids are so pleased to not have school that they don't care (too much) if nothing extravagant is on the agenda; the joy is not having school. Anything fun above and beyond that is gravy.
The weather was incredible the entire break. While spending a week on the beach would have been divine from a sand/ waves/ water et al. perspective, we didn't need to head south to experience warm weather. We had temperatures ranging from the mid 60's to the low's 80's. It rained one morning (Tuesday- I kept a loose weather journal) but the day cleared up and the day turned out to be a nice, mild day.
The kids had a great break, I think. I know that I did. We all spent some time together but we did plenty of activities apart. Here's what the kids did, for the most part:
Jacob- while it seemed like 80% of Springboro kids were in Florida over the break, many of the remaining 20 (or so)% were among Jacob's friends. He basically had a 'Boro bro week. He hung out a lot with friends in his grade and some kids who are older whom he's friends with but doesn't hang out with a lot. It was sort of like a bonding time for the bros who didn't make it to Florida. They stuck together and hung out. They went out to eat, played video games at each other's houses, played basketball outside in driveways and in parks. Heaven knows what all else they did. That's the version that I heard, lol.
Abby and Alyssa- the girls were together for a large part of the break. They walked into town a couple of times for lunch (The K opened up recently) and to get coffee at Heather's. I would have loved to go with them but going into town together was something that just they wanted to do. They rode a bikes a little but for the most part, unless they were walking into town, they stayed inside. They played Minecraft together, watched movies and hung out together. I sent them to the basement one morning to pick up the detritus of one of their play activities. At first they sulked about cleaning on their break but all too soon I heard music from the basement and the sound of their laughter. While they undoubtedly would have had a better time together with sand at their feet and the ocean steps away from them than with shag carpet at their feet and a dirty basement right in front of them, it's nice to know that they can still have fun together if the latter is where they find themselves. They also spent some time with friends. Abby went to a dance friend's house one afternoon and Alyssa had a sleepover with one of her soccer friends.
One thing I found disconcerting was that because it was so warm, it felt like the kids were on summer break. Yet, the school year activities were in full swing so we still had to watch the clock to get the kids to their activities. Last week, Alyssa's soccer team began practicing three afternoon/ evenings. So, I had to monitor the time to get her where she needed to be. Abby also had dance and Jacob had soccer training (although his was modified quite a bit because of spring break). It was definitely spring break and not summer break. Those carefree days aren't quite upon us :). Spring break gave us a taste of freedom from physically being in school and homework and drama and all that other stuff that the school year entails. Fortunately, the kids are done with school for the year next month. We are all looking forward to that!
I have numerous pictures, many of which are from activities that I'm going to write a separate post about. So for now, here are some real doozies in terms of excitement from the week:
On the last day of school before the break, Alyssa had a sleepover at her best school friend's house. I took the opportunity on Saturday morning that Alyssa wasn't home to assist Abby in cleaning up her room. Normally, on Saturday mornings, if the girls don't have somewhere to go (dance practice or soccer) and they start playing together, I let them play because it's the beginning of the weekend, they've just had a week of school, etc. Basically, I let them be lazy. I realized that the girls' room were bearing the fruit of me letting them be lackadaisical. Abby's room needed to be cleaned, stuff needed to be sorted, organized, thrown out, etc. With Alyssa being gone Saturday morning and all of spring break ahead of us, I didn't feel bad about making Abby spend a couple of hours in her room to get things done in there. One thing that bothered me in her room was a stack of books she had near her bed. I'm glad she has a collection of books and enjoys reading, but she needed a place to put them. There was one area in her room that would fit a small book case in it. The bookcase would have to be small both in terms of width and height. I took measurements of the area and knew the dimensions that the bookcase couldn't exceed. I was going to order her one but we decided to check out our local flea market to see if we could find one there. We walked into the flea market and this little bookshelf was in the first booth that we saw when we walked in the door. I bought it because the price was right and the size was perfect. The paint job isn't perfect and I'd like to repaint it. That will wait, though. Abby likes it and it looks good in her room. And those books have a place now :).
On Monday morning of break, I made the girls clean the basement and instructed them to throw
One afternoon, we contemplated going to a movie. Upon further discussion regarding going to the movies, Alyssa and I came to the conclusion that what we wanted wasn't to see a movie (there was no movie we were pining to see) but rather to eat copious amounts of popcorn. Some Orville Redenbacher's butter flavor popping oil, some shortening, a cup full of popcorn kernels, an oil stained pan and lots of butter later, we had ourselves some good tasting popcorn. Although not quite as good as movie theater popcorn, we paid considerable less money for this experience, we didn't have to watch a movie that we didn't want to see and we didn't have to leave the house. Win, win and win, except that I had some clean up to do (should have made Abby do that and continue my mean mom cleaning trend!!).
And while strawberries and cream are tasty, sometimes nothing beats the sheer unhealthiness/ deliciousness of chocolate chip cookies. Alyssa woke up unusually early during the break and one morning when she was up early, she was bored because Abby was still asleep. We hadn't made cookies in a while and when I suggested that we make some, she was all in.
I'm going to do a couple of additional posts about spring break. We did do a couple of activities over break besides cleaning and eating unhealthily which is all you'd think our break was about from this post!!
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