Spring Breaks Through

Spring has sprung here in OR. Our first days of spring here in the Greater Portland area were met with hailstorms and snow. No kidding. So we were delighted to see that the first day of spring break (widely accepted in elementary and home-school communities around here to be the last full week of March), turned out sunny and warm.

Day 1)
My girly had a sleep over Sunday night with a cousin, so my boys and I were off to meet our playdate buddies at a nearby park which is just spectacular, as playgrounds go.

I suggested we meet there because it is such an epic park, and because we could theoretically walk to it from our house, and I was terribly low on gas that day. I hadn't taken this trek before, myself, but had walked part of it to get to our family's house that live nearby, and I had driven it, so I knew the route. I had never taken a stroller. I knew I would have to take one, though, because as much as my littlest one loves to be like the big kids, I knew he wouldn't make the whole trip without whining, lagging severely slowly, and trying to make me carry him. That and, I was bringing bags of snacks and lunch items with us and wanted the stroller to hold them, as well.  We all needed to wear layers, because days start out cold, get warmer, really heat up after hiking and playing hard, and then cool way down quickly. Those layers were going to end up on the stroller, too. But I am older now than I used to be and quite out of shape from the sluggish winter. I really struggled to push that thing up those hills. Boy! Thankfully, my oldest was excited to push the stroller at first, and I told him we would take turns together. Little guy hopped right in the stroller and didn't mind riding the whole way without getting out. I was perfectly fine with that because I wanted him to save his energy and play hard at the park.

We started out great. Our street inclines a bit the way we had to go first. I pushed the first bit, and then let my oldest take over so I could photograph the amazing spring weather. (Also, I was panting by the third block..)

Then we got to the end of our road, and turned to go down the road that has a hugely steep hill. I let the big guy go down and I took it going up. Oy.

We went down our side until the sidewalk literally ended, and had to cross over as to avoid being in the road. Then that sidewalk ended and we had to cross back! Love the lack of sidewalks around here... not. :)

We went up and down a few more hills to get to the park area. I really had to take turns with my big helper. I was feeling it!
We finally made it to the park and it was sunny but not quite warm yet, although I was warm from the work of all those hills. But our friends wore their coats at first. We met my mother in law and my nieces and nephew she cares for, along with a family from church who have boys with whom my sons are friends. I was so glad to have the company!

My little guy hopped on the swings right away.

He was joined by the other ones his age. The older ones ran around the enormous play structure there.

This is just one section of the playstructure. It is so huge I cannot get a picture with my camera of the whole thing.

All the kids had some snacks and then went running off. Us adults had to go stand in the sunshine, so we could warm up again. We had a great time chatting and visiting. And amused ourselves watching  our children have a ball. It was so nice to have them off school (and Monday school, in my kids' case), and just let them run and play and be kids together.

Then my oldest, who is a Weebelo 1 Cubscout, and has a whittling chip and pocket knife, got it in his head to whittle some sticks so they'd be smooth, and the little friend kept asking him to "take the skin off " the sticks.

That occupied him and a few stick-collectors and onlookers for quite a while. By this time it was really nice and warm and we had all shed our coats and sweatshirts. And we had all eaten another round of snacks.

The littlest guys decided to share the one toddler swing together. That was pretty great.

This was not only cute, but kept them out of the little creek that runs through the park, which they were both tempted to stray towards and dip their feet into. I had to call them away quite a few times before this, so this was a welcome distraction. It just wasn't warm enough for water play, and they didn't have the right shoes for that sort of play. But- never fear, small ones - we will go back in the summer with our water shoes, and play hard in the water.

They had a lot of fun and we stayed most of the warm part of the day. Then we took the long trek back, stopping by our family's house on the way and enjoying some ice cream treats. It took a lot out of me, but I needed the exercise.

After we got home, my daughter got home from her sleepover, and my husband and I ate a lamb dinner in remembrance of  Passover. We aren't Jewish or Messianic, but it was nice to stop and think about what God did for us, while eating lamb, the symbol of Passover. Then one of my nieces came over for a sleepover with my girly.

All in all, we had a great first day of Spring Break. Maybe we shall venture back on the next day of Spring Break, or maybe do something else equally adventurous and nearby. We shall see...

Day 2)
I will call this day "Day of Recovery." It was cool and grey, and slightly drizzly at times. I was achy all over. My calves and shin muscles hurt from going uphill so much. So I didn't do much of anything. But since my niece was here, we had to do something. So after most of the day lounging, me doing some laundry, the girls playing with girly Legos, I finally got the energy up to go for a much shorter walk to a nearby green space park. It has a covered area with picnic tables, and a large lawn, essentially, for running and ball-playing. I brought a board game  (Scrabble, because my son wanted to open his own Facebook account solely to play Words With Friends, and I said, why don't we play it in real life?) and they kids brought a soccer ball, and we had fun for about 45 min. Until 3 of us had to use the facilities. There weren't any. So we packed up and went back home.  But I think they did have fun. The girls learned the basic rules of Scrabble, plus the spelling of a few new words. I didn't take any pictures. Sorry.
In the evening, that cousin went home and her sister, the 5 year old, took a turn sleeping over. It was fun having her, the girls popped popcorn and watched a movie after the rest of the kids went to bed, and my hubby and I shared the popcorn :) 
The forecast says that the next 2 days will be rainy, but then the weekend will be so warm and sunny! So what then will the next few days hold for us??
Stay tuned!

Day 3)
It was supposed to be rainy, but when the kids got up, it was actually sunny. And it stayed that way until nightfall, when the rainstorm hit us. But meanwhile, I learned how well my 8 3/4 year-old daughter gets along with my 5 year-old niece, and also, how well my 4 year-old son gets along with her. I thought it was so cute how my son and nice were holding hands, playing pretend and "house" together, calling each other fake  names like Sara, and Peter. :) They rode scooters, played ball, colored, played Legos, and never once demanded that I walk to the park. (my achy muscles! I know, I'm out of shape...) It was a fun day, casual, relaxed. The way spring break should be when you have no gas.
That evening when my niece got picked up, her 3 year-old brother didn't want to be left out, so I said, what the heck, let him have a turn. We had noodles and nuggets for dinner and another movie night. They all slept very well, too. That makes me very thankful.

Day 4)
After the rain fell, the sun came out again! Yay! The little boys made a fort in the living room. The oldest boy played out side with his friends. Then they all played outside for a bit because, despite the forecast, it turned out REALLY nice.

My nephew, who calls me "mama", decided to pick some "flowers" for me.

He's giving the flower to me. <3

 So, after lunch, I decided to walk over to my nephew's house with all the kids.

 Since I had two little guys this time, I had to bust out my old stroller that you put the infant car seat onto. it had a basket underneath but no seat. So I put all his overnight stuff in the basket and he sat on top. I like this stroller better than the old umbrella one, it lets me stand up taller and straight, rather than hunching over. And it has storage and cup-holders. So I pushed that one, and had my older two trade off with the shorter stroller containing my youngest.

Oldest son was to stay the night there, so he packed a backpack to take with us.

My view while pushing

When he got tired of carrying it on his back, he pulled out the handle and it is a rolling bag.

 The kids took turns pushing the stroller and pulling the bag. Then we arrived at the house, which was locked up and no one was home. So we left the strollers and stuff on the porch and ran over to the playground in that neighborhood.

Ready, Set...

GO!

Having the time of their lives, in the sun.

Monkey boy.

and girl

My little adventurous one

 I called and got a hold of our family, and we played at the park until they got home. We watched a movie, at some pizza, and then walked home, just me and the girly and the little guy. He walked at first, but it became a slow crawl, so I eventually convinced him to ride in the stroller I was pushing,  while my daughter pushed the empty one. When we got home, he put himself to bed for a late nap.

Then came the evening! My baby sister's 18th birthday party! My husband found a little bit of gas money, and I went to celebrate my little sister joining the rest of her siblings in adulthood. She was born when I was going on 15 years old. I remember being in high school with a pregnant mom. And having a little cutie to brag to my classmates about. I love being a big sister. And I love that my little siblings are all now my peers and friends.

My littlest sister and me. (And my oldest sisters fingers.)

Day 5) 
It started out casual, no kids overnight, and sleeping in. But it was another sunny day, really really nice. I had to get some things done that day, being payday. I had the kids play in the back yard while I watched through the window and did a bunch of on;-line errands. And then we had to get in the car and go to my volunteer obligations. So we drove in the beautiful weather and went to the warehouse to look at the sun through the window for several hours. But then we got to go over to my husband's Aunt's house for some egg dyeing fun.

Then one of the cousins had a great idea from Pintrest to put the dollar store glow-in-the-dark bracelets into the translucent plastic eggs and hide them out in the dark, since the sun had set by now. So we spent a little while cracking and winding up all these glowsticks and forcing them into eggs. Had to tape them all to ensure they wouldn't pop open. It turned out pretty cool!

It was really fun! We decided to make it annual. Glow in the dark activities are awesome. And the evening was so warm! Perfect weather for out-door activities. In the future, if it isn't so nice, we will just turn out the lights in a big room and hide them indoors.

Day 6)
 Saturday! We took another cousin home for another overnight sleepover, but it was really just a bunk for sleeping and then getting up and leaving. It wasn't as fun, but at least they laughed a lot in the car ride home. We had to go right to sleep because we had to get up early and head out to my church. The were doing a community free pancake breakfast and my husband was helping to cook and serve.

Then they had the big, annual egg hunt. 

They split up the kids by ages/grades, so I couldn't go with all the other kids, and take pictures of them, but I could go with my little guy. There were specific areas each for the little ones, the k-2nd graders, and then the 3-5th grades. So off my little man and I went to the littlest area.

When they were all done, we gathered back in the gym to open all the eggs and get the candy out. When we opened them, we had to look inside and see if there were any pieces of paper with numbers on them. If we found a paper, we took it to the prize table and earned the prize that had the matching number.

Opening all the eggs to find papers.

As we were going through them, the little cousin found something else on one of his eggs.

Snail!

My oldest found a prize ticket. Then my youngest found one. Then my oldest found THREE more! So he gave one of them to each of the other two kids that didn't have one. And got another prize for himself.

The numbers on the papers correlated to the location of the eggs, so the lower numbers were for prizes for the littlest ones and so on. So my littlest guy got an age-appropriate toy, and my oldest got toys that were just right for him. I felt bad for my daughter, though, because she got this big chocolate bunny, and then we went to the park and played, and when we got back in the car...

Before

After

A puddle of chocolate goo. So sad!

But, she ended up with more chocolate from her grandma, so it worked out in the end. I'm not sure I wanted her to have that much chocolate, anyway.

Well, that's the end of our Spring Break week. Back to the usual homeschool grind. Monday School, then our regular routine of chores and homework. But there are some more nice weather days ahead, so I will probably bring school outdoors at some point. Can't let all that sun go to waste!
Happy SPRING!