Spring Break

Don't laugh, yes I'm a little behind on the blogging.

Our Spring Break started out truly spectacular.  Katherine got the Friday off before the week-long break.  My dad, CowPapa, just happened to call that Friday morning asking about stopping by.  Well, it had been on my mind for a while to nail down a weekday when Katherine was out of school but public schools in the area were still in session and I had a helper.  I wanted to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese, but without all the crowds, and braving it on my own made it unappealing.  I've been there before on a Sunday afternoon and I'm pretty sure I'd rather lick the Wal-Mart shopping cart handles instead of braving that chaos again.

But low and behold, CowPapa was ready to spend time with all 3 kiddos (he misses seeing Katherine a lot because he usually stops by when she's in school), AND he was willing to brave a potentially crowded Chuck E. Cheese.

Our blessing was that we had a GRRREEEAAAT time!  I think there were maybe 15 people in there for an hour and a half.  Can I hear an Amen sister?

The kids had fun hopping from one bright and shiny entertainment box to another.

Side note: the food there isn't bad either.  I'm just sayin'.

So Friday kicked off our Spectacular Spring Break Extravaganza!!!  That's what I felt like anyway.  I had all these grandiose plans of ALL the fun things we'd accomplish that week.  I miss her being gone all day, so I was really looking forward to spending lots of time with her.

Oh little did I know.

Friday night we continued the Spectacular Spring Break Extravaganza with a camping party in Nathan's room.  Each kid got out their tent and we set them up in his room.

Do you remember how fun it was to sleep somewhere different, even if it was in your own house?  I do.  I just love that they thought camping in Nathan's bedroom was the funnest thing EV-ER.

It did take them a while to get to sleep, but I'm sure them sleeping together in the same tent had a little something to do with that.

 They even opted to eat their snack near the tents.

 Can anybody spot the photogenic differences between the two?

Mr. 'I could care less'

Miss 'Always make the effort'

 They had so much fun goofing off and just being silly, it was hard to impose any type of curfew.  Although, 10pm was starting to push it for this tired mom.  Something finally worked and they feel asleep in each other's arms.  Sniff, sniff.  I just love my babies.

 

 

We were off to such a Spectacular Spring Break Extravaganza!  YES!

I forgot what we did Saturday, probably spent some much-needed time with Daddy.

Sunday was church and the usual.

And then it started.  The never-ending reign of sickness-terror our house endured.

It started with me on Monday, then spread to Brandon, then quickly to Katherine and Nathan and then we loved spending soooo much time with each other we just kept sharing cooties and germs and who knows what else until we painfully endured, although not very gracefully, 3 weeks of putrid, disgusting and frustrating sicknesses.  It was a marvelous concoction of throwing up coupled with it's equally undesirable hind-end companion, double ear infections, fevers, body aches, and a little known (to us) yet very common - adenovirus.  We had about 4-5 days of breaks in between all that 3-weeks of yuck, thinking each time maybe it was all over.  But it wasn't.  We endured 3 full weeks of it and poor Jim somehow managed to avoid it all.

Mr. leave-the-Gatorade-by-the-front-door opted to still come home to all us sickos Every. Single. Night.  What a sport.

So that was the ending to our Spectacular Spring Break Extravaganza.  Thank goodness we crammed lots of fun stuff in the first couple of days.

Thanksgiving weekends

Our Thanksgiving weekends consisted of 3 very different, but enjoyable events. We truly are blessed to have our family close by so we can spend time with them not only regularly, but also during the holidays.

The first round was the weekend before Thanksgiving with the Boyers.  It was at Nanny's old place, which I have affectionately nicknamed the Pedro Party Pad, and it started out with some sweet wheels.  Uncle R brought a dunebuggy for us to play with for the weekend.

The boys were heartbroken.  NOT.

Even the big boys were heartbroken. NOT. Again.

 

  

  

 

Trying to keep mom half-way in the cool status.

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Then, that evening was when I was introduced to a foreign language.  Commonly referred to 'Cooking by the Campfire.'  Wow, talk about throwing a wrench in the spokes of my learning-how-to-cook tricycle.  It was very cool, don't get me wrong.  Just a little much for my non-cooking brain to process all at once.  Cooking a turkey in the oven is something I'm still venturing out to try all by my big girl self, then this: cooking a turkey in a dutch oven over hot coals.  Don't hold your breath.

Turkey deliciousness.

Some cute Thanksgiving decorations.

 

Nathan and J enjoying the hammock that was hung a little low.  Twas a great opportunity to raz Papa.

Ample opportunity and space to run.

 

 Aunt Kelle heard a neat decorating tip on the radio while driving out there, so all the kids got involved.  Their first assignment was to collect as many acorns as they could stand.

And boy were they good at it.

Their next assignment was to collect interesting branches, leaves, fruits from around the yard.  Then, assemble them all together for one-of-a-kind table centerpieces for our outdoor Thanksgiving meal.

Some of the handiwork and the marvelous artists.

 

 

Somebody was pouting because of no nap and the only way I got him to look up was to claim I saw a bulldozer.  Turkey.

Did I happen to mention this was a camping trip also?  Well, it was.  Kind of.  For some of us.  The 2 moms and the 2 youngest Boyers, 6 month old Brandon and 17 month old H, got the luxury of "camping out" inside Nanny's old house.  With beds.

Here are the experts at work.  They don't even need daylight to erect an 8-person tent.

Bamah asked me to take pictures of this so we had documentation of her sleeping in a tent.  Well, it doesn't quite show that, but she was helping to assemble their sleeping quarters and from what I hear, she did make it the whole night in the tent and according to her, "slept like a log."  Good stuff.

The next day was fun to wake up and hear the stories from the tent-sleepers and the tent-gigglers and the bathroom-frequenters and the slept-like-a-loggers.

 

 

  

Our next outing was on Thanksgiving day.  We drove to my parent's former homeland and went to go visit my Aunt N with Mom, G-ma and G-pa.  Aunt N's two kids are in California and Colorado.  Major bummer, I say.  Major bummer.  But never fear, we brought enough children and high-maintenance demands to make sure Aunt N got a good dose of children to hold her over for a while.

The next outing was with my Dad, brother M and his family the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  We ventured over to the coast for some R&R on the water.  Dad brought his boat and we hung out with the crew for a good Thanksgiving feast at the local pub.  Ha!  Just kidding!  It was a restaurant.

Dad took the serious fishermen out the next morning and by the time he came back, the high-maintenance crew was able to take a short ride.  It had to be short because within 5 minutes of being on the boat and having to wear a life vest, Nathan was asking when we would be there and he was hungry and he wanted to go fast and where's daddy and M was hungry and Katherine's hair kept sticking in her eyes and she was thirsty and little M was tired of wearing her life vest and OH MY!  No, CowPapa, I'm pretty sure we're not going to make it all the way out of the river to get to the open water (1-hr round trip) before someone has a coronary.  And it looks like it's going to be me.

We did manage to get some pictures of the crew on our really quick trip. :)

M, a very good and die-hard fisherman.

Behold the crew of the S.S. High Maintenance.

This guy wasn't too happy with his life vest either.

(My oh my, who is that ruggedly handsome man in the background?  Oh that's right, he's my husband.  Lucky me. :)

So there you go.  Pictures and documentation from our 3 Thanksgiving festivities in 7 days.

A little late, I know.  I just hope I get Christmas pictures posted before Valentine's day.