Our Spring Break Week - Family Fun

Saturday we kicked off our family spring break with a trip to the zoo. It was really the perfect weather and we saw many animals that were more active than they will be during the summer heat. So many fun animals and family memories. Favorites ranged from the penguins, anaconda, bats, and kangaroos to the many monkeys and apes - including 6 month old JJ the gorilla.

We finished Saturday off with a shopping trip for Makayla to find a bolero and shoes to go with her dress for Mormon Prom - 5 stores and 90 minutes later we found the perfect items. The rest of the evening was just relaxing at home as a family.

We had a quick family counsel before bed to discuss the plans for the week. We do have some regular life things still going on. Notably - 6am seminary for Makayla, track practice and meets, and  two doctor's appointments, a date night for mommy and daddy, Scouts, a pioneer activity for Emma, and... you get the picture. We challenged the kids to start thinking tonight before bed about some fun things we can fit in around all of that. They started sharing ideas like playing outside, doing a campfire, having a family over to visit, and playing games. We will see what ends up making it into our days. We also have some house organizing and cleaning projects we'll tackle as the week goes on.

Sunday was a peaceful Sabbath day. We had church from 10am-1pm, came home and made lunch, then spent the rest of the day quietly.

Monday was a work project day. Here are some of the jobs we accomplished:

• scrubbing bathrooms
• mopping floors
• washing bedding for 6 of the beds and making beds again
• switching out the kid's winter clothes for spring
• decluttering 6 bags of kid clothes
• working with Emma on cleaning out her area of the closet shelving (the girls have a shelving unit in their closet for things, not clothing.)

We got a new table today. Our giant round table is still in good shape but we need more floor space to make it easier for Mason to use his wheelchair through the downstairs. We switched to a rectangular table that is 8 feet long and 3 feet wide (affiliate link)thanks to Amazon's handy free shipping. It has been wonderful because we can also now play board games more easily! The kids have been doing chess tournaments every morning after breakfast too.

Monday was also date night for my husband and I! We don't always get out of the house for date night, usually we just stay up and do an at home date night. Today we got to go out to dinner and do some shopping.

Tuesday started way too early with Daniel waking me at 4:00am to say he had a headache and felt like throwing up. We got a bucket, started diffusing peppermint oil to help with the nausea, gave him some ibuprofen, and set him up downstairs on the couch just in case. And I moved downstairs to be nearby. He never did throw up, which I'm grateful for.

It rained and thunderstormed until lunch. Of course today was one of the days I had to be out and about. Makayla had an eye doctor appointment, we picked up a few groceries and medications, and stopped at the pet store to price frozen rats for her snake.

Lunch was banana bread and pumpkin bread that daddy baked while we were gone, with fresh veggies and grapes on the side. The afternoon was relaxed, some cleaning, some card games, lots of legos. 

Makayla had a track meet all evening and was in three events again. I attended the last 2 hours of it (saw 2 of her events) while Daddy stayed home and did movie night with the rest of the kids.

Wednesday morning kids did chores while Daddy rototilled a garden area and some flower beds. The kids have gardened off and on through the years and this year we've made plans to garden again. I have a really poor track record with plants so if anything survives or produces it is likely due to the kids' efforts. More things we did on Wednesday:

• Driving practice - Makayla left the parking lot for the first time. How do teens ever go from driving around large parking lots to driving on the roads? It was an interesting experience for both of us.
• Yogurt making - I was given a yogurt maker quite a while ago and this week I pulled it out and made a batch of yogurt, something I haven't done in a long time. It's pretty yummy!
• Haircuts for 6 of the boys while we played in the back yard. Tobias is the only one who missed out, he was napping.
• Cub Scouts - we are working on Howling at the Moon so we did some improvisation games (acting), practiced run ons, and planned out our skit for Pack Meeting.
• Youth activites

Thursday started out with some garden planting (cool weather crops like spinach, broccoli, collards, carrots). Then Tobias and Mommy went to a checkup at the pediatrician's office. We're pretty relaxed about checkups, after the first few months they only happen when I think of them. We're also a slow vax family - we vaccinate but on a slower schedule (generally no more than 2 vaccines per visit).

The kids spent the afternoon outside in the nice weather. They weren't impressed that the bees have come out for the year but they enjoyed the sunshine. Daddy got a project done bricking around the fire pit.

Family movie night happened tonight as well - we watched Hidden Figures. The only person who had already seen it was Makayla, who went to see it in theaters with two of her friends. Many of the kids were in and out during the movie, watching and then playing upstairs, but some of us watched from beginning to end. It was a good movie!

Friday felt like it was Saturday. We had a slow morning where I spent time doing 'office work' - figuring the last of the year's taxes, going through files and shredding old papers, and listening to my kids practice piano.

We had a campfire lunch and roasted hot dogs and smores. It was our first campfire of the spring and everyone loved it. My favorite thing was actually that Tobias is not putting every single thing he picks up in his mouth. He's running and climbing and exploring. It makes it much more enjoyable for me!

In the afternoon Makayla had me try a few new hairstyles for her because tomorrow is Mormon Prom. I think she has narrowed down the possibilities to one hair style - but she could always change her mind tomorrow.

Our evening tonight has some youth work projects to earn money for camp, a movie night for Makayla at a friend's house to watch Les Miserables, and menu planning for me. I'm going to go ahead and press publish on this post so I can get the last 6 weeks of our school year prepared. It's hard to believe we're to that point, but we are.

Linking here.