Spring Break Chronicles

Day 1: This break started the way most do (especially around holidays)--with a 6:00 a.m. trip to Meijer. I got that out of the way and came home to find everyone in bed. Before long they were up, writing and practicing a princess play. Mary Cate and I watched Sesame Street and worked on laundry. That lasted about an hour before one kid after another came up to complain that a certain anonymous sibling was trying to direct too much and things fell apart. So we played out in the backyard and the front yard and took a walk, all before lunch. I bribed the kids with watching The Greatest Showman if they picked up the house in preparation for Easter, which worked. Then the kids went with a neighbor friend for their first-ever trip to the park ALONE (they called from my cell phone every 10 minutes to check in). That turned into an impromptu sleepover. We dyed Easter eggs and went to bed!

Day 2: I turned into crazy-cleaning mom getting ready for the big Wernet Easter party and hosting Easter lunch. At one point DJ and Eddie were playing and I overhead Eddie yelling, "No, no, no! EVERYBODY OUT OF THE KITCHEN!" Don't know where he got that one...

Then it was off to the Wernet party, which was as fun as usual but a lot colder than usual, so it was mostly inside fun. It was a late night coming home from the party to bake dessert, fill Easter baskets (why do you stuff stockings but fill baskets?), and hide eggs.

Serious Annie getting ready to pommel the pinata

Eddie discovered this sweatshirt of DJ's from last year. He loves it.
It's weird to turn around in the car and see Darth Vader sleeping.

Day 3: Easter! The headlines are -

• Christ is risen!
• It snowed!
• The Wernets were on time to the Easter service!
• The ham turned out fine!
• Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves!
• The kids didn't fight!
• But they ate way too much candy!
• We never got a family picture, so for the record everyone was dressed in nicer-than-average clothing!

The big kids planned and implemented an egg hunt for the littles

Day 4: The day for errands. To the police department to pay for the parking ticket we got when we forgot to put the car back in the driveway after the party (officer badge stickers for everyone!), the library, the bank, and Barnes and Noble to finally spend the girls' Christmas gift cards. Now we're all set with books and DVDs to last us the rest of the week, or at least the rest of the day!

DJ, our newest independent reader, spent most of the afternoon reading his new book about dinosaurs. It's a tough book to read when you're still learning. So that was most of my afternoon, too. ("Mom, what does p-r-e-h-i-s-t-o-r-i-c spell? What does a-n-k-y-l-o-s-a-u-r-u-s spell?") Since it looked to be the one nice-ish day of the week, I also took everyone outside before the rain and cold hits.

Not to be outdone, Eddie walked up with this little guy and asked,
"Do you know what this is, Mom? It's a DI-NO-SAUR-US."

Day 5: It rained all day. I took Nellie to an early morning doctors appointment (because she hadn't had a well-child check up since we was four).  Annie and I did some grocery shopping, which we shouldn't be allowed to do because we buy too many extras. Other than that, we were cooped up at home. 

Sibling love is interesting. DJ and Eddie spent most of the morning fighting over one toy after another, wrestling/play fighting and causing each other injuries, and coming to me to complain about it. But when I asked who wanted to go to the store with me, Eddie wouldn't go because DJ wasn't going. And when DJ left for an hour for karate class, Eddie was sad because he had "nobody to play with." I find that Annie and Nellie aren't much different.

One of the sweetest things in life right now is that Mary Cate calls the boys her "bubbies" [buddies]. She, for one, is loving having everyone home to entertain her!

We're going a little crazy here.

Day 6: It snowed. So we spent the morning outside in our snowpants...

...and the evening in a steamy hotel pool. We might not spring for a European or beach vacation, but a surprise overnight in Hastings with cousins is good enough for the Wernet kids!

Day 6 (night): I was sharing a bed at the hotel with Annie. Around 2:00 a.m., DJ had a bad dream and came to lay right next to me. That was enough to wake up Eddie, who also came to sleep with me but there wasn't really room for four. So he lay right on top of me and squirmed for a few minutes before telling me to move over, I was "squishing him."

Day 7: We ate breakfast at the hotel and swam one more time. Then it was home to unpack, repack, buy vacation groceries, and wait for Kevin so we could head up north! After one false start where we had to turn around in Portland to go home for forgotten items, we were on our way to the great north.

Day 8: We woke up to several inches of new snow, and it continued snowing heavily on and off all day.

So we did all the things seven people in a small space on a snowy day--went outside to hike around and build snowmen, read books, watched movies (Ant-Man, Toy Story 2, and The Princess Bride), went to the Luther store, got out the paint-with-water books, played with all the toys, and ate 10,000 snacks.

Day 9: It was another quiet (well, as quiet as can be with five restless kids), snowy day. I finished my grading early with a little help from Mary Cate.

Kevin took Nellie, DJ, and Eddie for a longer hike while Mary slept and Annie and I painted our nails and watched another movie and read.

The kids spent most of the afternoon deep in an imaginative world where their parents were dead. This is not an uncommon game at our house, which is maybe a tiny bit disturbing but also amazing because they don't come asking for snacks or for us to solve their interpersonal problems when we're, you know, dead. So Kevin and I had some time to watch the Tigers game and plan our anniversary trip this summer! Then it was time for dinner and a sink bath on our last night of vacation.

Day 10: Home again, home again. We had brunch with Dad for his birthday, then hit the road. The thing about spring break that I forget year to year is that it's sort of a preview of summer break (okay, minus the snow.) Lots of togetherness, maybe a rough start while adjusting to the long days at home, then figuring out how to get along and having a great time. It's bittersweet to go back to the school routine, but I also know that summer break marks our rapid descent into near-feral living. So it's time to buckle down and enjoy the home stretch.