Road Trip!

I've been less than stellar in the adventurous mom category this week and the kids and I needed a little pick-me-up. Although we only travelled 30 miles each way, we did cross a state line. In my current state of mind, it totally counts.

Spring Break is this week and if you haven't been able to tell, it hasn't really been party central around here. When I decided against going to Canada to visit my sister, I promised my kids (and myself - to stop the shedding of tears) that we would do at least one fun thing a day. This is how a not-so-fun mom entertains her kids during spring break:

Monday - invite Alisa's kids over to entertain mine while I paint the spare bedroom. While Henry was sleeping, I put in headphones and listened to a IPod shuffle so that I wouldn't be distracted by any sounds of conflict or tears. (I was assured by all the kids afterwards that they had a great time.) When Henry woke up, it was a lot more difficult. The kid is fast and when a few moments of too much quiet passed, I hurried upstairs to find him gnawing on the paint roller (that can't be good for him). I threw away his clothes and put him in the tub and shut the door to the room. So...kids over....mom doesn't disappoint. Yay!

Tuesday - Alisa has Seth and Sam over to play while I run to Lowe's for more finishing supplies and grocery shop. Sadly, that is all I got done as both errands took forever. My house got cleaned that day so while all the floors were clean and dry, I put a finishing solution onto all of them so that they had some sheen. (I can't believe I hadn't done this before! They look so much better!) The boys were banned from the upstairs for an hour while the floors dried so I let them watch NASCAR. They wanted to go to the park but I informed them that they had already done one fun thing for the day.

Wednesday - Rebecca came over to help me "stage" some of the rooms of my house. She got her degree in Interior Design so had lots of helpful ideas for me. I clearly don't have the knack but she was very polite about it. :) She brought her kids over to play with my kids. Anytime kids come over to my house, I am putting a deposit in the fun-mom account.

Today! - Real fun. Not the pretend stuff I've been passing off as fun to them all week. Rebecca, Andrea and I decided to try out a new bounce-n-jump place out in the valley. None of us knew the actual name of it and it wasn't showing up on any google search but we had a rough idea of where it was located so we caravaned out to the building. Unfortunately, a private party had booked it so it was closed to the public. Not to be deterred from fun, we all decided to drive out to one of those "playground of dreams" in the next town. A little extreme, perhaps, for a playground date but all the kids had a good time and I felt like I got to do something fun. For once this week.

Here are some photos of our outing:











Now it's back to the grind. I just dropped the boys off at the hospital to scanner sit with jay and I am finishing up organizing the crawl space. This weekend will be busy with yard work but I think we'll put the sign in the yard on Tuesday!