Spring Break

After our super month-long vacation in August and our extended vacation over Winter Break, I was happy to not have a vacation planned for Spring Break. I even took the opportunity to teach at Red Bell over the break, something that I've never done. It's actually not usually an option for me to teach over a break (unless I want to be in charge of child care over a break). During this break, the Headmaster gave the preschool students who would normally be required to take it off, the option to come in due to the disruptions in school for quarantines and snow days. When she asked if I wanted to teach, I gladly accepted, knowing that if we were to be home over the break, my own children are getting old enough that they either want to spend time with their friends or be in their own rooms. They don't necessarily want to all hang out together, even for the very fun stuff. There are exceptions of course and we still have a lot of fun together, but I figured my working 4 hours in the morning would not be a problem. 

It turned out that Erik came to work with me most days, helping in my classroom the first day, enjoying all the love from my students, and then hanging with the school-age kids who attend Red Bell over breaks, for the other days. He really enjoyed the time with them and Ms. Cam, the teacher over that group, was happy to have him. She saw him the first day with me and invited him down for the other days because she has a 5th-grade student who was the oldest and needed an older friend to play chess with, etc. She had a Super Hero day and a Super Mario Day that Erik got to participate in as well. The only day he didn't attend Red Bell was Wednesday as that was the day I had chosen to send my kids to Airtime to jump for 2 hours. That was one of Victoria's "jobs" for the week, to take them there and hang with her siblings!

She spent lots of time with friends and going to track practice and had dance off over the break. She also grocery shopped and prepared dinner for me on Thursday when I took Austin to Detroit for his brain study so he could earn $120 as they studied his brain for the trauma project. Kai had driving practice just about every day. She'll be getting her permit in the mail any day now! 

I dropped Kai, Austin, and Erik off at Skatin' Station on Tuesday evening to go roller-skating with their free passes. I would have gone, and love going with them, but Jason and I had some work to finish up in the yard, something I need to blog about. This was the first time I didn't go skating with my kids and they were shocked but excited! 

They all had very specific spring cleaning jobs to complete, which they also got paid for, and ample time to hang with friends. We completed it with a nice General Conference weekend, one of the sessions having some friends over to enjoy the session with. 

Monday morning found everyone up earlier than normal, ready to start a new week of school! 

Here's Erik at the Skatin' Station with friends, doing the Hokie Pokie!

Kai in the car after her first drive!

Erik's mowhawk after sleeping with wet hair.

This kid loves maps!

Leia, getting cozy.

Austin completed his second hat during conference and now has 8 orders from friends and a teacher!

Kai drew this for a friend of ours in a nursing home. 

When Victoria gets a hold of my phone...

Austin's brain study activity. They measured the sweat he produced playing this virtual game, among other things.

P.S. 10 days before the break, we had such a fun weekend that I felt like a young college student again. Friday night, Brad, who baptized Jason and was his good friend in highschool, as well as my good friend in college and introduced us to each other, paid us a long overdo visit! He was visiting a girl in Ohio and went out of his way to stop by. We went to bed way too late, but we all had such a good time, including our kids, that it was worth it! The next day we went to U of M to watch BYU Women's bball play in the tournament with some good friends from our ward. We ended up losing in the close battle, but it was so enjoyable to be there!

Brad and Jason

With Cosmo and the cheerleaders!

Austin and Owen sat up a little higher than the rest of us.

The rest of us...