Spring Break

It's hard to believe spring break has come and gone.  And man, do those weeks off always fly by.  It never fails that my to-do list is a mile long.  But, for me, spring break is always a week to get caught up on deep cleaning, organizational projects, fixing up the garden, and play dates with the kids.

This year we were pretty daring with our list, but we somehow managed to :

Our fireplace doors before with the dated brass doors.

Our fireplace doors after with a can of spray paint in brushed nickle.

• Paint the mantle and the fireplace doors
• Scrub the grout on the tiles in the kitchen by hand
• Donate old formal dresses to the Hope Closet Foundation 
• Sell baby/toddler clothes and toys to Once Upon a Child
• Make a recipe binder for the kitchen with sheet protectors, tabs, and all!
• Use my label maker to label new recycling bins, a new organizer for batteries, and new bins to store the kids' art projects
• Spread a huge delivery of mulch throughout the yard
• Reorganize and clean the garages
• Weed books off our book shelves to donate
• Reorganize the kitchen pantry with bins for snacks 

And because that was all work and not very much fun, I made sure to schedule a few breaks to meet up with friends and take the kids out.

Our first stop was to Greenfield Village on a beautiful, sunny Monday post-Easter.  I met up with Trisha and her two little ones, Reese and Aaron.

With a new playground they built over the last year and a train ride, the boys were both fast asleep on the car ride home.  Heck, the fresh air even made me tired.

Later on in the week, my mom joined us on her usual babysitting day to take the boys to the Hands On Museum in Ann Arbor.  She had never been and we needed to activate our new membership we got as a Christmas gift, so it was perfect timing.  Not to mention it was a cool, rainy day.  Everyone else must have had the same idea.  The place was a zoo!

We grabbed lunch at the Arbor Brewing Company before heading back home for naps.

Break ended with a relaxing weekend.  My mindset on Sunday evening wasn't even in that dark of a place.  With a late spring break this year, it makes going back to work a bit easier considering we have less than 7 weeks until summer vacation!  And with the start of summer vacation is our trip to Portland for a week!  Let the countdown begin.  Officially, 32 more days of work and 47 days until we are Oregon-bound!

An egg-stra special weekend!

Blessed.

One simple word that describes how I feel this evening.  Exhausted too, but we'll go with blessed.  Going through all my pictures since last Thursday evening when we kicked off my spring break with dying Easter eggs, I'm amazed at all the things we accomplished in a few short days.

This weekend was full of family, friends, and Easter celebrations.  With gorgeous weather, too.

Thursday was the boys' daycare spring party complete with a visit from the Easter bunny.  I managed to escape work for an hour or so in the morning to see their festivities and it was a real treat.  The boys both enjoyed me being there and continued to be a part of all their activities (not always the case, unfortunately).

Surprisingly, both Evan and Sean were excited to see the bunny.  Evan waved frantically while saying, "hi" in the tiniest voice.  Sean ran excitedly to go and hide to scare the bunny.  It was hilarious!

That evening we finished up dinner quickly so we had time to dye our eggs.  Sean was pretty enthusiastic about dying them and stuck it out until all of them were finished.  Evan had more fun putting on the bunny ears and splashing an egg or two in the cups with dye.

I thought the "Golden Glimmer" kit was really nice!  The colors were so vibrant this year.

Friday, we ran some errands to get ready to host an Easter lunch at our house on Saturday.  A trip to Costco and to the pediatrician were in order (Evan's eczema is flaring up again).  "Snack ladies", a vegetarian lunch (Good Friday...), and an upgrade to an executive membership later, we made the decision to head down to Comerica Park with the boys for an evening game for Nana's birthday.  Considering we've never taken the both of them to a Tiger's game and considering it was risky to take them to an evening game, they did well!

A ride on the carousel was a must before we left at the top of the 6th.  Hey, the game was pretty lousy and by then it was 9:30.

With hosting people over the next day for lunch and an Easter egg hunt in the morning, it wasn't the best night for us to realize that Sean can't digest peanuts.  But, we survived, on little sleep and made the most out of a beautiful Saturday!  Starting with an Easter egg hunt at Maybury Park with Scott's side of the family!

We came back to our house for a BBQ lunch and dessert for Nana's birthday.  Of course since it was gorgeous outside, no one wanted to be inside.  We played all afternoon in the backyard, went to the park to fly Pops' remote control airplane, and blew bubbles with their new bubble machine.

Everyone left in time for us to make some homemade pizza, watch Finding Nemo on the couch, and get the kids in bed.  Then we were off to work to get the Easter baskets hidden and make it look like the bunny visited...

Spoiled much??  I think so.

Easter morning was wonderful.  Since we didn't have any plans until later in the day, it was nice to not rush with finding the baskets or cooking breakfast.  We went to 11am mass and managed to keep the kids under control for an hour and a half in a confined pew.  Then came home for a picnic lunch on our deck and naps.

Finally, we concluded our Easter celebrations by heading over to my parents' house for a delicious dinner.  It was a little strange not having my grandma and uncles there with us, but as she continues to age, she's having a hard time even leaving the house.  We made due with our small gathering and let the kids play outside until it was bath time.  They even got to swim in the hot tub!  Spoiled yet again...

If you made it through this post, I commend you.  If you're exhausted just looking at the pictures, you can understand how exhausted I am tonight.  It's tough work making memories.  ;)

As if this weekend wasn't busy enough, I made sure to plan two (yes, two) separate play dates for today.  A trip to Greenfield Village and a visit from a friend and her two kids.  Pictures to follow in a spring break recap post.  I'm off to enjoy what's left of my evening and gear up for another busy day tomorrow.