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!