Sunday, June 03, 2018

we built this spring break on rock and roll

i have been working on this post for 2 months. and it's not exciting. just a spring break recap for the children to read someday. it's so hard to write a blog post that is so old and my heart is not in it. this will be boring. you have been warned. no one threw up. my highlight was discovering a new goodwill.

spring break seems like such a distant memory now but i hope it's the model i can follow for this summer. we can do whatever the kids want to do, as long as they've done their chores. seems simple enough? it's actually a little closer to rocket surgery. 

the first day of spring break is mostly unscheduled. i don't like an unscheduled day, but i think everyone appreciates sleeping in, eating as your leisure, watching copious amounts of televsion and getting a break from overly structured time by overdosing on unstructured time. by the end of the day, we are crying and screaming the most. then we're absolutely ready for day 2!

day 2 is complete chores and then do an activity. our cleaning plan is as follows, each room is attacked until it's done. we've tried the little bit at a time, or the collection baskets for things that don't belong method, and the crying and screaming method. each room attack is what works for us. i supervise/crack the bullwhip/give assignments and encouragement. nothing is unsupervised. we simply cannot handle that. anything that doesn't belong gets tossed in the hall. upon completion of the room, the hallway contents are redistributed. all this is happening as i play "we built this city" over and over and over. after about 20 minutes, i'll move to a new song, but i take no requests. it took us most of the morning, but the entire upstairs level was guest ready. and herschel ended up in a dress. everyone loves fancy nancy.


the post cleaning activity was a trip to the mall. kids choice. they love to go to the mall. they like eating at the food court, they like riding the carousel, someone normally needs a bribe so we end up getting cookies. scarlett loves to shop. reagan likes to do laps. we spend the most time in the disney store ie- hell. does it sound like i've recorded this same type trip a bazillion times? it feels like that to me. these kids like the mall. i think it feels like more of an outing than it is because i'm too cheap to go to the trampoline places or amusement parks more often. 





typical:






my favorite activity of spring break was the trip to the water park. everyone had so much fun we signed the girls up for swim team.


athena blythe's best quality is her determination. she wanted to dye her hair so she took matters into her own hand.




day 5 of spring break, i took the kids to a tiny free zoo in athens, just a 35 minute drive away. i still hate the zoo, but free is my price. plus, the weather was perfect so it wasn't like i was dying from humidity and animal poop smell.


do your kids do this? they all wanted individual shots of themselves by random things at the zoo. 

a portrait with painted possums? check!

13 year old boy in a bear billboard. check!


moderately well behaved baby boy in a bear billboard. check



spring break weekend shorts:

athena blythe was indoctrinated into family scripture reading. it went much better than expected for the child who declares her dislike for church each sunday.

she was also very determined to dye her hair. her best quality is her dedication to getting things shes wants.

the end


2 comments:

HJolley said...

This post still made me laugh even if your heart wasn't in it.

I really enjoyed Scarlett's zoo outfit. Very cute.

My kids think going to Wegmans or my friend Amy's (who has a huge backyard) is the equivalent of going to Disney World, so I can understand how your kids think the mall is mega awesome. It's because we set the bar low, and I'm proud of that.

Jessica said...

not boring at all! hahaha. I like this room attack idea. maybe that's what we need to do around here until we're fully settled in and unboxed. also, I hate the zoo, toooooooo!