Spring Break 2013.....Who Need Florida When You Can Have All This?

Ahhh...Spring Break.  Those two little words can strike fear in this mother's heart.  Almost a week and a half with no school, no schedule, no where to go, and no money (well not a lot of money at least) What's a mom to do?

I am happy to report that this year I finally had a successful stay at home spring break. It was so fun in fact, I forgot to document most of it with pictures.  Just close your eyes and imagine perfectly adorable kids, having fun and saying, "mom you are the best." Yeah, the pictures would have been pretty much JUST like that.

Start with  a visit to a nature center, a day at the pool (Kroc Center), an afternoon at the art museum, (OK, that one took some convincing, but once we were there no one wanted to leave- except the moms) and a free movie (+ $17 worth of popcorn and other assorted junk) and I'd say you are already off to a pretty decent start.  Then add in a few sleepovers , getting chased by a turkey at the critter barn ,climbing a rock wall  and a couple of days spent with cousins and now it is getting downright awesome, right?  Throw in Easter, which also happened to be Abbie's 3rd birthday, spending the night at Nana and Grandpa's house and  you can start to see what I mean...can it get much better?  Who needs the beaches of Florida when you can have all this?  And for real, even when you include the outrageous amount spent on popcorn, I seriously spent less than $60 for the whole week.

Still not convinced?  Well, that's not all.  In addition to all the fabulous daily outings (go me!)  our neighborhood has something to keep the kids so happy that it could rival even the best southern beach....a DIRT PILE.  I could probably write an entire blog on this dirt pile, and maybe someday I will (I am sure you are on the edge of your seat!)  But for now just suffice it to say that it provided many hours of fun and entertainment  last week.  And lots of laundry for me, but what's new?

OK, and now for a few pics...

 Abbie chillin with her friend Asher at the Kroc Center

 master rock wall climber Isaac

 Easter morning 

 bunnies at the critter barn

and the dirt pile

Sadly, the vacation did end on a sad note.  Saturday night as I was tucking the kids in bed Abbie was looking at Isaac's hamster when she noticed that "IT'S NOT MOVING!"  

On Sunday we had a funeral for Hampy.  Abbie has been acquitted of all charges by the way.

 Isaac wanted to bury him outside his window...everyone had some nice words for Hampy

RIP

Then we went and bought a new hamster...welcome to your new home Squeakers.

So, there you have it, Spring Break 2013, fun on a budget, and a much needed break from the daily grind.  

Now I say...bring on the Summer!  I'm ready for anything (as long as I can send the kids to climb on the dirt pile for several hours every day that is....)

Goodbye Winter...Hello Spring!

 The snow was fun, here's the proof:

 Isaac working on his snowboarding skills at Sandyview Elementary

 Abbie and Nana

 Kaylee and Grandpa

more fun at Sandyview

 Isaac and his friends work on the neighborhood snow fort

Kaylee playing with Avi on a snow day

gotta love the PILE of coats in the entry way

also gotta love the neighbor's Chinese exchange student snow-blowing my driveway!!

All in all, lots of fun, but I'm sort of ready to move on....maybe that's why I've already made two trips with the kids to Meijer Gardens to see the butterflies

THINK SPRING!

Enough!

I woke up Friday morning to two sweet kids curled up in my bed with me and a steady stream of thoughts rushing into my head.  My to-do for the day, the weekend, the month, my life came flooding into my brain; it went sort of something like this:

today you need to: finish planning that Children and Worship lesson for Sunday, stop at the store to pick up stuff for the Valentine's Party this afternoon (the one you've known about for three weeks), get kids up, fed, lunches packed, off to school, go to Bible Study, go to kids class parties, drive Kaylee to dance practice, pack bags for kids to be at Matt's, send those emails....

and don't forget about...paying the bills, organizing stuff for work, finish re-doing Isaac and Kaylee and Abbies bedrooms, folding the laundry, cleaning the kitchen (and the bathrooms and the entry way and the living room and the playroom...) putting stuff on craigslist that you took pictures of two weeks ago, and you need to run (10K training starts next week!),  and  make a meal plan for the next 2 weeks, plan Isaac and Abbie's birthday party, and...

At that point I reminded myself that most of things are actually do-able and/or not really a huge deal. Then I started thinking about how I wanted to: find a way to help a friend who is going through a really tough time right now, make a decision about going back to Haiti, offer words of advice to someone about her marriage, make sure my kids know and feel how much I love them, figure out a career path for myself....OK, this is bigger stuff and if I wasn't before, now I was feeling just a little overwhelmed.

With Isaac and Abbie sleeping peacefully next to me, I started to pray. And then it happened again, as I  started to pray for one person, the names of 2,3,4,5,10 other people/things came rushing into my mind.  I couldn't concentrate and my prayer became scattered and jumbled.

Feeling rather overwhelmed and completely incompetent to #1 finish my to-do list and #2 have a meaningful prayer time, God spoke these words to me, "The Lord is my Shepherd, That is Enough."  This was the message preached at my Grandpa Sternberg's funeral on Monday, words that have been rolling around in my brain  all week (probably crashing into my prayer and to-do lists) Thankfully those words came back to me at just the right time.

All this stuff that I need/want to do is good stuff (and some things like feeding children are sort of necessary) but in the end what really matters is my relationship with God.  Yes, there is work to be done, He does want me to be in prayer, but He knows my heart, He is My Shepherd and that is enough.  What a much better and more beautiful way to start a busy day.

Thank you Lord for speaking to me and for guiding me through what is so often an overwhelming season of life.  Let me be faithful to you in all that I do, every day.

How to successfully enrtain three children for an entire weekend

Some weekend we have stuff going on...some weekends we don't.  

Now, if it was just me by myself and a whole weekend of nothing to do I would be fine (ok, more like giddy with excitement) But a weekend with kids and not much to do can go bad real fast.  So here is how I (mostly) successfully entertained the kids last weekend, and had fun doing it!

Friday night

Not super exciting, but the kids each had a friend over after school.  We made individual pizzas and they played until bedtime when I brought their friends home...

the girls doing...well I'm not really sure

The boys (and Abbie) building a fort and....again not really sure

Saturday 

A trip to the children's museum

First, let it be known that I did not exactly wake the kids up at dawn and drag them out.  It is Saturday after all.  But after three hours of staring at a screen I informed the kids it was time to get out of the house! 

The conversation with Isaac went like this:

Me: OK Buddy, time to go

Isaac: Go? Where?  (I had only told him approximately 7 times the plan for the day...)

Me: To the Children's Museum

Isaac:  Oh, I don't want to go there, it's boring, it's for babies, can Nathaniel come?

Me: I don't care, no, and get in the car

Isaac super bored building with widgits

And he just hated the spinning table

yeah, making huge bubbles is just no fun! 

this area was so boring we only spent like an hour there! 

Kaylee's super creative creation

*Insert picture of Isaac's fort...that would be nice if I had remembered to actually take one! **

Trust me, it was pretty impressive 

I did get a picture of them all dressed up (and standing in one spot together) though...and that is pretty impressive too!

After 3 hours of boringness at the Children's museum, I was ready to go...they apparently they were NOT.  Isaac and Kaylee talked me into just a little more time.  So they spent the next 45 minutes "delivering" mail all around the museum while Abs and I hung out in the little kid area. 

Conversation on they way home:

Me: so, did you have fun?

Isaac: Yes! Can we go back tomorrow?

Me: Remember when you said it was going to be boring?  See how mommy was right

Isaac: silence....yeah I guess so

(I'll take it)

Saturday night: popcorn and the Lorax on netflix, oh and a glass of wine for me

Sunday

After the required hour long "quiet time"  (also very boring!!) we headed over the local elementary school for some sledding

There goes Abbie all  by herself!! 

We picked up a couple of Isaac's friends

They were super calm and didn't try anything crazy.....

(like tying sleds together or using the sleds on the slides )

When we got home I decided to make waffles for dinner.  I had seen this great idea on pinterest...

how cool is that?  It's also so obviously easy to make that reading instructions would be a total waste of time

the batter all mixed up and ready to go! 

see, totally easy and JUST like the picture! 

Then Isaac saved the day by asking if we could have ice cream clouds. 

So at least it was yummy! 

So, there you have it...how to entertain three lovely children for the weekend

And then...Monday was a snow day and I was out of ideas

So I let them do this:

Pokagon

Continuing a 20-something year tradition at Pokagon State Park in Angola, IN

I have been going here with my family since I was in elementary school.  It's so fun to see my kids enjoying it now.  They love Pokagon, I mean they looooove Pokagon!  

So here we go:

 

All loaded and ready to hit the road

We've arrived...Kaylee and Abbie "helping" Gramps with the bags

Who knew they had a craft room?  Seriously, I had never been in there before!

Like I said, the craft room is lots of fun (can't you tell!)  And please ignore the small boy holding up his fingers behind Abbie's head...

yearly snake petting at the nature center

hmmm...the tree seems to have more rings than when Gina and I were kids.  There was some fuzzy math going on there...

One of a gazillion pictures that Isaac took at the nature center

Abbie fell asleep on the walk over to the nature center...maybe next year!

classic antler pose

classic antler pose #2

playing with cousins in the hallway

this place can really wear you out!

KK with Gramps

Hey there Aunt Amanda! 

Yeah, yeah, let's go to the pool AGAIN!!

and last, but not least the annual tobaggon photo op