Spring Break Tidbits

I must openly admit that I am a bit surprised as to how Spring Break turned out. I was expecting it to feel like a long week of craziness as we were stuck inside together without a plan. Instead, it was full of memorable moments with the girls and was honestly pretty relaxed. A few tidbits from the week....

-On Tuesday, Jillian cozied up to me and began, "Mom, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I of course couldn't imagine what that would be, and then she continued, "Drawing castles on paper! Wouldn't that be awesome?!?" So we did.


-On Wednesday I decided that Jillian and I should have a special morning out. Our time alone is pretty sparse. Jillian was delighted by the news that we would be dropping Adrienne off at the RAC for a couple hours while we went out and did 'big girl' things. This was really precious time for us. She looked so grown-up sitting across from me at Dunn Bros with her doughnut.

We had some deep conversation during our snack stop, and she asked me about 1000 questions....mostly trying to learn my 'favorites' in just about every category she could think of. It was so sweet to watch her try and keep track of how many things left she had to ask me by counting on her fingers ("Mom, I've got 4 things left to tell ya", and so on). After our coffee date we hit the shoe store for some rain boots and spring/summer shoes, and then went to Hobby Lobby (her choice) for some new craft supplies. As we were driving back to pick up Adrienne she said, "Mom this is the best day I ever had. I couldn't even imagine it". That statement both melted and broke my heart. We need to find more solo time together.

Our shoe store fun. All personally chosen by Jillian, of course. The pink Mary Janes light up when she walks, and she told me that they remind her of lasers and that she always wanted shoes that "glow". Who knew?

-On Thursday, I got a sneak peek into what is hopefully to come. The girls really wanted to play together in Jillian's room. I took  a chance and let them do so (after removing anything unsafe), while I was downstairs cleaning out the laundry room. I knew I could count on Jillian to tell me if Adrienne was doing anything against the rules. I had to go up about 6 times to check on them, but they were so good and had so much fun coloring, looking at books and doing whatever Jillian decided they should do. They especially loved playing with the egg timer that we used to use for Jillian's rest time. Jillian would make it go off intentionally and they both would just shriek uncontrollably with laughter. I wish I had some audio of their fun, it was just precious. I consider the fact that I was able to fully clean/scrub the laundry room with both girls home and during waking hours nothing short of a miracle.

-Adrienne did her best to fry my last nerves during nap times. Matt thinks I should give up, but I am not going to yet. She did manage to take 2 naps last week, but they were in sort of unorthodox situations.

I nearly hit her when I opened the door to wake her up on this day

After closer examination I discovered that she had changed her pants and actually put these pajama pants on correctly. She also had removed her pink socks and put one white sock on and one of the moose socks (her favorite) on, in addition to putting on a jacket. Nap time is busy time around here.

-Adrienne was caught in another shenanigan as she played inside the cardboard play house that Jillian was trying to color one morning (one of her new crafts from our Hobby Lobby trip).  Someone needs to potty train this kid, she is swift on the diaper removal.

-We made a couple trips to Target. I felt like I was shopping with Cyndi Lauper on this occasion. I love how confident she is with her style.

-On Friday we did a little science experiment and had fun with the old baking soda and vinegar reaction. We went through a lot of it before she was tired of the fun.

-Meanwhile, Adrienne was busy trying out another nap spot. This just looks so uncomfortable to me, but she was out cold.

-Yesterday, we did a few spring cleaning tasks. Adrienne was very interested in helping Matt clean out his closet.

A budding laundry helper.

-We capped off the week with a Sunday afternoon date. Matt and I ran a couple errands then had a leisurely dinner. I decided to wear my new ruby slippers, which were my favorite find from a long and fun shopping day with Jenni in MSP the day before (the boys took care of the kids and brewed some beer in our absence).