Easter Break

Caroline uploaded an app on her phone so she could keep a record of all the books she's read.  When she was entering her profile, they asked her how many books she wanted to read in a year.  She mistakenly hit 1100 and she cannot change it.  The other day, her app gave her an encouraging message.  Press on! Read 285 books this week to get back on track!  

April Fools Day always seems to spring up on us.  It is always my intention to plan ahead so I can truly fool the kids.  I need to start a month ahead of time and condition them to certain items in their lunch or treats after school.  But alas, at midnight, I was Saran wrapping their doors.  Caroline called out as I was doing hers.  I figured she was talking in her sleep and would not remember any noises.  I sat hidden on the stairs early the next morning.  0 for 3.  All ducked.  Actually, Josiah walked through his while looking at me.  

I gave each of them a Kinder Egg in their lunches.  I had scraped out the chocolate and cream, inserting a hard-boiled egg.  I used Elmer's glue to reattach the two halves and prayed it would work.  Elmer's came through for me.  Nary a kid ate the egg.  Caroline thought about it, but wasn't sure it was hard-boiled.  Henry saved his for after school.  That's no longer safely edible...  Josiah's got passed around to a few kids.  Next year, the games begin March 1st.  

On our last day of school before Easter Break, we had an All School Easter Chapel.  The 4th-7th graders were formed into a choir this year, Caroline being a part of it.  They had practiced their song for several weeks, but decided to add sign language to it a little last minute.  They had a few lessons, but Caroline wasn't sure how it would all look during the performance.  They did quite well.  The music instructor, who was playing piano, told all the kids to look out into the audience - don't just look at the girl on the front row giving them the ASL signs.  Every eye was locked in on Lucy, the sign giver.  But they did very, very well.  

And then Spring Break was upon us.  That first evening, Josiah told me the dinner I made was too tomatoey.  It was stuffed peppers.  Which calls for a can of diced tomatoes. Guess who was tasked making dinner the following evening?  Smashburgers are his specialty and he does them well.  I watched him make them - he seasoned the meat before making the patties, then seasoned them some more while they were cooking.  He can make a burger.  

We had a rainy Easter Day, so we had a carport picture.  We have a great pastor and he preached on the empty tomb.  Caroline had to wait for her brothers to take the picture (as if she would actually put her arms around them).

Somehow we have accumulated a ridiculous amount of Easter eggs.  Todd and I hid 141 eggs.  141!  That was a lot of hiding spots!  They each got to find 47 eggs.  All was going well until Josiah and Caroline both had about 8 left to find.  We got to say the iconic parent statements, I can see 3 from here.  There are five left in this room.  When all were found, the kids dumped their eggs and sorted.  Well, two sorted.  One, not so much.  Each picture was a direct reflection of the state of their bedroom.  

Baseball has made a comeback this spring.  

Over break we did a little pickleball until the courts started filling up and we felt crowded out.  I am not the best at keeping the ball IN our court.  That's why Henry's often on my team.  He does all the running.

The girls in Caroline's class got together for another movie night.  While she was out, we decided to work on Henry's parking.  Todd and Josiah came along as human cars.  We made him practice parking from the right and left.  No persons were injured during this exercise, however, several invisible cars had some damage to their side bumpers.  He's still doing really well and he got much better at the parking bit as he went along.   

Towards the end of the week, Todd took the kids to see Grandad and Nana.  I put Benson on his leash so we could go outside and wave goodbye.  Benson completely misinterpreted my intentions and hopped in the back of Todd's car.  His tail was wagging so hard.  He thought he was going somewhere.  He was visibly sad after they left and kept looking out the window.  He and I have had a good break - hanging out in the backyard sniffing (him) and reading (me).  I worked hard to spring clean the house.  I wrote down every little thing I wanted to do so I could get that satisfactory crossing it off the list feeling.  

Josiah did ask for a picture of Benson every hour.  I complied to the best of my ability...

Meanwhile, the kids and Todd enjoyed their visit.  There was the customary frisbee and horseshoes, pool and Bingo.  Henry even drove them to Dunkin Donuts one morning to get a little Virginia driving time in.  Caroline sent me a picture of his parking job - he made sure to give everyone a wide berth.  They had a very nice visit with Grandad and Nana, but apparently did not get a picture all together...

Upon their return, Benson and I camped out in my trunk to see them pull up.  He was very happy to have his people back.  

We are down to the final six weeks of school.  Caroline says I only have 3 weeks left because I work half days.  Either way, we're getting down to it.  The play opens in 3 weeks so it is going to be a crazy time until then.