Sunnyview picnic

Last week spring break started. School is out from Thursday March 29th-Sunday April 8th, with parent teacher conferences at the elementary schools on the first two days (Thurs & Fri). It is a nice long break and I was looking forward to it with sky high hopes and dreams of family outings and extra husband-time until Jeff told me the spring break track schedule: practice from 10am-noon on Thursday and Friday (March 29 & 30), meet on Saturday March 31st, and practice from 10am-noon on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (April 4-6). Ummm soooo are we not allowed to have spring break ever again then? That's a generous TWO DAY break...NOT. In spite of the track-imposed limitations, we have managed to fit in some fantastic quality family time--some with Jeff, some without.

Here's a journal entry from last week about our first day of spring break:

Thursday, March 29, 2018
Today I took all three kids to Jay's and Rose's parent teacher conferences, which were scheduled during track practice (long before we heard the track practice schedule). Amber was predictably stressful, dashing around the classrooms and hallways and stealing glue sticks out of desks. I kind of ignored her while I talked with the teachers and then did damage control afterwards and it was actually slightly easier to handle all of her messes at once. Thankfully Rose's teacher had a bunch of coloring pages and crayons out, and Amber joyfully sat at a first grade desk and colored a picture of a truck. But in Jay's third grade classroom, Amber collected all of the pencils that she could find in all of the desks into a big fistful, then started rummaging around for glue sticks. She dismantled two glue sticks and I got all sticky when I took them away. Every time we were between classrooms, Amber jetted off down the hallways and around a few corners, out of sight for a slightly alarming period of time before we finally caught back up to her. I felt so scattered and pulled in 100 directions while I was trying to converse intelligently with the teachers!

Finally we exited the school and I assigned Rose to hold Amber's hand in the parking lot since Amber often listens to Rose better than she listens to me. It worked. Rose conducted Amber safely to the van, and soon we were back home making sandwiches and zooming off to the park to meet the cousins for a picnic. We spent an idyllic [almost] 3 hours at Sunnyview Park with the cousins. It was a beautiful sunny 57 degree blue sky day with minimal wind for once, and we basked. Jay's freckles multiplied. I even got a light sunburn! That vitamin D was well worth it. My body thirsted for sunshine and it soaked into my bones, dispelling my winter lethargy. The kids roamed free range and carefree! It was a wonderful afternoon.

After dinner, we harnessed the kids' end-of-day frenzied energy into our first family canal walk of the year. We have had some seriously windy evenings and it was lovely to walk outside after 6pm without being blasted in dirt granules on strong winds! The evening was more literally golden than figuratively so, with the sinking sun casting a pure gold light onto everything it touched. We walked less than a mile and made a dozen stops to keep Amber from plunging into the recently re-filled canal while she threw rocks into the water. Jay and Rose took turns riding Rose's bike up ahead (Jay's bike has a flat tire). Jeff and I walked hand in hand (except when we were lunging after Amber at the water's edge). It was nice but still lacked that resonant something that turned it to a golden moment. Real life is not always tinged in gold, and nice/happy imperfect moments are still wonderful and I'm grateful for them.

[end journal entry]

PARK PICTURES:

We recreated a picture from two years ago hanging on these bars... 

Amby liked it much better this time around.

Lunchtime 

Eating our lunch and looking for the cousins. 

The cousins arrived and playtime commenced in earnest.

This is such a tough crowd for group pictures, but everyone's faces are pointed at the camera!

We tried playing red rover, but the kids did not understand it at all. 

Oldest and youngest: Cole and Jay. 

 Duck-duck goose

FAMILY WALK, later that night:

The sunlight was so golden!

Amber insisted on riding her bike, even though she really hasn't figured out how to pedal it yet. Jeff patiently pushed her along for a little while, then parked it and let her walk. She loves her bike helmet so much, she would not take it off. 

Jay and Rose took turns on Rose's bike since Jay's bike had a flat tire that was dead enough to need a new inner tube. 

 Amber did not get tired--she refused to turn back when it was time to walk home, so Jeff had to scoop her up. Everything is so much easier when Jeff comes along! I must be weak because carrying heavy children for more than five minutes crumples my spine and strains my muscles. I avoid it.