Spring Break!

Spring Break 2014 started out with a lot of hard work and ended with a lot of play :)

But I will back peddle to the Saturday before Spring Break and Blake's hockey wind-up party.  Our team manager planned an afternoon of floor hockey, cake and celebration at the ACT Centre.  The kids had a blast playing floor hockey and soccer in the gym!  After spending a few hours together, every weekend over the past 7 months, we will miss this group of people.  Blake has formed some awesome friendships with his teammates.  We'll keep up the play dates and a few of them are going to play in a street hockey tournament together!  Cal received a nice card and gift card from the team and enjoyed handing out certificates and pins to all the players.  Another great hockey season is in the books!

Our new carpet was installed the Tuesday of Spring Break, so Cal and I spent all day Monday moving our family room and 3 bedrooms into the front room and basement.  The kids were so good, thank goodness for iPad's!  Sometimes an abundance of screen time is just necessary!!!  And since they don't get a whole lot, when they get free reign, they are very occupied!!  Monday afternoon we headed to my parents house to spend a few nights.  The kids were super excited to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's, although disappointed that G&G weren't home!  Cal and I laughed that 2 nights in Stony Plain was their Spring Break vacation and found it quite cute (& hilarious) that they were so excited to pack their suitcases and stay only 45 minutes away from home!!  I often say, and I'm not joking, with our kids it really is the little things ... and I love that!

Cal drove back to the house to let the carpet installers in on Tuesday morning.  He worked most of Tuesday and monitored the workers.  They were done around 9 pm.

Lindsay and the boys came to visit the kids and I on Tuesday and after witnessing the abundance of energy amongst the four oldest children, we made a quick decision to take them to the Tri Leisure Centre in Spruce Grove to hopefully burn off some of that energy!!  They had fun in the gymnasium and in the play gym and were all excited to get a Booster Juice ;)  Before supper we went on a nice walk and let them burn off some more energy!  Supper was followed by bath's!  It was a great day!

Wednesday morning we packed up, cleaned up (note to Mom & Dad: I really tried to leave the house as we found it!!!) and headed home to check out our new carpet.  I was so excited to see it and I was not disappointed!  It looks so good (although a touch darker than I had anticipated)!  No more yucky, old carpet.  Now the challenge is to keep this carpet in good condition ... and that will involve protecting it from Heidi and Jazz' snags and scratches and accidents more than policing the kids!!!  We promptly trimmed Jazz' nails as soon as we got home!   Wednesday was a long day, trying to get the beds back together (bunk bed assembly = a royal PITA!!!) and the house somewhat back together.  The play room is still a mess and needs to be better organized, but we've closed that door and will get to it one day!!  It was great to get everything somewhat organized and dusted and back to normal before our bedtime!  We were completely wiped out!

Thursday was another date with Lindsay and the boys (LOVING being able to see them so often!!)!  1st lunch at Olive Garden (which was delicious but busy as we juggled 5 busy kids (3 which kept us busier than the other 2)!!), 2nd stop was Build-A-Bear!!  It was Connor's turn to build a bear for his 2nd birthday present from Cal, the kids and I :)  At first Connor seemed smitten with a sparkly, sort of 'girlie' bunny so we showed him another more gender neutral bunny and he grabbed it!  Not that a boy can't have a sparkly, pretty teddy bear but as I explained to Blake when he asked why we didn't get him the sparkly bunny, we'd like Connor to continue to enjoy his stuffie even when he's a bit older and maybe when he's older he wouldn't like the sparkles!!  Blake was satisfied with that answer!  Connor's bunny, a.k.a. Tommy, is sporting a hoodie and is pretty cute!  Lindsay says Tommy has slept with Connor and been drug around the house!  We're happy to know Tommy is being properly loved :)  I told the kids they could pick something out for their bears once Connor had finished making his bear, but of course they couldn't wait and were piling the items up as Connor and I built his bear!!  In the end Sam (Blake's bear) got a new t-shirt and a hockey stick and puck, Honey Bear (Emerson's bear) got a new sleeping bag and a brush and Rosie (Reese's bear) got a tutu-type dress!

Friday brought a lot of excitement, as we had a long-standing play date scheduled at a school friend's house!  The kids could not wait to go to Max and Ava's!!  When we got to the house, all the kids were screaming and jumping up and down and hugging.  So funny!!  The other Mom's and I always joke that every time they see each other, it's as if they haven't seen each other in 6 months and every time they say goodbye to each other, it's as if they won't see each other for another 6 months!  Too cute!  We had a great time, they all play so well together :)  We were there for 5 hours and it felt like 1.

Saturday was BLANK on our calendar.  This is very, very rare.  Never happens!  I don't know the last time we had absolutely no obligations or plans made!  It was soooo nice!  We made a Costco run, had lunch out and played outside for hours.  Some of the neighbourhood kids were out and they all rode bikes together and played street hockey in our driveway.  It was very nice :)

Sunday was fairly low-key with Church and a visit in the afternoon from the Stecyk's.  Blake passed on his train table to Connor.  He was hesitant but I did not tell him he was giving the table to Connor, I said he was lending it to Connor and I also mentioned that although he loves his trains, he does not play with the train table but that I thought that he and Connor would really love playing trains at Connor's house when we visit :)  Blake took that in, processed it and agreed :) 

All in all it was a busy Spring Break but we had a wonderful time and found it too short!

May and June are shaping up to be insanely busy (and I will likely be insane by the end of June!)! This is why (other than school of course):

Monday - Emerson has dance and soccer

Tuesday - Blake has soccer

Wednesday - Emerson has soccer

Thursday - Blake has soccer

Friday - Reese and Emerson have swimming lesson's

Saturday - Blake has ball hockey and soccer practice

Sunday - Church and hopefully nothing else!!

Our kids are always in bed by 7 and with soccer from 6 to 7, they will be in bed later.  I am praying they will adjust to this but know that they do not do well with late bedtimes :(  Which is normally a-okay with us, in fact we prefer them to get a solid 11-12 hrs of sleep nightly, but Blake and Emerson realllllly wanted to play soccer!  So ... we will see how it goes!  Maybe they'll start sleeping in a little later?!  Although we need to be out the door at 8 so they really can't sleep in too much later!!

Throw in a dance competition, a dance recital, 2 soccer tournament's and 1 street hockey tournament into the weekend time and that is our May and June in a nutshell!  I am realllly looking forward to camping and relaxing on May long weekend and I have a feeling I will be happy to see the end of June!

Joking aside, I do look forward to enjoying Blake and Em's enthusiasm for soccer.  I can not wait for Em's dance comp and recital and both Em and Reese are extremely excited for swimming! Blake is pumped for ball hockey, the more hockey the better for that boy and the Play On street hockey tournament at WEM is going to be awesome.  We have scheduled ourselves to be this busy, so I will not complain ... ;)  Cal is broadening his horizon's and adding to his coaching resume ... yes, he's coaching BOTH Blake and Emerson's soccer teams!  What a guy, we're so lucky :) :)  He's enrolled in a coaches clinic at the end of April and is going to ask a friend of his who is from El Salvador and is a fantastic soccer player, to come show the kids a thing or two!  Cal's coaching both teams with a friend (Dad of one of Blake's classmates) and I know the two of them will have a great time, as will both teams!

It looks as though my short Spring Break post has turned into a long rambling post, so I will sign off ;)  We hope you also enjoyed your Spring Break and are getting back into the swing of 'routine'!

xo

Tracy