Can we have more Spring Break?

We are back to things as normal around here, well, we will be tomorrow when classes, playgroups, and preschool resume for us. Last week was Spring Break for us. The kids had a FABULOUS week with the grandparents (and the grandparents are still speaking to us, claiming they had a great time too, so that's good). And Matt and I had a GREAT week in Kitty Hawk, NC without the kids! It was a very fast four-night trip, but we had a lot of fun. We ate dinner out every night, eating lots of yummy fresh seafood and enjoying the relaxed pace of child-free meals. Our days were very relaxed and pretty much schedule-free (since life at home is definitely NOT schedule-free). We shopped, walked on the beach, ate a lot, and played games. The highlight of the trip was probably the hang gliding (well, that and not waking up to yells of "MOMMY!!" each morning). The day we went hang gliding, the wind was pretty strong, making it a lot easier for everyone in the class to take flight, but also a little hard to tolerate standing on the top of a huge sand dune for 3 hours. We had a blast, but were very exhausted by the end. All in all the trip was big success and reminded us that the kids will be fine without us and we definitely need to do more small adult-only trips in the future.

In the days since we've been home we've had Easter, the joys of unpacking and getting resettled all while Kara's been sick. She came down with a fever and the blah's at the end of the week (I'm suspecting a light case of the flu) and has continued to be on the tired and cranky side since we've been home. Nothing like a clingy toddler to make you wish you were back at the beach! Easter was good, just us, just at home, not too exciting, but good family time together. The kids hunted their eggs, we had a yummy breakfast, then hung out most of the day. John helped me to make fresh noodles for a lasagna dinner (the best with fresh noodles) and we got out for a walk around the neighborhood before a nice early bedtime.

It's been a good start to our spring, but of course as it always does the list of chores has grown while we've been having fun. The yard is in desperate need of a spring cleaning (things are starting to grow and bud, and I haven't cleaned up the old stuff yet!), the house needs to be cleaned inside, the kids' closets need organizing, we have a few items that need to get cleared out (a.k.a. purged!), and the list goes on and on. For now, I'm looking toward getting through tomorrow - we start back to swimming class for John, playgroup for Kara, back to preschool for John, and then YOGA for me tomorrow night!

My motto right now - take each day as it comes - enjoy and cherish. It goes by so fast, even though it doesn't always feel that way. Three families in our neighborhood have newborns now and it has really reminded me how far we've come in such a short time. Sometimes I miss that newborn stage...and then I'm just glad for where we are today.