Spring Break #1 is Over

Sadly, neither Spring Break #1 or #2 involve ME being on break...that's what I get to do Friday afternoon after I get my mouth all cut up...I mean after I receive relief by having my wisdom teeth removed from the overcrowded mouth in which they have made their home for many, many years....if I don't chicken out or have to cancel the appointment because there's no one available to do my job in my absence (even though I have a formal request for the afternoon off signed by the boss lady). Spring Break #2 starts for Girl and SmallBoy the Thursday before Easter. But I digress...

LargeBoy headed back to school on this cold and dreary Monday morning, after a long and relatively good weather enhanced week off of school. We saw him for, maybe 6hrs - of actual "awake AND at home" time over break, but he had a blast. The still dark sky, a combination of resetting the clocks and a night full of thunderstorms, and a "late" night, presented a rude awakening for LargeBoy this morning when I woke him at 6:45 to view the Crap-it's-Monday sky (and to get his ass moving for school). Lovely lovely day.

The weekend leading up to the official end of Spring Break was quite fine, though. The weather could have been a bit better, but considering I live in Chicago, it could have been MUCH MUCH worse! 5:00 on Friday couldn't have come fast enough. The director and associate director of our office had been out of town at a conference all week, my staff had taken the cat's-away-mice-will-play attitude, not realizing that K. and I had been left in charge, my Friday was TOTALLY stressful trying to schedule THIS week and blah blah blah...needless to say, by the time 5:00 rolled around I was ready to get the hell out of Dodge. Silly Me. I had forgotten that I had volunteered to help out at a Girl Scout function Friday night. Girl's troop was doing a service project and volunteered to babysit for a "Moms' Night Out" for the school parents. Well, the response was SO overwhelming, they had 83 children signed up, that the leaders needed help supervising the girls who were "running" the evening. I was DREADING this. I had been working with a staff who had been acting like children all week (ok, so , really, only two of my staff...but it was a staff of 4), in our office we work with kids with learning disabilities stemming from many a source, including behavioral issues from PTSD. I wanted to go home, open up my wine, slide into the bubble bath (a la Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman), and just forget about the world for a while. I was NOT looking forward to 83 screaming children ranging in age from 3 to 9. When I got there, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it was a zoo. There were children all over, some having a blast, some having tantrums, some bullying, some off in their own world (SmallBoy), but surprisingly my newfound skills, after learning all of these wonderful new techniques to use with SmallBoy, snapped into place. We got the kids playing games, tantrums were "easily" dealt with, and everyone was happy as clams...especially when we saw the parents slowly starting to trickle back in.

Saturday was Girl's play, Closet Monsters, peformed by her school's Drama Club. She played a character very similar to herself - tomboy who always wore her hair under a baseball cap, didn't take crap from anyone, and loved to speak her mind...yeah, pretty much Girl. There were SOME differences, but suffice it to say she pretty much played herself. She did a great job and I am SO very proud of her. She and her Step Sister are both in the drama club together. Step Sister's role was that of a girl very concerned with her looks, and beauty trends, skin and hair care, makeovers, etc...In this picture, Step Sister had just "done" Girl's hair and Girl's character wanted NOTHING to do with it, so she IMMEDIATELY shook it out, rolled her eyes, and put her baseball cap back on her head. It's nice that even with all the crap going on with Ex, that she and Step Sister are friends and have a great deal in common. It's nice for Girl to have a "big sister".

LargeBoy spent Saturday with SmallBoy - who was JUST loving it. LargeBoy "borrowed" Chicken Little from a friend and the Boys watched it together, played the games on the DVD, played games, wrestled, had alone time from each other - as long as SmallBoy knew his brother was home and wasn't leaving him, he was happy. It was SO nice to hear him laugh and giggle and just be SmallBoy again - not crying, literally, distraught over when he was going to see his brother again - gee, you think the whole abandoment issue with his "father" is starting to get to him? Now, at least, he knows that Spring Break was just that, a break, that LargeBoy adores him and would NEVER EVER leave him. He was SO scared, though. It just broke my heart.

Sunday we spent celebrating Princess' 7th Birthday; fittingly, her birthday was Saturday, April Fool's Day. To FULLY appreciate that, you need to know Princess. For her birthday celebration we had some killer rib tips from Uncle Bub's and ET made some barbequed chicken with (one of) his secret bbq sauce(s). The Maalox was flowing like water last night, but DAMN it was worth it. We gave Princess some more of Girl's GIGANTIC stash of American Girl stuff - those of you with only boys, be VERY GRATEFUL that you will never know what AG is. She loved it. We went outside and discovered a family of bunnies - 3 or 4 "fresh outs" and a mama. We made sure that SmallBoy and Princess didn't get too close, so that Mama would return. Oh...DUH...the pinata! THAT was hysterical. Princess went first because it was her birthday, of course, then SmallBoy, Girl, ET, and eventually, after a couple of rounds, Meem had a turn, too. Apparently this pinata was made very strong. It lasted through Girl - who plays fastpitch softball and has a killer swing, through ET - well, self-explanatory if you know him, and lasted through a baseball bat beating, too. Once it finally broke open, though, the kids filled up bags and bags of candy. Hopefully my dog won't find it. It was a wonderful afternoon and everyone had fun.

Today, well, back to reality. The weekend was a nice escape, though. I wish weekends were longer, though, so we can enjoy OUR lives more instead of our companies' lives, enjoy our CHILDREN more. I hope you, too, had a wonderful weekend.