Let the Wild Rumpus Start!

But, PLEASE don't let it start at 5 in the morning!

Spring Break is upon us! I just made it through the Easter weekend and woke up on Monday in a panic- Day One of Spring Break and I had NO plans. And yes, it started at 5 am. Grrr. The kids camped out in the playroom the night before which means not a very good sleep for anyone. But since they didn't have school and Daddy had already said "yes," I agreed to it. Well, at 5 am Olivia heard her Daddy's army boots clomping around and woke up in a tizzy asking "Is Daddy still here?" I said "yes" and she ran downstairs to say good-bye before Dave leaves for work. She was followed by Paul and then Faith. I told them all to go back to bed, and that they need to sleep for at least 2 more hours. Didn't happen. After several interuptions at 10 minute intervals, I caved and said "yes, you can put in a video!"

So I was in my room thinking, "what am I going to do?!" I stayed in my room as long as possible where I made two desperate phone calls to friends who gave me pep talks and instructed me to make a plan...fast. So I called the kids into my room for a planning meeting and they were very helpful in telling me fun things they would like to do during their week off. (Sorry kids, I will not be seen anywhere in a swim suit in my 34th week of pregnancy, but I can probably make it to the bowling alley.) I loose their interest instantly when I switch the focus to what things do we NEED to do this week. We get it all on paper in a follow up meeting a little bit later. Each day we have some type of chore to do, and then something fun to look forward to in the afternoon.

It has gone fairly well. The kids have been good, but I am just worn out. Doesn't help that I think the baby has dropped, adding extra pressure. And I get tired very quickly. Sometimes when I sit or lay down I am just sure that I won't be able to get up, but a little rest does seem to do me good. Tuesday night I went to bed certain that I would not be able to move in the morning, but was pleasantly surprised with ample mobility the next day.

I haven't been too good at taking pictures of our rumpus this week, but thought I'd jot down what we've been doing...

Monday- after my panic attack and planning meeting, we cleaned up the downstairs (with a majority of our time being spent picking up hershey's kisses and jelly beans- you know the Easter aftermath) and then did some painting projects because I have frames that need some kids artwork in them to hang in the playroom.

Tuesday- we picked up the playroom and went through every single children's book that we have. I thought it was the perfect time to purge some books because Faith had, again, taken all the books of the closet shelf and they were in a pile on the floor. I had this super idea, but let me tell you... my kids don't like to get rid of things. I belive that out of about 150 books we were able to weed out 14. But you should know how I went about it. The plan was brilliant- but the end result did not reflect that. I gathered 10 books at a time and gave the pile to one of the kids. They were to go through the 10 books and place each one in one of 3 bins-- 1) Keep- meaning they love this book, it is a favorite, 2) Not Sure- I only "so-so" like this book, and then 3) Bye-bye- I don't like this book. Don't you think Peter Walsh would have been impressed with me? We went through all the books in groups of ten. We had fairly even piles after our fist sorting. But, I let the kids rescue books from the so-so and bye-bye piles if someone else had judged one of their personal favorites to be less than keep-worthy. Like I said, all but about 14 were rescued. So while we didn't purge much, we did go ahead and organize the books into picture books, chapter books, Disney books, baby board books, etc. and we got them back on the shelf. I had to rescue some too- I was NOT getting rid of A Bargain for Frances or Harry the Dirty Dog!

Our reward was picking up lunch at Subway and having a picnic at a favorite park on post. It was a bit on the windy/chilly side but it was a good to get out.

And oh, when we got home we were greeted by a puddle of water on the dining room table and a puddle underneath the table. Water had been dripping from the chandelier (yeah, it sounds fancy, but keep in mind this is post housing.) What in the world?! Olivia reminded me that earlier Paul had filled the bathroom sink upstairs. Did he leave the water running!?! Upon further investigation we found the sink to be full, (up past the drainage hole that's on the side) but the water was not on. That was a relief. So we were looking at some water under and around the sink and just what had leaked to downstairs. The chandelier quit dripping once we drained the sink. Could have been worse.

Wednesday- This turned out to be a whatever day. We had bedrooms on our chore list, but we didn't do them. We also had grocery shopping down, but I didn't do that either. What did we do? Hmmm... regular stuff like watching movies like Big Fat Liar for the umpteenth time, playing games on the computer or xbox, just sort of loafing around.

Thursday- Once again we failed to work on those bedrooms. (I must still be waiting for suggestions from my previous post. It is just one of those things that gets procrastinated consistently.) This morning the kids jumped on the just put up trampoline (though we still need to get a net around it- post regulations.) The fun thing for the kids today was eating lunch with Daddy at the hospital cafeteria while Mommy had one last ultrasound. (The technician commented that the baby was low. He knew where the door was and was waiting to get out. And we got a really cute picture of his handsome little profile!) I met Dave and the kids as they were finishing up lunch which was spaghetti. (Oh no, that's what I had on the menu for tonight!) All were happy and liked seeing the ultrasound pic of their baby brother.

I don't know if anyone is still wading through this post. I know it is long and doesn't have fun pictures to rest your eyes on. Anyway, today is Thursday and so just one more day of Spring Break and I can proudly wear the "I Survived" t-shirt.

For Friday we have "(cough,cough) clean bedrooms (cough)" on the list and then we are off to the bowling alley with a couple of friends. Perhaps I'll manage some pictures of that. And I've been thinking that I really need to get a picture of my built-in bowling ball before it's too late. I've never been good at having pics taken of myself- especially during pregnancy- but since this is probably the last hurrah, I'm telling myself I should have a picture taken.