The week after Easter was the kids' Spring Break from school. Rophone didn't have the week off, so the kids and I hung out and we did things with Rophone when we could. It was a nice and relaxing week.
We spent the day on Monday just hanging out, enjoying having no places we had to be at any certain times. Isn't that lack of a schedule the best part about break? By Tuesday, the three younger kids were feeling ready to get out of the house, though, so I took them to the museum down the road. It's always entertaining (if a bit jarringly violent!), and the kids had plans to spend their Easter egg money in the gift shop. I figured that they would then spend the rest of the day playing with what they purchased, so I was all for it. Spend away, kids!
The kids sped pretty quickly past the animals getting their jugulars ripped out by predators, so the pictures I got were when they paused to look at the less gory displays. I'm cool with that.
It really is a fun museum and we're lucky it's just down the street. Each of the kids purchased a little stuffed animal from the gift shop and, as I predicted, they spent the rest of the afternoon playing with them together. Edith bought a polar bear and named it "Beary", Big bought a timber wolf and named it "Timmy", and Bud bought an alligator and named it "Gator". Welcome to the family, guys.
The younger kids spent much of the morning on Wednesday playing with their stuffed animals again, but then Rophone came home early and we headed up to the big city for the evening. We spent a little bit of time at the bookstore while we were there, but the main reason for our outing was HAIRCUTS! All three of the girls have been needing their hair cut for ages, and Bud was ready to try something different so I won't have to help him with his hair.
Edith's hair, as you may remember, started out like this:
She has been telling me she wants a short bob for ages. (I just had to snap this shot of Ginger and Edith getting their hair shampooed side-by-side. So cute.)
When things first started out, Edith seemed a bit uncertain.
But then, when she realized that her hair was going to look just as she hoped, I came back around the corner to see this:
I think it was just about the happiest haircut ever. They laughed and giggled the whole time. Edith was just so thrilled that she was getting the haircut she'd dreamed about and that it looked exactly as she'd hoped. The only thing that would make it even more perfect is if she could make it blue like her stylist's. Maybe next time, Edith.
I can't get over how cute it is. Edith was so right to want this cut-- it's perfect.
Ginger didn't get a whole lot of length cut off, but her hair is super duper thick so her change should probably be measured in pounds instead of inches. She got some much needed thinning and shaping, along with several inches.
The final result is fantastic.
I don't have a before or in-progess shot of Pen's cut, but she had the most chopped off. She ended up with two 13 inch ponytails to donate, so she probably got about 16 inches cut off. I love her new, shorter 'do. It really frames her face well.
Even though Pen lost the most length, I think Bud's cut was the most dramatic. His long hair is sooo important to him, but he's also reaching the age where he doesn't like me having to help him with his hair. Our Hair God was honored that Bud chose him to cut his hair, and he took it very seriously. He was the perfect choice to help Bud take the big step.
It ended up a little bit shorter than Bud originally wanted, but we were able to make a ponytail to donate. I think he looks great.
I'm pretty sure Bud is going to start growing his hair out again, but I think for the time being we're both glad that he can take care of it himself.
Rophone got off work early enough on Thursday that we were able to go to another (free) museum down the road at the University. I'm glad we have opportunities to culture the kids (for free!) so close by. Pen had to work, so I guess she'll just be more un-cultured than the rest. :)
I love to hear my children discussing works of art.
We loved the origami-inspired exhibit. It's truly amazing what can be done with paper. Yes, that's paper.
After looking at the inside art, we headed outdoors to climb on our favorite outdoor exhibit.
I found out that this outdoor exhibit was going to be removed at the end of our spring break week, so this was the 3rd and final year that we were able to take a shot of the 3 youngest standing on the bird (I really should have brought my real camera this year).
So fun to see the changes. I'm sad that we won't get to take a picture there again next year. I guess I knew, deep down, that the exhibit wouldn't be on display forever, but I really would love to have another ten years of this shot.
The three youngest kids took advantage of our great backyard on Friday and played some soccer. It was mostly the boys that played, since things were pretty fast-paced and aggressive, but they let Edith be the referee. Not that they could really hear her little whistle when she blew it…
I love how Big either has his tongue flipped over and sticking out or is smiling the whole time. And Bud is definitely getting over his aversion to the jostling that comes with playing competitively. It was fun to watch them play.
On Saturday, we walked down to the school to play around for a bit. It was a beautiful day. Rophone and I sat together on a bench and just enjoyed being together while the kids played on the playground. I sure do love my honey.
Then we moved to the other part of the playground where the boys had fun playing HORSE (which then morphed into playing PENGUIN and other such things), and Ginger and I kicked the soccer ball around a bit.
There's my foot, see?
Edith mostly just acted like her blood sugar was low. Poor kid.
Going for a special Spring Break ice cream treat seemed like the perfect solution to Edith's low-blood-sugar-problem. I think everyone looks like they agree that it was a good idea.
Rophone bought me some lovely flowers to make my Spring Break even better.
I love our commitment to keeping things low-key these days. Less stress, less money spent, but still loads of fun to be had. What a great Spring Break Staycation! Maybe some year we'll go somewhere, but for now this suits me just fine.
