Monday, April 02, 2007
Back To Normal
Whew! Spring Break is over. Thank God. Not that it meant a huge disruption or change in our everyday lives or anything (how could it when your school-age child is only in school from 8 - 10:50am??). But still, I had both kids home with me all day for a week as we had no plans for a vacation or anything, so finding fun and inexpensive things to do became the mission for the week. And mission accomplished, I think.
I was able to take the kids to a Mommie and Me matinee of Happy Feet one afternoon (God, I LOVE these theaters in Portland!). The kids had seen it before, and I'm not
a big fan of this particular movie, but it was still fun to have an outing. It cost all of $5 for the 3 of us. The weather cooperated a couple of days and we spent quite a few hours playing at a park, always fun. The big treat was a trip to a place called Pump It Up for an open play time. My kids went crazy there, jumping, running, bouncing, climbing, and working up quite a lather. That place was not quite as economical as the movie, ripping us off for $7/kid for 90 minutes of playtime. But hey, it was the Big Treat Of The Week, so whatever - they LOVED it.
Even *I* got a treat this week. This Spring Break represented 15 years that Mr. Chick and I have been together. We met on Spring Break back in the day (1992 for those of you bad at math) when we were in college and both down in Palm Springs for vacation. And by vacation I mean non-stop party, of course. I had no idea that the cute guy I met dancing one night, and then ran into again the next night, went to my school (nor did I know that he was 2 years younger than me and was in the bar with a fake ID, but that's another story). I flirted with him and bought him a beer and actually gave him my real phone number when I learned that we were practically neighbors "in real life". He called me when we were both back home again and we've been together ever since. Awww - romance. So to celebrate this "anniversary" we took my sister up on her offer to babysit the kid (complete with sleep-over!) on Friday night and busted out a gift card we had to a nice local restaurant (which we got a year ago and haven't had the chance to use yet!) and enjoyed a date night together. Mr. Chick even brought me a bouquet of roses to start the evening! We planned dinner and then a movie since my sister gave us movie tickets along with the babysitting at Christmas.
Except we didn't make it to the movie. Mr. Chick petered out and claimed he wouldn't last to see the opening scene. Wuss! Granted, it was a Friday night and a 10:10pm showing and he hadn't slept well the night before, but still - ! We can't party like rockstars anymore like we could 15 years ago, THAT'S for sure. But, despite our inability to stay awake past 10pm, it was a lovely evening just the two of us.
So here it is, Monday morning, and we're back in the groove. Nicholas is off to school and Lauren is watching her morning cartoon so I can get a few minutes on the computer. After this I'll go and get dressed while she takes her turn playing a game on the computer, I'll eat something for breakfast, and then tidy up a bit. Nicholas will come home and we'll do our thing until this afternoon when we'll head to the Y so the kids can play and I can workout. Then we'll rush to Nicholas's t-ball practice.
Ahhh, routine. I missed you. Breaks like Spring Break are really only vacations if you go somewhere other than home. If you stay home, they become Work because they disrupt the routine. I'm all for the occasional disruption - we're not THAT structured - but a weeks' worth of disruption is too much. I'm very happy Spring Break is over. Unless Spring Break can be like the one when I met Mr. Chick, I have very little use for you.
Now, back to normal.
I was able to take the kids to a Mommie and Me matinee of Happy Feet one afternoon (God, I LOVE these theaters in Portland!). The kids had seen it before, and I'm not
a big fan of this particular movie, but it was still fun to have an outing. It cost all of $5 for the 3 of us. The weather cooperated a couple of days and we spent quite a few hours playing at a park, always fun. The big treat was a trip to a place called Pump It Up for an open play time. My kids went crazy there, jumping, running, bouncing, climbing, and working up quite a lather. That place was not quite as economical as the movie, ripping us off for $7/kid for 90 minutes of playtime. But hey, it was the Big Treat Of The Week, so whatever - they LOVED it.Even *I* got a treat this week. This Spring Break represented 15 years that Mr. Chick and I have been together. We met on Spring Break back in the day (1992 for those of you bad at math) when we were in college and both down in Palm Springs for vacation. And by vacation I mean non-stop party, of course. I had no idea that the cute guy I met dancing one night, and then ran into again the next night, went to my school (nor did I know that he was 2 years younger than me and was in the bar with a fake ID, but that's another story). I flirted with him and bought him a beer and actually gave him my real phone number when I learned that we were practically neighbors "in real life". He called me when we were both back home again and we've been together ever since. Awww - romance. So to celebrate this "anniversary" we took my sister up on her offer to babysit the kid (complete with sleep-over!) on Friday night and busted out a gift card we had to a nice local restaurant (which we got a year ago and haven't had the chance to use yet!) and enjoyed a date night together. Mr. Chick even brought me a bouquet of roses to start the evening! We planned dinner and then a movie since my sister gave us movie tickets along with the babysitting at Christmas.
Except we didn't make it to the movie. Mr. Chick petered out and claimed he wouldn't last to see the opening scene. Wuss! Granted, it was a Friday night and a 10:10pm showing and he hadn't slept well the night before, but still - ! We can't party like rockstars anymore like we could 15 years ago, THAT'S for sure. But, despite our inability to stay awake past 10pm, it was a lovely evening just the two of us.
So here it is, Monday morning, and we're back in the groove. Nicholas is off to school and Lauren is watching her morning cartoon so I can get a few minutes on the computer. After this I'll go and get dressed while she takes her turn playing a game on the computer, I'll eat something for breakfast, and then tidy up a bit. Nicholas will come home and we'll do our thing until this afternoon when we'll head to the Y so the kids can play and I can workout. Then we'll rush to Nicholas's t-ball practice.
Ahhh, routine. I missed you. Breaks like Spring Break are really only vacations if you go somewhere other than home. If you stay home, they become Work because they disrupt the routine. I'm all for the occasional disruption - we're not THAT structured - but a weeks' worth of disruption is too much. I'm very happy Spring Break is over. Unless Spring Break can be like the one when I met Mr. Chick, I have very little use for you.
Now, back to normal.
// posted by MP @ 8:44 AM 
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I am so with you on the whole routine thing. Last week my oldest was on spring break, and I am so glad that he is back to school!
Congrats. on your 15 year anniversary! I sure would like an overnighter with my husband. Is your sister available:)
Congrats. on your 15 year anniversary! I sure would like an overnighter with my husband. Is your sister available:)
I love my routine and with the buying of this daycare, we will have even more routine in our life...I dont' know what will happen when spring break catches us in a few years.
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