Spring Break! 3/11 - 3/17/2018

Spring Break was a fun week, but definitely not a break for me.  I wanted to keep the kids busy so we wouldn't be fighting at home as much.  That was true, but I may have over done it a bit for me.  

Monday morning we planted flowers.  The kids did a great job of helping and now our front walkway looks so much better.  After that we went to a park we like.  It started out a bit chilly while we ate our lunch, but it was perfect while we were playing.  I enjoyed playing ultimate frisbee and soccer with the boys.  One other family joined us which was fun for the kids.  

 Tuesday we wanted to play poison ball but found out that someone else was using the gym.  So we went over to the park and the kids played poison ball in the tennis court.  It was a beautiful day.  We went home and had lunch then went to our 'secret beach.'  The last time we went was during Christmas break so the kids were excited to go back.  We had a big rain storm earlier in the month and it had washed away a lot of the beach, but it made a cool cliff that the kids had fun climbing and carving into.  We invited two families, but only one could make it.  This was their first time and they loved it too.

 After baths I went to the grocery store and we had dinner then I took the younger 4 to Sk8 Town.  They were having a cheaper day because of Spring Break.  It was crazy busy, but we had fun anyway.  I was afraid that the girls were going to get run over, but they were very confident and just went with the flow.  We left unscathed which I think was a minor miracle.  Kaylee was so so tired, it had been a very full and fun day.

After the kids went to bed I still had a lot to do.  I made muffins and hamburger patties, cut up chicken, did the dishes, cooked sausages, and filled out waivers for our activity tomorrow.  It was 12:30 when I went to bed.  Whew! 

 Wednesday morning I made a pumpkin pie because it's Pi day (3.14) and I had a GNO activity in the evening that I needed to bring a pie to. 

Then we went to a new place called Obstacle Warrior Kids.  It's a place that is like a mini Ninja Warrior.  There is one main obstacle course and then a little kids area and a bigger kid area and a dodge ball room.  It was pretty fun, but you needed a lot of upper body strength to do most of the obstacles, so most of us skipped those parts.  I made it up the 10 foot warp wall which I felt pretty proud of. :) 

 After lunch  the girls and I took a nap - we have been playing hard this week!
Then we went back to the beach because everyone loved it so much yesterday.

 We couldn't stay too long, I had to make dinner and watch a friend's baby while they went to the Rodeo.  I took a quick shower and then he showed up.  He didn't eat very well and was pretty fussy, but once he fell asleep he was fine. 

I went to my GNO and had fun eating pie and trying a new crust recipe.

Thursday the older kids played poison ball and Jenna and Kaylee played at a friends house.  I needed this time to get us all packed to go camping.  It's crazy how much work goes into camping. I made so much food and prepped food to make it easier while we were there.  I pre-cooked the pancakes which took a long time but made it so easy in the morning.  I made a pasta salad for dinner and I marinated the chicken for Friday night and made rice krispy treats.  Doug did some errands in the morning and then helped finish packing.  We left around 4:00.  We went to the Lake Houston Wilderness Park.  I love this place because it is only 25 minutes away and the camp site is great, lots of trees and a big open area for the kids to play in.  We drove separately so that we could bring their bikes. 

Thursday we just set up camp and then grilled hamburgers for dinner.  Two other families joined us, the Hopes and the Thomases.  We divided up some of the food assignments so that made things easier.  It was a bit of a process to get it all figured out, but it worked out well in the end.  We all played lots of games and had fun just visiting and playing around.  There was this big tree right in our area that the kids had fun on.  There were a lot of mosquitoes out which was a bummer, but we lived through it.

This picture has almost all of the kids, missing Damon, Jenna, Aaron and baby William.  My two girls among 11 boys.

 Friday we had our pancake breakfast and then waited for the rain to pass - on our radar it showed that it was just going to be a small band passing by.  I was grateful that was all - it rained during the night and woke me up a couple of time, but at least it was pleasant for us during the day. After the rain we went on a hike/walk to the Nature Center.  Some of us stayed there and looked around and played while Doug took Tyler and some others on a longer hike to pass off a Webelos requirement for Tyler. 

 We had lunch and the kids just kept playing games: Sushi Go, One Night Werewolf, Sleeping Queens, Cover your Assets, Slamwhich.  They were having fun and no one really wanted to go play at the beach - since we had already done that twice this week, so we just stayed at camp. 

We did dutch oven potatoes for dinner, everyone was in charge of their own meat.  We grilled some chicken.  My friend Jen made apple cobbler that was quite yummy.  Our friend Laisa was going to join us for dinner and bring a salad and rolls, but she didn't end up coming until 7:00 so we just ate our dinner without those.  :)  We did s'mores each night of course which the kids enjoyed and bubbles the second night that Laisa brought up.  The second night we put the game table in our pop-up shelter that has a netting attachment so we didn't get eaten by the bugs as much.  We had fun playing a new game called Were-words.  It's a mixture of One Night Werewolf and 20 questions. 

Saturday we had a easy breakfast of muffins, juice, fruit, yogurt and donuts.  Then we packed up and went home.  It takes so long to clean up everything.  Doug and boys pitched the tent in the backyard to air it out and we hung up all of the sleeping bags on the railing.  It is a lot of work to go camping, but it is a lot of fun while you are there.