Spring Break

Although I am a completely slacker mother as of late, I tried to plan a few fun activities to keep us sane during spring break. Not that spring break week is much different for us than any other week...it just means no dance and no 2 days of preschool. None the less, we did a few fun things this week.

On Monday I got a group of people together to go bowling at the college bowling alley. You just can't beat free shoe rental and $1.50 games. We ended up with 7 moms and around 25 kids. I hadn't really thought about numbers when I started inviting people. It first donned on me that I should have thought this through beforehand when all of us were walking into the bowling alley and I looked at our huge group and saw the look on the worker's faces.

It ended up going well though. We put about 5-6 kids on each lane, divided them up by age, and then sat back and enjoyed the show. Owen had the most amazing day and somehow managed to bowl a 149! He used a little ramp thing to push the ball down, but still, 149! He got a turkey, and won a free game for getting a strike when there was a colored pin in front. I was very proud!
All of the kids had fun and then we split up into more manageable groups to take the kids out to lunch. We ended up at Carl's Jr. so the kids got to play some more. It was a fun day, and we were all exhausted afterwards. (Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but I did have a friend take a picture of the score board for proof of Owen's amazing talent...I just haven't been given the picture yet!)

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we relaxed, hung out at home or with friends, did some cleaning, and by then I was grateful that we had plans for Friday before we went stir crazy. We went with some friends to check out a new play place in town that prides itself on being clean. They didn't disappoint.

There were a ton of activities for the kids. We showed up at 10:00 in the morning and didn't leave until 4:00. Who ever heard of staying at a play place for 6 hours? The best part was all of the comfy couches scattered about for the mom's to relax on. It was great. The place is usually quite spendy ($9 a kid) but we were able to find some BOGO coupons that made the trip totally worth it.

There was a bin full of animals and powdery stuff (no idea what it was but it felt cool!)

There was an art station with markers, play-doh, stickers, and lots of paper. There was a large play structure that was actually CLEAN!

There were lots of cool dress-ups that weren't disgusting. There was a whole play kitchen area, a big train table, books and chairs, a baby section, and a little restaurant that kept us well fed while we were there. It was so nice to be able to sit and relax while the kids played to their hearts content without having a mess to clean up afterward. I'm totally going again as soon as I find another buy one get one free coupon!

To finish off the day John joined the kids for a sleepover. I think the kids were a little worn out because there were a few tears shed by little Ainsley. However, we now know that playing with stuffed animals is a key part of sleep overs (and going to sleep in general) and so we will be able to avoid a melt down in the future.

John tried to sneak out after the kids had fallen asleep. I believe he got caught around midnight as Ainsley entered our room sobbing, at that point he just stuck out the rest of the night on the floor.