We stuck close to home over our spring break last week. Doesn’t mean we didn’t do fun stuff. As is tradition, a quick recounting of the past 10-ish days.

The girls’ final day of school, March 30, was an all-school day of service, a first-time attempt at St. P’s. There were some minor hiccups but, all-in-all, it was a good day. I was supposed to help out with C’s class, but they got rerouted and I ended up at the same place as both C and L, the Down Syndrome Society. They learned about Downs Syndrome and made Mother’s Day cards for women who are involved with their programs.

On the first day of spring break, the Mrs. worked a half-day and we decided to go check out the lake house for the first time since November. Since I was last down there to blow leaves away, we’ve had the land surveyed, our dock area dredged out, and two huge, dead trees removed. Most importantly, the day we went down a crew started tearing down our old boat house in preparation for building a new one. Our old one was perfectly fine in most ways, except for it was not built to safely hold a boat lift. So our boat has always been in the water during the three summers we’ve owned it. We have a clean lake, but it’s still good to get the hull and engine up and out of the water if you can. Last week they got most of the framing for the new house up, so we’re hopeful the weather holds and everything is knocked out by Memorial Day weekend.

Last week, we had at least one activity lined up each day.

On Monday the girls got to cook with their aunt, who is a chef. We also mixed in a trip to the library. They borrowed a huge stack of movies and I think they watched one or two of them.

On Tuesday we hit the zoo and a fancy bakery on the way home.

On Wednesday, we went with the cooking aunt to a cool Asian market to help her load up on supplies, then took the girls to a Vietnamese restaurant. They had bubble tea smoothies while I had some tasty Pho.

Thursday each girl had one friend over for a trip to the bowling alley and then a sleep over. It was funny to watch them all separate into their own groups. The sixth graders were far too cool to hang out with the fourth graders, who wanted their own space away from the second graders.

Friday, after returning their friends home, I took our girls to an indoor go-carting place. They had fun, although they were all a little light on the gas pedal. They were racing only against other kids, all of whom were boys who hauled ass. My girls got passed early and often. But they liked it and want to go back again sometime.

Saturday the weather finally turned warm. C had kickball practice, M and L had play dates, and we all went to dinner with friends from St. P’s.

And finally Sunday L had her first soccer game of the year. They lost 5–3. Since severe storms, cold weather, and spring break had wiped out their two scheduled practices, this was the first time they were playing together. And two kids were still on spring break. L struggled a little. She just didn’t seem to have a ton of energy, and was often bent over huffing and puffing. It being the first really warm day of the year may have had something to do with that. After the game, the coach called all the parents over to say he was proud of how the kids played for having zero experience as a team. And he said he really appreciated that his son and L gave it up for the team by playing in goal and sweeper respectively. “And those two HATE to play defense.” She’s played for this coach twice before and I’m glad he hasn’t forgotten homegirl needs to play up front!

Bedtime was not easy last night, at least for the older two, who were loaded with complaints and foot-dragging to get their shit done before lights out. Just seven more weeks of the school year left. And kickball season begins for both M and C Tuesday, so the next three weeks are going to rocket by.