You Don't See That Every Day

Dear Mom , Sorry we haven't been out to see you in a while... we've being taking advantage of the sunny afternoons to play while we can. Let me catch you up on what we've been doing. I took the home school girls out to Dallas Park for an impromptu picnic and exploration. This park has some of the fun 'vintage' play equipment that the kids love - like swings, merry-go-rounds, and teeter totters! You're never too old for a teeter totter.  There were plenty of leaves to crunch through too. We went across the bridge and explored the arboretum that is there. I had never walked through it, but I'm planning to go back in the spring when everything should be blooming. We saw plenty of new plants and trees (thankfully with signs to identify them) and I think it would be pretty to see when they are blooming. The creek was still low, so we went down and threw rocks in it, and saw the tiny fish that are there. Little K even discovered a crawdad (alth...

It's the first day after spring break. The older kids are back at school. The youngest has been falling apart all day. I didn't get enough sleep last night. And the other girls only had a very light day of schoolwork today (another nice benefit to homeschool!) But the fun of spring break and the memories made are worth it. We made a plan this year to actually do something over the break. I made up a calendar with a list next to it of things we wanted to do, and then we plugged activities into the dates. So it started with skating for one girl and her friends; and I took the other girls to the new movie "Cinderella". We all really really liked it! There was the requisite trip to the library to stock up on books for free time. And the cousins came for a three day visit - which included a fun time at the carousel. After they went home we joined some friends for a trip to the Oregon Trail museum in Oregon City. It was interesting to see the size of the wagons pione...