Staycation

Sydney didn't have school yesterday or today because of some Catholic Teacher training event.  Had I taken a close look at her school calendar when she started this year and noticed this 4-day weekend, I would have planned a vacation for us, but in my baby haze I did not look closely at the calendar, so we are having a bit of a staycation.  I love that word - who came up with that?  Yesterday was lots of fun, mainly because I didn't have to drive anyone anywhere!  Here's what we were up to:

A quick visit to a local pumpkin patch yielded several hours of fun.  We spent $20 on these beauties and came home to paint them.  The kids had a blast and the weather was perfect for sitting on the back porch and making a mess with paint.  I let the kids just do whatever they wanted with their pumpkins instead of trying to direct them to some cute finished product.  It was pretty stress-free this way and everyone was happy!  Pierce added layer after layer of color to his pumpkin and his last and final layer being gray meant that he ended up with a solid gray pumpkin.  But I kind of like it that way!

We made strawberry tarts for snack and had an impromptu tea party to properly enjoy those cute little tarts.  They were so cute: why didn't I snap a picture?  Here's our secret to making them: buy pre-made tarts, spread strawberry jam on them, bake for 5 minutes at any temperature and serve!  Next we hit the neighborhood park for some soccer fun. Then we made home-made pizza for dinner.  I let the kids have a "toppings bar" and put what they wanted on their pizzas.  Sydney chose mushrooms and olives, Pierce heaped on olives and sausage (both of which he later declared he did not like and picked off, the olives being to "sour").  But what a yummy and easy dinner for a laid back night with no strict bedtimes.  We usually don't have dessert during the week, but since we were technically on "staycation," I served chocolate ice cream, with copious amounts of sprinkles for the kids, none for me.  What is it with those sprinkles?  Yuck!

While I cleaned up the pizza bar mess, the kids decided to make cards for daddy (who was coming back from New York last night).  Cute idea, but major mess.  Major messes are the story of my life at this point.  I feel that I am in a constant battle with clutter and disorder, and that I am generally losing that battle.  But I got some help with little resistance from the kids to clean it up and all was well.

It's so nice to have lazy days like these.  Makes you realize how hectic our normal daily lives are.