Spring Break, grand finale

Although Punkin's spring vacation was last week, the schools in our district were closed on Monday of this week for teacher training, so we went to the beach!

We met up with two other families there and we had a blast. This being Northern California, the beaches are windy and cool (only in the low 60s) and the water is freezing, so it was not a trip for swimming but for playing in the sand and running in and out of the waves up to your ankles.

My original plan was to go in the morning with both kids, leave Punkin with one of the other parents, and take Buddy home for his nap. As usual, my plans went awry, but this time for a good reason - we were all having too much fun. I decided that tearing Buddy away from the fun would be more traumatic than missing his nap one day.

We stayed at the beach from 11:30 until 7:00. We played in the sand, chased in and out of waves, helped build forts out of driftwood, went on a hike, climbed at tree - it was a blast!

My one regret is that I didn't think to put sunblock on my exposed legs - I haven't had a sunburn that bad in years!

Spring vacation, update

Spring break for my six year old is almost past, and the rest of the week has gone much more smoothly than Monday.

I had Tuesday off and had a lovely day with Punkin. Her father and I took her to lunch after dropping Buddy off at day care and she clearly enjoyed not having to share our attention. While we were at lunch she asked if we had to spend the afternoon sewing (which is what she had previously asked for) and I said of course not! So instead we went to a local junior museum/zoo for a while, which she clearly enjoyed. (She wanted to go to the San Francisco Zoo, but I explained that it was too far to go on the spur of the moment, since we only had an afternoon and not the whole day).

While we were on the way to the zoo Punkin started talking about the very pretty, fancy dress she received as a birthday present. She hadn't worn the dress anywhere yet, because it is so fancy. Suddenly she brightly suggests - "momma, can we go to tea?" See, she had been to a birthday party at a local tea house, and remembered it quite vividly.

So after we finished at the zoo (it's a very small zoo, we were only there an hour) we went home, dressed up (both of us) and went to tea. It was very civilized, and very nice. No little brothers, no rush to be anywhere, just the two of us drinking tea/hot chocolate and eating scones.

The rest of the week was uneventful, seeing as how I had to work. Punkin went along to her brother's morning activities and then spent the afternoons with him at daycare, which she generally enjoys.

One last day off from school tomorrow (teacher training day) and then back to our regularly scheduled programming on Tuesday.

That will be all.

(I've been knitting, just not photographing it!)

Spring vacation, day 1

I know that teachers need vacations from school. And children need vacations from school. But vacation week when you have a kid in kindergarten and a small one in daycare and work to go to is a bit of a hassle.

It is spring vacation here and we have made it through our first day. (At least I'm not deathly ill, as I was during Punkin's last school vacation. Ugh.)

So Monday being my day off I was faced with an entire day with both kids, and I really worked on figuring something fun to do in the morning (because Buddy didn't nap yesterday and I was hell-bent on making sure her napped today). At about 9:30 I realized that Punkin had been asking to take a train ride for quite a while, and Buddy has never been on a train (he who loves anything with wheels). A quick train ride two stops down to a park we don't usually go to and back up the train in time to be home for lunch sounded perfect.

I was a little concerned about making it to the train, but I took my usual 3 minute shower and packed a day bag in record time (diapers, wipes, snacks, sippy cups, clean onesie and knitting!) We raced out the front door, piled into the car and...

the car wouldn't start. Just a pathetic grumble. Dead battery.

Called AAA, tow truck came, poured in two gallons of gas (because I'd let it get very low) and jumped the battery.

The kids were not thrilled about spending the morning watching mom on the phone, researching batteries on the web, and coordinating with the Hubby, all while sitting on the front porch because we couldn't go inside and leave the car running in the driveway. We ended up taking the car up to a chain place to get a new battery and walking over to Target to do some shopping and have an impromptu lunch at the Pizza Hut cafe in Target. Not exactly my first choice of cuisine, but Buddy was getting really low blood sugar and I had to feed him or the whole nap idea would have been shot. Punkin was completely bent out of shape about not getting to ride the train and hounded me about it for a while. However, since we spent several hours in the afternoon working on a sewing project for her she brightened up a bit.

Tomorrow I'm off (since I'm working Saturday) and I'm taking Buddy to day care so Punkin and I can have some fun together. Lunch out, more sewing, and who knows what else!

Probably not much knitting though.

It's been a while...

But I hadn't realized how long until I looked at my previous post. I knew it was from some time in February, I just didn't realize it was from the beginning of February, and it is now the beginning of April.

Much has happened in the last two months. I was sick, sick and sick some more in February (I missed an entire week of work, plus some more). Trip to the ER, multiple trips to the doctor, medicine for pain, passing out. Yuck.

We had houseguests in early March and again in early April.

My sweet little girl turned 6 last week, and my sweet little boy turned two yesterday. I can't believe that much time has passed. We had a large joint birthday party last weekend that was a lot of fun.

I have been knitting - baby blankets, socks, presents, etc. At some point I may have photographs of some things posted.

I do think about writing posts, and I do read other peoples' blogs. I just find that I don't have time every day to knit and blog about knitting, and most days I'd rather use what little time I have to knit.

I will leave with one photo, just because I still can:


This is from a pair of socks I knit for my mother - I got one finished and sent for Christmas, and sent the other some time later (but I did finish them both!) She was thrilled.