Don't my kids ever go to school??

So after have all last week off for Spring Break, and two snow days the week before, my kids also had Monday off for a teacher work day - hence the title of the post....  But we had a fun day Monday.  We went to the Wildlife Refuge with a friend who was hanging out with us for the morning.  The Visitor's Center is closed on Mondays, but we drove around and walked around the lake area a bit.  We got to see the buffalo and saw lots of animal tracks and drove past a ton of deer hanging out really close to the road.  The kids loved it and loved getting to see and take pictures of the wildlife.  After, we stopped by the house to grab water and lunches and Koopa and headed to the park.  We all had fun playing and the kids also had fun climbing trees (I skipped that part) All went well and then we came home and played around the house in the afternoon.  I didn't get much laundry done though... :(  

Tuesday morning, James decided that he was going to do the dishes.  He carefully wiped down each one and put them in the dishwasher.  He was so cute and helpful!  And he liked doing it so much that he has wanted to do the dishes every day since...  After that he had preschool and then we picked up Payton.  The boys always have fun together, but on Tuesday they forgot the rule about not taking off clothes.  After we picked up the kids from school and choir, Anna had her trumpet lessons in the evening.  The girls school choir is doing a song that has a trumpet part and Anna is trying hard to learn it in time to play with the choir!  She is so dedicated and hard working when she wants something.

Wednesday, James and I had to go to the library alone, Riley was sick :(  James is so funny because he wants to go to Story Time, but he wants to sit in my lap and read other books during story time, then once it's over, he wants to go play.  After school was the usual craziness and then I had choir, Dan had Young Men, Aaron had cub scouts and Eileen played babysitter for us.

Thursday, James had preschool again.  He loves his preschool friends!!  After, we picked up Payton again - he now gets to come play 3 days a week and James is happy about that.  After school was piano lessons.  The kids did well and had fun.  We let Eileen take some of the chicks outside - the weather was nice and we figure it's about time to start getting them used to being outside.  They are really getting big and getting lots of feathers, it's exciting and the kids love them!

Friday I went over to my friend's house to help out with her son while she took her daughter to surgery.  He hadn't gotten a good night sleep the night before though, so he took a nap most of the time I was there, so James and I played together and ate lunch with her older daughter and mostly got to take it easy.  After, I picked up the kids from school and we headed home for the usual after school stuff.

Saturday was a busy and fun day. We all went to Gateway High School for a 5K (Dan) and Fun Run (all of us - including Dan who ended up doing both) We all got superhero capes, t-shirts and waterbottles along with breakfast.  Plus best of all we got to listen to Gateway's Jazz band play at the finish line.  They were really good and I had a lot of fun listening to them and Aaron was in 7th heaven getting to play on the drums a bit between songs.  Dan did really well - he got 3rd (we think - it's wasn't really well organized) overall and he did awesome!

After, we headed home and I did some yard work - first lawn mow of the season - and he went to go help a friend cut down some trees.  After that, he went with our friend Nate to go get a motorcycle.  It's not huge, but it's good looking and he's really excited about it!
Dan also got Anna a bike.  She had needed a new one for awhile, and he found the perfect bike for her!  Hopefully it will last her a few years!  She was so excited - all she has wanted to do since is ride her bike.
After that crazy Saturday, we were all exhausted and fell asleep quickly!

 Sunday was wonderful!  Church was awesome.  Anna and Evie bore their testimonies.  I talked too much during my lesson and went over - but it was good stuff!!  We had a combined RS/Priesthood meeting during 3rd hour about BSA and fundraising.  We spent our afternoon indexing and playing games and doing some fun craft stuff.  Dan and I had fun playing a game after the kids went to bed, and he was nice enough to let me win.