Only it's not the first day of Spring break. We've had several of those so far, including last Thursday, Lena's birthday, when the kids came home before lunch, and the weekend, of course, which just 'felt' different because we all knew it nearly a holiday, and then Monday, when they went to school for five minutes or so to do god knows what, and finally yesterday, which was technically the first day.
I spent that day trying to catch up to myself (work and housework); we also went to the hospital and then spent the evening at a friend's kid's birthday party. It was a bit of a sad occasion actually, as it was also partly a farewell party for the Dad and step-mum, who are leaving Japan.
This morning, we all slept in until 9am, then I said to everyone that we had to tidy the living room before we could do anything else. Lena said, and I kid you not: "Hey, we should do this every day!". Wow. Well! Only ten years of hard slog and constant nagging, and finally, the kid gets it. So I replied, "YES, every morning, and every evening too before we go to bed!" Please!!!!
Actually I had my first Mummy-tantrum on Tuesday morning, when I put the fear of god into them swearing they would NOT leave these rooms in a tremendous mess every day these holiday, or I would jut throw everything out that they dared to put down anywhere but in its rightful place (into the back yard, not into the actual trash, so it's retrievable but still a bit dangerous). At least they are old enough to now to understand that it really is more pleasant to be in a tidy room, and getting to understand how much their behaviour with their everyday items contributes to the mess, or not mess.
First picnic today too. After the room was tidied, I sat down with them at the table, and said "Good morning" in a tone that they said made me sound like a teacher! So I decided today's lesson was going to be shopping for a picnic, and I made them a list and off they went to Youme Town, bringing back bread and cheese and lettuce and tomatoes (while Erica ran away to the neighbor's house and I did some work on the computer).
Amy spent the morning practicing the school song on the piano and the afternoon looking up online intelligence tests and signing up for a brain training program. Where did I get that child? Lena spent the morning playing with her fake horse on the ipad and the afternoon playing with a friend. Once the friend left, she also took the intelligence test and beat Amy! Not a result any of us were expecting, but good for Lena! Erica fiddled about in the adventure-playground-that-would-be-a-garden-if-I-had-a-green-thumb in the morning, then played Stray Souls on the ipad in the afternoon once Lena had abandoned it for her friend. I fiddled with convention photos all day.
And Amy and Lena cooked dinner! The rice was already made, they added salad (I cooked the broccoli) then they toasted ham steaks in the oven to eat with pineapple. They are now watching Disney while I type, I hope I didn't leave it too long to chase them into the bath and a movie has started!
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