How to have a fun and (mostly) free Spring Break

Step 1: Spend day number one of spring break being sick.  I had planned to go to the park and have a picnic and bike ride with the kids, but Alice woke up with a slight fever so I decided we should stay home.  Which is ok.  I think sometimes I get so stir crazy that I drag my kids out of the house to have fun dang-it when they would just as well as have fun at home, but now that I've been dragging them out every day they are having a hard time entertaining themselves at home.  Oops.

That was Friday.  Saturday was General Conference.  Sunday was Easter and more Conference.

Step 2: Spend an entire day cleaning.  Monday is cleaning day and I don't care if it's Spring Break the toilets still got peed in (and worse) all last week and need to be cleaned.  So I cleaned the house while my kids watched TV.  I told them they could watch as much TV as they wanted for one day and then that was it.  So they vegged and I cleaned because I can't handel their whinning when I try to make them clean with me, sorry future-spouses.

Step 3: Do free stuff.

When we first moved to Charlotte and I was bored out of my mind, I found the Duke Energy Explorium, but never went because it was 40 minutes away.  I decided it was time.  Rex has been learning about electricty with Greg the last little bit so I thought it would be a good extenstion.  Though to be honest, I was very concerned that I'd drive 40 minutes out to the Explorium with four kids (my 3 and one of Alice's friends), and it would be the lamest thing on the planet.  It wasn't.  It wasn't the coolest thing either, but we were entertained for about an hour before we had a picnic lunch and had to get home for nap time.  I'd give it 7 stars.  My dad would think it's cool so maybe next time he comes, we'll go again.

They has one of those static balls.

 And a turbine you could turn to see how electricity is generated.

 And hard hats, which we all struggled with.

 especially Henry.

Step 4: Have rich friends.  Side rant: I hate "how to make a million meals for only $10!' blog posts because those ladies always shop sales and stock up, so unless I live in their same area and have the same grocery stores with the same sales AND I manage to get to the store before those hoarders, I'm not going to be able to make a million meals for only $10.  So this is a stab at them.  Should I explain my lame, abstract joke some more?  Not really all that funny to begin with, that's cool. Let's move on then.

One of Rex's friends/ our neighbor turned 6 over the break and had a birthday party.  In exchange for driving a car load of six years to an indoor trampoline park, my neighbor paid for me, Rex, and Alice to get in--I think I got the better deal. I was a littler nervous at first that Alice might be too little and that she might get run over and I was lot nervous because I had not planned on actually jumping so did not prepare appropriately (catch my drift ladies who've had children?).  Anyway, worked out fine on both counts and I'm now planning several return trips--one as a family and one as a group date with aforementioned neighbor and whoever else wants to join us.

Alice let me do her hair in meatballs as she calls them.  Isn't she adorable?

 So there's a climbing wall that you can climb to the top of and then climb over and jump.  It didn't look too bad from the bottom so I tried to get the birthday boy to do it.  He refused so I said I'd do it so show him how.  Bad idea.  Climbing up and over was no problem.

But then I remembered why I hate roller coasters--I hate falling.  I was probably only 10 feet up, something lame like that, but as you can see the two walls aren't very far apart and I was afraid my leg or arm would get stuck on the side as I fell and I'd rip off an appendage.  But after going over the top, there's no way to get back or to get down without just jumping.  So I stood there for a while trying to figure out how to get out of this predicament, while refusing to jump.  Eventually I figured out a way to lower myself a few feet and then jumped the last 6 or so.  I felt whimmpy then and I do still as I write this,  but I just really hate falling.

 The kids had a ton of fun and starting asking if we could go back before we even got out the door.

And we'll leave and fun and free adventures here for today.  So far for Spring break I've spent $0 and it's been 4 days (not counting Saturday and Sunday) except for gas money.  You should try to be like me and turn in later for the last half of Spring break and how I managed to save money in ways that probably won't be possible for you unless you are me, which you're not because I am me.