Spring Break: Part 1

Saturday: I took the girls to the Temple Square Chorale concert in the Tabernacle that night.  The choir performed Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms," which was the most Hebrew I've heard since attending friends' Bar and Bat Mitzvahs in middle school.  But I was mostly excited to see the Orchestra at Temple Square performing Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra," which was very fun, with spotlights on the instrument or section performing each segment, and novelty lights and words projected on the domed ceiling.  Cat and I recognized the Purcell theme that was woven throughout the piece, perhaps from a dance scene in a version of Pride and Prejudice.  I should research this.  (Note: I couldn't help but look it up after typing that and, yes, according to Wikipedia, the most reliable source on the internet, Purcell's Rondeau from The Abdelezar Suite was used in the Netherfield ball scene in the 2005 film of P&P.)

Sunday: We were staying home for the whole week of Spring Break, so I really tried to be sure to have some down time, and enjoy a few local adventures too.  On Sunday I sat down with each of the older kids - I never could pin Luke down to talk to me - and found out what they wanted to do/eat during Spring Break.  Then I made a schedule, trying to incorporate one or two of each person's preferences.  I knew we wouldn't adhere to the schedule strictly, but I feel like things go better when we at least start with a plan, even if we end up changing it.

Monday (April Fool's Day): I had a couple of pranks up my sleeve.  The night before, I prepared 5 cups of Jell-O to look like juice.  We don't eat Jell-O very often but luckily we had a package of lemon and a package of peach, so I mixed those together and the color was pretty close to apple juice.  Eliza wasn't fooled, but the boys were.  I also moved the car out of the garage, and once again, Eliza found it right away and wasn't even worried.  (It did concern Ben a little bit that morning before he went out of town, so that was fun.)  Cat's friend came over to hang out in the afternoon and I recruited the two of them to make our customary fake-sushi.  Afterward, I asked Jack, who was in another room, if he wanted some sushi.  "Eww!  No!"  Then later when he saw the Rice Krispies Treats + gummy worm wrapped in Froot Roll-Up, he said, "That was a good one, Mom!"  Eliza played her own prank: swiping Jack's Pokemon cards and wrapping them in lots and lots of tin foil.  He was looking for his cards during the day, and Eliza gave him the foil package just before they went to bed.

In the afternoon, Eliza joined a neighbor for a bake sale.  We'd made a batch of peanut butter M&M cookies the day before, so we contributed 2 dozen cookies to the bake sale and Eliza helped make some more treats to sell.  She ended up earning $3 and our family benefited with a container of leftover treats.  When I brought the boys to pick up Eliza at the end of the bake sale I gave them each $1 to buy treats.  What did Luke buy?  The cookies we still had plenty of at our house.

That evening we went up to Salt Lake to put on a little recital at my grandmother's assisted living facility.  There's a great story behind that performance that I'll go into on another post.  But here's a picture, including a few family members who attended along with Oma: my aunt, my cousin, and her 4 kids.  After the performance, we took Oma out to dinner at In-N-Out Burger.

Tuesday: A friend and cousin day.  After piano practice and reading (which they did every day except Friday and Saturday), Eliza's friend came over to play, and they had fun making casts by wrapping their wrist/ankle with baby wipes, then taping multiple layers of Eliza's new duct tape on top.  Cat went to the temple with a few YW in the ward - finding out that, as suspected, Spring Break is not a good time to do baptisms in Utah, waiting for over 2 hours to do one baptism each - then went to a friend's house.  Once we dropped Cat off at her friend's house, I took the younger kids to hang out with cousins while my sister-in-law went to an appointment.  They ended up staying over for dinner while I came home to get ready for my rehearsal that night.  Ben got home late in the evening.

Wednesday: We came up with a new game in the morning.  Luke has a game he calls "Draw" that is mostly a fighting game using imaginary weapons.  I put a spin on it that we would only be using food-weapons.  So we were battling with things like Slippery Banana Peels, Ice Cream Brain Freeze Projector, Licorice Whips, Maple Syrup Sprayer, Potato Cannon, and a Nutella Blaster.  It was really fun.

But after a while, Luke was finished with the imaginary weapons and he got serious.

In the afternoon we met Ben for lunch, then I took the kids to the Curiosity Museum in Lehi.  This was the first time I can remember going to this museum without a schedule, telling the kids we could stay as long as they wanted.  We ended up staying for about two hours.  They played in the oversized indoor playground, explored the kid-city, learned about blood suckers (ticks, leeches, mosquitos, etc.), and spent some time in the STEM area.  (Where Luke turned a windmill piece into another weapon, while Cat tried to assemble a windmill in the background.)

That night Ben was home with the younger kids while I took Cat to do some shopping.  For some reason she insists on growing even more, and needed a few things for the warmer weather that we think might be coming at some point.  (I'ts about 40° outside as I'm writing this.)