countdown to spring break

We have been anticipating Spring Break around here... and officially it begins tomorrow! At Brayden's school this week, they celebrated Dr. Suess' Birthday. He got to wear jammies to school & bring his favorite book. They made these adorable hats too. They had "surprise" readers come in sporadically all week, and I got to come read "Go Dogs Go!" to his class on Friday. I love the sweet, shy smile he gets whenever I walk into his classroom. I hope he will always do that :)

Then we went to Panda Express, why you ask? Trust me, I hadn't eaten there in about 7 years, & now I remember why. Sorry if any of you are Panda Fans, skip this part. Brayden has been asking about chopsticks lately & has been dying to try them out. I told him the Panda place has them...so I figured no biggie, they will eat the rice and noodles. Well after 2 bites, they were both done & wanted to try an egg roll. Lets just say after looking inside of one, I HAD it. Filled with slimy dark meat chicken. And I witnessed the cook dumping slimy nasty chicken in the fryers too, ewww. A waste of money, but at least they will know they were not missing out on the "Panda Place" now!

Oh, another thing Brayden has been wanting to try: banana splits. So, that night, we made pizza & watched "Surf's Up." I made banana splits for everyone & when I gave Brayden his, he said, "Uh, Mama. This has bananas in it. I don't want bananas in it." Hmmmm. What did he think was in a banana split anyway!? Who knows...

This weather has been so perfect & I cant help but feel a little sad as I am soaking it all in. I just know the blasted heat wave will come spoil the fun any day now. I wish we could just PAUSE it! Saturday was overcast in the morning & we all sat around inside way too long. Finally, Mama got a little feisty & demanded we go enjoy the outdoors, NOW! They were glad they listened :) We headed over to the park & had a picnic lunch. And so you know, packing a picnic lunch is not as easy as it sounds for us. I have to make something different for every mouth in our family.

Jer--ham and cheese on a SUB roll, no mayo or mustard + salt & pepper
Kosty--hard-boiled egg (won't eat sandwiches! grrr) + banana + juice box + fruit snacks
Brayden--Ham sandwich on reg. wheat bread w/ mayo, no cheese + juice box + apple + fruit snacks
Me--egg salad sandwich (I know some of you are gagging) and that's it! Notice Jer and I got only the bare minimum. No time to waste on us. So typical, right?

Oh, I have to add this in here. Today, I found one of my pots with about 3 inches of water, sugar, a jacks set, a noisemaker, and a toy baseball, along with a big wooden spoon. When I asked what the heck it was, Brayden said "it's sugar and spice and everything nice!" (also the recipe to make the "Powerpuff Girls" that he was watching!)