Spring Break '12

So technically we have 2 Spring Break's each year. 1 is for IVCC, and that happened at the end of March. During that Spring Break, Mark and I did the great bedroom swap-a-roo...it took us the whole week. By the end of it, we couldn't believe that the week was gone. Frankly, we felt a little jipped, but were glad the job was pretty much done. So for those of you familiar with our house, we moved the tv room into the living room, the toys into the sunroom/basement, our bedroom into the old tv room, Maryn into our old bedroom, and turned Avery's room into a new room. Needless to say, it was a lot of work. The reason I say it was "pretty much done" is that we ran out of steam with the finishing touches...mainly the decorating, etc. I am just now getting to it this week. I'm unmotivated and lacking inspiration. I wish I didn't hate painting so much. Sigh. Anyway, no pics of that process yet. Although I do intend to once everything is more "finished" looking. Until then...sigh.

The 2nd Spring Break was last week for the girls. We really didn't do a whole lot in terms of going out and about. A trip to the mall one day, lunch out a few times, a couple trips to the park, and some play dates was really the extent of it. One afternoon Maryn sat out in the front yard for what seemed like hours. She constructed a 7 foot (we eyeball measured it) daisy chain (made with dandelions and those purple weed-flowers) and was in heaven the whole time. Reflecting about her favorite part of Spring Break, that was it. Avery has been on a real drawing kick lately and has filled several notebooks and is now onto a big (I would say 16x20) sketchbook. She sketched our backyard one afternoon and it was really quite impressive. Hopefully they will remember it's the simple pleasures in life. :)

Anyhoo, one day we did venture out to Peoria to the Zoo!! It was such a fun afternoon. Peoria's zoo is small enough that it is perfectly do-able within a couple to a few hours. The exhibits are simple, but effective. There aren't a lot of animals, but the ones they have you get a pretty close up view. Monkeys, a sea lion, farm animals, a tiger (who wanted to eat us for lunch), and an awesome Africa exhibit are what I love about this zoo. I could sit and watch the giraffes all day. They are so fascinating. Something funny in the Africa exhibit is that the lions are at the top and look out over the rest of the other animals. Right straight in front of them are the zebras. Poor, poor lions. If being caged in a zoo isn't torture enough, watching a couple of juicy steaks frolic around in front of you day in and day out sure would be. LOL!! Parker was thrilled with the whole experience. The last time we went she was still too little to comprehend or appreciate what was happening. This time she got it so much better and really loved it! Which is of course, fun for the rest of us. She now has a new favorite animal. The Rhinos!! LOL!

Enjoy some pics: