Getting back into the groove

Well spring break is over- sniff sniff:( I really enjoy having my kiddos home and not having to "follow" a crazy schedule running all the time. I am so looking forward to summer break- six more weeks:) We had a great spring break week, wasn't exactly what I had planned but it worked. The weather wasn't great for most of the week and we all ended up with congestion/ allergy issues.
Monday we ended up sleeping in- ahhh so nice! and then heading to the grocery a typical Monday chore for me- wasn't looking forward to this chore with all three kiddos. So I decided to make the most of it and try to make it "fun" for the kids well at least the two older ones. So M got her own list of items to get and H's list had pictures with the words for the foods he was required to get. The kids seem to really like this "scavenger hunt" for groceries and it made shopping with all 3 a little easier:)
During the week we went to a favorite local park of the kiddos where they enjoyed playing on the playground, taking a walk on one of the trails as well as feeding the ducks.On the coolest day of the week we decided to do our painting projects. The kiddos enjoyed painting their own canvas to hand in their play area downstairs. Their paintings totally match their personalities, if blogger would allow me to post pictures I would do it so you could see their beautiful masterpieces- "The Ocean" by H and "The Butterfly and Ladybug Catastrophe" by M. They also painting a birdhouse together, to give to my parents. My parents have several birdhouses handing on their privacy fence so now they have a bright and colorful new birdhouse. On Thursday my niece and nephew came over in the afternoon for me to watch them, they stayed for dinner and then my niece ended up spending the night- which M LOVED!!!! I felt bad, it was my nephew's birthday and I hadn't planned on them being at the house much less staying for dinner, and I didn't have anything to use for a cake for
 him:( but he didn't seem to mind. While my niece G was here I decided to paint the girls nails- tie dyed, I had seen a friend of mine post it on fb. Well lets just say it was a disaster, very very very messy and the nails did not turn out tie dyed:( We also made a trip to the local zoo:) I was so thankfully the weather cooperated with us last Friday- we had a gorgeous sunny day at the zoo. The plan was for my sister in law and nephew to meet us at the zoo (my niece was with us since she spent the night) however as usual we were patiently waiting for them outside the entrance  when I sent a text to see how close they were. Well my sister in law ended up calling me back to tell me that she was still in bed (10:55am) and that they weren't going to make it. So of course I took 4 kids to the zoo by myself, and I think half the city was there that day! The main focus was the kiddos and they had a blast:) That night my brother came to pick up my niece G and ended up taking M with him, she spent the night with them.
My uncle graciously offered his time to fix our swing set that my husband broke when he decided to use it as workout equipment and do pull ups on it. During the week last week he came over and took all the measurements and then he spent all day Saturday (including all morning in the rain) fixing and putting on the new part. We now have a much stronger, nice swing set that all three of the kiddos can use:) My uncle added an arm to the swing set (thats the part that my hubby broke) so we could hang more swings so all three could swing at the same time. We bought L and new baby swing for it and she got to use it Sunday for the first time and LOVED it!! L was giggling and laughing the whole time she was swinging.
So let the countdown begin to summer vacation:)