Trifecta

This week is a special event trifecta.

I am not talking about Elle’s first paid babysitting job, sitting through her maturation program, and signing her up for her first summer camp away from home.

No, I am talking about Easter, General Conference, and Spring Break all within 7 days of each other.  I am not sure I can handle all the fun.  Here are some random thoughts on all three.

Easter.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter yesterday.

It wouldn’t be a holiday around here if my kids weren’t sick.  I had three kids throwing up.  Some of us missed egg hunts and family dinners.  How many of my family holidays that have been altered by sickness would almost be funny, if it weren’t so dang frustrating.

 Luckily our Easter bunny came on Saturday morning (read why here) because the flu bug had hit by late afternoon.

My favorite Easter basket item was our family color coded water bottles.  Every kid has their assigned color and this will be their water cup for the summer.  The bottles will go with us to parks and baseball games, on bike rides and car rides and just around the house. I love that they are all uniform and kid friendly. The Easter Bunny even brought me a yellow one.

I was kind of nervous about the kids’ baskets because there wasn’t much in them.  Chad had to keep reassuring me that they were just fine.  You can all probably guess we don’t do candy.  They get enough from grandmas. Instead they each got a waterbottle, an art activity, some chips, a few clothing essentials, a pair of shoes, and an activity pass. That’s it and every one was happy.

General Conference.

I wish we had more time to just sit and relax and pat ourselves on the back for pulling off another holiday, but then I realized that General Conference is this Saturday so there was no time to lose.

Chad and I are in crunch time trying to read all the Conference talks before the next round.

We had a family council yesterday and reread my Debriefing General Conference post and made a plan for this week.  We also discussed expectations for the weekend. 

We printed off coloring packets for the kids.  There were a lot of great options at this site. I didn’t want to be scrambling on Saturday morning.

I decided to try a new activity this year–maybe a start of a new tradition. I bought my kids a 100 piece puzzle.

I want to put it out on my game table during Conference so the kids have an activity option to do while Conference is on in the same room.  I like the puzzle idea because it allows me to sit down with them too and do a quiet activity together, yet still listen.  

I wrapped the puzzle and will give it to them Saturday morning.

Spring Break. 

On top of it all, it’s our Spring Break.  We aren’t going anywhere fun or exciting this year.  Just staying home.  We are still going to do daily chores and even some organizational projects.  I’ve got my lecture all planned for my kids in case I need to bust it out: “Spring Break means a break from school, not from life.  If I still have to do my chores like cooking and laundry, then you still have to do your chores.”  The plan is to do a cleaning project in the morning and play in the afternoon. Here are some organizational projects I hope to tackle with the kids:

school papers

winter clothes / summer clothes

art supplies

the car

bank deposits

That works out to one chore a day. Am I the meanest mom or what?

We are having a bike FHE tonight to make sure our bikes are all ready for Spring Break and General Conference.  We plan to check tires and chains and adjust seat heights and helmet fits.  And make sure mom has a first aid kit and other supplies in her trailer.  I can’t wait to get back on my bike this spring.

So Happy Easter, General Conference, and Spring Break!

(Dang.  I just remembered it is April Fools Day today too. Make that a quadfecta.)