Spring Break Survival Log: Days 1 - 4

Last Friday was the official start of Spring Break for the entire state of Oregon. From the coast to the eastern desert region, kids young and old spilled out of schoolyards, tumbled off of buses, and sprinted home full of delight and thrilled that they were FREEEEEE...at least temporarily.

And so began Mommy Survival Boot Camp.

To be honest, for the most part Spring Break has gone off without a hitch. Unlike some (insane) people we know, we aren't going anywhere. We're boring like that. We're just hanging out at home. But that doesn't mean that I don't have to find a way to fill the endless hours with something other than Spongebob, The Wonderpets, and my personal favorite, Phineas and Ferb. So we have endeavored to keep busy.

After a blissfully uneventful Saturday, my little campers were getting restless by Sunday afternoon. So while my little guy AND my big guy napped the last of the daylight away, Banana and Kbear suited up and we drove to the gym for a swim.

Thus began the "Swimming With Wildlife" chapter of our Spring Break Extravaganza.

The girls were having a blast jumping, splashing, and paddling around in the shallow end of the pool while I relaxed in a comfy padded chair at the water's edge. Banana was showing off her newly acquired skills from two weeks of school swimming lessons (have I ever mentioned how much I love her school?) and floating on her back like a pro and Kbear was being incredibly brave and actually venturing off of the steps past the waist level with the assistance of her Nana-purchased-super-cool-Speedo arm floaties.

And then it happened.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a middle aged man (maybe early fifties) enter the pool area from the locker room. Being a Mom, I make it my business to be nosy and check out anyone who enters the vicinity of my kids, but I have to admit that more than typical overbearing mommy protectiveness, what really caught my eye was the fact that this dude had the single most hairy set of legs I've ever seen. It was genuinely incredible.

So Mr. Hairy Legs wades into the pool and as he passes by where I'm sitting, I note that the poor dude's follicle issues don't just concern his lower extremities. This guy was FURRY.

Now before I should go on, I feel the need to make a quick point. I'm not making fun of the guy. I'm REALLY not. I get it - some guys get old, and they get hairy. It grows in their ears, it grows on their chests, etc etc. I GET IT. And I'm sure that it takes a hell of a lot of courage (and possibly several years of therapy) to go swimming or to walk around sans shirt when you practically have a pelt. MY POINT is that although *I* understand that these things happen, I have two incredibly precocious, curious, LOUD little girls who are prone to asking embarrassing questions at extremely inopportune times.

It was about this time that I noticed Kbear. She had stopped her wading and was paused mid-float on the steps.....staring. She was utterly fascinated by our overly-insulated swimming companion. She watched him intently, worrying her lower lip with her teeth the way she does when she's really concentrating. And that's when I started to pray.

"Please-don't-let-her-say-anything-please-don't-let-her-say-anything-please-don't-let-her-ask-questions-please-don't-let-her-ask-HIM-why-he's-got-so-much-hair-please-parenting-gods-and-goddesses-don't-let-my-precious-princess-open-her-mouth."

Thankfully, the moment passed uneventfully. I was safe from true mortification and thankfully, so was everyone else in the pool. However, it was soon after that key moment that I decided it was time to hit the showers and head home. I wasn't about to push my luck with Fate.

Monday was a whirlwind of sidewalk chalk and lunch at McDonald's with my friends Charlotte and Laura and all of our assorted children in what had to be the most crowded and noisy play place on the planet. Two Excedrin migraine later, we met up with my mother-in-law and my sweethearts of a niece and nephew after dinner for ice cream at dairy queen, where Chunk appointed himself the dessert sampler and proceeded to check the quality of every one's orders.

Today was (thankfully) a down day. The kids all slept in. We had a late breakfast and did some crafts until my mother-in-law volunteered to pick up the girls for dinner at her place with their cousins. It's been a wonderfully quiet afternoon and I got my kitchen cleaned without anyone coming in for a snack five minutes after the last clean dish was dried and put away.

We've still got a lot planned. I promised the girls some time with their Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker, we're going to hit the park, do some more crafts, play with some more chalk, take over the library, and last but not least, celebrate a certain young Chunker's SECOND BIRTHDAY this weekend.

How fast it flies! Let the Spring Break Survival continue!