Spring Break

This week is Henry's Spring Break. He could have stayed in school as an "extended day" student, but I decided that a week off sounded like a great idea for both of us. So we've planned (or haven't planned as the case may be) a bit of a staycation.

Yesterday, our first day, we were just kind of getting our bearings. The day was spent running a bunch of errands. It's amazing how long it takes to get things done. When you have a whole day ahead of you with "nothing" planned, it seems like the possibilities are endless.

But then, the day gets filled with sleeping in, a quick visit with a lawyer, a short visit with Nana and Papa, one last "work thing" that needs to be finished, a trip to the car wash, a lunch stop at Taco Bell (Henry's choice), a quick run through Wal-Mart, a stop at CVS to order some prescriptions, a run back home to pick up the grocery list, the weekly grocery shopping, and whew...back home at 4 p.m. to start having fun. Wait a minute, we're having guests for dinner. Time to start the donuts...I mean the dinner. Then there was that minor issue with the potatoe peels clogging the pipes. Good thing Papa was only a few minutes away and "available". Time to put the salmon on the grill...whoops, the propane ran out. Good thing there was a backup tank in the garage. In the end, we had a lovely "dinner party" with Nana & Papa, and Grandma and Grand-daddy (as Henry refers to Leslie's parents). After dinner, we finished the day off with a round of our favorite dice game (10,000...check out the rules here) and a dish of Nana's homemade tapioca.

We decided Tuesday would also be a low-key day, and then we would actually try and go somewhere and do something each of the rest of the days of the week.

Tuesday started with The Boy sleeping until well past 9 a.m. Glad he gets the concept of sleeping in. After that, it was a rush to start our day. We had an appointment at 10:30 to get his silhouette made at a local children's clothing store. Here's a picture of him sitting patiently, and then the end result.

After we finished there, we went to the toy store a few doors down. We had already spent a few minutes in there because we were early for our silhouette appointment. Henry had spied out a few things he wanted to spend his allowance on. It's funny, when we first went in, the first thing that he looked at was the thing he "had to have". After a bit of encouragement, he spent some time looking around at the rest of the toys and in the end, decided on something completely different.

From there, we decided to go to Mr. Fuzzywiggs Candy Factory, down the street. It really was a block away. When I asked if we should move the car, Henry insisted that we walk: "C'mon Mom, it's such a nice day...let's just walk down there!" I couldn't have agreed more, but had to feed the meter a few more quarters. And off we went. On the way, we stopped by the fountain.

And then I let Henry run, since there were no streets to cross or traffic to worry about.

Again, as we entered the candy store, Henry stopped at the first thing he saw. I again encouraged him to shop a little more and take a look at what there was. Again, he totally moved off that first item. He selected three things: the colorful mints with the sprinkles on them (non-pareils??), a stick with sour powder in it, and a package of colorful licorice. Thanks to the generosity of Aunt Courtney, he had a gift card that covered his selection, and has enough left on it that he will be able to make a similar visit in the future. Here he is with his loot:

From there, we made a stop at The Dessert Gallery, where Mama got a treat. I had a piece of delicious lemon cake (before LUNCH!!!) and a cup of coffee. I nibbled on this while Henry ate his licorice.

After this, we made our way back to the car. On our way home, we stopped at the local Regional Airport to watch the airplane activity. There wasn't much going on, so we didn't stay long.

And this was all accomplished before noon. The rest of the day won't be quite as exciting, but I'm hoping we'll make up for it as the week progresses.