Putting at least a little spring in Spring Break ...

The Eldest broke my heart with a look this morning. It's spring break, and things have been so busy we'd done nothing fun. Sure, they might have slept in a tad until they got taken to grandma's (or preschool for The Boy), but heading off to grandma's to spend the day inside, or the "other" option of following her little brother to preschool for the day were such let-downs that The Eldest was wishing for school to start and pretty much having a "I'm so disappointed in my parents" breakdown. And so I caved. There was really nothing on my schedule that couldn't wait until the next day, so after checking in on one morning thing, my bosses were kind enough to let me take a sanity day off -- which ended up not just being good fodder for The Eldest's spring break book, but also saved the Daddy some headaches and stresses as well.

So what did we do? Nothing that huge. We spent a relaxing day. Starting off with Part II of our Girl's Day Out that got interrupted last month.

The Eldest and I did our favorite Girl Day thing: Late breakfast at The Harvester.



Eldest always orders the same thing: Strawberry milkshake & strawberry pancakes. And all began to get better ...



I quite enjoyed my lake breakfast, too ... the morning special of 2 eggs, toast & hashbrowns for $3.99 ... and some coffee, of course. I usually get the Wrecked Eggs, but I'd already had a bit of oatmeal, since this was an unexpected day off.



After late breakfast, on our way to go birthday shopping for Baby Girl, we made a quick stop for more coffee. I pulled into the Satellite Coffee parking lot and The Eldest got a kick out of the fact that the shop was above the Supernova Tattoo & HAIR Shop. She thought it was even sillier that that's where her uncle gets his hair cut. Anyhow, the smiles just got brighter as she enjoyed the tall chair by the window while I ordered my triple vanilla americano -- yum. And then the fabulous folks at Satellite Coffee gave her -- gasp -- chocolate. Which she actually shared later with friends and sibs. (Surprised it lasted that long ... I think this place will be forever cemented in her mind ...)



After picking up the sibs (including Baby Girl, who is in the middle of Potty Training Boot Camp ... and passing with flying colors) and snagging some lunch, we headed out to Puget Park with Tacomamama's girlie poos. More smiles ensued by all ...



The Boy didn't even gripe that I picked him up early, meaning he missed lunch, second snack, third snack and at least one or two recesses ...



The Eldest's smile ... well ... warmed and mended my heart.



Then we came home and did chalk art.



And it was good.

Spring break is now a success. It doesn't take much, I know, but sometimes a parent has to remember that it takes SOMETHING.