March Break

It's day three of March break, which I have been looking forward to for a while. As I might have mentioned a thousand times, taking people to and from school is the thorn in my side for this winter, so a week of unstructured days where we don't have to be anywhere in particular are any particular time sounds awesome. I'm also glad to say I haven't turned into one of those Moms who is scared to face a week or even a day with her kids. (One of my favourite examples is an acquaintance from school who has bought her kid millions of toys but "has" to schedule her for activity after activity because she is "bored" at home. My kids aren't allowed to be bored.)

So on Monday we had a friend of Delphine's over and they did the usual dressing up and jumping on the bed and drawing pictures and stuff. I threw together some lunch and then Delphine went over to the friend's house while Cordelia napped and I ... I don't remember what I did. Read, maybe?

Tuesday we had a huge impromptu March Break Pizza Party. I had invited my friend Ellen over with her three, and my friend Tanya invited herself over (she's allowed to do that) with her two, and she in turn mentioned to a friend, Anna, that she was coming, and said friend invited herself over (she's not really allowed to do that but we have been muttering about getting together sometime, and she's moving to England soon so it's not like I need to worry about something awkward developing.) Anna has two boys, so altogether there were nine children (two babies, three toddlers and four kindergartners) and four Mummies. We tossed the eldest out into the snow for a while where Jake (the senior kindergartner) gave orders and pulled people around on the sled. The Mums juggled babies and made pizza and talked some awesome talk (I love smart people) and then we hailed everyone in and fed them all. Then all the kids played upstairs. It was an interesting dynamic; they are all three and four and I swear they spend eighty percent of the time discussing what they were going to play and what the rules were and whose rules they should use, and maybe twenty percent of the time actually playing, usually chasing each other and screaming.

Gradually people left (but not without cleaning the kitchen first!) until it was just Tanya and me and ours, and we agreed it was good fun but not something you'd want to do every day.

Today I declared Toy Sort-Out day. We brought every toy in the house down to the dining room along with the assorted boxes and bags and things they go in, and put everything where it's supposed to be, creating new categories and boxes (with labels) as necessary. I am trying to train them to be organized freaks like me. It was hard work but it only took the morning. After lunch Delphine and I "rested" on the couch (with the TV on) while DeeDee napped, and now they are outside painting the snow with food colouring-tinted water, and making snow cookies with the sandbox toys I dug out.

Tomorrow we're venturing downtown to the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Arts, and Friday is still wide open! Maybe we will go tobogganing in the park. What are you doing for March break?