Spring Break Bucket List

So I've done several different things over the years with Spring Break.  Sometimes we do a mini version of Camp Tonofun.   Other times we've done themed days.  Sometimes we take a family vacation.  This year I wanted to try something new & boy did I love it.  We decided to make a Spring Break

BUCKET LIST.

The kids drew a big "bucket" on a poster board & they each got to put one to two things on the list that they'd love to do together as a family over spring break.

It was a fantastic list.  I was actually REALLY proud of the ideas they had.  Here's what it had on it:

1. Go to a playground/park/Fort Fun to play

2. Go see Cinderella in the theater

3. Do a family craft together

4. Plant a vegetable garden

5. Do yard work & plant sod (that was Trek's)

6. Play Super Smash Brothers with mom (I hate that game, but had fun with them)

7. Walk to Sonic & get slashes for Happy Hour

8. Make homemade bread & butter

9. Have a sleepover in the girls' room

10. Play school. . . everyone takes turns being the teacher

Canyon spent the week making huge messes for all of us to clean up . . . but he sure is cute.

It took the whole week to complete everything on our bucket list & I didn't get pictures of everything, but we had an absolute blast.

I think their favorite part was seeing Cinderella in the movie theater.  We very rarely go to the movies because it's so expensive, but it really was a fun splurge for us.

We ended up letting the kids have sleepovers in the girls' room all week long.  It was a great opportunity for all the kids to grow closer together.  It was darling to hear the girls comfort the boys during the lightning storm, or hear them giggling as they "snuck" in one more bedtime story.  I love how much my kids love each other.  It's not always sunshine & rainbows, but when it is, I love it.

The most challenging project was the homemade bread & butter.  My girls know how bad I am at making bread.  This was Cadence's choice for the bucket list & I really cringed & put it off until the last day of Spring Break, but we did it & you know what?  We had a LOT of fun.  We made six full loaves of bread & homemade butter together.  I think my girls will never forget it (especially all that kneading by hand!)

The bread was absolutely delicious!!!

For playing school, we made a trip to the library here.  It was Cadence & Lorien's first time at our local library. . . they always just use the library at school.  Now that they've been there, they want to go EVERY WEEK now.  Thursdays are story time so we took them all for story time.  The boys loved having their sisters there.  It was a a lot of fun & we wound up spending almost 2.5 hours at the library.

When we got home we played school together.  I taught science, Taya taught writing, Lorien did reading, & Cadence taught Math. 

It rained a lot of the week, but we found one sunny day & did all the outside stuff that day.  We found an amazing park down in Suffolk & the kids went wild for hours.  It was SO nice to get all their energy out & get some sunshine.  It was a beautiful day. 

Some of our church friends met us there so we could all play together.  The more the merrier right?

Can I just say that words can't even express how much I love these kids.

Our vegetable garden is not only still alive, but it's flourishing.  My plants are so big we now need to transfer them from the pots we did over spring break to a garden box.  I'm SO excited.

We planted cilantro, basil, two types of tomatoes, jalepenos, green onions, purple onions, carrots, & 2 types of lettuces.  Not bad for my first time.

And of course we had to take a walk over to Sonic to get some slushies during happy hour.  The kids LOVE slushies.  It was a blast.

We did play Super Smash Brothers, & we planted sod in the front yard.  Oh, I totally forgot to take pictures of the little toy crafts we made.  But we completed the entire bucket list.  We had such a fun spring break, the kids are already planning a bucket list for summer!

We also checked in on our little nest during the week.  There were still 4 blue eggs there.  (They hatched this morning. . . pics to come later)  Canyon has been the guarder of the nest of eggs all week.  He's such a sweetheart.

It was an absolutely FABULOUS week!

Easter 2015

The kids must have been good this year because the Easter Bunny came & brought them baskets of goodies.

Cadence's Basket

Lorien's Basket

Taya's Basket

Bladen's Basket

Craiger's Basket

Canyon's Basket

Taya gets a stuffed animal every year in her Easter basket.  The Easter Bunny knows her very well & knows she loves to snuggle with new little friends each Easter.  This year she got Lambie from Doc McStuffins.  She was thrilled.

Canyon couldn't care less what was in his basket.  He saw one Reese's Peanut Butter Egg & he was good for the rest of the day. . . snacking on candy.  

Craiger was pretty excited about his entire basket.  Although I think his favorite thing was his Ninja Turtle cup.

Bladen got a kick out of his Storm Trooper chocolate easter bunny.

Cadence got her own planner in her basket.  Cadence is definitely my daughter when it comes to organization.  I remember getting excited as a kid when I got planners too.  SO funny.

Lorien was happy to see a SOCCER chocolate bunny in her basket.  The Easter Bunny must know she plays soccer.

Taya was happy about everything in her basket.

After opening our baskets & eating breakfast (LOTS OF EGGS), we did our annual Potter Family Easter Egg Hunt.  Oma started the egg hunt tradition forever ago, but my kids love it.  Since we couldn't be in CA with our family this year, I decided to carry on the tradition & put together a family egg hunt on my own.  I even put dollar bills in the eggs just like Oma does.  The kids loved it.

I think there were about 250 eggs total.  Only 25 had money in them, & the rest had small toys or candy.  The kids had a blast seeing who get get the most eggs.

Cadence was more focused on finding which eggs had money in them.

Bladen found the giant egg in the playset.  He yelled & told us to 

"Come Look Right Now!"

Inside there was a real bird's nest & one little blue egg inside.  SO FUN.

We've been watching the nest all week.  The mom is continuously sitting in it at this point, but we know that there are four eggs now & they should be hatching any day.  As soon as they do we'll be sure to take some pictures.  

Easter was wonderful.