Rest of Vacation

I am working on grading those essays my students wrote before break that I successfully avoided grading during break, and pretty much the week we came back too.  But the semester ends next week, so I really need to get them graded soon.  But, just sitting and grading endless essays is something I am incapable of doing.  So doing a photo blog of the rest of our time for break sounds like the perfect reward after grading a handful of essays.

Playing with presents

Lilly wants to learn how to knit, so my friend Stacie sent us her knitting loom.  Lilly is knitting a hat for Greta, but it isn't going to be that successful.  But she is having fun and this break she was most focused on it than she has been in a long time.  Greta (sporting multiple tattoos) laid out every stuffed animal and doll, covered them up, and then read to them.  

As I mentioned earlier, Lilly is good friends with Luke, the son of the woman who owns Lilly's day care. Over the break, Lilly was invited for a play date at Luke's house.  Two hours with Luke, playing with his cool toys - and the best part - it was a drop off play date, so I dropped her off and came home to a napping Greta.  Nick and I rearranged (sort of) the living room (switching the couches and end table).  We also vacuumed and straightened up.  It was a very productive two hours.  Lilly had an awesome time and Theresa enjoyed the break from having to imagine just the way Luke wanted her to.  And knowing that we had dropped her off with someone who is completely and utterly qualified to watch children made it even better!

Lilly is the age where all holidays are exciting, no matter what.  Nick managed to get her super excited for the fall equinox, just by faking some excitement himself.  So New Year's Eve was a celebration at our house - grilled cheese and tomato soup at dinner with special crowns (Nick won great father award for wearing his, I rewarded him for going along with it by not taking a photo).  We also had sparkling grape juice (and for some reason, Lilly remembered that last New Year's we kept it outside, rather than the fridge).  Greta couldn't say "happy New Year!" but would get out "Hap!".  Nick and I were sound asleep well before midnight.

 Cally taught Greta the face - a the joy of older cousins!

As break was wrapping up, Lilly and Greta definitely needed the excitement of day care.  They started to quarrel a bit more and grew exponentially sillier.  The bin of tupperware containers was pulled out (and still is out) for Greta loves putting things in containers.  Lilly picked up a container and made it her hat.  Greta of course followed suit and the two were laughing and giggling.

We made another trip into Nick's work for shrinky dinks, seeing the animals on the walls, and playing with the molecule model kit.  Greta made hydrogen peroxide.

So the girls get all sorts of great presents for Christmas.  But what do they spend over an hour playing with?  Twelve rolls of toilet paper.  Of course we encouraged it and came up with relay games and other challenges with the TP, but I chuckled to myself about how expensive presents are and how relatively inexpensive TP is.  Of course, the toilet paper spins funny on the dispenser now since all the rolls got a little squished.

On Monday afternoon while Greta napped, Lilly came into school with me.  She was adorable sitting in the big desk, doing "seat work" and listening to Ramona Quimby audiobook.  It was also amazing because I actually managed to get material prepped for classes on Tuesday morning.  Lilly pretended she was both my student and my daughter, and we had a very naughty class.  Occasionally I had to walk around and talk to students, and of course Lilly was always perfectly behaved.

It was a great break.  Nick and I didn't do nearly enough work for work, but we soaked up days with our family and kids, relaxed in the evenings, and tried not to think about how far behind we both are at work.