For my first few years as a stay-at-home-mom with school aged kids, I made sure Spring Break was extra special and extra fun for the kids.  We would spend our days going bowling, roller-skating, to Oaks Park, the Zoo, out to breakfast, out to lunch, we simply had tons of fun and took advantage of the time out of school.

When I started working full-time, I decided I would work through Spring Break and the first couple years I even took in extra kids for the week.  But it “irked” me that I couldn’t do anything to make Spring Break special for my kids.  So last year, as I made my 2010 vacation schedule, I decided to take 2 days off during Spring Break.  A good compromise, I thought.  Thursday and Friday….a 4-day weekend!

Thursday morning we slept in, then I took the kids out to get donuts.  Instead of picking out donuts at the grocery store to eat at home, we went to “Every Day is a Donut Day” in Aloha (located on TV Highway just east of 185th Ave).  The kids were amazed as we walked in and they saw the vast selection of donuts.  And were extra excited when I told them we would eat them there- in their cafe area!  Trevor chose a bear claw which was filled with apples and cream.  Brooke chose a blueberry fritter.  Riley chose a traditional chocolate covered donut with sprinkles.  They were delicious!

Next stop was to get Trevor’s haircut (which surprisingly HE wanted to do), then we picked up my nephews and I took all five kids to Chuck E Cheese.  Our kids have been bugging us to take them there for months, and I figured I’d spare Jim by taking them during Spring Break!  We were there for almost three hours.  At first we pretty much had the place to ourselves, but within 30 minutes a daycare/daycamp bus unloaded about fifty 5-8 year olds.  Yikes!!  It actually wasn’t too bad.  I treated the kids to pizza, buffalo wings, sodas and 200 tokens to split. (And the buffalo wings were surprisingly good!)

We were home by 1:30 and spent the rest of the early afternoon relaxing at home, waiting for Jim to get home from work so we could go see Alice in Wonderland in 3-D at the Cedar Hills Crossing cinema.  I have to say that is my new favorite theater- the seating was amazing!  I was intrigued and impressed by the 3D and visual effects more than the characters or story itself.  I think it’s worth seeing, but I don’t know that it is a movie we will purchase when it comes out on DVD.

Friday morning we went to Safari Sams in Sherwood.  Another place the kids have been begging to visit.   We stayed there for about 2 hours, maybe a little longer.  Brooke and Trevor played miniature golf, Riley spent that time in the jungle gym area.  All three kids played a few of the arcade and ticket games.  I have to say the ticket exchange (prizes) is a way better deal at Safari Sams!!  I enjoyed the time there, good company (I had invited another family to join us- not so much for the kids, but more for me!)

Next stop, Costco.  Needed to stock up on things, plus I figured it would be a cheap way to feed the kids lunch.  And this time I let them choose whatever they wanted and of course they chose ice-cream sundaes or berry smoothies and churros!  Oh well….it’s Spring Break, right?

The kids appreciated the time I took off from work and enjoyed all the extra attention and fun.  Next year I’m going to copy what another mom does- and load up on all the things we don’t eat here, like pop-tarts and bagel bites, so that for the first 3 days it’s still somewhat “special”.