This Is OUR Year

Every year Mr. Einstein's school district does an awards night for Excellence in Education. Teachers, para's, volunteers, administrators, and community members are nominated for excellence awards, and a few actually win them.

Mr. Einstein won one two years ago.

It's a fun evening to just kick back, sit (for a long time), laugh with friends and colleagues (and spouses!), and hope, hope, hope to win a gift basket.

Because, let me tell you, the gift baskets are amazing!

Each school/building/office/service provider/what-have-you that is somehow involved in public education puts together a gift basket with some theme or other, like exercise (Mr. Einstein's school), outdoor, barbecue, camping, recession (E's school--awesome!), etc, and some community members/businesses provide some, too. Every person who walks in the door to attend the event gets a ticket, and throughout the evening, the superintendent draws random tickets for prizes.

Now, Mr. Einstein and I have attended this event for four years (not continuously, just the years he's been nominated) out of the seven he's been in this school district. We've even brought some of kids before, so had extra tickets (and no, that's not why we brought them). We've never won anything. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

This year, as I told a couple of people, is OUR year.

And you know what? It was.

It was OUR year.

No, we didn't win a gift basket.

No, we didn't win a community member/business gift.

No, Mr. Einstein didn't win an award (which he totally should have!).

He won the grand prize.

Seriously!

The Grand Prize!!!

He won a one-night stay at the Coeur D'Alene Resort AND two tickets for the St. Joe River cruise.

!

I know!

It really is OUR year!

THAT Kind of Weekend

We had THAT kind of weekend this weekend.

You know, the kind where 2 out of 3 of your children have to have 3 baths in 36 hours...

where you stay up late only to have to get up early...

where you plan a brunch in which all of the invited guests back out at the last minute,

but the last-minute guests all come,

and you have a fabulous time getting to know new people...

where it's warm yet windy and overcast...

where the kids actually get along and share during the Easter egg hunt,

but start fighting and yelling afterwards...

where you still do pizza-and-a-movie even though it's Easter...

where this is as good as it gets:

Spring Break

This is quite possibly the first spring break since E was born that I haven't actually wanted my husband to go back to work. Usually he's quite the task master during spring break, because thingsmustbedone.

And they always are done. And this year they were all done, too. But it was nicer, more relaxed. The kids are getting older, the landscaping is getting maturer, and the weather is getting nicer, all making for a nearly-perfect spring break.

Mr. Einstein finished his National Teacher Board portfolio and mailed it off (yippee!) We had E's birthday party at the bounce house with homemade knock-off Oreo ice cream cake (yummy!) at home.

We went to Seattle to visit family and Ikea (love!) and bought some new armchairs. We rearranged some furniture, and our house finally feels comfortable and looks like grown ups live here.

We did some weeding and some pulling. I dug up tons of nasty aster plants in our front planter and, sadly, had to throw some of my beloved day lilies away with them. Mr. Einstein mowed the lawn for the first time this year and got the sprinkler system all ready.

We bought seeds for the garden we're going to put in this year and replaced some weather-stripping (stupid cats).

I started to organize all my recipes online (yay!) and made a huge donation of baby stuff to the crisis pregnancy center here in town.

We filed our taxes. Yes, we are that family.

We spent Saturday in Leavenworth "hiking" along the river. We had a blast! I think we're going to start making hiking our family activity, assuming we can find some good, easy trails out here. The kids had a wonderful time, and so did Mr. Einstein and I. It was overcast and warm, but not humid. It was so relaxing, and we randomly ran into quite a few people we know. Small world! One person we hadn't seen since college. (That's more than 10 years ago!!!)

Sunday afternoon we went to Potholes State Park and hung out with some friends from church grilling hot dogs and watching our kids play (18 kids among 4 families!). The wind blew, the rain fell, but we had so much fun! What a perfect ending to a wonderful week!

And because I like to post pictures, here are a few from our day in Leavenworth. All are unedited, straight from the camera. I liked the muted colors, so I left them.