“Cricket’s lunch box is empty.”
Well, that’s not exactly the text you want to receive from your preschooler’s teacher.
I have to laugh when I think about it, though, because it perfectly sums up our re-entry to school post-Spring Break. I had accidentally grabbed an empty lunch box off the counter, and by the time I received the text, there was nothing I could do about it as I stared at Cricket’s untouched lunch box on the kitchen island. So she ate leftover Goldfish and applesauce for lunch (and survived). Truthfully that’s about where we are in these in-between, wishy-washy last few weeks of school life — eating makeshift meals and wishing our mom had remembered our lunch, figuratively and literally.
Needless to say that the forgotten lunch was the start of a rough week or two spent getting back to a routine after Spring Break. There have been a lot of moans and groans, snooze buttons hit, dreaded deadlines rushed toward (and forgotten lunches). Ryan traveled for a week and a half starting mid-break, leaving us girls to survive solo parenting at home. To maintain my sanity, I began gazing longingly at that lovely little season we call summer while simultaneously spinning my wheels trying to get there. Why did I schedule so many obligations between now and then? I blame overconfidence. And caffeine. It makes me feel invincible. ;)
So, in an effort to ground myself in April and not June, here’s a quick look at our mini-vacay to Chattanooga over Spring Break — a two-day jaunt as a full family of four filled with lots of ice cream and underground waterfalls and princesses in a city made of rocks. Sigh. Can we just go back to that responsibility-less escape from reality?
All hail the loooong weeks between Spring Break and summer vacation. May we all just simply survive them.
Ruby Falls
Clumpie’s Ice Cream
Rock City’s Fairytale Nights
Continental Breakfast (haha!) and Swimming at the Hotel
Chattanooga’s Children’s Museum
The Incline Railway
One Last Clumpie’s Cone (for the road)
