Spring Break

We stayed put for spring break this year, after moving it 2 weeks, so that it could follow a crazy week, instead of being just before a crazy week.

We tried lots of new recipes.  Alice made some garlic bread from some homemade baguettes that I made.  We ate it with spaghetti that night.

At the same time, Emily and Juliet were making dumplings from the ingredients that Emily and I collected from various grocery stores around Lansing.

The recipe made dozens of them, so we froze a third of them for us, froze some for Sarah & Avia, and then set some aside to bring for snack on enrichment day.

We had a few leftover dumpling wrappers, so Emily found a desert dumpling using strawberries and chocolate.  I overcooked the sauce, but it was a strange combination anyhow, so I don't know that we would have used it even had it turned out.

The following night we tired our creations, some pan fried and some boiled.  They were a big hit.  We are looking forward to eating our next round.

The only group outing we made was to the zoo.  It was a chilly day, but not rainy, and we had the place almost to ourselves.

The otters were very playful.

The red panda sign was an even bigger hit than previous visits thanks to Turning Red.

Once upon a time they all fit on the turtle at the same time.  No longer. = (

The lion's roar was so loud it was startling.  We read that it could be heard up to five miles away!  We could hear it again as we were almost to the exit, that is quite a loud sound!

I took some zoomed in images of hard to spot animals in the reptile house to show those who couldn't spy them.

The tarantula was difficult to spot even with the zoom!

The spiderweb is a new installation (at least for us) and the kids sure enjoyed it, even in the cold!

We could only convince Alice to stay for a single hour, luckily, we were cold and hustling, and finished the whole circuit in that time. 

Later that afternoon, Emily had a (make-up) dentist appointment, since she'd been ill the previous week when she and Alice both had appointments.  Grace tagged along, and we went to Five Below and Target to do a little birthday shopping beforehand.

On Thursday, Juliet lost her front tooth, so now she and Grace are mirror images of one another. = )

Not doing much was really relaxing and it was a needed break for sure.  Now we are in the homestretch of the school year and looking forward to warmer weather.

later days