This Was Spring Break

I love Spring Break or "Easter Break" as the kids' school principal accidentally called it on the Friday before it started at the school assembly. (Oh man remember the days when we had Christmas and Easter vacations from school? Those were the days. Poor principal will probably lose his job over this. Ooops!)

Anyway, anytime I get to do nothing but hang with my kids is the greatest time on earth, so spring break is fantastic and "Winter Break" is twice as fantastic ('cause it's twice as long of course!)

I didn't really have any money to spend but that didn't deter us from planning a quick trip to The City to see Bub and Cass, and a little jaunt to see my dad, sister and bro-in-law the following day. As luck would have it, the weekend before our trip I was the only busser to show up on Friday night (meaning I worked myself senseless but made bank in tips) and the following night I actually got to waitress plus we had no bussers, so I got to keep all my tips. Very fortuitous indeed.

Cass' roommate works at the Academy of Sciences in SF and she so generously got us all in free as her "family". Nice. Beyond nice. And the Academy of Sciences was fantastic. Especially the planetarium, and the rain forest, and the aquarium and the whale skeleton and the chameleon...ok, it was all fantastic. Wow.

Moo, Nat, Sis and her boyfriend Trav who was looking good all color-coordinated in purple

On the "Living Roof". Is it just me, or does this look suspiciously like Tele-Tubbyland?

It is flippin' hot in the rain forest!

Gorgeous fish

Nat got tired of walking so Moo gave her a lift

Because we were traveling in "economy mode" I made deviled eggs and cupcakes for snacks and brought a chicken curry casserole for dinner. My niece gave me the recipe for the casserole and I made it having never tasted it before. Thankfully it was so good. If it was bad I was going to blame it on her, but since it was delicious I took all the credit. (Just kidding!)

We even made a quick trip to Union Square where my poor son was a pack mule for Cass as she shopped. What a good sport he is.

The kids played Rock Band. What a cool game.

And because my son works at Godiva (I'm not sure I've bragged about this enough) I got to sample two truffles before they were released in the Godiva stores. One was milk chocolate and peach the other dark chocolate and mango. The mango was definitely my favorite. I was feeling pretty special about that...I'm not gonna lie.

The next day we went to the mall where Bub works and I had to embarrass him by taking his picture in front of his store. (Notice how I call it "his" store?) And his manager twisted our arm and made us pick out a truffle. What torture.

On to visit my dad (who is doing so much better than at Christmastime--it's good to see him all chatty again, even if he is all gloom-and-doom-the-world-is-going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket. That's just dad for ya.) where my sister and brother-in-law brought gorgeous baskets for the girls.

On Friday I treated the girls to Panda Express (oh, the orange chicken...drool...), and as they sat there enjoying their food I looked at my watch and realized that we needed to get moving and fast if we were to make it home in time for me to get to work. Make it we did, and I had just enough time to unload my car, throw on my work clothes and go (seriously 5 minutes).

Ahhh...spring break. Easter is a whole 'nuther post.