Helloooooo Spring Break!

There are brownies in the oven.  Dinner prep is in the works.  A huge meal.  Their favorite.  Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, and homemade bread.  Aren't kids supposed to hate meatloaf?  Isn't everyone supposed to hate it?  Not in these parts.  I guess the ol' meatloaf has been redeemed in the Hendrick house.  My males can totally take out a meatloaf.  It's kind of disturbing to watch.

In an hour the door will burst open.  Sweaty, dirty, giddy boys will run in.  Backpacks will be thrown aside.  We'll celebrate.  Spring Break is here! Let the wild ruckus begin!

Yes.  I cut his hair myself.  Never again.  I totally crapped it up.

This evening we kick off our Spring Break Week of Awesomeness.  I would prefer if you say Spring Break Week of Awesomeness like you're introducing a wrestler before a big fight.  Got it?  Okay.  Try it again if you need to practice.  Spring Break Week of Awesomeness.  Much better.

They know how to say Spring Break Week of Awesomeness.  They are ready.

If you've been reading this blog for long, you know this is a yearly tradition.  We plan something every day during the week of Spring Break.  When we lived in the States, we would invite all our friends and plan nightly activities at local parks.  Kickball.  Dodgeball.  Volleyball.  Eating.  Laughing.  After the kids had a few hours of fun we adults would totally neglect our offspring, becoming engrossed in hilarious conversations or attempting to kick a ball in someone's face.  Oh the fun.  Oh what memories.

Well, now we live in Haiti.  Far from our friends back home.  Far from beautiful, clean, well-manicured parks.

I really, really, wanted this tradition to continue.  As I sat down to make some sort of plan I kept asking one big question.  How do you plan things to do in a country with nothing to do?  That could be hard.  But then I remembered...our kids are not used to doing much of anything here so just about anything we plan will be cool.  "Hey kids...on Saturday, get this...we're going to drive up a mountain."  Excitement.  "Guess what?  On Monday, we're going to go to a restaurant and eat. A restaurant!  And we're going to let you get a coke."  The kids were about to pee themselves.  So, planning a fun week was a lot easier than I had originally thought.  We could have just stayed home every day and eaten dessert every night.  That would have been a total blast for them.  Today I'm going to completely blow their marvel comic undies off when I tell them I bought Kool-aid, and that I'm going to let them drink some every. single. day.  They may weep.

This week we'll see a waterfall.  We'll spend a day at the beach.  We'll host movie/popcorn night at the orphanage.  We'll swim in a swimming pool.  We'll go to a forest and touch real-life grass.  We'll do some stuff with the Livesay lards (I'm as excited as the boys).  We're going to play a wii game that teaches us how to dance.  I have high hopes of being able to shake it down like Christina Aguilera by the time Spring Break is over.  Aaron is walking down the road right this second to buy a mosquito killing tennis racket.  Nothing says fun like mosquito killing.  We may even play kickball this week.

Long-live Spring Break Week of Awesomeness! 

(did you say it right? huh?  did you?)