It’s over… my time at home has come to an end and now I have to go back to work. And surprisingly, I’m okay with that.

When I first started this blog I was a stay at home mom looking for an outlet. I felt a lot of guilt for not being one hundred percent content with staying home with my kids. After all, it had been a suburban dream come true to have the opportunity to do that.

This is my first year back to work since having my youngest and I’ve learned that I actually enjoy going to work. I like being somebody other than Mom. I like wearing different hats and exploring the parts of me that have nothing to do with the kids that I’ve given birth to. I find fulfillment in it and I no longer feel guilty about it.

That being said, I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with my kids this week. It will fuel me through the next few months as I teach my way through the rest of the school year and into summer. Then I’ll be able to go back to frolicking in sun with my kids and soaking up all of the quality time with them that I can until they start to get on my nerves again.  Then, magically, it will be time to go back to work.

It’s all about balance my friends.

In the mean time, I’ll bask in the joy that I’ve felt the past few days. I’ll file it away into my memory bank to be retrieved when I’m old and in the mood to reminisce about the good ol’ days. It’ll be filed under “that one spring break when I managed to actually cram everything in that I actually wanted to do and didn’t feel one bit of stress during the process”.

So here it is, a list of things that we did for the remainder of spring break…

1.) Play dates that included backyard romps, iced tea with lemon and mint along with some garden planning.

    

    

2.) Post weed pulling picnics that included strawberries, sugar snap peas and green smoothies.

    

3.) A picture book inspired trip to The Butterfly Pavillion so that we could be just like Fancy Nancy!

    

    

Even if being surrounded by a million butterflies turned out to be less glamorous that we initially thought…

“Ahhhh!!!”

“Whyyyyy?!?!”

(She didn’t mind touching the creepy crawlies as long as they didn’t touch her.)

“This place is wack… but kind of awesome.”

She ended up talking about it non-stop when we got home 🙂

4.) A trip to The Denver Zoo…

…with smoothies provided by our friends.

    

We heart smoothies! And cars that are big enough to tote our friends around in.

     

    

I also heart leg hugs from sleepy toddlers. (Please stop growing:( )

I think Penelope’s favorite part was probably the carousel…

even if she had a hitchhiker ride along with her.

“Hey… so uh, do you think I can catch a ride?”

“Well… only because you are my best friend’s little brother.”

“This is awesome!!!”

5.) Long Runs with Sir Scout…

I mean long hobbles… Scout and I both seriously need to get in shape before bathing suit season and he is long overdue for a good waxing.

6.) A mommy play date that included red wine, tapas… 

and Flamenco dancing!

And a friend who is probably currently nursing a hang over.

Yep, I would say it was a pretty great break.

Now, it’s time for me to gather all of the papers I didn’t grade and pack them up for my return to work tomorrow. I’ll go back feeling rejuvenated. It’s good to hit a restart button every now and then, get out of the funk that you were in. Who knows, maybe I’ll even ride my bike to school in order to keep in the spirit of things.

Oh! I almost forgot! I managed to lose two pounds this week too, but that was before the red wine and tapas. Worth it.