Welcome to Spring Break, Burgess style! It’s so nice to have Hayden home with us…it’s just like the old days! We should have been away on vacation this week, but everything seemed to be working against us this year.
We couldn’t go in October as we normally do, because Hayden was in school. So we had planned to go during Spring Break. When we went to make our reservation, someone beat us to the punch for our usual mountain cabin. We were offered another cabin on the same mountainside, but it didn’t have laundry facilities. Then my mom got sick, so we decided to hold off in case we could go see her during this week. But she passed away about 3 weeks ago, so we were gonna just go ahead and go to the alternate cabin…until someone quit at hubby’s work and was leaving this week. That mean no vacation at all. Bummer. But rest assured that the kids and I were determined to get out and have a great time.
Here are some highlights of what we managed to do this week.
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I had purchased some Groupons for an annual membership to Hunt Club Farm in Virginia Beach. We’ve been there *so* many times on homeschool group field trips, but we’ve never done an annual membership before. We decided to go ahead and cash in the certificates for our passes while the weather was warm so we could spend some time in the sun enjoying the animals.
The kids absolutely LOVE the chicken pen. It’s their favorite thing to do there. I laid out on a bench in the sun (wearing sunblock, of course) to relax while the kids did their thing, and a turkey came along and started pecking at the beads on my sandals! I thought it was one of the kids at first, and it startled me when I opened my eyes and saw two turkeys stalking me! LOL
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Afterwards, we went to McDonald’s nearby for some vanilla soft-serve ice cream cones. Our favorite treat on a warm day!
The kids decided to sit and relax and cool off with their ice cream while I ran into the thrift store next door, where they joined me once they finished their ice cream.
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The next day, we went to the movies to see The Lego Movie. It was raining, and we got wet for nothing, because there was a long line, and we got to the window only to be told it was sold out. Bummer! We went home and purchased tickets online for a later showing at another theater after my doctor’s appointment that afternoon. Despite paying the extra fees to purchase our tickets in advance, we arrived at the theater to be told it was sold out. What?!? The same thing happened to another family. It was all a big mistake, and by the time they figured that out, they offered us to go in…20 minutes after the movie had started! We were both hot about the whole thing. I had driven to another city and had gone out twice in the same day to see the movie, not to mention having paid extra convenience fees to guarantee my tickets. We both complained, and the manager refunded our ticket prices…minus the convenience fees! ARGH!
I was hoppin’ mad by then, and so was the other lady. We ended up with 6 free movie passes, free entry for the following day to see the movie with reserved seats of our choice, and a $20 gift card. That’s what I’m talkin’ ‘bout!
In the end, the movie was awesome, and I’m so glad we finally got to see it the following day. But that whole day was a total waste. Too bad.
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After we finally saw the movie, we made a trip over to the Peninsula for a day of fun. We headed over to the Virginia Air & Space Center first. The traveling exhibit was all about space with interactive elements about cool stuff like comets, meteors, and the like. The kids had a great time!
We had signed up for the free summer bowling program, and I had paid $25 for an adult pass, but when we arrived at the bowling alley, they said they didn’t have any lanes available. Bummer! The kids were disappointed, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it, so went went to Ollie’s to do some shopping and kill time until the circus.
We met Steve at the Hampton Coliseum for the opening night performance of the Ringling Brothers’ Barnum & Bailey Circus, which had a “Legends” theme this year. We try to go every year. We made it out for the pre-show fun, too.
We had a great time, and Steve thought it was one of the better performances we’ve seen. The lion tamer was especially good this year. He had actual hands-on contact with the lions, tigers, and leopards giving them kisses and snuggles. It was super cool!
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The next day, the kids weren’t getting along that great, and everybody was a big cranky. I was super tired, having gotten to bed at midnight, only to be awakened by an erroneous phone call from the city at 2 AM, so I wasn’t really in the mood to go out, either. So we decided to rest for a day and just hang out at home. It wasn’t so bad.
Fro our final weekday of fun, we tried again to go to Hampton to do the free bowling at SpareTimes. But fate was against us once again…there was an 8.5-mile backup at the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, and we weren’t really moving at all. After sitting there for a bit, we decided to detour to downtown Norfolk to visit Nauticus instead. The kids had a great time and enjoyed a number of new exhibits since we visited there last, and we even got to see a 3-D fighter pilot movie in the theater there.
We almost closed the place down, so we decided to skip exploring the Battleship Wisconsin and head home since Steve had gotten off work early. On the way home, I stopped and bought a beautiful potted plant, card, and balloon for my best friend, who had returned home from surgery the day before. After dropping that off, we headed home for pizza and a movie night at home.
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At home, we stuffed ourselves with pizza and then made a bed on the floor in the living room so we could cuddle up and watch a horror movie we’d gotten from Netflix that Hayden really wanted to see. It was called “The Reaping.”
That was one spooky movie! Not too bad, actually. Surprising, since most horror movies tend to be a bit corny and have horrible acting. That was fun! We did just a bit of screaming!
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On Saturday, it was pouring down with rain again and was really cold and dreary out. 
It was a lightened-up recipe, and it was actually quite good! Even little 6-year old Holden actually ate the whole sandwich! We loved it. Yum! A Reuben has always been my personal favorite sandwich. The homemade sauce was very good, and I will definitely be making this again! I even used fat-free mayo in the sauce.
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Saturday night, Steve and I decided to go out for a rare date night. We went to Cinema Café with 2 of the free passes and the gift card I got earlier this week for free dinner & a movie. We went to see Non-Stop with Liam Neeson.
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That pretty much sums up our week full of fun! We didn’t get to do all of the things we’d planned to do. We never got to go bowling, and we didn’t ever make it out to Portsmouth for the Children’s Museum or the bouncy place out there. But we definitely got to do a lot of stuff, and we had a great time. Hayden goes back to school on Monday, but my homeschooled crew is still off this week for an extended spring break. Haylee has to take her California Achievement Test early in the week, but once that is done, we’ll be free to enjoy some more time off, though we’ll be restricted by the times of day that we have to take Hayden to school and pick him up again.
Have a great week!
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