Fall Break (noun): An Event to Drive Parents to the Brink of Insanity...

I really enjoy kiddos starting school the beginning of August. Scratch that. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that my kids start school the beginning of August. Yah, I'm one of those mommies. I enjoy our summers together but by August we're all bored and cranky and ready for a change. Anywho, the downside of starting school the beginning of August is they get more days off during the school year. Basically every federal holiday and a couple of random "hmmm, this looks like a good day not to be in school" days. While Army Guy is home it's awesome that both he and kiddos have the same days off. However, when Army Guy is not home, it's just random days when I have kiddos under feet.

Then comes October.

The leaves are falling, the weather is changing, there's finally a sign that the world is taking giant leaps towards the end of yet another Dreaded D. Whoo-hoo! Insert Fall Break here. While most kids get a Friday or a Monday, we get an entire week. AN ENTIRE WEEK. Sigh.

We did a good job of having at least one thing to do everyday. Well okay so I did a good job of having something to do every day. :) The Kiddos got to hang out with my Army Wife, so it was all good.

Until today.

Today we were just cranky. All the way around. We survived Walmart, we survived Petsmart, we even rewarded our crankiness with cupcakes. Still cranky. Finally I pulled a GG (my Grandma-my mom tells stories of being sent outside and swearing she heard the door locked behind her...) and sent them outside (without the locking), the school age ones MUST GO OUTSIDE. Instant calm in the house. Even though I had the windows open and I could hear all of the arguing that had simply moved outside, the inside was calm. And heavenly. And then they got quiet outside. The scheming had commenced. I knew they were up to something when Thing 1 came into house and then tried to subtly sneak the rake by. But at this point, I just didn't care. It was one of those "well he can't kill himself with that" moments. 10 minutes later I glance outside and I see the children that I banished outside because of their constant bickering, working together to rake the leaves and acorns up in the yard.

Seriously. Working. Together.

I broke out the video camera and recorded it to send to Army Guy.

Fall Break might not be such a bad thing after all...today the back yard, tomorrow the front yard, if I had a ladder they'd be cleaning gutters on Sunday!