Is it just me????

It seems to me that my kids are forever having 3 or 4 day weekends. Every time I turn around they are home instead of at school. In November they had 3 4 day weekends and went to school just once on a Friday. In the past couple weeks they missed a day from snow and then had a Friday off for grading and then Monday was also off for some teacher thingy. I looked at the calendar and saw they get out at noon next Friday and because of Presidents' Day have Monday off. Plus our school district always plans an inservice day at the end of all holidays like Winter Break and Spring Break. The kids had 18 days off at Winter and will have 11 days off at Spring Break. On top of that, they get out early every Wednesday. I don't know how working parents do it, because they are forever having to find extra daycare. As for me I go insane trying to come up with fun things to do. Here are a couple things that help keep my sanity.

The Cinemark cheap seats: LOVE these. On Mondays groups of 3 or more get in for 50 cents each. We go almost every Monday--it's a whopping $2.50. We have seen The Game Plan, The Bee Movie, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium in the past few weeks. The kids can hardly wait for The Chipmunks.

Ben Franklin: I love this craft store. They have all sorts of cute ideas around the store. My kids enjoy going there. I also go here when I have alone time. The last time I went with a friend, they didn't have as much. But I did get the stuff to make a very cute memo board in a frame. My kids are always happy with a craft project and so they know us at Ben Franklin's!!

The Dollar Store: I love it and I hate it. On one hand the kids are so delighted to go--they could spend all day picking something out. On the other hand, I then have cheap broken stuff floating around the house the next few days. Or worse, tears because the toy is broken.

Target: Anyone who knows me, knows of my love affair with this store. It is just good fun all around. If you ask Abby what she wants to do, she always says, "GO TO TARGET!"

Pappy's Pizza: It's yucky pizza, but the play structure is worth it. For less than $10 I can feed us and have 2+ hours of chat time with friends. It's a bit more when Anna and Noah come along, and the chat time is different with big ears hanging on every word.

Chances are, next time there is no school, you will find my family at one of these places. Hope you all have sanity savers in your busy lives!!!!