please proceed calmly

We didn't have big plans for spring break this year. But the week was still very busy! On Monday, we had family day! First, we went to the library. The boys each checked out some new books and then we sat and played a game of chess and checkers. The boys make fun of me because I don't know how to play chess so while Brandon played chess with Ash, Maddox played checkers with me. We had one exciting (in a bad way) moment when, in the middle of our games, the library fire alarm went off! Amidst the screeching of the alarm an electronic voice announced over and over again "There is an emergency in the library. Please proceed calmly to the nearest exit."

You could tell that none of the library patrons had ever experienced this in our local library before because everyone froze. We sat there looking around the room, studying each other, waiting to see if anyone was really going to leave. It felt like time stood still. And then suddenly time couldn't have been moving more fast paced when Ashtyn's anxiety kicked in, kicking mine in right behind him! Ash doesn't do well with surprises, especially not emergency ones, so as the fire alarm continued to sound and the ceiling lights continued to blink I did my best to calm Ash while looking to the library staff for guidance. Within what was probably only a few seconds a librarian came from behind the check out counter announcing that this was a false alarm and there was no need to leave the library after all. Unfortunately we had began sweeping our chess and checkers pieces back into their containers in preparation to leave (now looking back I have NO idea why we would have done that...) so, after calming Ash back down, we had to set our games back up to continue play.

After the most stressful game of checkers I can ever remember playing in my life Maddox beat me! He's getting good!

After leaving the library we had lunch at Freddy's and then went bowling. It was a ton of fun! We haven't been bowling in so long but we all seem to bowl the exact same way I remember. Brandon is a serious bowler. He's competitive and has no mercy...even on the kids! I'm not a good bowler by any means but get a strike from time to time. (Woohoo!) Ash, true to his personality, is slow and steady. He wants to use proper form even though it makes him bowl worse and he gets super frustrated when he can't get his bowling ball to roll straight down the lane. Maddox, also true to his personality, is fast and reckless. He starts his trek to the bowling lane way too far back, runs full speed toward the lane and then practically HURLS his bowling ball, often causing it to bounce one or two times, before the ball careens wildly toward the bowling pins. You never know where Maddox's bowling ball might end up! It's actually kind of scary to watch!

Brandon won one game, I won another and we finally had to NOT keep score on our third game because it was getting a little too competitive. I love how our family days are so much easier now than they used to be. It's hard watching your kids grow up and it's especially hard, as a mom, to see your kids become more and more independent...but, now that our boys are 7 and 9, family days are turning into a more enjoyable experience. Don't get me wrong, they were always fun, but now we can leave the house without diaper bags, strollers, wagons and sippie cups. We can do any activity as a family without worrying about crying babies or nap times and these days the boys can even choose what we do on a day together! I've said it before and I'll say it again, raising kids is a mixed bag of emotions and a roller coaster of ups and downs but each stage brings with it new and wonderful things that I wouldn't trade for the world.