Danielle Christopher

My favorite day of March Break is the first morning you wake up without the alarm. There is no scramble to clothe, clean and feed the kids to race out the door on time. Part of the morning madness is my three-year-old who doesn’t like early rise. Many mornings I get her dressed to wake her up. Her older sister will be by the front door ready to go to kindergarten.

Pouring a hot cup of coffee and sitting down on the couch to watch a PBS show is a treat. TV is on rarely in the mornings, but when you are on vacation the rules are broken. We take our time. In the past we would stay in our pajamas for as long as we could. Before we knew it was mid-morning.

I used to think that it will be tough to fill the ten days of Spring Break. Then, we fly through it. The reason being is I do not plan a thing. We make up the day as we live it. We do not have the funds to spend a lot, but our girls do not care. I have many ideas in the morning on what to do each day. Such as:

1. If the weather is horrible, we may have a movie marathon in our pjs. We will picnic for lunch while watching a family flick.
2. If the weather is beautiful, we get outside as fast as we can. Often we go to two local parks in one day. When the kids are hungry, we picnic for snack time so they can go back to playing right away. Lunch at home and then quiet time filled with books or art time. Then, back outside to play in the backyard or the park again.
3. Quite often the local library will have programs on for preschoolers through grade school aged kids. They are a great mix of story time and dancing for free.
4. Play dates are a beautiful thing. We utilize the week by calling friends we haven’t seen in a while. I get precious adult time while the kids play.
5. When their daddy is off from work we spend quality family time together by taking day trips. Another favorite is to have ‘dates’ with our girls separately. Spending one on one time with each girl is very precious and allows us to really hear one another. I treasure those dates.

I relish the time I can slow down with my daughters to enjoy their moments. Sometimes include the eating of chocolate and build the toys in Kinder eggs.

I have the distinct honor to be partnered again with Kinder Canada. We have enjoyed our eggs and the time stands still while we play with the toy inside.

Take a sneak peek at the latest 2012 toys by liking Kinder Canada on Facebook. Through February upload a picture using Kinder Moments application and you will be entered to win $500 to your next staycation.

Disclosure: I am part of the Kinder Mom program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.