When too much is just too much

For the most part I have no problem in making my contribution when it's needed at school. Sometimes I do wonder though why they ask for so much. Kids take things for granted nowadays. I think the school's play somewhat of a large part in that. Let's take holidays for example. I'm like the queen of holidays here and always look for an opportunity to give presents. Never anything big, just thoughtful little things here and there. I've tried to not spoil my kids but I can't say that their various grandparents have done the same. I get that...they are grandparents after all. Joshua has 24 kids in his class. Cassie has 27. Way overcrowded in my opinion. Joshua comes home with a note saying that they're having an Easter egg hunt at school next week. Great, nothing more fun than being 6 and hunting for eggs at school. I guess....when I was 6 we didn't hunt eggs at school so I wouldn't know. That was something we did as a family and I looked forward to it every year. Anyway, the note also said that each child needed to send in 24 plastic eggs filled with goodies. What?! Tell me why each kid needs 24 eggs?! That kind of...no that really takes away from the little egg hunt that I was planning on having for them. I'd rather they just have a small party than an egg hunt...not that I had a choice in the matter. I can see having a small hunt, I really can. I just think that 24 goodie filled eggs per child is way too much. That's a lot more eggs than I was planning on having per kid for my little hunt. I feel like I'm having to compete with them and I don't like that feeling. The same thing happened at Christmas. You wouldn't believe how much stuff they came home with after their Christmas party. I wish they'd keep it simple like they did when I was a kid. I know the things I do matter but sometimes it doesn't seem like they do. I mean if I was 6 I'd rather have 24 candy/toy filled eggs from school versus the 10 my mom has. Even though the mom put a whole lot more thought and love in to it than that darn school did! Pffftttt.

Mike's been back from California for nearly a week now. We picked him up in D.C. last Friday night. He had goodies for everyone in tow. He brought me back the cutest pair of silver handcuff earrings from Alcatraz...lol. I tell ya, of all the things he did that's the one place I really wanted to go. I went to San Francisco years ago but didn't have time to do the Alcatraz thing. He also brought me back a piece of Alcatraz. No foolin....you can buy a hunk of Alcatraz....lol. I shall leave it in the case. I may not be able to visit the Rock myself but I have a piece of it hanging with me right here.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend! My stitching friend Laura is driving up from Richmond. I'm picking her up at her sister's house Saturday morning and we're going to head up to the needlework exhibition at Woodlawn. For those of you who don't know the history of the Woodlawn Plantation but would like to, you can read a bit about it here. After we leave the exhibition we plan to head over to In Stitches to see what we can find. I love that shop and am really looking forward to having someone to browse around with me. They're having a Carriage House Samplings trunk show so it'll be fun to see some of their pieces stitched up in person. I don't recall ever seeing one of their pieces hanging up in a shop I've been in. I could be wrong though.....

I'm so glad spring break is coming up! We'll be leaving the afternoon of the 21st for my parents house. We won't be staying for all of spring break, just for half of it. I think we're coming back on the 26th. We're planning on spending the day in D.C. on the 29th. Why the 29th you ask??? Because it's the start of the 2008 Cherry Blossom Festival! I'm really excited about that! According to the chief horticulturist of the National Park Service, we will be visiting during their peak bloom time! YAY! I've seen the Jefferson Memorial from the street but haven't gotten up close to it yet. I'm sure I'll meander over to say hi to Thomas while I'm gazing at the cherry blossoms. I'm gonna keep an eye on the weather because if it's fairly pleasant that day I'm going to rent a paddle boat so we can paddle around in the Tidal Basin and look at the blooms. I can't wait to get some pictures of them! I can't wait till it warms up. We are so gonna be picnicing on the Potomac :o).