Hey RMT’ers – we’re back! Our 17-day Spring Break 2013 trip to London, Dublin, and Germany was fab-u-lous… and I am still culling tons of photos and material for many (several)  future blog posts. But as that will take some time, in the meantime, here’s what we’ve been up to since getting home!

First, we returned to school last Wednesday, and that meant getting right back to our routine, including a free dress day and special lunch that T earned from his jog-a-thon efforts! The school’s PTA put on a wonderful pizza lunch for the kids who raised over $40, and students got to free dress for hitting the $20 mark. Two great rewards for the kids for their part in raising around $10,000 toward school field trips, special events, and other materials the school sorely needs!

The next day was “Poem in Your Pocket” day. Kids could either write or print off a favorite poem. While T isn’t a poem aficionado just yet, he is a fan of Phineas and Ferb, so he chose the show’s theme song as his “poem.” It’s lyrics he knows and loves, and it worked for me for this event. Students who brought poems on this day and who were able to show them off to anyone on campus who asked received a school token that later can be used at the school’s reward store at year-end. Poetic indeed!

Then Friday (I know, crazy event string here!) was Mom Muffin Day… but they served donuts instead. Fine with me really as many moms passed over the blueberry donuts. I’m not sure if that was because most didn’t know what they were but I didn’t care, I scored! The poor teachers this “Fun Friday” though as the kids were all pretty sugared up by the start of class!

And last weekend C started work on our front yard. Yep, no rest for the weary around here! This will be quite the undertaking with a lot of digging, lifting, planning, hauling, and rebuilding. We’re grateful for Daylight Savings Time as this will definitely help the cause along, rather than only relegating it to weekends. T’s loved being able to go out and help Dad all while allowing me some time in the evenings and weekends to catch up on household and blog tasks (like the 9 loads of wash I did last week post-trip, solo grocery runs, and photo sorting). I’ll be pitching in here and there with some of the yard efforts, too, as I’m called upon (like to sand and paint our fence when time comes in another 1-2 weeks… we’ll see how that goes!).

This week, things have slowly readjusted to a better pace, but it’s not without its own events. T’s returned to his swim and gymnastics classes, and today was Administrative Professionals’ Day, AKA “Secretaries Day.” I took it upon myself to make some special, individual treats for the school’s office staff: Cookies-on-a-Stick. You know, like the ones in those fancy, professional cookie arrangements?

Yeah, well, maybe mine are not as fancy or as plentiful, but they’re as easy as the photos show so long as you have the right materials on hand. Use my easy go-to sugar cookie mix or your own sugar cookie recipe to make the cookie “lollipops” you see here! The tip to success is to make sure the cookies are large enough, the stick is stuck through the center of the dough ball or cut-out, and that they cool completely before trying to package them for gifting.

RMT’ers, what have you been up to post-Spring Break?