Surprise Boston Visit

We did it!!! With the help of my sister and her husband, Air Boss and I (along with the kids) were able to surprise my parents in Boston with an unannounced trip. Just a week after Thanksgiving, we boarded the plane and took our homeschool on the road (or in the air) for the first time.

In a series of elaborate surprises (more elaborate in the planning than the execution), the four of us surprised 'Shroom and Lolli's younger cousin as he came off the kindergarten bus. We quickly piled into my sister's minivan to skirt two towns over to surprise my parents in their new condo. After loud and repeated "I don't believe it!!!!" and "How did you get here?!?" exclaimations, we all hugged, high-fived each other (that would be my sis and me for not spilling the beans), and grabbed some lunch before we all boarded the surprise-mobile (a.k.a. the minivan) and drove to my older nephew's school and surprised him at the end of his school day.

'Shroom and Lolli were so pleased to have this "extra bonus" cousin hang-out time.

They exchanged Christmas presents early, decorated a gingerbread house, had a sleep over, visited the nearby LEGO store and made a take-home toy soldier, and 'Shroom even donned his Cub Scouts uniform and joined his cousin on his monthly Cub Scout pack meeting.

Homeschooling became "clubhouse-schooling" as each morning the kids and I would bring our books to the clubhouse floor of my parents' condo. We took over a 12-seat conference room each day and packed in a lot of learning (I think I may have worked them harder than our usual school day). I've discovered that the kids were quite adaptable in their schooling environments and even the bustle of Christmas shoppers didn't distract our ADD 'Shroom!

Our last day in Boston, we worked in a field trip and walked a bit of the historic Freedom Trail. We had lunch in Quincy Market where Lolli got to eat one of her favorite foods - chicken pot pie. Apparently she enjoyed it quite thoroughly as I heard her say on the way home, "Wow - that pot pie was really good! I just burped pot pie and it still tasted good!"

Well, it was a great feeling to be back in Boston in the chillier season (no, we didn't see any of that white stuff). And I'm surprised that we were able to truly surprise my family. It's not easy planning surprises these days!