Big Family Food and Fun: August 25-31, 2024

Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: August 25-31, 2024 post!

First, a quick photo from last Saturday that didn’t make it into last week’s post. As I was prepping small baggies of cheese cubes, meat circles, and peanuts for upcoming lunches, our friend Paula texted to let us know she was on her way to drop off some Sam’s goodies for lunches as needed. Two boxes of Uncrustables and two boxes of Mandarin Oranges later, we were set! Thank you, Paula!

Big Family Food and Fun: August 25-31, 2024

24 of us gathered for lunch after church on Sunday! I made a big Nacho/Burrito Bar which was a huge hit.

I set out 3-pounds of cooked seasoned Taco Meat, 2-pounds of Salsa Chicken, Chips, Tortillas, Black Beans, Corn, Rice, Tomatoes, Spinach, Sour Cream, Shredded Cheese, Nacho Cheese, Salsa, Guacamole, and Olives. Actually, I was holding Arrow and our adult kids set it all out for me. ;)

For dessert, I had made three rounds of Vanilla Ice Cream and prepped some toppings. I hadn’t made Homemade Hot Fudge in a very long time so that was a fun addition to our ice cream topping choices!

Later that afternoon, I stirred together the leftover chicken, rice, salsa, cheese, and beans from our lunch buffet made Burritos for upcoming lunches for the grown-ups.

Monday was incredibly hot again – so hot that our girls’ preschool was canceled. Not all of the school buses are air conditioned, so they couldn’t take risks with putting littles on the hot buses.

We spent a good part of the day playing in water in the shade.

After school, Anna and Auggie were napping but Acacia and Josie hopped into a stroller with me for a very hot ride to pick up the four elementary kids. We had popcorn and water bottles for everyone to help us make it home.

But wait, what is this? As a privileged fifth grader, Brayden is the proud borrower of a trumpet.

He had been taught three notes at school that day, so he attempted to practice them on the front porch. (Thank you, neighbors, for loving us through all of our noise.)

I made a quick double batch of Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Bars for snacks, breakfasts, and lunches.

While I made Skillet Taco Pasta for dinner, the little girls helped Matt make Caesar salad.

I boiled a pound of whole wheat elbow noodles for the kids who didn’t want the Skillet Taco Pasta, and we ate it all with our salad, plus choice of corn, grapes, or peaches.

After dinner, while Kiya helped me clean the kitchen, Brayden made two cans of Chicken Salad for his upcoming school lunches.

Tuesday morning, we ate Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Bars and Applesauce for breakfast. Matt took the elementary kids to school while I stayed back so that Auggie could have a session with the Early Development Speech Pathologist that comes to work with him.

Later that morning, Anna helped me make a batch of Chocolate Banana Muffins.

I love the simplicity of putting all the ingredients into a blender to mix then pour into muffin tins.

The girls took a fresh Chocolate Banana Muffins outside to snack on as we played and watched for their preschool bus to arrive.

Much to our delight, when we went outside we discovered our neighbors Coleman and Sarah getting all set up to go work their tree service business. These two are some of the best in how they love our kids!

After we got the girls on the bus, I packaged up some of our Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Bars to have on hand for school lunches.

That afternoon, I put together four pizzas for our dinner that night.

I showed up to school to pick up kids and Keith dove into his after school snack immediately.

Brayden, Kiya, and I headed to our weekly Food Distribution. Kiya got to hand out boxes of potatoes this week, Brayden cleaned out coolers as they got emptied out, and I gave away bags of prepped chicken. Afterward we stayed until the very end to help clean up the distribution rooms.

I didn’t get any pictures the rest of the evening because it’s always hectic when we get back from food distribution. Matt and Elias had baked the pizzas plus made a salad. So we ate Pizza, Salad, and Blueberries, then cleaned up and got everyone ready for bed.

Wednesday morning, we ate Chocolate Banana Muffins with Scrambled Cheesy Eggs.

Once the elementary kids were at school, we loaded the other four kids and headed to Walmart and Menards. Back at home, we hung out outside waiting for the preschool bus. Acacia, the tiny little Mommy, happily took all three girls’ backpacks outside so we’d have them ready when needed.

Matt was spraying the lawn, which the kids thoroughly enjoyed. Auggie was giving the best belly laughs each time he reached up and touched the water.

After the girls got picked up and we put Auggie down for his nap, I headed over to Asa and Eva’s to hang with my favorite grandson for a while. It was blissssssss.

When school got out, we picked everyone up and loaded them into the van for a short drive out of town to visit Elina, someone we claim as part of our family.

We then headed to a soccer field close to Elina’s house in hopes to meet up with the YU women’s soccer team to say hello before they started warm-ups for their game. All throughout this afternoon/evening, I was handing out Uncrustables, apples, bananas, applesauce, chips, and juice.

Before driving home for the night, we unloaded everyone for a few minutes to play for a while. There are three kids in this tree. Four maybe.

The trip was slightly on the crazy side, but worth it and good.

Thursday morning, I made French Toast for breakfast. Bonus Buddy loved this and ate two pieces, so please don’t tell him that French Toast is made with eggs. ;)

That afternoon, Malachi stopped by for a few hours and we talked non-stop. Drinking coffee and visiting with our older kids is one of my greatest delights. He was describing a particular coffee selection he likes to get at coffee shops, and I was able to pull out everything he needed (maple syrup, cinnamon, whipped cream) to make it happen at our house.

Beautiful!

Meanwhile, I was getting some wonderful snuggles from Little Sweetheart before I laid her down for a nap.

I grabbed some Snickerdoodle Bites from the fridge as I headed out the door to pick up kids from school that afternoon. All four kids ate them eagerly on the way home.

Matt helped me get Sweet and Sour Chicken Legs on the smoker for dinner and we ate them with Steamed Broccoli, a little bit of Sweet Corn someone had given us, and Toasted Bread.

Just when we thought we’d start the bedtime process, things changed and we thought that instead we might need to take this guy in for stitches in his head. Be grateful I’m not posting photos of what is under that wrap. Once we got the bleeding under control, we determined that stitches weren’t going to be needed. But to bandage something with all that hair is tricky. So Dr. Daddy put a nice piece of gauze in place and wrapped Keith’s head with this to keep it intact for the night. Just a day in the life…

Friday morning I baked these Peanut Butter Cookies x7 for a big event coming up next week.

We played for a while outside with Acacia pausing every few minutes to love on her baby brother.

Then we took the four littlest to Sam’s to pick up some items for the above mentioned event plus to get more fresh produce and a few other items our family needed. There was a “big show” in the parking lot as we were loading up after shopping so we had a great time watching the carts get lined up in a big long train to head back inside for other shoppers.

Back at home, I made this Brownie recipe x4 plus this Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe x2 for the event we are working on for next week.

From the time we got the kids home from school until they all finally went to sleep, the night was full of challenge. There was a lot of screaming and defiance, mixed in with a couple of appointments and dinner. As fast as I could boil water, I made five boxes of Mac and Cheese which we ate with peas and grapes.

Somewhere in there I baked Chocolate Cupcakes for Acacia’s birthday on Saturday.

Then we loaded everyone up to take a walk in hopes that the outing, exercise, and fresh air would calm us all. It didn’t, but at least it was bedtime when we got home. Some days are just harder than others. God is still good and He is in this.

Saturday morning I made a huge Egg and Hashbrown Casserole to bake for our Sunday lunch.

I also baked a lot of sheets of bacon to have on hand for the upcoming week.

Auggie got ahold of one of his sister’s bowl of yogurt. Tasty!

It was Acacia’s birthday so I packed a picnic so we could go to the park for her birthday lunch. I made four cans worth of Tuna Salad, plus packed Strawberries, Crackers, Cheese Cubes, Chocolate Cupcakes (with spinach, because well, she chose chocolate cake so…) and toppings for everyone to decorate their cupcake after lunch.

At the park, we unloaded eight bikes and scooters for the kids to ride on the trails.

Everyone was very hungry at lunchtime!

I’m not gifted at decorating cakes, so instead, everyone got to choose which sprinkles they wanted on their birthday cupcake. They loved this, and the fun makes up for my non-fancy cake skills.

Acacia blew her candles out before we finished singing to her. Hey, she’s done this four times now. She knows how it works.

Everyone was fascinated watching Daddy decorate each cupcake according to sprinkle preferences.

We came home for rest time, then warmed up leftovers for a very early dinner to clean out the fridge. Then we got everyone changed into swimsuits so that we could go to the Splash Park before bedtime. This park will close on Labor Day so we wanted to go one last time for the season. Acacia’s birthday seemed to be the perfect day to go!

I had packed eight cheese sticks, eight applesauce pouches, and a box of cookies from Azure Standard that were low in sugar – and the kids were still hungry when we were finished. We had a container of peanuts in the van so they ate several handfuls before we headed home and put them to bed.

And that was our week!