Big Family Food and Fun: August 11-17, 2024

Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: August 11-17, 2024 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: August 11-17, 2024

Sunday mornings we usually have cereal for breakfast because I’m preparing a huge Sunday Lunch, plus getting eight kids ready for church is a THING. This particular morning as I was starting to get out cereal, I realized that the little girls’ matching jammies were not going to fit much longer and I needed to capture the cuteness.

Heartlands Church had a special “Donut Worry; This will be a Sweet School Year!” feature to encourage all the students and teachers as we head into a new school year. We prayed, we had donuts. :)

Sunday Lunch was extra special this time because new friends joined us. We had met them at the zoo last week and they’ve been precious to accept our invitations to meet more of our church family and to become a part of our community.

Lunch that day was Meatballs, Mac and Cheese, Caesar Salad, Baked Beans, Buttered Peas, Rolls, Watermelon, Strawberries, and Brownies. There were 28 of us that day and the fellowship was sweet. :)

My hands were full, holding Arrow, so I asked Asa to capture this beautiful room full of people:

He did. But at first he misunderstood my request and took this:

Look how Arrow is growing and becoming more alert! This Lolli gig is incredibly special. :)

Monday was our elementary kids’ first day of school. We had a lot of nervous excitement that morning. I made Eggs in a Nest with Yogurt or Applesauce for breakfast as we packed lunches and got ready to go.

As long as the weather holds out, this parade will be a regular school morning feature:

The Kindergarten Jumpstart that Keith got to be a part of two weeks ago was a huge help in making him excited and comfortable on his first big day. Bonus Buddy didn’t get to have the Jump Start experience and was more hesitant. Not to worry; Keith was there to help him through the door. :)

And across town at a different elementary school was our beloved Special Education Teacher, Mrs. C, along with our darling Mr. Elias, who is a Behavior Technician on the Sped team there. Happy first day of school, kids!

Elias has his own room at the school this year so that he can offer special help to struggling students.

After we dropped the four kids off at school, we headed back at home with only four kids ages four and under. So easy! (hahaha) What did we do with ourselves? We played. We enjoyed. We breathed. And that afternoon I TOOK A NAP. Amen.

I also cooked three pounds of ground beef and made a pan of Stick of Butter Rice so I could put together Cheesy Beef and Rice for the night’s dinner.

Then, since I was working with several pounds of ground beef, I made a three-pound Meatloaf to eat a different day.

For dinner that night we ate Cheesy Beef and Rice with Steamed Broccoli.

We ate outside because the temps were mild and kids were playing outside anyway.

It was sweet to see kids playing with Daddy, attempting to learn how to throw a frisbee. We tried to keep the evening as chill as we could since the kids had had such a big day.

Our neighbor’s, Coleman and Sarah, are super sweet to let the kids play in their driveway. We call these our Block Parties because we meet there so often. :)

Tuesday morning, I made 15 scrambled cheese eggs and set out fixings for Breakfast Burritos.

Keith and Bonus Buddy are such good friends that they can be a dangerous combo, ha. The sweetness of these two walking into kindergarten together again on Day Two was heart-melting.

It was our 30th Anniversary, so as all couples do on their 30th anniversary, we took five kids ages four and under to Walmart that morning. By the end of our time there we were wondering – did we really need milk that badly?? Phew.

(For the record, we are planning to have a date to celebrate our anniversary very soon. This week was simply not the week.)

That afternoon, I took Brayden and Kiya to serve at our weekly Food Distribution. Brayden has learned that his shirt will get ruined because his job is to clean out coolers as they are emptied out. He was so responsible to remember to take his “Food Distribution Shirt” to change into after school. Yep, we decided that he’d wear the same shirt each time we go so that no other shirts get bleached and ruined. :)

For dinner that night, Elias and Matt baked the Meatloaf I’d made the day before plus steamed some carrots and rewarmed leftover mac and cheese.

Our friend Kermit moved in to one of our open third floor rooms over the weekend. I caught him here helping Brayden with his homework and loved the goodness of this scene.

Wednesday was a day full of IEP meetings for our kids so I was on the run all day. For dinner that night, we warmed up a fun meal that we’d been sent home with after Food Distribution on Tuesday. One of our fellow volunteer friends, Marina, had brought huge dishes of these to share as part of a tradition from her family heritage. There were a lot of leftovers and no other takers to bring it home, so it came home with us. So we enjoyed trying something new for dinner Wednesday night!

We’ve been experimenting with how to best pack school lunches for our kids and I encouraged Brayden to get his packed that night so he didn’t have to do it the next morning. He did a great job scooping cottage cheese into a to-go container and putting it into his lunchbox with cucumbers, salami, and a fruit cup.

We still had a bit of time before getting kids ready for bed so Kermit and I worked together to make a dozen Croissant Breakfast Sandwiches for him to take on his way to work each morning and for Elias to take for lunches.

Our little girls get up super early – before the sun comes up most days. I don’t usually make pancakes on a school morning, but decided to try it Thursday. Pancakes can be a high maintenance meal when feeding this many little ones because it’s hard to keep up with flipping cakes and fixing plates. But with just a few kids up so far, it worked fine! I got the four girls fed then finished making pancakes for everyone else –  putting them into the oven to stay warm.

Blender Pancakes are the best because I can just pour them from the blender onto the griddle. So easy.

After we got the four elementary kids off to school, the other four discovered a box of screw-on lid containers I’d ordered for lunches. They had a great time unboxing them and making a nice mess all over the floor. (Messes like this don’t bother me in the least.)

Meanwhile, I made a huge pan of Lasagna Casserole to bake for dinner that night.

Justus dropped Little Sweetheart over to hang with us for a few hours. Pop put her down to kick around on a blanket but goodness, the other kids just love her too much to let her play alone. :)

It was finally our girls’ first day of preschool and they were both excited and nervous! Any of you have kids with sensory struggles? Goodness, shoes are a whole thing. Let’s not even talk about socks. It took well over an hour and quite a bit of screaming to get everyone dressed with shoes on and hair fixed. Once the shoes are on, we are good. It’s getting them on that causes the battles. Seriously, if you have any experience with this and tips, we are wide open to hear!

Once they were finally ready, I took the girls outside to watch for the bus and asked them to line up for a picture. No, I mean, side by side. Ok, and look at me. Turn around. Can you stand by your sister? Acacia come back over here. Anna what are you doing? Josie I like your backpack but I want to see your face.

Ten minutes and lots of bad pictures later…

Ok, here we go. Now we’re ready. They really are sweet and I’m only sort of tired.

With a satisfactory photo accomplished, we played and smiled until the bus arrived. This precious girl is our timid one so she had to be extra brave to get on the bus.

Anna was an old pro from last year and Acacia has no fear (which can actually be a little bit scary). I carried Josie on and got her settled with her sisters.

We got Auggie down for a nap, Justus picked up Little Sweetheart, and then…then! There was no one in the living room except for Matt and me. You should have heard the quiet!!! We ate lunch and had full conversations. Amazing!

I took a cup of coffee outside and sat in my happy place for a while, soaking in some Vitamin D and the peace of Jesus.

We learned on Day 1 of school to take a snack with us for Keith to eat as he walks home at the end of the day, otherwise it’s a fight for him to make it. One bag of pistachios later, I headed out to pick up the elementary kids from school.

Bonus Buddy was proud to show us one of his projects of the day. He drew a picture of Keith under the “A friend I met today” section, which gave us all a chuckle since these boys met many years ago when they were babies. :)

The preschoolers got dropped off a little while later, coming down the bus steps happy, sweaty, and tired from their first big day at school!

We ate our Lasagna Casserole for dinner along with rewarmed leftover Broccoli or Carrots.

I made a batch of Bean and Cheese Salsa Dip for upcoming lunches-to-go.

At bedtime, it was sweet to catch these two sisters playing school together in their room.

We ate Yogurt topped with Granola for breakfast on Friday morning, but we eat early around here so I made a quick snack for the four littlest to eat in the strollers two hours later on the way to/from school drop off time. Peanut Butter Graham Crackers make pretty fun sandwiches. :)

Here’s Auggie, working on his “sandwich” which is a BIG DEAL because he’s taking off little bites and carefully chewing. Graham crackers dissolve easily, which makes them a good “learning food” for him as he practices working food around his mouth with his tongue as he figures out how to chew and swallow. Every bit of progress is a success and we are so thankful!

We played outside with our neighbor friend when we got home from school drop off that morning. Acacia is so proud of her school backpack that she wears it pretty constantly. :)

In preparation for Sunday Lunch, I transferred nine pounds of boneless chicken thighs into bags to marinate in Italian dressing until time for me to smoke it.

Auggie and I made a triple batch of Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough Bites for upcoming lunches and snacks.

I like using my Bosch Mixer for this because it saves time and energy. You know how natural nut butters tend to separate in the jar? I just dump the entire jar of Almond Butter into my mixer, add the rest of the Snickerdoodle ingredients, and let the mixer do all the work. They are entirely mixed in just a few minutes this way.

I had to leave the mixture to get girls ready for the bus. Bus pick-up was a bit smoother today because we all knew what to expect. Josie got held by Daddy to get to the bus, but then climbed on with her sisters. Such a brave girl.

Back in the house, I finished up turning the Snickerdoodle Bite mixture into balls. I bagged up several in two-packs for next week’s school lunches.

With only one kid left at home, Matt and I have been having the most wonderful conversations – from start to finish. Imagine. :)

Late afternoon, I made a big pot of Vanilla Pudding, adding several extra eggs to help our kids get extra protein.

Right after school, Brayden and Kiya put Orange Chicken into our air fryer for a very early dinner because we had plans to go swimming at our friend’s apartment pool that evening.

We went through four air fryer rounds of chicken – two boxes. We ate it with a side of spinach and that was that.

Malachi showed up to help Matt with something and Keith was so happy to discover that he’d arrived!

We ended our day at Caitlyn’s pool, which was fun but also stressful because there are so many little ones to watch and keep safe. Justus and Kelsey met us there plus Kermit went with us.

Saturday we spent the morning getting laundry done and part of Sunday’s lunch prepped. I smoked the chicken I’d been marinating so that on Sunday I could turn the crock pot on and the main part of our meal would be done.

I hadn’t been able to finish my Vanilla Pudding project on Friday so Saturday morning, I transferred it from the pot into small containers for school lunches.

Then we packed up fun sack lunches for the kids to eat on our way to York where we were heading to a wedding reception. After the fullness of the week, I was happy to just throw some pre-packaged foods into sacks for lunches. The kid had fun with these!

We got to see so many of our wonderful York friends at the reception! I was visiting too much to take pictures, but I did capture this one of Josie with our beloved Emma. :)

We came home and ate leftovers for dinner, then gave the kids baths and headed to bed. And that was our week!