Big Family Food and Fun: Meals and Photos from Last Week (May 17-27, 2023)

Here’s a look at the meals we ate last week! Plus, now that our girls are adopted and I’m free to share, I decided to add a bunch of photos of our family so that you can get to know our kids better.

As the week began, we were on the heels of throwing a huge adoption party and an even huger graduation party. So the first few days of last week consisted of using party leftovers creatively and mom trying to recover. :) Plus, we started focusing even more on our big move, so meals needed to be more simple than ever.

Meals we ate

I used the leftover hotdogs from our adoption party to make a big pot of Beanie Weanies one evening. I served it with spinach (dipped in ranch), sliced oranges, and grapes.

The next night, I smoked the chicken I’d picked up at half price to use with the leftover gallon of “Cane’s Sauce” from Malachi’s grad party. (Do you have Raisin’ Cane’s where you live? It’s our big boys’ favorite restaurant!) See those frozen peas there? I throw those in our kids’ mac and cheese to cool down their mac and to sneak in more veggies. :)

One lunch as I was enjoying my “salad,” Acacia grabbed my glass to finish it off. Usually I make this one for the kids, but actually most of the littles will drink this grown-up version too.

Who doesn’t want to kiss that face?

Not to be outdone, Keith also had a special mustache that day, but his was from digging in the dirt. While still wearing his pajamas. ;)

One day for lunch, Matt warmed up leftover mac and cheese and chicken, and we put out a bowl of leftover watermelon. Acacia and Josie gobbled it up, but Keith and Anna were too busy to sit down. While we love eating our meals outside when the weather is nice, it is a bit distracting. ;)

After our huge weekend that included our big adoption day followed by Malachi’s graduation, my body decided it should get sick from all the over-exertion. Boo. We used a gift card to order pizza for dinner on a night I didn’t feel like moving.

I had gotten a lot of hamburger meat on sale, so one morning after I started to feel better I cooked seven pounds in my Instant Pot.

For lunch that day, we used some of the cooked meat to build ourselves a Taco Salad.

I froze some of the cooked meat, but before I did that, I used some to put together a container of Sloppy Joe meat and another of an Unnamed Casserole. We’ll never have another cassserole like it ever again as I simply grabbed out some leftover this and that from the fridge to build a meal. ;)

We’ve been making these smoothies every few days, which is so perfect on these warm days!

Here’s Keith with our Bonus 4-year old (our former foster son who comes to visit often). They almost NEVER sit still, and in fact, when they are together, we have to watch them constantly. They are like twins who like to get into mischief. So when I spotted them sitting still, I took a picture to document the amazing moment. This has nothing to do with food and everything to do with what I do when I’m not making food. :)

We had more leftover smoked chicken and I cut it into tiny pieces for lunch one day. We had some whole wheat pita pockets so we filled them with chicken and dressings. I was completely out of greens and tomatoes so we didn’t have much else to work with. We ate our pitas with leftover potato salad and cut strawberries.

The first Monday morning of our summer break, I took the extra time to make scrambled cheese eggs, sausage, and fruit.

We are cleaning up all the limbs in our yard from the winter, so we had a fire pit hotdog night. The kids were so excited! (We didn’t make a dent in the stick pile, ha.)

All I made that night to go with the hotdogs was a plate of sliced oranges. We’re just hanging in there right now!

One morning I baked a double batch of Pumpkin Muffins and made a big pan of Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Bars. We had gone muffin-less and bar-less for about a week when I had been so busy getting ready for all of our parties, so getting these ready for easy snacks/breakfasts was a big relief! Too bad they’re gone already.

I used some of the cooked ground beef to make a big Tator Tot Casserole one evening. Our three little girls gobbled this up (right off of my plate of course, because food on Mom’s plate tastes better).

One morning Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and I drove to Lincoln to tour what will be their new school after we move. I decided to run to Aldi after our visit, and friends! Our new house is six minutes from Aldi. (And 13 minutes from Costco, in case you were wondering.) I’m so thankful for all of this and excited about how my grocery-shopping life is about to change and become easier!

I mainly went in to get a bunch of whole milk yogurt and fresh produce. I then picked up four boxes of tube yogurt to freeze for cold treats on hot days, some cheese, apple juice, and smoked sausage. It felt weird not to get a huge cart full! But I’m trying to only buy what we can eat before the end of June so that we don’t have to pack as much food when we move.

When we arrived back home it was lunchtime. So I washed berries and got out avocado cups for the kids to eat. Matt and I prefer these with tortilla chips, but the kids just eat them with a spoon!

For dinner that night, I had premade a Hamburger Hashbrown Casserole. We ate it with steamed broccoli and carrots and Bran Muffins.

We got a nice-sized Azure Standard order this month and Malachi went and picked it up. I love that some of the littles are getting big enough to help unload groceries! I’m realizing that I’ll have to check to see if there are Azure Standard deliveries in Lincoln. Any locals want to chime in on that for me? :)

The kids helped me unload boxes, discovering frozen green beans and peas, frozen bananas, frozen strawberries, a case of tortillas, a case of canned peaches, onion salt, seasoning salt, yogurt, several varieties of Kefir, and a big surprise: Poptarts. If they’re organic, they’re good for you, right?! ;) I had some Azure Standard credit from referrals so I took advantage of it to order some convenience food to help us during move time. OH! And I meant to order a case of canned pears but as it turns out, I only ordered one can. Hahaha, that’ll get us through half a lunch. :)

Food and Fun

That was the food. Now on to the fun!

Here’s Acacia feeding her baby.

Josie chose a butterfly dress one morning and she was so proud.

I came across this photo of Elias and Matt on Elias’ graduation day and LOVE their smiles!

Brayden was getting huge smiles from BabyBoy#11 one morning!

This merry-go-round at one of our local parks is perfect for us because it’s safe for the littles and they all fit on it together.

Keith got a new bike for Christmas and is finally able to enjoy it now that the weather is so nice!

I’m not sure how Matt pulled it off, but as I was still unloading Josie, he headed into church with all these ducks in a row…

Firechief Keith to the rescue!

Here’s Brayden and Kiya on their last day of school. See ya later, 3rd and 1st grade!

Anna and Acacia had the opportunity all school year to go to a pre-preschool hour once each week. The little bus picked them up and they LOVED it! Here they are waiting for the bus on one of their last days.

We were blessed to go to the wedding of some dear friends, and I snapped this of Malachi as he was their videographer.

During the reception, Josie wanted in on the action.

Brayden and Kiya danced their hearts out and were a bit mad at us when it was time to load up and leave. I asked if I could get a picture before heading out and after four tries, they finally smiled. :)

And that’s a wrap! I suppose I should take some pictures of the COMPLETE MESS that is our house right now as we sort and pack to move! Meh, it’s more fun to see our adorable kids. :)