Big Family Food and Fun: November 10-16, 2024

Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: November 10-16, 2024 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 10-16, 2024

Saturday evening, November 9, we enjoyed a wonderful meal prepared FOR our family as a thank you gift. Friends dropped off Chili, Veggie Tray, Fresh Fruit, and Cinnamon Rolls. It was all wonderful!

On Sunday morning before church, we enjoyed Breakfast Cookies that I’d baked into bars.

After church, all of our kids came for lunch plus several friends, making 26 of us altogether. Justus was feeding Little Sweetheart some puree, but of course, he couldn’t have done it without Anna and Josie helping him.

We had a wonderful lunch buffet of White Chicken Chili, Veggies, Fruit, and Toasted Meat and Cheese Subs.

My Lolli hands were full feeding Arrow, so Kelsey grabbed a few shots of our gathering.

Then Eva snagged this one of Kelsey!

Sunday Lunches are such a gift!

That evening, we had a simple meal of Mac and Cheese with Frozen Peas stirred in, plus Berries.

Monday was a pretty chill day so I didn’t get many photos. We enjoyed Eggs and Oatmeal for breakfast, Leftovers for lunch, then Grilled Cheese, Tomato Soup, and Grapes for dinner.

Matt turned on our fire pit a few minutes before bedtime, so we all huddled around it before heading in for the night. All of the pictures I took turned out terrible, and if you can imagine, this was turned out the best of them all. Oy.

Tuesday morning, I buttered and warmed up Bran Muffins that had been tucked away in the freezer. We ate them with fruit and yogurt, finishing off the entire bag of muffins.

Little Sweetheart came over for the morning. She is rolling and scooting, and she made her way off the rug, scooting backwards on our wooden floor. She was very proud.

That afternoon, I took Brayden, Kiya, and Keith to hand out food at our weekly Food Distribution. The kids get to choose two items from the tables since they are “Junior Volunteers.” Keith chose a bottle of milk, and promptly drank the entire thing (while sitting on top of a cooler full of chicken). :)

Matt warmed up leftover Chicken and Noodles for dinner. We finished it, then pulled out more leftovers to fill us all. It feels good to clean out the fridge!

Kelsey texted this photo to me that evening. They had made Crunchy Ranch Chicken with whole boneless chicken thighs to eat as sandwiches at their house that night. Brilliant!

As we were starting to head the kids upstairs for bed that night, Elias was working on his school lunch prep for the week. Keith realized that the letter sound skills he’s been learning actually work in other contexts beyond school worksheets. He was SO PROUD to try and read the food packages on the countertop. It was so sweet.

Wednesday morning, after we got the others off to school, Matt and I took the youngest four kids to the Children’s Museum to play.

It was a lovely morning as they played so nicely and had a great time exploring and learning.

That afternoon, Acacia’s new specs arrived! Eva was here and captured this shot of me putting them on her for the first time.

Just when we thought this little girl couldn’t get any cuter…

Pop and Auggie were entertaining Arrow, but as you can see, he only has eyes for his pretty Mommy.

Keith was starving at 4:30, so he helped me make the Caesar Salad for dinner. Then I had to hold him back from eating the entire bowl.

I had made Baked Potatoes in the Crock Pot for dinner. We had a variety of add-ons and toppings including two kinds of chicken, two kinds of cheese, and broccoli.

Anna had come home from school not feeling well, and slept on the couch for three hours. Then she got up and made it as far as the floor before falling back to sleep, the poor thing. Not long after that, I started to feel chilled and found that I had a fever also. Boo. We all headed to bed.

Thursday morning Anna and I woke up fever free, but tired. It was Keith’s birthday, so I pushed through the morning, then rested all afternoon. We had Scrambled Cheesy Eggs, Applesauce, and Donut Holes for his birthday breakfast.

He had requested a cake in the shape of a K for his birthday. It turned out great (if I do say so myself). ;)

That morning, I also made a batch of Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies. I hadn’t made them for several months, and they sounded good. They turned out great because I got them out of the oven before they appeared to be done. That is the trick to making these turn out moist and good!

Most of the family was able to come over for Keith’s birthday dinner that night. He and Asa shared their secret bro hand shake when Asa, Eva, and Arrow arrived.

The birthday boy or girl always gets to pick the menu for the day. Keith requested, “Noodles and Beef Sticks.” Hehehe. Why not? I asked him if it was alright that I make additional food to go with his noodles and beef sticks, and he was ok with that. :)

We had Noodles, Beef Sticks, Buttered Rolls, Steamed Carrots, Smoked Sausage, and Watermelon.

After dinner, we gathered in the living room for Keith to open his gifts: Shirts, Soccer Ball, and a Remote Control Car.

Then we headed back to the dining room for cake time!

Phew, birthdays are a loud (emotional) circus around here. But Keith loved it all and drove his remote control car until it died and needed to be recharged.

Friday morning, I loved seeing Auggie join Acacia in their play kitchen.

After school that day, Keith went directly for his remote control car. He played with it until both batteries had to be recharged. Then he turned to his new soccer ball and played with that for the rest of the evening.

Josie was having a pretty emotional day. She finally discovered some oranges sitting on our counter and asked me to cut one for her. I was happy to. Three oranges later, she was satisfied. Remind me to always keep oranges on hand for cranky kids.

For dinner that night, I air fried two boxes worth of Orange Chicken. (Our favorite is from Sam’s, so I should add it to this list.) I made a pan of Stick of Butter Rice to go with the chicken, plus we ate spinach and finished Thursday night’s watermelon. Total cost for both boxes of chicken was $25.96 – more expensive than a typical meal at our house. But this is how we “eat out” or “order take out” at our house. Not too bad a price for feeding 11 people that night.

Saturday morning, I spent time getting ready for our Sabbath rest time. I made a double batch of Breakfast Cookies as those are great to eat on Sunday mornings. We planned to eat at the church building after worship as there was a special Kids Ministry event that day. So I gathered everything we needed for that.

Acacia helped me with the Breakfast Cookies. Oh, and those glasses she got this week? As expected, keeping them on her sweet little face is not easy. Any time you see a photo with her specs on, rejoice with us that they are where they are supposed to be.

Anna and Josie didn’t want to feel left out, so they got to add the chocolate chips to our cookies.

I decided that I was crazy enough that morning (actually, I was in a funk and needed more baking therapy), so we made Pumpkin Spice Roll Out Cookies.

Kiya had gotten some cake and cookie mixes for her birthday and she’s been itching to make another one. So after I cleaned up our Pumpkin Spice Roll Out Cookies, I let her make Sugar Cookies for our Sunday lunch.

Our Pumpkin Spice Roll Out Cookies turned out cute, and the mess got cleaned up easily enough.

I managed to pull out the Breakfast Cookies, which I turned into bars, in time to keep them gooey instead of dry.

After they cooled, I cut them and transferred them to two plates: one for the freezer and another for Sunday morning.

Our housemate, Kermit, needed to take soup for a teacher/staff meal on Monday. So he did a Hy-Vee pick up for me to get our WIC items and the remaining ingredients we needed for soup.

Then we worked together to put together soup. Everyone loves this Cheeseburger Soup. But I will say that I’ve been cheating and simply adding hamburger meat (instead of ham) to this recipe and calling it Cheeseburger Soup. It’s easier and I like the rotel kick. We made enough for that night’s dinner plus plenty for Kermit to take to work on Monday.

For lunch that day, we used some Goodcents Free Kid Meal vouchers we’d been given at Boo at the Zoo. It was a super fun treat to enjoy little subs, cookies, and lemonade for lunch! (For the record, Matt and were reminded again about why we don’t eat out with this crew. It’s not just about the cost – though it was free this time. The pickiness, and the MESSSSSSSSS. Shredded lettuce shouldn’t have landed all the places where it did. And how many ways can a kid get lemonade drips on every floor of the house – when food and drink are not allowed outside the dining room or kitchen? So many ways.)

Truly though, we were thankful for the special treat!

We spent the rest of the day cleaning, giving baths, and prepping for Sunday. Then we ate soup for dinner and kicked off our Sabbath rest time together.

And that was our week!