Big Family Food and Fun: November 16-22, 2025

Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: November 16-22, 2025 post!

We enjoy a Sabbath rest from Saturday evening through Sunday evening – so I turn off my computer on Saturday afternoons and miss posting some of these pictures. I’ll catch up on our last Saturday activities before launching into our new week!

Saturday, November 15

Saturday morning we took the kids to our favorite Library Story Time, then played inside the library for about an hour before heading home to eat leftovers for lunch.

I baked double batches of both Breakfast Cookie Bars and Flourless Brownies. Then we put Auggie down for a nap while Matt took the other kids to our church’s Build a Blessing event. I stayed home with Auggie and cleaned the house.

Later that afternoon, Elias and Malorie took Keith out for his Birthday Adventure as they do for all the kids to celebrate their special day.

I put together four Quiches for dinner…

And we were so thrilled to enjoy it with my cousin Laura from Colorado, plus her dad and his wife. It was lovely to have some time to catch up with them!!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 16-22, 2025

Sunday morning, we ate half a pan of Breakfast Cookie Bars as we got ready for church.

Lunch that day was Chili, White Chicken Chili, Baked Potatoes, and Cornbread. This meal was a big group effort as friends brought along many of the tasty dishes we enjoyed.

We had a smaller crowd of just 22 of us that day, and it was sweet to have a relaxing, good meal together.

I caught this group of men having a conversation in the kitchen after lunch and grabbed a three generation pic.

The kids watched a movie that afternoon while Matt and I enjoyed our Community Group time. Then we bravely loaded up our kids to pick up a new phone Matt had ordered, then a new phone case he’d found at Target. We prepared them all before we headed into Target, reminding them about how we stay safe in a parking lot and in a store, how we don’t ask for things we see in the store even though we will love it and really want it, how we stay with Mommy and Daddy, and how we sit safely in the cart…

Overall, they did well and we all made it out alive. It was a good outing to use up some time that night, and we only got four comments from strangers about “wow, that’s a lot of kids.” Yep. We know.

Before heading out on this venture, Matt had grabbed the coupon books that we’d received at the Boo at the Zoo event we enjoyed in October. The books contain a lot of freebies for the kids, so we took advantage and got seven free Cheese Burritos from Amigos for the kids to eat for dinner that night. We warmed up leftovers to fill in the gaps, and that was our night!

On Monday morning, Emma came over to stay with the kids so Matt and I could take some time off.

He and I went to Panera with our laptops. We had a lot to get done, so we didn’t visit much. But just sitting together by the fire was so very nice.

Back at home, we sent the girls off on the preschool bus and got Auggie down for a nap. I put together two huge Lasagnas for a family gathering over the weekend.

For dinner that night, I used some thinly sliced Roast Beef that someone had given us to make Meat and Cheese Melt Sandwiches plus Tomato Soup and leftover Taco Soup.

On Tuesday morning, I made a pan of Stick of Butter Rice so I could turn it into a casserole for our dinner that night.

We were completely muffin-less, which is a very big problem at our house. So Josie helped me make a batch of Flourless Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins.

Little Sweetheart spent the day with us!

I took Brayden and Keith to our weekly Food Distribution that afternoon. Kiya had been struggling with some extra needs the past few evenings, so I left her behind that day to hopefully help her settle. She also had a concert that night, so I wanted to give her plenty of unrushed time to get ready.

We made it back home just in time to drop off Keith for ABA therapy and load up others to head to Kiya’s concert.

Kiya has been working hard to practice her viola and was very thrilled with how this night went. Our friends, Christina and Clara, came to support her, which was extra special (but I only got blurry pictures of them, boo). Our friend, Pasha, is in orchestra with Kiya so it was fun to celebrate both of them together after the concert.

We made it home in time to eat dinner (or second dinner for some of the kids) – Tator Tot Casserole and Green Beans – then we headed straight to bed.

Wednesday morning, Keith was determined to put together special oatmeal packet gifts for people who stopped by our Little Free Pantry. He put them all out in our tote and they were gone in less than a day.

I made a double batch of Chewy Granola Bars.

Arrow spent the morning with us. At one point, all of the kids were enjoying all of Auggie’s ABA therapy toys with the technician.

The girls’ preschool teacher came over for her quarterly visit, and she played a game she had brought over for them. Ms. Kristine has been an incredible support for our family!

All morning long, I’d been baking several pans of Bacon.

I spent the entire afternoon grocery shopping. I filled a cart at Sam’s…

And why did I get an entire case of these bars??

Because they were marked down to $0.91 per BOX. So yes, I got twelve boxes. :)

I also got a box filled with 15-dozen eggs! They weren’t on clearance, but I sure am thankful that egg prices are back to a much better price.

I filled a cart at Wal-Mart also – food for our family and food for our Little Free Pantry fridge.

Back at home, it took a long time to get everything unloaded and put away!

That evening, we played outside until sundown and got to see a beautiful sunset.

Then we went in and had BLT’s with fruit.

Anna had been asking for a hair cut for several weeks, and I finally made it happen that night. She hates having her hair brushed, so I took several inches off.