Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: November 5-11 post!
Big Family Food and Fun: November 5-11, 2023
Food and…fun? Not all of it has been fun this week.
Some people get an extra hour of sleep on the night we turn back the clocks. At our house, we got an extra hour to endure a very long morning caring for sick babies. Oy.
For the past three weeks, our family has been passing around viruses and bugs. The latest involved low fevers. The one before that involved puke. We have canceled all plans and have not let our older kids come over to the Castle for fear that they might catch all of our ailments. So Matt and I are a little on the tired side.
We stayed home from church on Sunday, and eventually, Keith had dressed himself in a football helmet, snow boots (three sizes too big), and pajama pants.
Sunday morning I put The Easiest Spicy Ham and Potato Soup into a crock pot for us to enjoy at lunchtime.
We watched church service online, then the healthy kids went outside to play since the weather was so nice. They were playing “school” and I heard them talk about setting up a school cafeteria. So when it was time to eat, I carried their lunch out to be served in their “cafeteria.” :)
Here’s poor Sissy, one of the three littles feeling so crummy all day.
Keith was well, and he had fun making a three story house out of boxes!
For dinner that night, I made a big batch of Breakfast Sandwiches. They were a huge hit and all of them got eaten, along with strawberries and clementines.
Monday morning I made a big pot of oatmeal. I put a chunk of frozen banana into the littlest girls’ bowls of oatmeal so that it would cool off faster.
I surprised Matt with a Peach Cobbler for his birthday. (Not really a surprise since this is what I make for him for every birthday and Father’s Day, ha.)
We had planned on all of our bigger kids coming to join us for a birthday dinner for Matt, but with so much sickness traveling through our house, we postponed our gathering. :( I went ahead and made one of Matt’s favorites that night for those of us who were already at the Castle: Sausage Stromboli! I hadn’t made this for years and it was SO GOOD.
That afternoon the kids helped me make one of Matt’s favorite desserts: Banana Pudding. :)
Instead of 50 candles, I just put 1 candle in the pudding. Birthday celebrations at our house are LOUD, exciting, and pretty tasty. :)
That night was a rough one with a teething BabyBoy#11. We’re finding it a bit tough to catch a break and get enough rest, but we’ll get there!!
Tuesday morning the toddlers were feeling better so we loaded up the five littlest to go to Walmart after we got Brayden and Kiya to school. The outing helped the morning go better! Someone had given us 10 Free Junior Frosty coupons to use at Wendy’s so while we were out, we grabbed all 10 to surprise the kids with after tonight’s dinner.
Brayden, Kiya, and I helped give out food at our local Tuesday Food Distribution that afternoon after school. We were blessed to bring home some food and flowers for our family to enjoy!
Being at the Food Distribution means we get home just in time to eat dinner, so I had smoked Brats and Hotdogs before leaving that afternoon. They were warm in the crock pot when we got home, and we had them along with baked beans, oranges, and carrots.
When we bought this home, we “inherited” a lot of items since it was formerly a Bed and Breakfast. Many of the items we didn’t need and donated. But we love that some of the things left behind include outdoor lights, heaters, and a lovely fire pit! We gathered around the fire pit that night and told stories – so fun (and a little crazy while trying to keep littles from touching the fire).
Justus and Kelsey were over and she captured the above photo before going in to get the fun free Frostys Matt and I had picked up earlier in the day. They made everyone extra shivery, but it sure was a special evening!
Wednesday morning I made these Flourless Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins with cheesy scrambled eggs.
We’d been given a lot of tomatoes at the Food Distribution the day before, so we made BLTs for lunch.
One of our housemates had visited family over the weekend and brought back many dozen farm fresh eggs! So we had Easy Breakfast Casserole for dinner. I taught Brayden how to steam broccoli to go with our meal.
We had a feast of Easy Breakfast Casserole, broccoli, oranges, and muffins. We also warmed up a piece of buttered garlic bread that the kids had chosen at the Food Distribution the day before. (Junior Volunteers like Brayden and Kiya get to choose two items off the tables as a thank you for their help. They usually choose something sweet, but lately Brayden has been choosing things like mashed potatoes and garlic bread, ha.)
Thursday Elias and Malachi picked up our Azure Standard order for me. We got frozen corn, green beans, and hashbrowns (30 pounds!), plus yogurt, tortillas, and palm shortening.
For dinner that night I made Quick Crock Pot Spicy Pasta Dinner with green beans and corn.
Friday morning we dropped the kids off at school then headed to Walmart with the five littlest. We had plenty of time before getting Keith and Anna off to preschool, so we decided to try taking everyone to Great Clips to get Keith’s hair cut. Were we crazy? Sure. But you gotta do what you gotta do.
The three little girls actually sat very well in the waiting area sharing the grapes we had just picked up at Walmart.
The gal was super fast and Keith is as handsome as ever.
Ope. Still eating grapes. :) :) :)
For an extra special treat, we headed to Freddy’s and picked up kids’ meals with free coupons we had been given at a trick-or-treating event a couple of weeks ago. We ate at home though, because restaurants with this many littles is a no-go. :)
For “French Fry Friday” I made ham/cheese and turkey/cheese melts on buns with tator tots and sweet potato fries, plus black berries and grapes. There was spinach hiding in the sandwiches under the cheese, shhhh.
That afternoon I made made a double batch of these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, subbing the chocolate for butterscotch chips. These are a favorite of our older boys and we were finally making plans to get together for Matt’s 50th birthday celebration on Sunday!
Saturday morning I had more bananas turning black so I made yet another batch of Flourless Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins. They had gone over so well earlier in the week, I knew they’d be a hit again (I was right)! We finished off the Egg Casserole leftovers and had yogurt too.
Our Saturday outing was to grab jackets and head to the zoo to take advantage of our membership and the indoor play area with the spider monkeys. On our way in, we had the rare treat of seeing the Red Panda playing outside!
I packed juice and peanut butter pretzels for a snack break.
For lunch back at home I made quesadillas and warmed up the last of Sunday’s The Easiest Spicy Ham and Potato Soup.
Kelsey had some freezer cooking plans and came to the Castle to execute them. Spending the afternoon in our kitchen with her was SUCH a treat!!!! Especially since we have had so much sickness and have avoided having anyone over. We’ve missed our bigs!!
She and Justus joined us for a simple dinner, which was leftover chili and sandwiches.
And that was our week!
I am so sorry you all have been hit with so much sickness. I know that was hard on everyone. Trust you all are in the healthy mode now.
Laura, do you have any concerns about giving uncut grapes to toddlers? I used to work at a daycare, and grapes always had to be cut in half for young kids to reduce risk of choking (hotdogs too). The reason was supposedly that young kids have a less developed gag reflex and round things are maybe more likely to get inhaled by accident. Maybe just extra caution and avoiding liability, especially with some kids who never chewed! I’m sure for some kids, no amount of caution is enough to avoid risk, but I’m just wondering how much of a risk there actually is for most kids.