This week was a hot one! We still had a lot of fun and we enjoyed a lot of great food. Here’s what our big family enjoyed and ate this week…

Big Family Food and Fun July 23-29

For Sunday’s lunch I followed this Crock Pot Pizza Casserole somewhat loosely. I dumped 16-ounces of dry pasta into each of my large crock pots. I cut pepperoni into one, and added cooked ground sausage to the other. I then added two cans of pizza sauce to each along with some salt and water. This was so fast and easy! The casseroles cooked while we were at church.

When we got home I sautéed sliced sweet peppers and made buttered corn for side dishes. We all sprinkled shredded cheese on our Pizza Pasta – super tasty!

We were blessed to have Justus and Kelsey, Eva, and three more friends join us for our meal that day.

For dessert I had baked a cake in the crock pot. I made a vanilla cake this time, but here’s how to bake a cake in a crock pot – so cool! After it cooled, I poked holes in the cake and dumped vanilla pudding into the holes. Then I Whipped Cream and spread it over the cake. It was fun and delicious! (I used a boxed pudding mix this time but here’s my Homemade Vanilla Pudding recipe that’s extra good.)

Sunday evening I pulled out leftover Burrito Filling and Bean and Cheese Salsa Dip that I’d made last week. I mixed them together, warmed it up, and served it with chips.

I was up super early (4:00) with BabyBoy#11 Monday morning so after getting him back to bed and enjoying a nice long “Coffee with Jesus” time I got some work done in the kitchen before any of the other littles got up. I started by making a triple batch of Snickerdoodle Bites.

I was hungry by 6:30 for my second breakfast, haha, so I made our not-so-famous Salad Smoothie to drink while I worked. :)

Then I washed out our Blendtec and made Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream for later.

Some of the kids were up by then and starting to get hungry so I made everyone Scrambled Egg Sandwiches.

Matt and I have decided that outings in the mornings are much better for everyone than trying to wrangle everyone around the house. But it was super hot this week. So we decided to take the kids to the Splash Park. For lunch, I warmed up leftover hotdogs from the fridge and cut them in half because there were only 7 dogs left.

I packed them in an insulated bag to keep them warm. Then in a separate bag I packed peach cups, chips and salsa, cucumbers, Snickerdoodle Bites, and juice.

Long live the Snickerdoodle Bites. Hahaha, here’s what they looked like when we got to the park and pulled them out to serve. Poor little warm, squished bites. We all got a good chuckle over how the heat didn’t let these hold their shape. Then I grabbed a spoon and served blobs to everyone. No harm no foul.

The splash park is the best. Everyone was super hungry after playing. Then after eating, they went back into the water for more play.

Last week I had browned several pounds of hamburger meat, so for dinner on Monday I used some of it to make Sloppy Joes. I sliced home grown squash and zucchini our friends had given us at church and sautéed it. SUCH A TREAT. I warmed up leftover green beans for the non-squash lovers to eat. Plus I got out pickles and mac salad to fill everyone’s bellies.

Then I surprised everyone with Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream that I had made earlier in the day. I scooped it out into small bowls and topped it with a few animal crackers. The kids thought it was soooo much fun! The cream treat by itself is super good (and low in sugar) – but the animal crackers with it made it extra good. The crunch maybe? Or maybe eating monkeys and hippos tastes better than any of us realized?

After dinner, we loaded everyone up and went to Scheels for an outing. Why did we go there? Two reasons:

1. Air
2. Conditioning

We needed an outing but phew, the heat. Scheels made for a perfect fun outing with its play area, aquarium, animal display, and $1 Ferris wheel! Only three of the littles were tall enough to go and two of the three had to ride with an adult. Rock, paper, scissors – Mom won. Or lost. No one is sure. (Neither Elias or Matt like heights so…)

Brave Brayden rode in a seat by himself.

Mom sat with Kiya and Keith. I think Matt captured this picture when I was screaming with glee. But my face looks like I’m about to eat my young.

It was truly a fantastic way to spend our evening. We spent $5 on some needed badminton birdies and $3.99 on the Ferris wheel for the four riders. Not too shabby for a not-quite-free night out! Oh, and then we walked over to Trader Joe’s since it was next door. I love this store but it’s pricier than other stores I have access to now since I need to buy such large quantities. So we just got lemons and mixed greens. I’ll likely not shop here much, but I will go back for stocking stuffers at Christmas time. :)

Tuesday morning Kelsey came over so that Matt could get some work done on the Castle. (It’s an amazing home for us, but it is over a hundred years old and does require some maintenance. Plus he’s getting some of our top floor bedrooms ready to rent out in the upcoming months. More on that later.)

Kelsey helped me take all the kids to a library for a fun Sparks Fly event (all about static electricity). It was shorter than we realized it would be and we wanted to keep the kids out of the house longer so Matt could work longer. So we ran back home and left the kids buckled and sitting in the van with Kelsey while I ran into the house and filled a picnic bag to take to the park.

I wasn’t even very sure what I grabbed until we unpacked the bag at the park, haha. It wasn’t too bad actually – we discovered cheese and crackers, avocado cups (found at Costco and Sam’s), applesauce pouches, juice boxes, and leftover Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream  with animal crackers.

We played until the heat got to us, then headed home for lots of drinks of water and then naps.

That night we loaded up and drove 30 minutes to Mahoney State Park to meet some York friends who were camping there all week. What a blast! They served us burgers, brats, and hotdogs with chips. We contributed grapes, mandarins, and juice pouches.

The kids made smores…

Watching Keith eat his was the best form of entertainment.

After we cleaned up the food, we loaded the girls in the wagon and all of us walked over to the marina to see the fish. It was a lovely visit with our friends – so lovely that I didn’t take many pictures. :)

We got home late and went to bed dirty. The next morning we had showers! Then three of our kids had appointments with their therapist. We had an early lunch then took the kids to play in the play area of one of the Lincoln malls before naptime. (Again, we were looking for an outing that involved air conditioning.) Lunch was leftovers with fresh green beans. <—our gardening friends are spoiling us and we love it!

Since we’d already eaten lunch, the only picnic food I packed to take to the mall was a bottle for BabyBoy#11. :)

We came home for naptime, and I headed out with my computer to work in the quiet for a couple of hours at Panera. Before coming home I ran to Aldi because as usual, we were low on fresh produce and milk. I also picked up some bagels and buns while I was there. Later I sent Elias to pick up meat on sale at a different store. My July Grocery Total: $1185 <— Surprisingly (barely) under budget as the month ends!

Dinner that night was BLT Wraps and clementines. I’d already mixed up the filling so Matt and Elias put together the wraps and fed everyone before I made it home. Meanwhile, Justus and Kelsey ran over to do a load of laundry and hadn’t eaten yet. I love impromptu get-togethers like this. I mixed up more BLT filling (the Costco bacon bits made it possible) so that everyone could have their fill.

Matt and I took the kids outside to play in the water after dinner while Kelsey cut up the watermelon I’d picked up. Good thing she did! Playing in the water made them hungry again so they ate an entire half of the melon!

(Not pictured: kids’ behavior issues during, before, and after all of our fun. I always share about the fun we have. You don’t want to see the fits. I don’t want to dwell on them here. But we sure do appreciate your prayers. Our kids’ needs are high, multiplied by the trauma they’ve experienced. It keeps us on our knees as we are constantly in prayer about how to love them through their hurt and work toward healing.)

Thursday morning we planned to go to a “Learn to Do Magic Tricks” Class at a library. Since we’d already be loaded into the van (it’s kind of a big deal), we decided to pack a picnic to take to the zoo afterward. Then we could eat and let the kids play in the water area there since it was so hot!

For breakfast, I offered bagels, strawberries, and blueberries. Kiya and Keith opted for the remaining smooshed  Snickerdoodle Bites. Keith used a spoon and mashed his like playdough before eating it. Whatever. :) Meanwhile, I made Turkey and Spinach Subs for our picnic lunch.

The magic tricks class was fun (but hectic with all of our littles). I’d forgotten our zoo pass so we ran home to get it and Elias hopped in to join us at the zoo. We enjoyed our subs with applesauce and water or juice.

Then we let the kids get soaked in the water area – the real reason we’d gone to the zoo that day!

We visited the spider monkeys before heading home for naps. These outings are awesome and fun, but let me tell you, by naptime Matt and I are WORN OUT. We usually have an iced coffee “date” at the beginning of naptime so that we can recover before getting work done and tackling the evening with the kids. :)

For dinner I had thawed three packages of chicken from the freezer: one of boneless thighs, one of boneless breasts, and one of drumsticks. I had marinated them in Italian dressing all afternoon, then we smoked them. We got out watermelon and tossed together one of the Aldi’s salad kits we’d bought last week. It all tasted amazing!

Friday morning we enjoyed Cheesy Scrambled eggs, sausage, and strawberries. I used some of the eggs and sausage to make to-go Breakfast Sandwiches for Matt and Elias who were headed to York for the day to work on our properties there.

Mid-morning, Keith discovered our Apple Peeler-Corer-Slicer so I washed it and showed the kids how it worked.

Apples taste so much better when you cut them this way!! This is how you go through five apples in five minutes. :) Hooray for Eva coming over to spend the morning with us so that I wasn’t on my own with eight kids. (Our former foster son, a 4-year-old half-sib to several of our kids, came to visit for the weekend!)

We decided to brave the heat to let the kids go play at the Splash Park again so I packed a meal for us to eat at a picnic table there for lunch. Our visiting Bonus Boy has a pretty limited list of foods he’ll eat so I made our meal based on what I knew he would enjoy. (This post shares ideas for what to feed picky kids, and #5 on that list details what he likes to eat.)

We ate Banana Bread and Butter sandwiches, yogurt, clementines, blueberries, cheese, and juice. (This was the Banana Bread that I’d baked in the crock pot a couple of weeks ago. I had frozen half of it so it was great to pull out and enjoy.)

Late in the afternoon before kids got up from naps, I made a double batch of No Bake Cookies. Why? Because it’s always nice to have goodies on hand to share with people who come over. And because I needed “kitchen therapy.” Praying and breathing while I’m cooking or baking always helps me find peace and calm when I’m feeling a bit out of sorts.

We warmed up leftover hamburgers for dinner and ate them outside with carrots and pickles. We survived the heat that night with water guns and our little splash pools.

Saturday morning we planned to meet friends at the Farmer’s Market but it started to rain heavily so we switched to Plan B and loaded up for the Children’s Museum instead. We have a year-long family pass so this was perfect.

The Surprise

Little did I know that Matt had been cooking up big plans for several weeks and that rain or not, he really just needed to get me out of the house for the morning. :) I thought it was odd that he didn’t want to make any lunch plans for the day, insisting that he and the kids should make lunch at home instead. “It’s good for them to take ownership in what we eat,” he said. “They’ll appreciate your work more this way.”

Ok. But???

We had our Bonus Boy with us so we took all eight kids to the Children’s Museum. Phew. Overall it went well. And look at this sweet picture. They are SO RARELY all easily managed but here we are heading back to our van after playing all morning:

We arrived back home to a HOUSE FULL OF PEOPLE. What had my husband been up to??

Well. Next week I’m turning the big 5.0. So he surprised me a few days early with a sweet party to celebrate. It was everything incredible and I can’t get over it!!

Throughout the afternoon, people kept showing up!!! Every time I turned around, someone else was at the door with a hug, with flowers, with a balloon, or with a card. Truly, what a precious, lovely surprise. I feel so very loved. Matt and the bigs are so amazing to do this for me.

Eva and Kelsey had helped arrange for people to bring dips, then “we” supplied the chips, crackers, and drinks. It was a meal of many of my favorite foods.

Ah, there he is. The guy who pulled this off in the midst of our huge move.

One of the best surprises?? Malachi had been at church camp for two weeks and away for work the week before that. We have missed him!!! I wasn’t expecting him to be home until later in the afternoon. But there he was, after getting up early to drive three hours back to be on time for my surprise. My sweet Malachi.

All said and done, there were 62 of us celebrating together that day. 62!!!!! Many hadn’t seen the Castle yet so we gave lots of tours. This provided much opportunity for us to all praise God together for the gift He gave us when He provided us with this home.

Old friends met new friends. York met Lincoln. I’m still marveling about the beauty of it all.

The party ended at 1:00 but with all the people continuing to come and go, we didn’t say our final goodbyes until after 5:00. That’s when Matt and I realized that we’d hardly eaten all day and we were starving, hahaha.

We cut up the leftover smoked chicken from Thursday and Kelsey made a Caesar salad kit. We tossed it together, got out watermelon, and chowed down.

What a fantastic week!

Now, to be clear, I’m still 49. I won’t be 50 until next week, so I’m going to hold on to my 40’s for four more days, hehehe. Meh, whatever. Looks like the 50’s are going to be pretty great!!