Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: September 8-14, 2024 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: September 8-14, 2024

Getting eight kids ready for church on Sundays is quite the ordeal, but here we are ready and loading up into our van. Everyone was cooperating that morning so it was worth documenting. :)

We had a smaller crowd for lunch that day, or at least it felt smaller. Actually, there were still 22 of us, but here’s why it felt small: We’d met new friends at church who came over and joined us. Those friends have three kids and from the moment their kids and our kids met, there was instant friendship. All the kids took their plates outside to eat, leaving all the grown-ups eating and visiting in a quiet dining room. Amazing!

We had bought two Costco Rotisserie Chickens the Friday before, prepped them, and simply rewarmed them that Sunday for lunch. We ate it on buns with a variety of sauce options, plus Party Potatoes, Green Beans, Spinach, Stuffing, Watermelon, and Strawberries. When our new friends arrived, they brought fresh pineapple which was a perfect addition to this spread!

I had experimented the day before to make an Ice Cream Cake, which turned out to be a hit! I made this Chocolate Cake in a sheet pan so that it was thin. Then I made a batch of this Vanilla Ice Cream and layered it with the cake in a dish. I topped it with frosting blended with heavy whipping cream. Then squirted on some whipped cream. It was fun! But…

It should be noted that when I sneak spinach into Chocolate Cake it is usually well hidden and no one can tell. BUT, apparently when frozen, the green from the spinach pops vibrantly. So Malachi took the first slice and was like, “Mom this cake is green!?” Oh shoot. I had to come clean with everyone and tell them they were actually eating salad for dessert.

No one minded and in fact, some used this as an excuse to get seconds. Ok then.

While everyone was eating, I was delighted to be tucked into the chair in the corner of our dining room feeding Arrow and snuggling him to sleep. He is getting chubby and squishy and somehow even more delightful.

Later that afternoon, Brayden and Kiya went to a birthday party and we took the other six kids to Keith’s soccer game.

We came home and ate leftovers for dinner and I gave two more hair cuts (I’d given two boys cuts the day before plus trimmed two little girls hair to make it healthier). Sunday night it was Auggie and Bonus Buddy’s turn. Phew, six hair cuts in one weekend was a huge accomplishment. I was glad to have that out of the way.

Just before we took all the kids in for the night, I found these two having a dinner date by the fire pit so I snuck this picture for them.

Malorie headed back to Texas Monday morning as Elias was leaving for work. I got out a simple breakfast of Yogurt and Granola for the kids to eat before school.

Mid-morning the four littlest and I had a snack of Avocado and Chips. The weather was so beautiful we spent all morning outside.

The cuteness is overwhelming as the preschool girls climb on the bus at noon.

Crazy as it sounds, I’ve started having dinner ready by 4:30 or 4:45 every afternoon. I do this because once the kids are all home from school, everything gets very hectic. Part of the craziness is the result of the fact that they are all hungry, so I might as well get dinner made before they all come home from school AND get them fed right away to keep the meltdowns to a minimum.

Monday night, our Spaghetti Dinner was ready and we were at the table digging in at 4:45. All the adults in the house came and ate later when they were available.

Then we had a wedding, no big deal.

Acacia is usually our bride and Brayden sang and danced as he walked her down the aisle. The way Acacia is looking at Brayden with amusement and admiration at his antics – well, it’s pretty sweet.

We gave everyone who had cooperated during the evening, played nicely, and helped clean up toys a special treat of leftover Ice Cream Cake from Sunday before getting everyone to bed.

Tuesday morning, everyone chose Oatmeal packets for their breakfast. It’s cheaper to make these and I can do it, but not right now. Letting everyone choose their packet on oatmeal days is one more good thing for them because while so much of the time our kids are trying to be in control, choosing their oatmeal lets them have some control. Sound weird? Probably. This is our world now.

Mid-morning I decided to tackle a huge applesauce project. Our neighbor had brought us a bucket and a half of organic apples from his family farm – so nice. I don’t know that I’ll take on any more apples this year after this (we’ll see though, it’s hard to pass up free organic apples). But this particular morning, I channeled my 2008-Heavenly-Homemaker-Self and went full applesauce mode.

I got them all washed and left them in one of our sinks until a good time to get them cut and cooked.

Eventually, Matt was at a good point with the kids outside, plus Acacia came in to help me so I went for it on the next step. I was putting on an apron and Acacia needed one too. :)

An hour later, this huge pot of apples was on the stove cooking.

Here and there, kids had come in the snack on apples. Auggie didn’t really eat his, but he enjoyed sucking on his chunk.

After the girls left for preschool, the apples were cooked and I ran them all through my Blendtec to get it smooth. Phew! This is by far the fastest way I’ve found to make applesauce. And I’ve made gallons and gallons of it through the years.

Before leaving to pick up kids from school, I put leftover Party Potatoes on the stove, plus cut Beef Smoked Sausage in a pan – all ready to heat up for dinner. We had a couple containers of leftover Broccoli and Green Beans to go with it all.

Matt and Elias held down the fort at home and got dinner ready while Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and I went to hand out food and help at our weekly Food Distribution. Keith helped me hand out chicken most of the afternoon, but toward the end, he went to help Brayden clean out coolers in the kitchen. Brayden was sweet and thrilled to teach his little brother how his job worked and Keith was thrilled to be a big guy in the kitchen doing this job. :)

Every Tuesday at  Food Distribution I am reminded about the importance of saying yes to opportunities for our kids to look beyond themselves and serve others. They really rise to the occasion in settings like this, and it is changing their hearts for good.

What the adult volunteers at Food Distribution don’t realize is how much they are pouring into our kids and blessing them. The adults allow our kids to serve along side them, telling them what a great job they are doing and what a great help they are. The kids need this – and Matt and I need this. We are weary. Other adults who pour into our kids are a beautiful gift to us all.

Anyway…here’s Kiya and Keith helping Mr. Jim scrub some spots off the carpet after we’d handed out food and it was clean up time.

Back at home, there was general chaos as the littles got fed dinner. But across the street! Our neighbor, John, and his beautiful flowers were on display for the evening. As people came to enjoy his yard and flowers, he and his friend were singing and making for a wonderfully fun experience. We enjoyed it from across the street in our yard at first.

Then we were able to head over and dance around on John’s porch during some of his live music performances. Mr. John is soooo good to our kids, and in fact, he’d taught Brayden, Kiya, and Keith how to plant with him in the spring so some of these flowers they had helped grow. What a special evening.

Wednesday morning I made French Toast like this to serve with our chilled Applesauce.

Mid-morning I took Auggie to the chiropractor to help him with over all health, specifically to help with some ear infections he’s been having.

Anna helped me get some eggs started so that I could make a big batch of Breakfast Sandwiches to have on hand.

That afternoon, I got to hang out with Arrow for a few hours. He is such a happy boy!

The zoo had a special “for members only” evening hours opening, so we took advantage that night. Right when the kids got home from school, we fed them leftovers for an early dinner then loaded up.

The zoo handed out big Runza Chocolate Chip Cookies to us as we headed in and I had packed milk. So we took a break with the Penguins to have milk and cookies.

We visited with our friend, Elliot, the Macaw.

By the time we headed back to the van to make our way home, Matt and I had regretted our outing. The kids were beyond tired and just about all of them were melting down. We managed to get a lot of screaming kids home, upstairs to get ready for bed, and right at that time, Malachi showed up unannounced.

He had no idea that this is just what we needed, but he started making his way from room to room, having little conversations, giving hugs, and snuggling. He helped make the night more manageable, and an hour and half after we started bedtime routines, the kids were all finally settled.

Thursday morning we ate several of the Breakfast Sandwiches I’d made the day before. I put together a double batch of Applesauce Muffins to share with some friends and to have on hand for snacks and breakfasts.

Anna had an appointment that morning, so I quickly put together Peanut Butter Tortillas for Matt to feed the others if he needed something fast. I made quite a few, as I thought that might be a good snack to take to school that afternoon for the kids to eat on their way home.

Just before noon, we headed outside to watch for the preschool bus.

I took the muffin liners off the mini-muffins and put three each into snack-sized baggies. (This is my way of re-creating boxed Little Bites.) I put the little baggies into a gallon-sized freezer bag and labeled it, then put it into the freezer. Then I put the remaining muffins in a container for easy access the next couple of days.

Justus dropped off Little Sweetheart to spend the afternoon with us. She helped me clean out our dishwashers, played, drank 5-ounces, then fell asleep in my arms. Bliss.

Kelsey had arrived at our house to pick up Little Sweetheart by the time we got home from school with the elementary kids. She and Auggie helped Brayden with his homework while Uncle Elias held Little Sweetheart. Family Teamwork is the best.

I’d been fighting a cold, so dinner that night was the rest of a bag of Fish Sticks, five boxes of Mac and Cheese, and leftover veggies.

Friday morning, I made a batch of Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins.

Auggie had a follow-up chiropractor appointment right after we got the kids to school. He enjoyed some light reading before Dr. Bo called him back.

When we got home, I finished putting together a huge batch of Peanut Butter Honey Puffs. I had started them at 7:15 that morning, but kept getting interrupted with other needs so I finished them three hours later. ;)

Meanwhile, the Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins had cooled so I packaged them for school lunches plus some to share with a friend.

That afternoon after we got the girls on the Preschool bus and Auggie down for a nap, I headed out by myself to restock groceries at Walmart and Sam’s.

The price of eggs has gone up again, but Sam’s still had their boxes of 5-dozen at the old price so I grabbed two boxes. Can we go through 10-dozen eggs by their expiration date in October? Yes, no problem.

Back at home, Matt and Auggie had picked up the kids from school and some big plans for our neighborhood had begun. Several of our neighbors had worked together to put together a Block Party that night. Our boys LOVED help setting up the Road Blocks.

But what everyone LOVED LOVED was getting to ride their bikes and play in the street all evening. One of our neighbors got out a little police car that our kids loved driving around.

So many showed up to share a meal and time together.

We met a lot of new people and got to know others better.

Some of the young adults kicked a ball around, and were gracious to let Keith and Bonus Buddy join their game.

The worst part of the evening was taking all the kids in for the night. They had had so much fun and were overtired. They did not want all the fun to end!

Saturday morning, we walked a block over to a neighbor’s yard to get a haul of dirt they wanted to get rid of. Everyone had fun helping dad unload it.

Then we loaded up a basket full of freezer foods to take to a friend who’s mom has been having severe health issues. Hopefully this food will make a few meals easier for their family.

Late morning, I smoked chicken and brats for our Sunday lunch.

We baked a Tator Tot Casserole for lunch and ate it with Steamed Broccoli and Carrots.

We enjoyed our church’s Small Group that afternoon, ate leftovers for dinner, gave everyone baths, and got everyone to bed.

And that was our week!