Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: May 4-10, 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, May 3
Late afternoon on May 3, I gave Brayden, Keith, and Auggie much-needed haircuts. I’m always so relieved to get this done. The boys cooperated as well as they could during this, and look how handsome!
I made Spaghetti with Corn and Spinach for our Sabbath dinner that night because everyone eats at least part of this meal without complaint. (Some just eat noodles with butter, but at least they eat.) What I failed to consider is what a mess noodles make – on the floor, on the benches, in their hair. This was not a super restful Sabbath meal. But at least bellies got full. :)
We usually give kids baths then watch a show before bed on Saturday nights. At one point during the show while I was brushing and braiding the girls’ clean hair, we realized that Auggie wasn’t anywhere to be found. (Ducking out to go exploring and then getting fixated on something is a typical Autism symptom “eloping” – and Auggie and Keith do this often.) Elias and Malorie helped me search for Auggie, outside and inside the house, and we finally found him inside the house on our second floor, happy as can be. He willingly came down with Elias, and I loved how sweet it was that he held his brother’s hand as they made their way to the living room.
Big Family Food and Fun: May 4-10, 2025
We ate Breakfast Cookie Bars for breakfast before church on Sunday. After church, we had a crowd of 27 people in our home to enjoy a meal.
I had made an extra large pan full of Burrito Casserole, which we turned into Burritos and Nachos. Friends brought Watermelon and Desserts.
It was a simple, wonderful meal together.
Later that evening, I turned the leftovers into Burritos for the freezer so that they adults can pack them for lunches or so we can warm them up at home as needed.
We had a freshly cut lawn, thanks to our friend Graham who does his laundry at our house on Saturdays. He mows while his laundry gets washed/dried – isn’t that sweet? So Sunday evening, we played outside in the fresh grass and sunshine, enjoying pretty perfect weather conditions.
Acacia and Josie rolled down a little hill over and over, laughing and laughing. It was so sweet!
Monday morning, I made a big pan of Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Bars for the kids to eat for breakfast. Anna asked if she could cut them and I decided that it wouldn’t hurt any of us if our bars had taken on some “extra special” shapes.
I had plans to be out of the house all afternoon – taking time to rest/work at Panera. Kelsey had loaned me a book, Fostered, and I took that with me and read for a while. It was such a restful afternoon and I praise God for it! That book though? Phew. It’s a really good, tough read.
That morning, I had made a bowl full of Chicken Salad. So when the kids got home from school we were able to have an easy meal of Chicken Salad on tortillas or bread or with crackers plus Spinach and Watermelon.
These two love their oranges, and I’d picked some up while I was out that afternoon. So Acacia and Josie had oranges with their wraps instead of watermelon. (Then they ate huge bowls full of watermelon later while playing outside!)
Auggie’s ABA worker (called an RBT) was here all evening and he had a great night with her. He’s finally settling into the routine of his ABA therapy and we are so thankful. He’s learning that Daddy and Mommy are still here and available while his RBT is “playing/working” with him and that all is well.
A bunch of neighborhood kids showed up and since the temps were over 70, the kids were “hot” enough to play with water guns. We filled a tote full of water so they wouldn’t all keep going back and forth into our house to fill their guns with water. (Pictured you’ll see that we first tried to fill a small pool with water, but it had a leak in it, so we moved on to a tote. That worked much better.)
I happened upon this scene at bedtime, with the three little girls snuggled around Daddy for a story. They’d gotten nice and wet outside, so dry clothes/jammies plus snuggles were perfect.
I had scored some strawberries on sale on Monday while I was out, so Tuesday morning I made Strawberry Parfaits for breakfast.
Some of the kids also had a Breakfast Sandwich with their parfaits.
Auggie had speech therapy that morning, and he led the way into the building like a boss.
Afterward, he and I went up the road to Sam’s to get what we needed there.
After school, I took Brayden, Kiya, and Keith to hand out food and clean at our weekly Food Distribution site. Keith was very excited to pick up some lemons at the end of the evening so he could come home and squeeze them into lemonade. :)
I had grilled two different kinds of giant Hot Dogs before leaving for the afternoon, and they were warm in the crock pot at dinner time when we got home. We ate them with chips/guac and strawberries.
We had brought home some ready-to-be-used bananas from Food Distribution, so on Wednesday morning we used them to make a batch of Flourless Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins.
The most exciting thing we brought home from Food Distribution was this lovely pan of Cinnamon Rolls! Wednesday morning, I scrambled 18 eggs to go with the rolls, plus I baked a lot of pans of Bacon (it was still baking when I took this picture). Malachi had a couple of York buddies spend the night, so it was fun to offer them eggs, bacon, fruit, and cinnamon rolls when they got up.
The weather has been absolutely gorgeous, so we spent the entire morning outside. I lost track of how many clementines I peeled that morning as Anna, Acacia, Josie, and Auggie all ate and ate and kept wanting more. Then they ate some of the fresh muffins we’d made that morning. By the end of summer, with all this fresh air, sunshine, and food – they are going to be taller, no doubt about it.
Arrow came to hang out for the afternoon. Somehow I held back from kissing those cheeks the entire time he was here, but I definitely did get in my fair share of smooches. He puts up with me.
I smoked a bunch of Pork Chops for dinner that I had picked up marked down at Sam’s the day before. All the older kids and grandbabies came for dinner because Brayden and Kiya were in a musical that night! So we had a big feast before heading over to their school to watch the show: Smoked Pork Chops, Party Potatoes, Peas, Croissants (another score from Food Distribution), and Strawberries.
This was a fun moment right after Arrow woke up from his nap! Bless Justus, who stood and cut a bunch of meat for all the littles before we fixed their plates.
The kids have been working on a Pirate Musical for many months. It was absolutely fantastic! Because Brayden is a 5th grader, he got to have a part with lines. He had to work hard to remember what to say and when to say it, and his hard work paid off. He nailed it!
We were all so happy to celebrate with the kids after the show.
Our friends, the Case family, came to support the kids in their show, which is beyond amazing. Here they are, posing as the Fan Club after getting Brayden and Kiya’s autographs. :)
Thursday we ate leftovers all day so that we could clean out the fridges. Keith wasn’t feeling great and had a low fever the night before so we kept him home from school that day. He was better enough during the day to get bored, so he used his time to make Lemonade from the lemons he’d brought home Tuesday evening.
Oofta. Mom didn’t put much sugar in there.
Little Sweetheart came over that day. We spent a lot of time outside enjoying the perfect weather.
Friday morning Keith was home again because his fever had come back Thursday night. I woke up with a migraine so I was sort of just surviving the day. Auggie had two full sessions of ABA therapy. I don’t remember what we ate. :) Ugh, migraines are not fun.
Malachi spent some of the morning helping Matt with the kids. As he was getting ready to leave for his office, Anna asked him to please read a book. So he set his camera gear down and she snuggled in. So precious.
That evening, I felt well enough to open two boxes of Orange Chicken and steam some broccoli for dinner. This meal is a favorite and much cheaper than ordering take-out.
Saturday was a full day, and I’ll share photos next week. We:
- Went to the library for our favorite Sensory Story Time.
- We came home and grilled Burgers for lunch.
- Our friends, the Brocks, came to spend the afternoon with us.
- Some of us went toward Omaha to our friend Makaela’s wedding!
And that was our week!
