Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: April 28-May 4, 2024 post!
Big Family Food and Fun: April 28-May 4, 2024
I had put together an Easy Bread Pudding the day before when I was making a big batch of Uncrustables so I baked it for our Sunday morning breakfast!
I packed lunch for us to eat after church with other families who were staying for a fun Sundaes on Sunday event! I had two loaves of bread worth of Uncrustables, four cans worth of Tuna Salad, and a batch of Cream Cheese Salsa Dip. Plus I packed grapes, chips, bread/buns, and sweet peppers.
Keith was supposed to have a soccer game mid-afternoon also, so I packed oranges for us to eat during the game and juice for the kids to drink on the way home.
Keith was prepared to fight a fire that morning but we packed his soccer gear just in hopes that his Fire Chief duties allowed him to play in his game. :)
During church, we got the inevitable “Your child’s game is canceled due to wet field conditions.” I think he’s had more cancelations than actual games at this point. But that did mean that we could stay longer at our church fellowship event.
Our awesome children’s minister had Sundae supplies set up after lunch for everyone!
Those oranges I cut up for the kids to eat during Keith’s (canceled) game? Not to worry – those got eaten right on our kitchen floor when we got home. BabyBoy#11 even got in on the action – sucking out some juice while his sisters gobbled down the fruit.
For about an hour that afternoon, I got all the kids involved in doing some much-needed house cleaning. Were they excited and did they have good attitudes about this? Not really. But did they learn some life skills and life lessons about working as a family team? Yes.
Keith had the privilege of running our steam mop, so he actually LOVED his job. The kitchen floor looked much better after he was finished!
I warmed up leftover pancakes and sausage for dinner that night. Then, our friends, the Bakers, came over to watch the seven littles for us. We grown-ups all loaded up at met up at a nearby church for a…
Rend Collective Concert!!!
This was a Christmas gift we gave our adult kids and we finally got to enjoy it together!
The entire night was full of powerful worship! While the entire group is extremely talented, we were all especially impressed with the fiddler. And look! We found the fiddler and got a photo with him during intermission!! :)
Ah, but you might not have noticed the fiddler in the above photo because Kelsey is holding a tiny babe. :) Indeed. Justus and Kelsey have recently started to foster this sweetheart. She is beyond precious. :)
Monday morning, I packed the BBQ Pork/Cheese Sandwiches I’d put together the week before plus some bags of chips to send with Matt as he headed to York. Malachi and some friends were meeting up at our old house to clean it out one last time before the new owners started to move in.
Elias and Malorie helped me with the kids all day while Matt was gone. I decided it was a piggy-tail day.
A piggy-tail-BUBBLE day.
I had a big meeting with our Case Worker, Casa, and Foster Care Support Person that morning. BabyBoy#11’s adoption is coming up soon and we got more paperwork completed!
That evening, I smoked 14 Brats and 24 Hotdogs for dinner. I threw out Pickles, Fruit Cups, and Chips plus warmed up leftover Baked Beans. We ate as fast as we could then headed out for Brayden’s Ukulele Concert at school.
I could not stop smiling while he performed. Music brings out the best in him, 100%, and I was praising God the entire time for giving Brayden this area of success. I didn’t get any pictures of his fan club, but there were 14 of us sitting in the crowd cheering him on. :)
Tuesday morning Keith took on the task of washing some dishes. These dishes got very, very clean and also very wet.
Meanwhile, in the living room…
Just before taking them to school, I had Brayden and Kiya come in to the kitchen to scrub potatoes for our dinner that night. I’m working very hard to train the kids to serve our family in various ways.
The day before I had discovered a Lilac Bush in our yard that I didn’t know existed. It reminds me of the lane leading up to grandparent’s house and the scent took me back to my childhood. I’m so excited we have this! I put some lilacs into a vase and took it into our kitchen for us to enjoy!
Late afternoon, Acacia and Josie snacked on grapes outside at their picnic table.
Dinner that evening was leftover BBQ Chicken from Saturday night plus Crock Pot Baked Potatoes and Steamed Broccoli. I also warmed up leftover Corn from the fridge. I needed to be out the door by 5:00 because Keith had Kindergarten Roundup. So dinner was ready by 4:30 and we started feeding kids in shifts.
In an effort to divide and conquer, Matt stayed home with four kids and I took Keith, Anna, and BabyBoy#11 with me to the elementary school. Keith was very excited and has declared that he is already a kindergartener. :)
We got to meet the kindergarten teachers and Keith made a hat in what might be his classroom next year. Anna made one too, because, why not? And BabyBoy#11 ate some magnatiles. :)
It was still early evening when we got home and everyone was hungry again because we’d had such an early dinner. The snack this tired mom decided to provide for her hungry children? Spoon after spoon of Peanut Butter. It was easy and it filled their bellies!
Matt attempted to mow part of our lawn while the kids played before bedtime. Everything went fine until it was time for me to transition everyone into the house to get ready for bed. That’s when kids started to put grass clippings in each other’s hair and then they all rubbed fresh grass onto their hands, creating grass-stained hands. Things can, and often do, go from calm to crazy in the span of five seconds. But hey, the lawn looks nice and we all survived.
Wednesday morning I baked a batch of Bran Muffins. Notice how I didn’t get the cinnamon stirred in well? That actually ended up being a pretty tasty mistake. :)
Keith had been asking for Breakfast Cookies so late morning, he helped me make a double batch. Having muffins and breakfast cookies in our freezer is so helpful!
In the afternoon I bagged up the Muffins and Cookies for the freezer. I also baked several pans of Bacon to have on hand and to share.
I had the little girls help me crack 2+ dozen eggs, then I made two Breakfast Casseroles in an attempt to get ahead.
For dinner that night, we made a simple meals of Boiled Elbow Noodles, Spaghetti Sauce with Meat, and Steamed Broccoli. Brayden helped make most of this meal, taking big pride in already knowing how to do most of it. :)
Most of the littles prefer their noodles without sauce but with butter and cheese.
With so many littles to chase, it is very rare for us all to actually SIT an enjoy a meal. But here we are, sitting. For two minutes. We attempted to practice some Bible verses with the kids, which is something we like to do at meal time if we can possibly get everyone seated and quiet.
Thursday morning, Matt headed back to York to work. Elias has started a new job as a Special Ed Para (such a great fit for him!) so he got out the door early. Malachi had video work to do so we called our dear friend Christina to come help us this morning!
I captured this photo of the girls enjoying a rare moment of quiet coloring as the adults were trying to get out the door.
Meanwhile, Keith had gotten out string, scissors, glue, paper, and a hole punch to make…a mask?
His creativity was flowing so next he made a light saber!
Christina is the best with our kids! She helped make our morning go very smoothly. :)
For dinner that night, we stirred together Wednesday night’s leftovers and Elias topped it with cheese to bake.
I decided to go with paper boats that night so that I didn’t add extra dishes to our needs of the day.
And we ate outside so that the mess would fall to the ground! After playing more, we ate some fruit cups to refresh us before bedtime.
We had refrigerated Wednesday’s Egg Casseroles so Friday morning, I cut them and warmed some up for our breakfast. Then I put the remaining pieces into baggies, and then into freezer bags for easy packed lunches (adults) and easy breakfasts (everyone).
We ran to Sam’s that morning where I grabbed milk, fruit, and veggies.
But the real reason we went to Sam’s is because I’d been researching the best Wagon/Stroller for our outings and they had a great one! We wanted to pick it up and get it ready for the season. Of course, putting it together was a BIG EVENT when we got home and Daddy could not have done it without all of this great help. :)
We loaded up and took it for a test drive all the way to the kids’ school where they were having a special Walkathon outside that day.
It’s going to be great to have, but it was a bit heavy for me once we put 100+ pounds of children inside. :) At the zoo, soccer games, parks, and other events, it will be fabulous!
To celebrate our kids’ school’s Walkathon that evening, our closest community library hosted a gathering for the students. They had a scavenger hunt, activities, crafts and PIZZA.
BabyBoy#11 was all in for this event. ;)
It felt extra special to eat pizza inside the library.
But the best part of the night was interacting with people from our community. Many are still new to us and this was a great gift to be with them in this way.
Saturday morning we ate odds and ends to finish off Breakfast Cookies and Muffins.
Meanwhile, I cut up the great big watermelon I’d gotten at Sam’s the day before. (I spent just under $8 on this. Read here to learn why I think this is a GREAT PRICE.)
We got to go to our favorite Sensory Friendly Library Storytime that morning.
We came home and warmed up leftovers for lunch. I used leftover baked potatoes and bacon to make a skillet full of something similar to what is described here. Wow was it good! Brayden and Kiya helped warm up veggies.
In preparation for our Sunday lunch, I dumped two kinds of sauces on chicken to marinate. Later that evening I smoked the chicken. I planned to rewarm it and put it into crock pots Sunday morning to take to church for lunch since once again, Keith had a soccer game right after lunch (if it doesn’t get canceled).
The rest of the afternoon was spent playing outside, moving a new housemate into our third floor, and getting ready for Sunday.
Our neighbor, John, was planting more flowers into his gorgeous flower garden. He has been so gracious to teach our kids and let them help. This is big for any kid – but for our kids – the time, energy, and love he is pouring in has been beyond big. Brayden was out having Bro Time with Elias, BabyBoy#11 was napping, and the other five kids and I went across the street to plant flowers with John.
He talked us through how he does things, why he does them, and he let the kids do all the work. It was amazing. When we got back to our yard, our kids used their new skills to plant fake flowers in our dirt while I smoked the chicken I had marinated earlier.
I also mixed up two loaves worth of Stir-and-Pour Bread to go with our Sunday lunch chicken. I haven’t made bread in a very long time, and my intent was to pull kids inside to make it with me. But they were playing so well outside and having so much fun I just let them be. They can make bread with me 100 other times or more. :)
I realized I only had whole wheat pastry flour, which doesn’t work for yeast breads. So I used unbleached white flour and the bread turned out great. Truly, anyone can make this bread. It’s so easy and requires no kneading!
The smell of smoked chicken and freshly baked bread teased us as I saved it for our Sunday lunch and instead pulled out leftovers for our Saturday dinner. This was the last of the leftovers in our fridge and it felt so good to get them all cleaned out! I turned the remaining leftover noodles into Mac and Cheese by making a white sauce. Keith grated cheese for this project and was so proud. Then I cut up the leftover hotdogs I’d smoked earlier in the week and stirred them in. We ate it with peas and the kids gobbled it up!
We put a lot of dirty, tired kids into the bathtub, and that was our week!