June 17th-23rd

(6/17) Dad took today off to spend with the kiddos.  C had school, and I had to work.  The kiddos were wired for sound when I got home, so I sent the bigs outside.  The girls are making great use of the wheels we have available and I hope to run the extra bike in tomorrow to get its tire fixed, and then everyone will have their own wheels. And yay for nice weather so we're not all cooped up inside!

Instantaneous recovery when the
word "outside" was uttered

(6/18) Last day of school for the C-monster.  Official new 2nd grader hawk!  Can't believe it.  I took him to school and then came home to grab the rest of the kiddos so we could meet Sarah and her littles at the park.  After the bigs got bored, I ran them to the library to pick up some reserved items for the oldest and signed all the kids up for the summer reading program.  We then grabbed C from school and came home for lunch and nap.  After nap, we had a couple of errands to run.  Got everyone loaded in the car and got 5 blocks from home and poor J exploded. All over himself, the van, everywhere.  Poor bubba!  Turned around, cleaned him & the van up, re-loaded the van and then headed off to drop off some items, run the extra bike in to get its tire fixed for our youngest girl and then hit the library to pick up more books for the oldest because she inhaled her book this morning.  As soon as we got home, I started to make up dinner and our younger girl comes in to tell us the other tire popped.  UGH!  And I don't know if it was cleaning up the van or real, but now I'm not feeling so hot, nor is the oldest.  Can't.get.sick!

(6/19)  It's never a good sign when you get a text that says "Bring Gatorade, Jello, applesauce and bananas."  Poor Dad was sick-sick-sick.  I came home armed with ginger ale, Gatorade, Jello and applesauce.  We ran out to get the bike's tire fixed, and it turned out to be the same tire as yesterday, just a bad tube.  I couldn't remember, but the guy that worked on the bike said he was pretty sure it was the one they replaced, so he put on a heavier-duty one and just charged me the difference.  Nice!  Now they're all wheeled and can motor around the block.  We also had to go to the library to get more books because the oldest inhaled three of them yesterday. After we got back, I loosed the hounds and said GO PLAY.  Made lunch, napped the littles, and tried to keep a periodic eye on the bigs.  Finally dragged them in for dinner and a movie.  Dad was finally feeling more human so got to enjoy it with us.

D having a "noisy" - what he calls smoothies

(6/20) Called out of work today because I didn't want to expose anyone else to this lovely intestinal party.  Not that having a stomach bug is fun, but I'm glad I was here this week, so I could be here for the girls' transition, and so that we got the whole mini freak out about having to take care of FIVE children when we're not at our best out of the way.  We all fortunately felt better today - the bug got 6/7 of us, so we were prepared for #7 to come down with it too.  She may have lucked out though!  We had a busy/not-busy day of a lot of outside play intermixed with some video games and reading.  The girls left midday for their visit and it was crazy quiet in here.  I think I'm getting used to the chaos.  After they came home, they took to their bikes and raced around the neighborhood.  They both have made new friends nearby and C has been right in the thick of things.  The littles were adorable today.  D's language and sentence structure have really taken off lately.  He told me he wanted to watch Sesame Street, and when I got out the Elmo and Big Bird stuffies, he gave one to J for him to hug, and told him "Nice hug, JJ!"  It was a late night for bigs decompressing from the day, but we have no plans tomorrow so look forward to another full day of lazing and playing.

I woke her up early to go running.

And D is outta there!

(6/21) Last night I told the girls that we could get stuff to make cupcakes and could take a trip to the park.  So they biked around home for the first half of the day, then we trekked to the store and got cupcake stuff and stopped at the park on the way home.  The stupid bug struck the last healthy person, and we sped back home.   I made up dinner and doled out applesauce.  And told them to keep things lower-key for the rest of the evening.  Cupcakes were made and delivered to friends, bikes were ridden we had a pretty chill rest of the day.

(6/22) Woke up earlyish and checked on the younger girl and she said her stomach really hurt, so I left her home with Dad and the boys while the oldest and I went to church.  It was a good service on parenting being equal parts awesome and difficult.  Timely, indeed.  After church, we hit the Bux and then I stopped by the store and picked up lunch to share with the littler guys while the oldest and C went off to the farm in search of berries for making up jam.  There was nap time, play time, train building time, jam time, and dinner all in there, followed by game playing, baths and stories.

(6/23) Work day for me and Dad has the kiddos.  Our younger girl has a dental appointment today and Sarah is watching the rest of the herd.  Hopefully we are free of the crud and *do not* share!

I love the rainbow above & BEWARE below (there wasn't
room for the word zombies).  We were reading Goosebumps..
so they have zombies on the brain.