October 11, 2014

(click here for today's pictures)
Celebrating Firefighters!

  • We weren't really sure what today would hold because of the rain-if it was pouring then pretty much most of our day would be a wash.  But the weather turned out perfect for all of our plans and we had a busy, busy day.  The kids were all up way too early - right near 7.  One of Robby's first words this morning was that "Saturdays aren't any fun when you have kids."  We had lots of fun today but I think Robby meant to say that Saturdays aren't relaxing when you have kids and that is certainly true.
  • Our first event was the pancake breakfast at the fire station down the road.  It was all you can eat pancakes and I think we did eat our fair share.  There was pancakes, sausage, bacon, orange juice and milk-my kids will now expect pancakes every Saturday morning.  
  • After the pancake breakfast, we went down the road to the bake sale at the big church.  It was probably put on by their seniors group but the goods were plentiful enough for us to spend more at the bake sale than we did at the pancake breakfast.  Robby had his heart set on a red velvet cake but he didn't pick it up when he first saw it so he lost out on that.  Maybe someone can make him one someday.  We did leave with a chocolate pie, reeses peanut butter cup cookies and a chocolate chip cookies.
  • On the way home, we stopped by Nonna and Pops' house to drop off a few slices of pie for them to eat.  Pops was doing well and Keaton was delighted to see that he was not in a wheelchair.  We aren't really sure where she gathered this but after Pops' knee surgery Keaton has been convinced that Pops will forever be in a wheelchair.
  • We then headed home and the kids did one school box and then a chore before having some free time.  Robby worked on cleaning out his car and soon I left to go and help box up the garage sale stuff.  
  • The garage sale was a success-I made enough to give the kids all 13 dollars.  That money will be put in an envelope so they can buy Christmas presents for their brothers and sisters.  This is really a win-win since they think they have earned a ton of money and now I don't have to buy those Christmas presents like I did last year.  
  • While I was gone, Robby made the kids do their math for Monday.  This helped us on our Monday work incredibly.  Anderson and Reagan had different math so they had to watch their videos.  Robby then was able to check everyone's pages of math so I was very pleased that is one less thing for me to do on Monday!
  • It was chilly at the garage sale-I have taken a new found respect for the weather.  I used one of the books from our science kit to discover that two of our trees out back are persimmon trees (if I knew anything about anything outside I probably should have already known that they were persimmon tress but I did not!)  So I spent Friday afternoon going outside to get persimmon seeds to cut open so I could predict the weather-I was only able to properly cut 2 seeds.  One looked like a knife (possibly) which means icy, cutting winds and the other looked like a spoon meaning heavy, wet snow (my favorite prediction.)
  • As we tried to pack up the garage sale, people continued to come and shop.  Finally, we were able to run them all off and pack up the boxes.  When we had almost finished, Robby and the kids arrived to pick me up for our next adventure.  Lilli and Cash joined us and we all headed downtown.
  • The Clinton Library had a fire fighter thing-they had fire trucks and ambulances to look through, free hot dogs, snow cones, popcorn, a cute picture taking station and most importantly jumpies.  The kids were in heaven with the jumpies-but less just say that keeping up with 8 kiddos can be a bit challenging.  That is why Whitman was left in the stroller!
  • There is so much to do downtown-we didn't get to walk over the train bridge, go through the nature trails or even go into the nature center but we did get to walk a bit downtown.  We even walked through what was left of the farmer's market-it was starting to close for the day.  One group did have watermelon that they were giving out to sample so that made the girls very happy.  
  • It was a long walk but we did make it to see the Nina and Pinta-Columbus' ships.  I am sure that those are not the originals but they were still pretty impressive.  Those ships are tiny, tiny-just a bit bigger than my van (kidding, they are really about the size of an 18 wheeler).  I can not imagine crossing the ocean in those little ships but glad that Columbus did.  A few weeks ago we read a lot about Columbus-I almost wished that we would have done that reading after seeing those ships up close.
  • After seeing the ships, Robby walked back to get the van (he said it was a really, really long way when you were in a hurry.)  I let the kids play on that blasted River Market playground. They just love that playground but it is what my nightmares are made of.  I do not like not being able to see my people.  Every few minutes, I would not see someone and have to shout their name-they were all good to holler back at me or let me know who they could see.  We probably were able to play about 10 minutes before Robby arrived with the car and that was plenty of time for me.
  • Next stop was dropping Lilli and Cash off and then we headed home and Robby ran by to pick up drill bits from Grandpa (more on that later) and to drop the garage sale tables off at Nonna's house.  At home, I unloaded and worked on getting things ready for later tonight and tomorrow and soon it was time to change clothes and head out again.
  • We had a Sunday school fellowship and it was loads of fun.  First supper was hot dogs (yep, had them for lunch and supper) and hamburgers (only Robby got a hamburger-they ran out!). Then there were desserts plus a huge cookie cake.  The kids played outside on the tree house and the boys had a massive game of football going.
  • The ballgame was on everywhere and mostly the guys watched the game on the back patio. During halftime, we carved pumpkins and really, ours was the most fun to carve.  We didn't do a face-instead we drilled lots of holes in our little pumpkin.  Our kids were lined up taking turns drilling and other kids came joining our line so they could get a turn at drilling.  Seriously, it was that much fun.  
  • After the pumpkin carving, there was hot chocolate and dirt cake.  We had hay rides with glowsticks.  Anderson ended up on one hay ride and then the rest of us ended up on the next one.  I was the designated adult on the second hay ride since I had Whitman.  I wasn't too sure if he would like it but he loved every minute of it and Keaton was happy as she could be between Graham and Campbell.  I was saying tonight that I really feel that we are in an easy stage right now with the kids (other than happy go lucky Whitman) but they all take care of each other so much and that is what Graham was doing during the hay ride-watching out for his sisters.  
  • Back at the house, the kids watched the Charlie Brown pumpkin movie on a big screen in the back yard as the football game disappointingly finished up.  After the game, we loaded up and headed home with a bunch of tired and dirty kids. 
  • We showered everyone as soon as we came in and then read our Bible story and put my people to bed!  As I was tucking Keaton in, she said "cover my people up" meaning that she wanted me to cover up her animals.  It was a busy, busy day-my Whitman was so exhausted that he fell asleep on the way home and didn't wake up at all as I hauled him out of the car and then changed his clothes.  He was tired but I think that we are pretty tired too after our busy day!

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