February 20, 2018

(click here for today's pictures)

• Whitman and Campbell were the first ones awake this morning, or so they thought. Graham was already upstairs in the bonus room getting his morning fix on the xbox. The first thing that Whitman asked me this morning was to go and help him wake up his brothers and sisters. After putting his clothes on him, I did go upstairs to wake up Keaton and Reagan, who could both sleep for hours. Anderson had already sleepily stumbled down the steps.
• Whitman headed off to school, and the rest of us headed off to the kitchen to start on our breakfast and then school work. As I had imagined, the morning did start off pretty rocky. Rocky enough for me to take away screens for the rest of the day, though I did give them the chance to earn their screen time back.
• The possibility of earning screen time back did help tremendously with the behavior. Anderson and Reagan still had work to do after lunch, but I was also running behind and had to work with people after lunch. Reagan does not want to do any work at all after lunch, and I am afraid that next year, her work load will increase by a great deal, and she may have to finish after lunch which is completely fine (and normal) but it is sure not fine with her.
• Campbell and Keaton spent the afternoon making slime. This weekend we finally made it to Walmart and let them spend some money on glue and shaving cream. Of course, their slime making had to be videoed so Anderson and Graham were their videographers.
• After 3, we loaded up and headed to Grannymom's house to pick up Whitman. Whitman had a good day at school, and before we left everyone hugged Grannymom and Grandpa bye before their trip. The library was having a snack making class so we then headed there to try it out.
• I walked into the room and probably laughed out loud when I saw the lettuce, onions, garlic and carrots sitting on the table. I had already warned the kids that the snack would probably be healthy, but I didn't know that it would be that healthy. 
• There weren't a ton of kids there (us and maybe 6 more). The leader was a young man, and he really did great making sure that everyone had a job. They weren't making salad as I had originally thought but were making P.F. Chang Lettuce Wraps. 
• Whitman helped tear lettuce, the girls chopped veggies and the boys browned the chicken. Everyone moved from job to job until the snack was finished. Now, I was sure that no one was going to eat anything but gracious me, they did eat it. Graham even went to get seconds. I rolled one lettuce filled leaf and gave it to Whitman; the boy ate every single bit of it. He even gave it a thumbs up! I was beyond shocked!
• From there, we met up with Robby. Reagan stayed with me and the others went to Grannymom's to eat a quick bite of supper that Robby had picked up. When they left, the again hugged Grannymom and Grandpa bye before their trip. Robby then took everyone to the movies. Reagan had stayed with me because she just saw the movie last week.
• Reagan and I ran to Toys R Us since I had a gift card that I wanted to spend before they closed. Then we went to Target because Reagan was in search of a grey cardigan. We didn't have any luck there, but consoled ourselves with supper and a smoothie from Tropical Smoothie.
• Then we ran through the grocery store picking up a few things. We did even look for a sweater there, and had decent luck but it was just too expensive. Maybe it will be on sale soon. We hurried home trying to beat the rain. 
• Once at home, Reagan and I unloaded the groceries. She had her shower while I put everything up and then organized my desk area.
• Meanwhile, back at the movies everyone else was chowing down on popcorn. To the whole theater, Whitman did exclaim, "is he dead?" Robby said that everyone enjoyed the movie, but even more so, they loved running to the car afterwards.
• It was pouring! Everyone's clothes were soaking wet. I am not sure what all they did in the rain but gracious. Once they came home, everyone took their showers. We then let the kids stay up until the end of the Razorback game before sending everyone to bed!