- Anderson was the only one awake this morning. I had to climb over Graham, Alyssa and Reagan to open the blinds so people would start stirring around here. I did carry Whitman down the stairs to snuggle with him a bit in the bed before he put on his clothes and left me.
- For some very strange reason, we were all ready early this morning-actually we were ready early enough that even Robby and I sat down for a few minutes before rushing out the door.
- Robby took Campbell and Keaton to church first since they had to sing on the stage during worship. The rest of us left about 5 minutes behind them. We made our rounds to see the grands and then settled in our row for church.
- We are already a bit smushed on our row and that was even before Campbell and Keaton came to join us after they sang. Many of us have a little bit of a cold but Campbell and Graham are the current cough-ers.
- After Graham had coughed enough, I pointed for him to leave the place. He walked out and lo and behold Campbell realized what had just happened and started coughing herself. I guess her little mind thought that coughing was her ticket out of there. She did cough enough that the lady beside her handed her a pack of life savers.
- We survived the rest of church without anyone having to leave or being given more candy. then it was Sunday school time for a few minutes before we headed out to work Feed the Need. We had a few minutes to eat lunch which Robby had picked up for us.
- Then we joined the masses of folks working at the Kroger. There were tons of people there, but quite a few of the kids ended up in the truck sorting bags of food with me. I thought that this was a perfect spot for us-we didn't have to talk to people and it would be dry with the rain coming.
- Unfortunately, not only was it going to rain but it was going to storm so we had to leave the truck. I then joined Robby on the other side of the building passing out cards to people as the came in the store. Now, it is kind of funny to watch because talking to people just kills Reagan. She tried her hardest not to say a thing to anyone at all. On the other hand, Whitman tried his hardest to memorize what he was going to say. He handed the card to one person, said "we are collecting...oh, I forgot my script!" and walked off.
- The rain came and the storms came so we headed inside the store to do some shopping for Feed the Need and some shopping for Feed the Dennies. Many of the kids stayed with all of the workers-I think that they really enjoyed the afternoon.
- We then came home for a little bit, long enough to have a short nap, before we had to head back to church. Tonight, Anderson's received his 6th grade Bible. After church, they had cupcakes and lemonade so the kids certainly enjoyed that. 7 of us here have received first grade Bibles and now two Dennies have gotten 6th grade Bibles so we are racking up the Bibles from church.
- When we came home from church, we pulled out the leftovers for supper. Then we opened up a game that Robby had bought. It is like hot potato except that when the music stops you get shocked-like really shocked.
- Reagan read the reviews while they were working on the batteries and she sure wasn't going to play. We did convince her finally. We first played the version with just music and no shock. After that we played the shock version with music. Eeek! It was a pretty good shock but the most fun part was watching the kids expressions when they were shocked. And lastly, we played the silent version with only a shock at the end. That was the most stressful game I think that I have ever played. My heart even might still be racing-hope that isn't from the shock! (just kidding Mom, don't worry.)
- We should have woken up earlier than we did this morning, but Robby still had time to make biscuits and cinnamon toast for my soccer stars. He did have a hard time finding Whitman this morning-he was in Anderson's bed. Then Robby couldn't even wake the boy up!
- We did leave a few minutes later than we should have today, but we did make it to Whitman's game on time. He doesn't really want to play soccer, but Robby offered him a dollar for playing hard so the boy did so much better than last year.
- Listen, last year Whitman kicked the ball about 10 times total. This time, he was near the ball the entire time. He kicked the ball a few times and thankfully, never rolled around in the grass. During halftime, he looked at me and asked, "what do I have to do to get that dollar?" I told him to keep running and playing hard. And he did!
- He was so happy when his game was over-well probably because his game was over but also because he was given a dollar to spend at the snack shack. The boy was so pleased with his skittles and some other gooey candy.
- We then had a break during the next game and stayed in our spots to watch the Heltz littles play their game. Next up was Keaton's game. Last year, Keaton was a power house but this year she is one of the youngest on her team which makes a big difference.
- She did 4 cart wheels coming out of the tunnel which probably made her more happy than anything that happened during the game. Her team lost but they did really well. Robby is Keaton's coach and spent the first half of her game, yelling and coaching with his ear buds in his ears listening to a funeral.
- Now during Keaton's game, Reagan was on another field being a referee. She gets to ref this year to make some money for her camp. That will be a really great thing for her since she has to pay for her second camp. She reffed two games today. I did watch her and she really did good. She was in charge of the field-used her whistle and told everyone what they needed to do. I did hear of a few coaches fussing at the refs today (nor Reagan) so I might better keep a closer eye on her.
- Anderson, Graham and Campbell all played the last game. Robby is Anderson and Graham's coach. They did really well. They do have one player who really just stands there. They just lost by 1 point but I think both boys had fun. Last year, Anderson's team just weren't any good at all. This year at least they have a chance.
- Campbell missed her first practice and her second and extra practices were both rained out so she didn't know her coach or team today. She played goalie for a while, and at one point the ref was talking to her. The ref was a girl that Robby coached in Upward Soccer when she was probably 4. Now she plays soccer all the time and was giving pointers to Campbell. I thought that was really neat.
- Campbell's team did lose, but they had fun. She did tell me that her coach told her that he needed her to score a goal because she was the best player on the team. I am not sure if that was really said or if he said that to everyone (like I tell all the kids they are my favorite.)
- We made it home right before the rain started. I pulled out school for tomorrow and made some brownies while Reagan showered. Soon Robby and Reagan headed to Bryant to take her to a middle school party. They were having a crawfish boil during the basketball games tonight.
- Robby picked up pizza for our supper and made it home just as it was raining pretty hard. The rest of us huddled up in the living room to watch the games.
- We tried to watch the games but all we could hear were sounds of people coughing. Cough, cough went Graham. Cough, cough went Campbell. Cough, cough went Keaton. Aaagh! It could kind of make a person crazy. I gave them all a big dose of cough medicine that didn't help a lick.
- When the second game was almost over, we sent the little 3 to bed. Robby was heading out then as well to pick up Reagan and Alyssa along with Noah and Kennedy. He dropped the LR people off and then came home with Alyssa and Reagan. She spent the night over here. Robby listened intently on the way home to glean as much information as he could!
- We have to wake up early tomorrow because Keaton and Campbell sing in big church. Hopefully, we can manage with all of our little sunburned faces. Well, I am not sunburned but everyone else is a bit pink. I did spray the backs of the boys' and Robby's necks but neglected to do Reagan's so she is pretty red.
- No school today for the Dennie's. Around nine, we loaded the car and headed to LR Christian. They had a play today which they offered to homeschoolers. We jumped on that along with all of our buddies.
- The play was Meet Me in St. Louis, and it was really neat. It has been years since I have been to a high school play so I was very impressed. The kids all seemed to enjoy the play, but Whitman was the one who was singing the songs still when we made it home.
- We arrived home just as our homeschool buddies all arrived as well. Robby had our lunch ready when we came home. He had frozen pizza, and one was slightly burned which we devoured. I guess we all like super crisp pizza.
- After everyone else ate, we stared on our tasks. Our first order of business was to stuff almost a thousand eggs for The Shack. They have an Easter egg hung for kiddos that live nearby so this is our 4th-ish year to do eggs for them.
- It didn't take long at all to stuff all of the eggs. We had a few less this year than last year, but the kids are all a year older so they were able to work much better. Once the eggs were finished, we moved on to the next task-finishing the pinatas we started last time.
- Nitzia had done all of the work cutting streamers for the kids. So it didn't take them long at all to glue and finish their pinatas. Whitman helped a tiny bit but then snuck off to the playground to play some. Everyone really enjoyed working on their pinatas, but they really enjoyed what came next.
- Nitzia had brought a huge pinata-larger than anyone I had ever seen. The big girls stuffed it completely full of candy. Robby was able to help us hang it from Keaton's swing. Everyone took turns hitting the pinata starting from the youngest to the oldest. Candice was the one who finally cracked the pinata which means that all of the kids had a chance to hit the pinata and even the adults started hitting it.
- Everyone left with lots of candy, and my folks began munching on it this afternoon. The kids are great about helping clean when all of our friends leave. When we came back in the room from seeing everyone off, Campbell was already vacuuming the kitchen. Soon everything was vacuumed, swept, straightened and back to normal in the house.
- This evening Robby and I had to run to a visitation at church. The line was long so we had to run to our plan B grocery store and plan B Chinese. We payed an ungodly amount for gratorades at the store, but did come home with some pretty good Chinese food.
- Once at home, everyone ate-again we bought too much food. That is a good thing though because there will be plenty left for us tomorrow. Then we let the kids stay up way too late because tomorrow is our first soccer day!
- Oh the rain was wonderful this morning. It could have only been better if I didn't have to wake up and go to the bathroom. I could have stayed in bed for another hour or so. I guess though my small bladder is a good thing because we did need to start our school.
- Now, Graham was awake but no one else was too ready to wake up and enjoy the rainy weather. Whitman was standing in the middle of his room having just crawled out of his bed when I opened his door. The girls were a bit more difficult to wake up than the boys.
- We did our school work and things went fairly well. There wasn't too much drama during the day. Everyone finished in a decent amount of time, and soon we were working on our lunches.
- After lunch, the kids helped me with some chores. We have the homeschool buddies coming over tomorrow so their was a bit of housework to be done. Whitman did have to put up all of his presents-I had to clear a spot in the pantry for all of his drinks and mini fridge supplies.
- We worked together again in the afternoon. Then we had a few minutes of downtime before heading to Third Realm. The plan had been to skip our jumping today, but because our soccer practice was cancelled, I decided that we should have a little bit of activity in our day.
- While we were at Third Realm, the two worker men came towards me laughing. They said that they had figured out how much money I had saved. He said that we have been there like 23 times so that would be around 1500 dollars. I grabbed my phone and opened my spreadsheet. I explained that we had been there over 30 times and my average cost per jump was around 1.40 something. Robby said that I was the reason that they will not have the 6 month jump pass again.
- On our way home, we ran to Walmart. Each year the kids all have socks and underwear in their Easter baskets. It is a bit more difficult to buy underwear and socks for the big kids now. They know exactly what they want so I just decided to let them help me. Today I took Reagan and Campbell into the store to pick out their socks and underwear. Campbell was all into it but Reagan didn't want to have anything to do with it.
- I am not sure if she doesn't really have an opinion or was embarrassed about buying undies with her mom. This made me enjoy the shopping trip all the more. I held up and asked about every single thing. Do you like this one? Or this one? I probably shouldn't take so much joy in embarrassing my child.
- Afterwards, we came home for a little bit. Robby and I debated about what to have for supper. We decided on quesadillas until we saw we didn't have enough tortillas. Then we opted for frozen pizza except during this time I remembered that I left my empty bag that we put our shoes in at Third Realm.
- It just had some socks and our passes in it, but we did go up there to retrieve it. On the way home, we did stop buy Burger King to buy supper for the crew. We bought a bit too much but it can be lunch tomorrow. Campbell and Keaton are both a bit sickly so maybe that is why they didn't eat as much as normal.
- After we cleaned up the kitchen, Anderson and I went to work on making funnel cakes. He had said that he wanted to make funnel cakes when we were at Silver Dollar City so I found a recipe. Now the recipe was for baked funnel cakes and not fried so that probably accounts for some of the taste. It was kind of like eating a waffle and an egg at the same time. Now, it was doused in powdered sugar so that did make them taste a lot better.
- Shannon and Brett came over for a bit and had some of our dessert with us. When they headed home, the kids had a few minutes before it was time for everyone to head towards the bed.
- Whitman was the first one to wake up this morning. He came in our room to tell us that none of his brothers or sisters were up yet to pour him some milk, so he was going to need us to do it. Robby took one for the team and came back reporting that Whitman had turned on every light in the living room. I guess he isn't use to being alone and wanted to make sure that it was plenty light.
- Reagan had snack this morning so she was pretty pleased about carrying in her snack. It is funny how excited the kids get about their snack. They do not want to miss their snack day at all. I am glad that a pan of brownies can make them so happy.
- After Bible study, we drove slowly on the way to Third Realm. We and the Heltz were the only ones there today. Whitman asked if they would turn off the lights and the lady agreed. The kids think that it is the neatest thing ever. Anderson was able to jump a little bit more today, so that is good. Today was actually our 13th (I think) time to go in a row. We probably won't go tomorrow since their is soccer practice, however, it looks like that practice might be cancelled due to weather so we just might go one more time.
- Once we came home, I worked on the boys' clothes for a little bit. Then it was time for Keaton and I to leave. We headed to a doctor's appointment just to check her little arms. We did leave we a pretty good plan for her ezcema plus two new prescriptions. I also left very encouraged because Martin said that sun and chlorine were good for ezcema, and Keaton is about to get lots of that.
- We picked up her new medicine and hurried home. Then we loaded up the car with the Dennies, Robby, Alyssa and Kennedy. Robby came with us to go to a meeting tonight at church. Reagan and Alyssa had a referee meeting before their activities started tonight. So everyone headed off to lots of places after we ate our supper.
- There was lots to talk about on the way home-Reagan's meeting, Anderson went to the youth tonight, Campbell's group went shopping and Whitman's group went to the children's department tonight. It was quite a noisy ride home.
- Once at home, a few folks had showers but everyone had a snack. Then the kids had a few minutes of downtime before it was time for bed.
- Graham was the first one awake this morning. He had even finished most of his school work before I climbed out of bed. Graham likes to wait to work with me until he has finished all or most of his school. That way he doesn't have to come back to work with me to correct his stuff; we can just do our work and corrections all it once.
- However, if you wait to work with me, then you just have to wait until I am free. He doesn't like to have to wait and will pace in my bedroom until I have finished working with whoever I am working with. So today, he woke up and finished his stuff so he would not have to wait at all today.
- When Whitman walked into my room this morning, he walked in grinning. He knew that today was his special day and was ready to hear someone wish him a Happy Birthday. Soon, we were all in my bedroom gathered around him singing Happy Birthday to him with his candle in a bowl of Lucky Charms.
- Today was a special day of school for Whitman because not only was it is his birthday, but it was also our 100th day of school. Whitman has been keeping count each day so I am pretty sure that his count is accurate.
- Instead of giving him quite a bit of work to do today, I just had him do lots of fun things (or at least I thought that were fun.) He had to put numbers in order from 1 to 100. This took the boy forever, and Campbell even had to stop what she was doing and help him. He also made a snack mix out of 100 items.
- It was soon lunch time-we ate about 30 minutes earlier than usual today. For some crazy reason, the kids were all finished with their school very early-even Anderson. I was even able to start working on the boys' clothes before we ate our lunch.
- The kids then did their chores before we did a little bit of afternoon reading. We didn't read too long because we soon headed to Third Realm for a mini-birthday party. Today was Brody's birthday too so we had cupcakes after the kids jumped.
- The lady wished Brody and Whitman a Happy Birthday over the loud speaker. Whitman was so excited when he realized that they "really said" his name. It was pretty cute. Afterwards, Robby rewarded everyone with a Sonic drink while I ran to the library.
- Back at home, we did a bit of work to get our supper ready. Since we had lots of leftovers and since it was a birthday, all of the grands came over for supper tonight. The kids were happy to have them over tonight.
- When they left, my crew started on their showers and then we had a little bit of ice cream so Whitman could blow out one more candle before his birthday was over!
- Monday morning and the first we saw of Whitman was him running through our room. He told me that he was sweaty last night. Instead I do believe that his "sweat" was due to the countless juices from his mini fridge.
- I explained to him that he wasn't sweaty, but instead he had gone to the bathroom. He leaned up against my door frame, and puzzled, "so you can pee while you are asleep?" Yes, indeed you can and yes, I am indeed guarding that mini fridge tonight!
- Our school day went fairly smooth this morning. The last few Mondays, I have been finishing earlier than usual but for some reason I did not today. I was able to do some garage sale pricing before lunch so I wasn't running too far behind.
- We did our lunch reading, and then everyone started to work on their chores. There were a few April Fool's pranks happening today. Graham did put white frosting on everyone's toothbrushes as their tooth paste this morning. Whitman really liked that toothpaste!
- Campbell and Keaton wrapped everyone's shoes in toilet paper. Graham and also Anderson enjoyed taping the kitchen sprayer to be in the on position. I know that Whitman was one person who got extremely wet and was not happy about it. I also know that my laundry basket is a bit full of wet towels!
- We read a bit this afternoon-I only have to read 3.5 pages of history each day now to finish before the end of our school year. Now after we did our work together, I walked on the treadmill for a minute or two. Then it was time to load up for Third Realm.
- This was our 11th day in a row to go there. Ha! I did let Anderson stay home today because he doesn't feel all that great. He is still coughing pretty often-urgh. Hopefully, he will feel better tomorrow.
- When we came home, I went to work on changing over Whitman's clothes. Robby made supper which we were trying out for one of our trip meals. It was pretty good, and we even have leftovers for tomorrow's lunch.
- After supper, Anderson headed to the shower. I told him to close the doors and get it real steamy in there. I thought that might help with his cough. However, I neglected to remember the new smoke detector in there.
- On a very positive note, all of our smoke detectors work and work wonderfully. There were dings and sirens and a voice saying "EMERGENCY. THERE IS SMOKE IN THE BATHROOM!" We were still cooking the leftover pizzas, and I had smelled the oven earlier. I assumed there was something on the bottom of the oven. I grabbed a chair and silenced that alarm.
- But the rest of them were still ringing and shouting at us. Robby was taking the trash out so he was outside during this. Graham then shouted, "It is up here." I asked "smoke?" as I was running up there. No smoke upstairs in their hallway but a very mad smoke alarm. I silenced that one but there were more still making noise.
- I know the kitchen and the hallway are not the "bathroom" as the alarm said, but I did want to check all of my bases. By this time, I did head to my bathroom. Robby was there by then, silencing everything with his phone. Anderson was there as well about ready to get in the shower, but pretty shaken! He said that he had called me a few times, but I was running everywhere else in the house.
- On a very positive note, the smoke detectors all work and work wonderfully. That makes me very happy...and a little bit shaky! Ha! Once things were back to normal, we gathered in the living room to watch a few shows and eat a snack. Before too long, it was finally bedtime for the crew.
