- Last night, I forgot to write about Campbell and Reagan pulling teeth. Campbell let Lilly pull her tooth when we were at Nonna's house. Reagan's tooth was one that had a silver crown on it and it was so incredibly loose that the tooth could practically dangle out of her mouth. Lilly was about to go in and start work on her when Reagan decided she better pull it out herself.
- Also late last night was another memorable blog event but we were already in bed. It was late and the boys were still fooling around upstairs. We could hear them pretty loudly and Robby looked on his phone and could see that their bedroom light was on. We have a few light switches in the house that can be controlled remotely and theirs is one of them.
- After seeing that their light was on, he just flipped it off. This led to many, many squeals and screams from the boys' room. I am not sure how many times Robby did this until I noticed him giggling at their screams. He could see when they turned their light on and would immediately flip it back off. They would scream and carry on and we would laugh and laugh.
- We could hear the girls running down the hall to see what was happening with the noisy boys. And when we heard Anderson call "Mom? Dad?" we flipped off our lights and shoved our phones under the cover.
- Cash, Anderson and Graham all came in our bedroom and they were giggling but also a bit skittish. Anderson accused Robby of controlling the light but Robby acted like he was sound asleep very convincingly. (Almost too convincingly-like he has had some practice at acting like he was asleep to get out of taking care of his kiddos!) Then the girls came downstairs to try to figure out what was happening.
- I later told Robby that Whitman had pulled the light switch off the wall the other day so that meant that when Robby thought he was turning the light off on the boys, he was actually turning it on. I can only imagine them laying on the floor talking noisily when their bedroom light flips on all by itself. I guess someone got up to turn it off when "flip" the light went back on. Graham was so flustered/scared by all of this that he had to change his shorts when I finally calmed everyone back down. I have laughed about this all day long!
- All of this excitement must have caused my people to sleep late this morning. Anderson was the only one to be awake at 8. Cash even snoozed for a few minutes during a nerf gun battle that was taking place in the same room. I was finally able to get everyone awake and downstairs around 9 for breakfast but that didn't leave us too much time to get to the pool by 10.
- Of course, it was no where near 10 when we did make it to the pool. We ran by Walmart to get a screw put back in Lilly's glasses and as we were walking in, Cash said "I have never been to Walmart with this many people." I guess that 8 kids does seem like a lot! The screw replacement was quick and easy so we then ran to the shoe section to pick up some flip flops. I seem to have lost Whitman's flip flops and they are a bit too small anyway so he got some new ones and Graham is without flip flops now since his have broken he also was rewarded with a new pair (though in the middle of summer it is hard to find a 99 cent pair like I usually like to buy!)
- We did make it to the pool a bit before 11 and the kids took off swimming. They all seemed to have a good time and played quite a few rowdy games. Keaton really did well with her swimming today but gracious she can make me nervous. At one point, she slid down the slide and swam to Lilly. Lilly didn't know she was swimming to her and took off swimming another direction. So Keaton swam on to Anderson who was nearby and grabbed on to him. I was watching her but my, my.
- At noon, I passed out lunch to everyone and we also ate cupcake cookies that Campbell had made this morning. She had put pieces of hershey bar inside of them and then I topped them with icing. Maybe because they had been warmed by the sun but they were absolutely delicious.
- Robby showed up a bit after lunch and I headed out to my dentist appointment. I was back by the time that he was loading everyone up. He took off to drop Lilly off at Grannymom's house and Reagan off at Nonna's house. I headed the other direction to do some grocery shopping and then we all arrived home at about the same time.
- The afternoon was short because before 6, we loaded up to take Campbell to her Sunday school party. They met at Chuck E Cheese and Ms. Angela had pizza, drinks and cupcakes for them. Then they were all released with a cup full of tokens to spend. Campbell had a great time using up her tokens and she did use them fairly quickly. She had enough tickets when we were finished to buy herself some skittles, a sucker, an airhead and some tattoos. She was pleased with her winnings.
- Robby and the others went to Walmart while we were at the party. Then they ate their supper at Arbys before going home to drop Cash off and then coming back to pick us up. Meanwhile, Reagan was out and about with Nonna, Pops and Jason. They made an earlier run to Chuck E Cheese to play some games and then ate their supper at Pie 5 pizza. I hear that tomorrow they are going to do some shopping out and about.
- Once home, the kids played on their ipads for a while and then it was bedtime for all of the Dennies. Campbell and Keaton decided that they were scared without Reagan. Now they have been having a lot of company in their room upstairs-Lilly, Layne. But their scared business didn't go over too well with us (we have heard rumors that the girls plan to sneak over to the boys room to sleep).
July 19, 2016
(click here for pictures)
July 18, 2016
(click here for pictures)
- I was pretty tired this morning and so was everyone else but we did manage to have a good morning anyway. We pulled out all of our breakfast leftovers from the fridge and the kids went to town eating. Then I assigned chores and we all went to work.
- This week we have begun one of our school subjects-I picked something new for all of the kids to start on this week. My hope is that this will help them become familiar with it and all will go well our first few weeks of school. Today everything went splendidly and the kids were all in good moods during their few minutes of school work.
- While I was helping them, I spent my time folding and folding and folding laundry. We had become a bit behind this weekend (it seems like we now become behind each weekend) so I had quite a few loads of laundry to fold. By 11, school was finished, chores were accomplished and all of that laundry was folded and being put away so I took a break and started on a book that Shannon had loaned me.
- Graham had asked to fix lunch so he asked for grilled cheese today but that is hard to do when each package of leftover bread that I pull out was moldy. That just left a package of frozen bread or hot dog buns. He wisely opted for hot dog buns and we made some pretty awesome grilled cheese sandwiches.
- After lunch, everyone went their own ways and I pretty much let them do whatever they wanted. There were a few unofficial nerf gun battles. Graham received 2 new nerf guns for his birthday and I swear they are the loudest things I have ever heard. Noises usually don't bother me but gracious those things are loud or maybe they just echo in this house.
- I did some treadmill time and then the boys played Graham's new xbox game and the kids not-so-patiently waited on Lilly and Cash to come over this afternoon. Robby brought them home this afternoon and they all played a bit before we headed over to Nonna's house to eat our rescheduled Sunday lunch.
- Pops and Nonna had made Mexican and the kids devoured it and I especially loved her dips. The kids played outside a bit after supper and even had a few races before finally climbing into the car to head back home.
- Once we were home, I let them watch a movie before they went to bed. The movie is still going and I am sure that they will be more than ready to go to bed in a few minutes (not really!)
July 17, 2016
- Our phone alarms went off at 6:45 this morning and it was surprising how loud it was but it wasn't loud enough to get me out of bed. Robby did wake me up when he was leaving the house to go and pick up drinks for today's lunch. I did get up and get myself ready before heading to the living room to make sure the boys were ready.
- But the living room was empty and the boys were still sound asleep-it was 8! They were tired. I woke them up and handed them their clothes before going to the girls' room. Shannon had already woken Layne up and said that Keaton had slept in the bed with Layne last night (I believe that my Keaton is beginning to like sharing a bed with someone.)
- Robby was back by the time that all of the kids were dressed and ready for breakfast and the Wilsons had already left for church. Soon we had eaten our breakfast and were loading up for church. The candy lady at church handed up candy bars and a box of cookies today which I ended up melting in the car this afternoon (they will be fine after a few days in the fridge though.)
- When I took Whitman to class today, he walked right in perfectly but turned right back around and tried to get out of the door. I think that he doesn't like one of his teachers and when he saw them, he decided that he wanted to try to leave. He did eventually calm down (I guess!) and was happy when Robby picked him up.
- After church, we headed to the Hawkins' house for our Sunday school class fellowship. When we parked, Whitman said that this was the best ever-I guess that he saw the pool. The kids enjoyed swimming with so many kiddos and they swam hard. Whitman did knock a basketball goal over on his head so that caused a bit of drama but after an ice cream sandwich he was just fine. We let the kids play until almost 4 and then we headed home.
- Once at home, I realized that I had left my phone in our swim bag at the Hawkins. Thankfully the Penningtons had picked it up and were at church so when they headed home, I ran to pick it up. When the Wilsons finished their afternoon activities, they dropped Brett off here to hang while they went to their house to fill up the generator again and pack Layne up for camp.
- The evening flew by-we did some laundry, straightening and some fridge cleaning. Even though the Wilson's power was finally restored, we still celebrated National Ice Cream day before they went back to their now cooling house. Shannon had picked up a few ice cream choices and everyone devoured their bowls of ice cream. Once the ice cream had been eaten, the Wilsons went back home and we put our tired kiddos into bed. The boys were so disappointed tonight when I was tucking them in that Brett couldn't just stay one more night-I do believe that my kids are praying that someone's power goes out again tonight!
July 16, 2016-Happy 8th Birthday (party) Graham!
(click here for pictures)
- This house was full to the seems last night but we sure all slept well. It was well after 8 when I heard Whitman knocking to get out of his room. Campbell came to give me the report of what all was happening-boys were all up, Shannon had just gotten up, Tony had gotten in his truck and drove away and Robby was unaccounted for.
- It didn't take me long to fill in the blanks-other girls were still sleeping, Tony had run home to refill his generator and Robby had ran to the grocery store for sausage for our big breakfast. It wasn't long before we were all awake and everyone was working on our breakfast: pancakes, strawberries, sausage, bacon, gravy and biscuits. It was quite the breakfast spread for a Dennie family breakfast.
- After finishing breakfast and then cleaning the kitchen it was nearly lunch time. But we decided to skip that meal and start to work-I didn't have too much to do since the house was decent and there was little inside prep for the birthday party. Robby and Tony went outside to start on the yard. Robby mowed all morning long and Tony worked on Robby's weedeater unsuccessfully. Shannon did a load of her laundry and I also folded a load myself.
- I worked a bit in the house and even put the finishing touches on the outside party. The girls went with Shannon to help Layne pack for camp and then they ran some errands including buying Graham some candy from Reagan. After getting cleaned up from outside, Robby had to run to a birthday party and when he came home, it was time to start the birthday celebrations.
- This was Graham's 3rd kickball birthday party and he was super excited about this one. The fam was all there plus the Wilsons, Corsers, Powells, Hawkins and Kamps (37 total) Once Robby had finished cooking the hot dogs we dug into the food-hot dogs, chips and dip. After our food had digested briefly, we called out the teams which I had already divided and began the kickball game.
- Graham was on the orange team and we kicked first. We let everyone kick the first inning and the orange team was racking up the runs. The blue teaim kicked next and then we played one more inning before breakfast for popsicles.
- The kids really did well with kickball and no one was too foul with each other. We played 2 more innings after our little break and then it was cupcake time. We did take a group picture before singing happy birthday to the birthday boy. After his cupcake, he opened up his presents-a basketball goal for over his door (3rd times a charm), baseball cards, nerf guns, candy, star wars figures and a few shirts, an x box game, a rocket to build and launch and a cornhole board made by Grandpa. Graham was pretty pleased with all his gifts and later told me that this was the best birthday party ever.
- After everyone left, the fam and our house guests helped pick up. Soon we were all inside and the kids were cycling through the showers. We let the kids stay up until 10 and then we put them to bed and had us some pizza and cookies-hard work deserves a good snack.
July 15, 2016
(click here for pictures)
- Last night Robby explained to the kids that tomorrow (actually today) was a very important day. They guessed birthdays and holidays but Campbell was the one who finally guessed that it was our anniversary. So on the morning of our 16th wedding anniversary, we woke up to breakfast in bed (actually, Robby had to get back into bed after his shower).
- Campbell was the one orchestrating breakfast. She finally had to ask her brothers to help her pour and carry everything. I was served raisin bran cereal in my pretty favorite bowl and Robby was given 2 pop tarts on a glass plate (apparently that was very big deal to them). We were also given 2 big glasses of milk. We ate our breakfast and then started our day.
- Soon after Robby left, Pops came over to pick up Robby's chainsaw for a large limb in his yard. He mentioned that it was about to rain again so I herded my crew out side to work on our plethera of limbs. We were able to get the front yard mostly picked up before it started storming again.
- Once inside, we all sat in the kitchen and drank some coke as a reward for our hard work, Then we went to work inside the house on our chores and a tiny bit of school work. The chores went fine but the school work is were the problems started. Graham just completely fell apart at the prospect of having to do one page of phonics. That was just enough to set him off for the rest of the day. We did have a good talk and I made it clear that his behavior wasn't acceptable. Later in the day, I recieved a text saying that he was sorry-I knew all of that texting that the kids are doing would be beneficial someday.
- Shannon came over to borrow some freezer space since their electricity is still out. She stayed for lunch and when she left, Reagan and I started pulling stuff out for Graham's party. We filled the kitchen table up with stuff for the party and once we had finished, the kids had a bit of downtime before I made them come back outside for more stick picking up.
- It was late afternoon when we started again and Robby went to town mowing the kickball field. We then worked on sticks by the playground area and that took a very good while. Then the line crew (Keaton, Campbell, Anderson and Graham) went to work on painting the lines on the kickball field. We stopped for pizza supper on the back patio but had to call supper short because another storm was coming through.
- Reagan missed out on all of our excitement at home tonight because she went out with some friends. They went bowling (Reagan won the first game) and then to eat at Purple Cow. They came home just a few minutes before the Wilsons came over. They needed a cool place to lay their heads tonight and in return Shannon brought over corn dip and Tony hung my Eat letters on the wall.
- We ended up letting the kids stay up until almost midnight when I finally put them all down. I am sure that they were all exhuasted after staying up so late tonight but I bet breakfast will be pretty early in the morning!
July 14, 2016
(click here for pictures)
- At 7, Keaton came downstairs to tell me that she had wet her bed. She changed and climbed into our bed and I climbed out to get her sheets off of her bed. I saw that the boys were up playing on their devices but when I was in the girls' room, I could see Reagan laying in her bed but Campbell's bed was empty. I then assumed that she was downstairs with the boys and headed back to bed for a bit longer.
- I laid back down again but later, I walked through the living room (not really sure why) and noticed that Campbell was not downstairs. I asked the boys if they had seen her and they said that they hadn't. Hmm, her bed was empty and they hadn't seen her so up I went to find my girl. After checking her bed again the next place I looked was in her sisters bed and there she and Reagan were all cuddled up sleeping soundly. She later said that Reagan said that she could stay for only 5 minutes but she stayed there all night long.
- Our morning finally started with a few fried eggs and leftover biscuits from the cabin trip. Then the kids started helping with chores. Everyone worked really well on their chores-this happens sometimes but not too often. I was cleaning potties, Anderson was vacuuming, Graham was working on his bedroom, Reagan was emptying the dishwasher, Campbell was cleaning the kitchen and Keaton was working on putting away her laundry. Those were the chores that took the longest time but we all did work for a good while.
- Next we worked on our science and after today's lesson on genetics I think I am going to call it done on science. I guess that school is going to start here in about 2 weeks so there is no reason to finish this year's science when next years is just around the corner. We did read a book or two and my Whitman sat so crazy still listening to the story books that I read-he will do really good in school if he can just keep his pants dry.
- All of this happened while Robby was out back grilling our hot dogs for lunch. After we finished working together we loaded up and headed to the pool. Robby had packed our lunch and once we arrived at the pool, the kids were already starving and we dug into our lunch. I must have been hungry because I scarfed mine down as well.
- We played at the pool for a good while. Graham and I played ball while I watched Whitman in the slide. He would climb up well but then just sit atop it and not go down for anything. I guess I was so busy watching him that I forgot to take any pictures.
- Once we made it home, the kids had a bit of downtime but before we knew it, Robby was finished with work and we were sitting watching the storm roll in. I told him that I wanted to eat while it was raining so we went on and started making supper. We were about to plate everything up when our phones started chiming and dinging about a tornado warning. I turned on the tv and had to search for a while but finally found the weather and it showed the road "congo ferndale." That was close enough so in our closet we all went.
- Graham and Whitman were in the living room so they were the first in and I went to get the others. Anderson was busy picking up everyone's ipads for them-I guess if we were going to be stuck in the closet, he wanted everyone to have something to do.
- I am always amazed at how easy going everyone is about these things. Whitman never really noticed that all 8 of us were crammed in the closet. No one was ever scared-though when Robby came in and sat down with us, I got a bit uneasy. He had seen the wind picking up pretty good so thought he would join us just in case.
- Our lights dimmed a few times but we were all texting away until we finally deemed it all clear. Out we went to start on our supper. On the way to the kitchen, we all noticed the yard was litered with many, many leaves and a few branches, none too large though. As we sat down to eat, I stood back up noticing something wrong near the house I can barely see from my kitchen window. Something was definitely on fire over there but because of the crazy rain we couldn't tell if it was the house or transformer or what. The kids were noticing Robby and I and probably when I said to call 911 did they start panicking.
- Panicking isn't really the right word-As Robby was on the front porch trying to see better and talking to 911, I was in the kitchen answering a zillion questions. Graham is my most skittish one and had already convinced himself that he would need to sleep in our room. I pulled out the weather map and showed him that the storm was already over. I tried my best to explain what all could be happening but with my phone dinging with zillions of text, they weren't easily calmed. We went upstairs to try to see better out those windows but they were too wet to help. As we tried to eat, Robby drove down the driveway to take a better look. A large branch had fallen on their power lines and had caught fire.
- That made everyone feel better (since I was just about convinced it was their house on fire) and we went on and ate our supper. As we were finishing supper, the fireman arrived and blocked the road until the power people came. By this time, all of the kids were watching the goings on from our kitchen window. I told Anderson that he should go upstairs to see better. He turend to go up the stairs and stopped immediately when he noticed how dark it was up there. My child will not go anywhere in this house alone-for some reason he has become pretty skittish lately. Robby called to him saying that he was up there and soon we were all sitting on the boys' beds watching the power man work.
- He drove away and shortly our power was off. This led to everyone getting their flashlights out and replacing the batteries. This took so long that the branch was removed and the power had been turned back on. We then went downstairs-Anderson played the piano some and Graham strummed his guitar for a bit and then it was bedtime for my Dennie crew.
- Our nightly routine is to watch the evening news after the kids go to bed. Well, Robby does more of the evening news watching and I try to avoid it all. Tonight, the local news interrupted the national news for the earlier storm. We continued watching it and after a bit and they begin showing the possibly tornado's location. After a minute, they zoom in and show our street-eeek! Pretty thankful that we were all kept safe tonight.
July 13, 2016
(click here for pictures)
- Everyone again slept well last night-my people really just sleep good when we are not in our own beds. I was the first one awake and actually I jumped up thinking that it was already breakfast time but Robby was quick to remind me that we had another 30 minutes before eating down the road.
- For breakfast, we went to Dana's cabin to heat up her leftover breakfast casseroles and then Robby and I left the kids down there while we ran back to our cabin to load up. We hadn't really packed up much last night so that left a little bit for us to do this morning.
- Once everyone was packed up, we all loaded up and went to the visitor's center to watch a short film about the Trail of Tears. The film was about the entire Indian removal and was fairly interesting. I was suprised to notice that the Indians lived in log cabins and had covered wagons and I was also surprised at how well little Whitman sat through the movie.
- When the movie was over, we loaded up and headed home. We had to stop for a gas and potty stop on the way home but were soon home and had the car unloaded. Robby and I unloaded the car while the kids stayed in finishing up their movie. Then we had them help us put everything up back where it belonged. That went surprisingly well and wewere unpacked in no time at all.
- We pulled out the bread and had sandwiches and worked on cleaning out the fridge. After we finished our late lunch, everyone played for a bit and then it was movie time-and nap time for me, Keaton and Whitman.
- Tonight at Raymar the church had a little family activity thing so we went to it. They had snacks, which my kids that had not had supper devoured, Dave did a short little message and then we played some games. There was a relay with a sponge and another silly family relay and the evening was ended with a dad/daughter vs. mom/sons kickball game. The kids all had fun and it was a good way to end our mini Dennie vacation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)