Park full of kids

 
 
 
 

...and there all mine! When we leave the park it looks empty. The past 2 Wednesdays in a row we have went to play for an hour or two before church. I like the park for me and for them. They get to have fun and expend lots of energy making for good sleep later; and I get to sit down and relax watching them have fun. It is a win win situation. Last week they all managed to stay fairly clean. This week however was a different story. I took 6 dirty ragamuffins to church. We stayed LATE at church filling food pantry boxes, so by the time we got home they just had to go to bed dirty. I just could not justify waking 2 already sleeping boys and 4 dreary eyed others to bathe them at 10:30 at night. Oh well, boys are supposed to be dirty... right!?! As for Rachel... she didn't get as dirty as the boys anyway.

Zoo day with Friends

 
 
 
 

3 Adults 8 kids... not so bad at the zoo, right!?! It turned out to be a great day. I just love Melanie... she is my twin. We do so many things alike that it is scary. Now if she goes and somehow has 7 kids I don't know how we will go anywhere together.
On this day we spent several hours at the zoo. I think the kids had the most fun at the playground, except for watching the elephant eat oranges and onions... they thought that was pretty cool. Xander slugged a little boy in the face close-fisted at the playground because he was arguing with Ian. I of course had to get on to him and not let him see me laugh... but I thought it was funny that he felt the need to just step in and end the argument so abruptly and come to the defense of his older step-brother. They fight like brothers always do at home, but it is sweet/funny how they will defend one another to a stranger so quickly. Poor kids at the playground better watch out... they won't know what hit them when ALL the brothers and sisters come to the defense of one haha.

A day with their dad

 
 
 
 

Elijah, Ian, and Aiden get to see their dad frequently. He lives in the area but rents a room so they are not always able to spend the night with him. But he makes time for lots of day trips and activities. Recently he bought them a .22 rifle to share. The shooting range is a little pricey and also scary for Aiden, so I told Tom he could teach them to shoot in the back yard. They did great and listened well and the triplets sat nearby and watched. No one cried over the loud pops and everyone obeyed well about staying back. The boys enjoyed their time with their daddy... and I get another gun to add to the cabinet YAY!!! Tom was awful at being a husband for 10.5 years and wasn't even that great of a dad during that time... but he really makes an effort now to spend quality and quanity time with the boys. I am glad that my boys are blessed enough to now have a dad who is trying to be a dad and also a step-dad who loves them and cares for them as his own as well!

Late nights....

 
 

We intended to spend maybe an hour or so completing Naomi's Science Fair project.... Well, 3.5 hours later at 1:30 in the morning we were finally done. Just look at how exhausted she is. The next morning she didn't wake up until it was time to leave and had to rush to get ready. Poor Nay. I love this girl. She is so funny and random, and is growing up to be such a wonderful young lady.

Madysen is 5!!!

 
 
 
 

After the Airshow we were off the celebrate Madysen's 5th birthday at the Country Inn and Suites indoor pool. Jake and Xander both learned to swim all over the pool with arm floaties only. They were so proud! If Aiden hadn't kept me constantly running I could have enjoyed a relaxing time by the pool as the kids played LOL. We ate Pizza and played until we were all tuckered out.

THUNDERBIRDS

 
 
 
 

7 kids amongst thousands of people and a whole lot of noise... Turned out to be a great day. Elijah, Ian, and Aiden originally went to the Airshow with their dad, then met up with the rest of us there to drop them off. All of the stunts were amazing and daring... those pilots have to be INSANE! The most amazing to me was the helicopter of all things... It flew UPSIDE DOWN! I didn't know helicopters could do that!!! After the show was over we roamed around and made my already blistered feet worse looking for the van haha! I forgot where we parked and there were THOUSANDS of cars there. We had fun though, then we headed to Madysen's 5th Birthday party.

Men at Work...

 
 

It started out as a small porch going to be started and finished on the day of our one month anniversary... and it keeps getting bigger and bigger :) I am not complaining though, I love big porches. It is still a work in progress and I will post pictures of the finished work once it is done. Elijah got to help and it even counted toward his Wolf rank in Scouts because he helped build something useful. Don Wright from church has been by twice to lend a helping hand. Hopefully he and Amy will stay for dinner next time. While my little/big porch isn't quite finished, Les and I did take a few moments to dance on the semi-finished part under the security light/moonlight LOL. I love little moments like that. I can't believe I never knew there was life like this.