A week that started at church and then to grandma and papa's for lunch and visiting is sure to be a good week!
We enjoyed our time at grandma and papa's Sunday afternoon. I had a chance to talk to my mom about some parenting things that were burdening my heart, and somehow it just feels lighter to not carry it all alone.
We jetted through Aldi as a family on our way home and were out in less than 45 minutes. We carried in the groceries, turned on the Chiefs game, and unloaded the most pertinent things, before finishing the game, finding some supper, showering, and calling it a night. There was no co-op or co-op activities on Monday, and although we all love our co-op, it was kind of a relief to have a slow starting Monday after three weeks in a row of doing the Monday co-op hustle.
We made a breakfast of Grandma's homemade bread sliced and toasted with the fresh fruit she'd sent along, too, and then we dove into our school day.
Evalynn is very resistant to this "tummy time" {or prone} position, which is still very important even after infancy so I've been trying to encourage it more during our reading time.
No appointments meant we had a nice long day at home. Zayden had wrestling but Natalee did not go to swim, so the evening wasn't too busy, either. My yogurt finished incubating at around 10:30, so I was up late letting it strain and then putting it in jars, but at least that meant I had breakfast prepared for Tuesday.
{stevia sweetened homemade Greek yogurt....she ups the health by adding sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, and/or trader joe "m&m's"}
Tuesday mid-morning we did have hippotherapy so everyone loaded up to go along to that. I read science to Ameliya and Zayden during Natalee's appointment and Xavier also did some school work. After the appointment we stopped at the nearby thrift store. We're always on the look out to finish out book series that we collect, and to see what they have for games and fun. We looked through the clothes, everyone found a book or two, and we added a beautiful bird trivia game, phase 10 dice, and coocoo the rocking clown to our game collection for very little money. Successful trip and something we all enjoy doing together.
Back home for a quick lunch and then Evalynn's nap and continuing of school for the big kids. Evalynn and I are reading the Robert McCloskey Treasury and the Jesus Calling Bible Storybook for her "preschool" read-alouds. We like beautiful books. Sometimes we read during the day, but most often we read before her nap time.
Also, I love these photos. Thank you, Mike.
Tuesday nights have remained family pizza and game night for this winter season. This week we had take and bake pizzas from Aldi and Wal-Mart - just something different from make your own. No matter what we do it still seems to take an extremely long time to get all the pizzas through the oven. Some night mom is going to declare it 'order out pizza night' and truly take a break from the kitchen.
We all took turns playing Evalynn's new game from the thrift store. It is adorable and was a lot of fun. First mom and dad played with her while the big kids did supper clean up.
and the girls...
while the rest of us played Uno Flip.
{Zayden kept sticking Daddy with draw +4 cards and thought it was so funny.}
We have SO many games we thoroughly enjoy, but a lot of them are not suitable for 6 players. I really like to keep game nights with us playing altogether versus having a couple different games going at once, so we're resorting to a lot of card games and things we can play as a large group.
Then the boys took a turn,,,
{I made giant chocolate chip cookies for our game night treat.}
After several rounds with CooCoo the Clown, Evie (who never did fall asleep at nap time) went to curl up in our bed and watch a couple episodes of Spirit
Wednesday was appointment free. We had smoothies and one of those delicious chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. LOL
This past holiday season I told Mike I thought it would be fun to have seasonal coffee mugs to hang on the hooks at our coffee/drink bar. I looked and looked at thrift stores but never found any. We found lots marked half off while thrifting on Tuesday and all the kids chose one to put up for next Christmas. I washed them up and they were on the drying mat, so naturally Evalynn had her smoothie from hers.
I slipped out of bed early to get a batch of granola in the oven. Evalynn sensed my feet hit the floor from her own bedroom with the door shut and came padding out moments after I got up.
Thursday morning was decently "warm" for February in Iowa, but the wind was supposed to pick up steadily throughout the day, so I sent everyone out right after morning time. They got an hour and 20 minutes in before coming in.
To help them get over an hour outside I made hot chocolates and took them out for the last bit of time they played.
{Headed to bed with her stocking hat on....silly goose.}
Since we'd gotten 4 days of school in Friday was an off day! Natalee did have a zoom appointment around 9. Everyone was very excited about no school and quickly became very restless. Ha. The weather was wet, windy, and cold so that did not help. We ran to the library and having fresh books took out some of the discontent, but eventually, to be honest, I sought refuge in my bedroom with my book, and let them be bored and figure it out for themselves.
Ameliya's excitement was great as she'd been invited to a birthday party and sleepover by a friend from church, and she left a bit before 4 for it.
Another beautiful birthday card, this time for Cora.
A sleepover was a brave move for both her and me, but we very much trust and respect the family who invited her and so we agreed to it. We knew, without a doubt, that we'd be called if she decided she didn't want to stay, but she had a wonderful time and came home full of stories and excitement.
Swim ended up canceled Friday night because the pool chemicals were wrong, so it was an unexpected night home. Mike played Phase 10 dice with the kids after supper.
Saturday was cartoons, chores, and then Xavier had a basketball game right over the noon hour. Jessica brought Mia home before 10 and she was tired but said she wasn't - ha - and had lots to tell me about her time.
We all went to Xabe's game this week.
Evie did some posing for Aunt Penny during the game....she likes to make sure the attention doesn't get too far away from her. {ha ha}
Sweaty post game boys.
Phil and Sara came up for the game and so we made an afternoon/early evening of visiting and eating Mexican food - and I took not a single photo. Shame. I do hate when I don't snap any. We enjoyed our time with them, though, and it was a nice way to end our week!
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