Later that afternoon I dropped the kids off at my parents because Ellie had parent watch night at dance class. Since she is in three classes this year she is there for an hour and a half and I thought that would be too long to take the younger ones. Andrew picked up Jackson from swim practice for me so that I wouldn't miss Ellie's first class which was jazz. She was excited about me seeing her dance so I wanted to make sure I was there. She also wanted to make sure I got to join in on a little dance activity they had planned for the parents in attendance. Andrew and Jacskon showed up towards the end and I am sure they are glad they missed the interactive part :-).
I left dance just a little early so I could get some of my grocery shopping done. I had quite a bit to do because I was planning on making freezer meals the next day. So I did my Aldi's shopping first and then headed to my parents. They had ordered some pizza so we ate that and then headed home. I dropped off the kids and Andrew started bath time while I headed back out to Wal-Mart to finish up my shopping. Or so I thought. Of course they were out of cilantro and I needed it for three of my meals, so I had to make one last stop at Hy-Vee. And there was Molly and some friends in the produce aisle trying to decide on what cup of "dirt" dessert they wanted. Molly has always loved that stuff. But I finally got home and got everything put away.
So Tuesday was mainly about cooking for me. It took me from mid-morning to mid-afternoon to get all of my meals done with a few breaks to attend to the kids, change the laundry, and do lunch time. I wanted to get some meals made up for the busy summer season when we could have several nights of ball games each week along with other activities. After all was said and done I ended up with 11 meals to put away. It feels good to have that done.
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| In the middle of all of it |
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| The final products |
Andrew was prepping for a trial so he spent a lot of time at the office over the last few days. He was still able to take the kids to school and pick them up on Tuesday. I picked up Jackson from swim practice and then we came home, made dinner, collected the trash, put away laundry, ate dinner, did baths, measured the kids (it has been a while since we have recorded everyone's heights on our closet wall), and colored squares for our cousin, Maddi's, graduation quilt. Andrew came home for dinner, mowed the yard real quick (with the help of the three oldest), and then went back to the office. It was a pretty busy day for all of us but I love it when we get a lot accomplished.
Andrew had his trial in Unionville on Wednesday which means I had to do all of the drop-off and pick-up. It was set to be another very busy day, but the rain changed that for us. We had lots of rain along with some pretty loud thunder and lightening. Our original after school plans looked like this-pick up kids from school, bring them home so Jackson could change and do a little homework if possible, drop Jackson and Ellie off at church, pick them up around 4:45 and get Jackson across town for baseball practice. Fit dinner in there somewhere along with baths for the twins and make sure the house was all cleaned and prepped for small group (snacks for the kids ready, coffee made, discussion prepped, etc), pick up Jackson at 6 and start small group at 6:30. Well WAC was cancelled because they were afraid of losing power and having all those kids at church and then, of course, baseball practice was cancelled. Plus Joe picked up Jackson and Ellie from school for me so I wouldn't have to get the twins up from their nap. So we ended up having a kind of relaxing time before small group and to top it off, Andrew got done early and was home around 6. And another bonus, after one loud lightening strike, our landscape lights out front came back on again. They are still working, but I am holding onto the transformer I bought just in case. I think the rain did keep some people home from small group though, as we had a small small group. The discussion was still pretty good so that is always a plus. And that night before bed, Miles and Bennett decided to get into it over a book. It is one of those recorded books that Andrew's mom made for the kids a couple years ago and the boys love to push the buttons. Here are a few pictures from their battle...
Thursday was grocery shopping day. It was a little misty but thankfully wasn't pouring like it did the whole day before. And we made through both stores without anyone getting upset. Then we had to stop by the K-Life house and drop off the baskets I did for the 3on3 tournament and some drinks. Kevin and Chelsea were hard at work-they put a lot of time into getting everything ready for it. They even had K-Life later that day for the kids. I picked Jackson and Ellie up after they were done and we went to my parents for dinner. Lissy was in town and surprised the twins with some Cardinal outfits. They didn't seem too impressed but they will look cute in them. Thanks Lissy. They look cute in just about anything. They are a handful though. I am sometimes a little hesitant about opening the windows because of how much and how loud they can scream-especially when they are fighting with each other which is quite a bit. But they do take care of each other too. They may take pacis and blankies from each other but they also get them for each other too. Their give each other a drink or snack. And I have noticed them "cuddling" with each other a few times. When they get kind of tired and lay down on the floor with their blankets, sometimes they will rest on each other. It may be hard to tell, but that is what they were doing in the picture :-)
Friday night CCF was having their last Parents' Night Out of the school year at our church, so we decided to go out to dinner with some friends from our small group. We decided to take our car which meant I needed to clean under the car seats. It is always a surprise what you will find underneath when you pull them out. As I was getting ready for dinner, I put on some new earrings my mom gave me for Easter. They were red flowers and Lincoln was excited to see them. He said, "I really like your new earrings, Mom. They are beautiful." After we dropped off the kids, we headed to AJ's in Macon for dinner which is always yummy and we had good company and good conversation.
Saturday was a busy day for us. Andrew took the youngest three out to the ranch Saturday morning. The original plan was to go turkey hunting but it was a pretty chilly morning so they did some other things. When they got home Lincoln was telling me about pulling a dead cow with the truck to the forest, Ellie was talking about getting to shoot a BB gun, and Andrew mentioned something about coming up on some turkeys in the truck. I think they had a full morning. The twins and I just got some stuff done around the house and ran a few errands. They got home in time for an early lunch and then it was time to get ready for Jackson's swim meet. It was just a mock meet so the swimmers could get used to how a meet is run. It was a good thing for Jackson to do especially since he wasn't able to play in the 3on3. He had to move up an age group for the 3on3 and his friends were still in the younger age bracket. We didn't really know any older kids, so we weren't able to find a team for him to play on. He had a busy day though and we didn't really talk about it because I didn't want him feeling left out. I was also glad he had the meet here so that we could watch him swim. It was at the Natatorium at Truman which brought back memories of my old swim team days. My parents and Lissy came by to watch him and Molly stopped in for a bit in between helping out with Special Olympics. I like watching him swim but he has a ways to go. He is breathing on both sides now but it also seems like he pretty much stops moving when he breathes. So I guess that is the next thing to work on. Lincoln started telling some of the other parents there about his experience with the dead cow and Miles and Bennett had enough of the swim meet around 1 1/2 hours in so my parents offered to take them to their house so twins could nap while Jackson finished up his meet.
After the meet was over, Jackson and Andrew went to the office while I went to Sherwin Williams to get some paint and then also went to the office to get some work done. Jackson was asleep on the little love seat in the lobby-he was already worn out and still had baseball practice that evening. Andrew took him to practice while I went to my parents to rescue them from the other kids. One of the twins didn't really go down for a nap and they thought the whole time it was Miles but it was actually Bennett. They both are pretty hooked on Papa though and want to be with him at all times. Poor guy-I know it can get a little tiring. We had dinner yet again at my parents. I know, we are spoiled.
Andrew had a busy day at church on Sunday. He had to work a booth for the early service and do the communion message for both services. As soon as he got back from the second service I took off to do some grocery shopping. It was a nice day out so the kids spent a lot of time outside and Andrew mowed the yard again. He was a little sad though because Lincoln actutally wanted off the lawn mower because he wanted to play with Ty. After the twins got up from their nap we headed over to my parents again for a fried chicken dinner. Jackson was so excited about this meal. After dinner he kept wanting to go on a walk. He brought his Rip-Stick over which is kind of like a skateboard. He really wanted to try it on the streets around there. My dad went around with him the first time and pulled the twins in a wagon behind the lawnmower. Lincoln had already left with Andrew or he would have loved it too. I went around with Jackson the second time. He is getting pretty good at the Rip-Stick, but it makes me nervous. Ellie went with Lissy to a photo shoot she was doing of some senior baseball players. Lissy said Ellie had a lot of fun playing ball with the boys. I think Lissy thinks we should be a little worried :-).
Today I finally put together on of Miles and Bennett's birthday presents-a little planting wheelbarrow. I had it down in the basement just waiting for the weather to get a little nicer. Hopefully the nice weather will stay for a while soon. Tomorrow is supposed to be cold, so maybe after that. Lincoln was excited about the wheelbarrow and the twins are starting to like it (and fight over it :-)). Ellie started ball practice today so we had to change up the schedule a bit. Jackson had swim practice until 4:30 and Ellie had dance at 4:30, so I got dinner in the oven before I dropped off Ellie and picked up Jackson. Jackson, Lincoln, the twins, and I started dinner a little earlier than usual and Andrew picked up Ellie at 6:00. I had a little tupperware dish ready for Ellie with her dinner and when she got home she changed into her clothes for baseball and ate dinner in the car while I took her to practice at 6:30. It seemed to work today and it is only for a few more weeks since they don't practice once games start. It is hard to believe that school gets out a month from tomorrow. It is time to get a handle on our summer schedule :-)
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