Sick Pic

We went to Waterford tonight. I was excited to get a group pic of the kids at home, which is currently kids #5 through #13. And speaking of Wes and Baby K, look at this great photo I got!

K flying high looking like a baby ballerina with the moon above her head. I immediately shared it on Wride Nataion, and Mel said "This photo is sick" - which currently in 2023 means very cool or excellent! We took a slow mo video and then got that still shot. After Wesley's first two tosses in the air, Abi and Lily and I were coaching him: "HIGHER!!!" and then voilà, my pic of the year. The kids all promptly told me to text it to them and it is now on their cell phone lockscreens. Here are two of my favorites of the kid group pic - Lily and Wes holding Katharine's hands - 

And everyone standing on their own two feet.

We got there with sunlight to spare. We set up on the hill, and right after I took this pic....

The sprinklers came on ON us! So we ran for the field, and were listening carefully for the sputters of the next system turning on. Thankfully it went westward next and did the parking strip. Enjoying time on the field. Kids played pass and catch with balls and frisbees.

Katharine liked the little yellow balls - she was holding all three of them and that was super cute. I missed getting a pic of it.

Today Katharine also got her daily fruit intake by finishing off one of my apples. 

I get off the skin, and then she takes it from there. Showing the two little teeth that she works with.

She's actually got four on top too. They all practically came in at the same time in April. I liked how she was eating the apple like a cob of corn.

An apple a day keeps my kids regular. The only other exciting thing I did today was go to Costco. I had to go to get frozen berries. Natalie used the last of my berries at home, so I had to go. One of my daily meals is a big bowl of berries with rice milk and sometimes topped with a spoonful of chocolate plant protein powder. Berries and apples, I eat fruit everyday, not doing great on vegetables. Oh well. I'm keeping my eye on the flats of peaches. They are at Costco but they are still too hard, but they should be nice and juicy soon!

Scavenger and Easter Hunts

I went for a drive early this morning to try and watch the sunrise and the moon set. 

Super cool.

I love watching the moon.

I watched it until it was all the way gone.

I wish the sky were a smidge darker so that the moon would be more visible.

I can still see it!

Maybe I'll have to come again tomorrow, I'll have to figure out if evening or morning will be the better time to see it close to the horizon. After last night, I thought I'd be able to see it better this morning since the mountains wouldn't be in the way, but I forgot about the bright sky. Oh well. It was good to get up early. (Strange that 7 am is "early" for me right now.) 

Today there were two fun things that our wonderful neighbors did. First off, the Primary Presidency from our Church came by to each of the houses of the primary children and set up an easter egg hunt in each yard. Since we weren't able to do the annual hunt because of Corona, they delivered it to each house and hid 5 eggs/treats for each kid in the family in their front yard. (Past hunts in 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015 in Brazil, 2013, 2011 in Chile) The note was taped on the front door. When I showed it to the kids, they got so excited and ran to find baskets/bags.

Abi helped the little kids hunt.

Lily found one that was in a hard spot! I called to her "Be careful! Don't fall! Or if you do, fall on your feet... it's better to break you leg than to crack your skull..."

She made it off the wall fine, phew. Daniel said "Look! Treats! For my birthday!"

Owen and Daniel each found five.

Natalie had the hardest time finding 5 treats. She only had 2 and still needed 3 more. We all were helping but we couldn't find anymore. Then we spotted one in a tricky place! She didn't want help getting it though. She was able to hit it down with her bag. 

So that was fun. And after that was done, I let the kids know of another fun thing that some grandmas in the neighborhood had planned - a scavenger hunt! The ladies asked me if they could put the list in our yard, since we were kinda a central location between the two streets of our neighborhood. They had a list of 13 things to find in 8 different yards, and then at the last yard there would be an answer key and a treat. I told the kids that they had to finish their chores and music practice before we could go and they dutifully worked and we were on our way at 2. 

It was a lovely day to go for a walk around the neighborhood. It was nice to say hi to neighbors and we did our best to obey social distance rules.

Back at home, there was more digging in the yard. I came across a sprinkler pipe in my hole, so I stopped and don't know if or where I'll dig next. Digging is hard, there are lots of roots and rocks in our dirt.

I let the little boys have free reign of their creativity and Owen had his shoes off and was dumping sand on his socks.

They were going to go straight into the tub when they were done. Daniel found a nice pile of muddy stuff in one of the watertables. Burying Buzz....

Owen helping him work. It was cute to see them, and it's good for them to be outside.

I locked the door so that they couldn't just come inside and run wherever. When they knocked, I picked them up and carried them straight to take baths. I washed feet and gave baths and started laundry a lot today. My hands are super chapped. Inside, Wes was reading...

And Peter came up to him to say hi, his cute little head there is barely able to clear the table.

And then Peter pushed the white board, which was just leaning against the window, and since he pushed it back all the way to the window, it teetered and started to fall toward him and Wes. Wes was there to protect Peter, but the loud SLAP of his hand against the board made Peter very very sad.

He cried just for a minute, and got hugs from me. He might not touch it anymore, we'll see how scarred he is. I got a picture of Peter this morning for his faceapp beard, ha. The beard doesn't put him into the "dope" or "sick" category, Peter is still just cute.

It was a warm evening again, so we went back to the field at Waterford where we went last night to see the moon. I left my phone at home but Ethan got some good pics...

I need him to send me the rest, but it was fun being there together - playing soccer and rolling down the hill. One good thing about all this corona stuff is that I have all my kids at home. I'm loving having everyone here and that we're able to spend so much time together. 

Trailing 6 Kids and Stitches Out

I spent a good chunk of my day with 6 kids in tow. First we went to soccer. Sophi and Natalie had their games at the same park and within 15 minutes of each other, so that was convenient. There is a good park there, so I let Natalie, Owen, Daniel, and Peter tag along. 6 kids in the car, here we go! 

When we first got there, I lost Natalie and Owen - I thought they had gone to the park. I was slow cause I was getting Peter out of the car, and then I first went to go see what fields the girls were playing on. Then I went to the park to find the other kids, and I saw Daniel, but no Natalie or Owen. So I kinda panicked and thought I should have brought an older kid to help me cause I was outnumbered, and it's harder when there are so many other people, too, like at soccer games. I looked around, it was just a few minutes until I saw them standing on a sidewalk together, looking around like they were lost. I called to them and they came to the park. Natalie was a little shook up, she doesn't like being lost or feeling forgotten (see pic 2). Sorry about that sweetie! Then they played. I took Peter and told NOD that I was going to go watch the games for a minute and I would be back. Sophi was at half time, score 0-0. Lily's team was getting whooped. Back to check on kids at the park. Counting kids - 1, 2, 3, 4. Natalie said she wanted to watch Peter, so I left him with her. They played on the slide and she pushed a group of little kids on this small circle coaster - 

She is a good big sister.

Looking around, time to count kids again - 

1, 2, 3... Where's Daniel? I looked around for him for a minute and then saw that he had joined a pack of kids playing tag on the grass. They moved to climb on a trailer.

Daniel's read headband protecting made him a little easier to spot, so that was helpful. Natalie playing with Peter on the swing. 

This little double swing is a brilliant invention!! 

Ok, I'll be back! I went to the last few minutes of each game. Sophi's game ended 0-0. Then she joined the kids at the park. Sophi swinging with Peter.

I came back with Lily. We think the score was 7-0, but they kinda lost track.  

Then we stayed and played at the park more. Lily's turn on the swing with Peter

Time to sing while we swing - Peter took the cookie from the cookie jar!

Phew! So the kids eventually decided to come back home, yay. Back at home, it was time to take out Daniel's stitches. I told him that he could go see Dr. Schmidt like we did last time, who is our neighbor and pediatrician down the street, or I could do it. Either way buddy, it's your choice. I showed him my credentials by sharing this post of when I took out Sophi's stitches. He was sold and said he wanted me to do it. I invited him to my examination room (aka the kids bathroom)

He watched Disney Plus while I did my careful work... I was nice and slow and didn't hurt him at all. All 7 out!!

And then when he had his guard down, I slapped a sticky bandaid on his head. He doesn't like them cause they hurt when you take them off, but if he were to protest by taking it off, it would hurt, so he was in a tough situation and decided to leave it on.

After that was done, I was in my room with Corey and Abi and we were all working on our respective computers... Abi doing science, Corey working, I was looking for pinnies to maybe have on hand for our future Waterford soccer games. Then Sophi came in... "Mom, when are you taking Daniel's stitches out?" I just did! "How do you take stitches out?" she asked. Corey chimed in "You go to medical school... and then take classes and get instructed..." HA! So says the man who took of Abi's CAST!! Stitches are easy, but I would have taken Daniel in if it was to get a cast off! (well, maybe that's not true...) Anyway, I thought that was a funny comment. 

Other things to do today - Costco run. I wanted to go, Corey did too, he also wanted to help Abi with homework and flute. They decided to go on a bike ride before they got to work, so I loaded my errands helpers into the car, then took Corey and Abi up the canyon before we headed to the Murray Costco. I don't love shopping with  kids, but they did pretty good. 

We took Corey's car with the bike rack, since I was dropping him off first, so we didn't have as much trunk room for food, which helped me not over purchase. Back at home for dinner. We went back and forth on whether or not we should go swimming. At 7:00 we decided to go. It closed at 8, but the older kids still got a good 45 minutes in. The little boys got less time, since I forgot D's swimsuit so he had to wear his shorts and was mad about it and protesting in the locker room. But then he decided it was ok and we had fun. Then we went to play racquetball after the pool closed.

6 kids in a court with 6 racquets swinging and 6 balls flying every direction. It can be a little dangerous!

Group picture! 

That was a busy day for me. I want to sleep in tomorrow, so I curled my hair tonight. Abi and Wes took pictures of themselves with my phone while my hands were occupied -

Instagram worthy for sure!

It's nice when these two are getting along.

Well that was my busy day. I had the little kids and felt like I gave Corey a break. He was still busy with work and helping the big kids, but it shouldn't have been as crazy for him as my day was for me. Well, teenagers are a different kind of crazy.

I plan on taking my break tomorrow for Mother's day. I've been doing a lot lately, but it's good. He does a lot too. Yesterday he came and rescued me when my car battery died (cause I left it on to have the AC after Sophi's soccer practice was over, but then they kept playing at the park, and then the door wouldn't open and the car wouldn't start, doh)

Thanks for saving me sweetheart. We make a good team.