** * Our Life with 13 Kids * **: Two Outings

It's been nice having this week at home before school starts on Monday. Cute Katharine asleep this morning -

The girls getting ready for the day - they put their hair in sponge curlers last night.

Laughing at the results Natalie got -

Natalie snuggling with Katharine -

Today I made a new policy that I thought was brilliant.... So, as has been the case with every baby we've ever had, the kids are always bickering over who gets to sit by Katharine in the car. They are also always fighting over who's turn it is to hold her at home. SO! I got this stroke of genius that I hope will kill two birds with one stone. I decided that the little boys get to sit by her in the car (thus fixing the problem of everyone arguing over who gets to sit by her there...) and I also instituted policy that the girls are my main helpers at home and get to hold her when I need help, thus helping decrease the times that Owen asks me over and over again to hold her. Brilliant, no?

We went on two outings this week. Yesterday's outing was our Willow Lake hike and violin concert. Being gone meant that I was not home to get dinner ready, thus we picked up pizza and ice cream on the way home via Little Ceasars and Drumsticks at Smiths. Not the best, but hey, that's the price of us being out and about. Today's outing was a GetOut Pass activity - we went to Luv 2 Play at Southtown Mall. I had a goal to use the GetOut Pass before school starts. That mission was accomplished today. I didn't know where it was, but I wanted to find out before Daniel and Peter go there on Saturday for a birthday party. We walked around the mall for 20 minutes before we found it.

The kids didn't mind though.

They liked "driving" in the cars.

And there were a lot of cars around the mall.

And planes.

I wasn't in a hurry though, so it was ok that we kept stopping.

I had Katharine in car carseat in a wagon, and we just walked around. Wouldn't you know, Luv2Play was very close to the entrance where we came in - it was just on the 2nd floor above us, which was the last place we looked since we started on floor 1 and walked all the way to the end, then went up to the 2nd level and walked back towards where we started. I found it, but lost Sophi and Lily on the way - they went into a store to look for something, I thought they would be following me shortly, but they were gone for a while and they didn't know where Luv2Play was yet.

I left Natalie in charge of K and the boys for a minute and went out to find them.

I didn't find them but they saw me walking and then came up the stairs to where I was.

Yay "we're all together again we're here we're here"

Lily bought Peter a little toy duck over at the arcade. He dropped it through the net and Lily went to rescue it.

They had fun and it was a pretty great place for toddlers. I feel no need to come back but I'm sure the kids would like to. I sat and listened to Laura Dixon podcasts while I nursed K and charged my phone (nice touch having phone chargers for the adults). Peter was also really excited about the toddler sized potty in the restroom! That was a nice touch too - very thoughtful to their smaller customers. When we left, they were hungry, so we went to Costco. Peter holding his duck.

I ordered hotdogs for them and left Lily in charge. I was able to run and get a few things while they ate. It worked out perfectly!

Peter called the drink his "spice". Pizza and ice cream yesterday, hotdogs and soda today.

Outings with me and/or Corey usually equal junk food. I was proud of myself that I took them. It's 10:30 now. I've been blogging while waiting for Corey to get back. He went to the airport to pick up Mel, she's safely back from her trip to Vienna, yay. And last but not least, our butterfly counts for today : We had one female emerge - isn't she lovely!?

Pretty amazing packaging that they come in - it's hard to believe that they fit in that tiny chrysalis!

Daniel holding one of the big caterpillars this morning.

So we had one emerge today and for those remaining, we have 15 chrysalides, 6 j-hook today and will change into chrysalis sometime during the night, we have 14 large caterpillars, 1 medium, 7 small, and lots and lots of eggs and tiny ones that I haven't been able to keep count of cause they are so small it's hard to tell which eggs have hatched... I don't want to bug them and put them on different plants until they are bigger. So yeah, crazy how many we have!! It's makes me happy!