April 26, 2013

(click here for today's pictures)

Field Day!

• My little Whitman was a bit off of his schedule last night or I was off of mine.  We went to bed a bit earlier than usual and thought I had fed him enough that he would sleep past his usual near 12 eating time but I must not have.  Robby had to wake me up to feed him.  I was pretty impressed this morning though thinking that he had slept from midnight until morning but Robby had fed him at 4 and I had heard nothing.  
• Graham was again in our room early but this time he must not have found Whitman too interesting because he ended up in our bed.  Campbell was not too far behind and somehow a bit after 7, Keaton and Whitman were awake.  And by the time I had my shower, everyone was in my room watching a movie.  Lately, if they get to watch a movie before breakfast that must mean it is a special day and indeed today was a special day-field day!
• This morning as I was feeding Whitman, Graham asked me how many gallons I had in Whitman's bottle.  And the other day, Campbell came running into the kitchen shouting "Whitman doesn't have any teeth, where is his teeth?"  It is funny the things that the think up to ask.  Or even say-I kissed Graham this morning and he glared at me and then said "don't kiss a man."
• After breakfast, Anderson and Reagan dutifully finished up their school for the week.  Don't feel too bad for them, they each only had one math page and one phonics page.  I should have pointed out clearly to them that when we do a bit extra school through the week, we can have a free day and still accomplish all of our school-but I let that opportunity slide.
• We then finished the laundry and dishes and the kids helped pick up the house.  They are seriously getting pretty good about straightening.  Reagan, of course, is the best and always tickles me about what "straight" means to her.  When she straightens the bonus room, she always puts the air hockey pieces in the exact spot she thinks they go in.  When she straightens her room, she lines up the animals on her bed.  The boys were getting better about straightening-I think I should take a picture and hang it in each room of how the room should look when you are finished picking up in there. 
• Soon we all had our shoes and jackets on and headed out for field day 2013.  It was a chilly field day-very chilly!  There was a total of 15 children so that made for quite a big time.  We debated playing any games because the kids played so well together outside despite the coolness.  Eventually, we did play a few games before the rain came.
• Our first game was tug of war.  The kids were so excited about it.  The first round was girls against the boys and despite the girls having a few more, the boys held on for awhile before finally losing.  Then it was moms verses the kids.  We were even down a mom since Candice was inside but we still smoked those kids.  Of course when we pulled them all over on top of Campbell she didn't enjoy playing tug of way anymore.  Poor thing was at the very bottom of the pile!  
• The next game was the sack race followed by eating the doughnuts off of the string.  Most of the doughnuts fell on the ground this year but it was still pretty fun watching all of the action.  Robby said that most of my pictures were blurry from today (maybe my camera is on the wrong setting) but hopefully you can see the one of Anderson eating his doughnut and Keaton's little hand trying to grab it off of the string.  
• Then the kids ran a relay race and my Graham's team won each time.  He did have Alyssa Kate and Noah on his team so that is why he was able to win.  The next activity was going to be the 3 legged race but the kids started to look hungry so we headed in to eat.  Thankfully we did carry everything inside when we went because within minutes of us coming inside the bottom fell out and it started storming.  
• The kids had their lunches then played inside and they did so well playing inside.  Usually whenever we have any kids over, somehow everyone starts running but today I guess the kids were already tired.  So there was not really any running and everyone was pretty quiet playing with toys.  This gave the moms plenty of time to talk.  
• As everyone left, we did have the egg toss.  Anderson and Ethan's team won the egg toss.  I was partners with Graham and he would take forever to throw the egg-he so didn't want to lose.  Probably shouldn't have been my partner because I dropped the egg on maybe the second throw.  Everyone had fun though during the egg toss and during our cold and rainy field day so that is all that mattered.
• Kennedy and neighbor boy played soccer with my crew for a few minutes before we headed back inside.  I wasn't going too have the kids take a shower until I realized that Anderson's legs are not that brown-they were just filthy.  The shower giving has gotten tremendously easier lately and that is so nice.  I was able to straighten downstairs some while they showered.  Then we all worked together to pick up the toy room and the rest of the house.  
• They didn't complain and play while picking up so we all had a cookie as a reward.  Then I carefully made sure there were plenty of cookies for tonight and told the kids that could be dessert after supper.  Then I made sure to move the cookies in an unreachable spot.  Later in the evening I walked in and not one but 2 cookies were missing.  I initially thought Anderson, who on occasion sneaks food, had gotten to my cookies but after asking around, it was just Robby.  A few minutes later though, I was hungry and grabbed myself a pre-supper piece of pizza.  When Robby went to heat up the pizza he was shocked to see a slice missing.  His first thought was Anderson but then I fessed up.  Apparently, Anderson is not the only food sneaker around here-Robby and I do it too.  
• The kids watched a movie and then played on the ipad for awhile this afternoon.  We were pretty tickled that as soon as Graham started playing on the ipad, the others all appeared.  It was like they had some sort of ipad sensor.  
• The kids were so excited to have people come over that had a lot of kids just like us.  Reagan was thrilled that there was a girl to play with and had left her dollhouse out all day long and had even worked on it during the day so it would be just perfect.  The Hallums came over and their oldest girl and Reagan played and then they have 2 boys who provided entertainment for our guys.  Then their baby received lots (too much) attention from Campbell and Keaton.  
• After we had supper, the kids enjoyed playing with each other-hide and seek, coloring (the girls) air hockey, cars and who knows what else.  They were all very good and kept each other entertained so it was a good evening.  
• Once they left, we again made the kids pick up.  This was their 3rd time to do it today but in no time we all had this house in tip top shape-or something like that.  We then tucked in the kids and told them that we didn't know about soccer in the morning because of the rain.
• Actually, since I am blogging at almost midnight and have not laid out any of the soccer uniforms, ice chest, shoes and all of the rest, I can just about guarantee you that we will have our games!