June 27, 2014

(click here for today's pictures)

Fun Friday!

• Whitman was the first Dennie up this morning and that is highly unusual.  The others even asked why I woke him up.  He usually sleeps until the other kids are so noisy that they wake him up and then he sits quietly talking in his bed until we come and get him (perfect baby).
• The kids ate a variety of different things this morning and silly me, I even forget to offer them blueberries-the gallon of blueberries that were sitting on the counter drying.  Even though today we left earlier than yesterday, we still had time for our quick chores.  But really, we need to get used to leaving early-we are early morning people on trips.  
• We picked up Grannymom, Lilly and Cash and drove to the zoo where we met Kennedy and Jodee. There were quite a few already at the zoo but they might have been a group or something.  The kids all enjoyed the zoo and the animals.  
• I believe that the favorite was watching the tiger cubs-we watched them at least 20 minutes.  Whitman was mostly able to see them through the rails and he watched and watched-even fussed when we did finally leave that spot.  The 4 cubs raced, jumped, wrestled and splashed in the water.  And our crew would ooh and aah at everything they did.  
• I guess because of the cooler than normal weather the animals were pretty active this morning. Most everything we saw was moving around so there was lots to see.  But as soon as they saw the playground, that was all that the kids could think about.  They played for a while on the playground and even Whitman got in on the act.  All of the bigger kids played tag and thankfully no other child was knocked down.
• The next stop was the train ride.  If you remember, we bribed the kids with doughnuts to skip the train ride on the zoo members night.  So that meant today was train ride for everyone and they were beyond excited.  And the conductor even passed out train whistles to the kids-yep, train whistles.  How incredible loud!  That is kind of cute if you have 1 kid but not 6 train whistles blowing at your house-that is not cute at all.  That is why parents have nervous breakdowns and make their kid sleep in their sheds (no worries because no Dennie children are sleeping in the shed....tonight!)
• After the train ride (which is just a new train, not a new route), the kids headed to the old playground for another chance to play.  And then it was the long hike out of the zoo.  Jodee ran and picked up the pizza for us while we took all 9 kids to the pool (I love looking back in my van and seeing it full with kids!)  Most of them changed into their bathing suits in the back of the van while we unloaded all of the swimming stuff.
• We all ate our lunch and the kids swam and swam.  The water was a bit colder than I would have liked but that was mainly because the clouds would come and go.  Around 3, when we had planned to leave anyway, it got really dark and then the thunder came.  And before we could get to the car, it started raining.  Thankfully, it didn't pour until we were all loaded up and in the car.
• Reagan went home with Kennedy to spend the night and my Whitman had his afternoon nap at home while the others watched movies and followed me around (Keaton and Campbell).  Soon Robby was home and he went outside for a bit and the kids watched him work and asked him a zillion questions about what he was doing.
• And Robby was working on dismantling our wild animal sanctuary that we have above our porch.  I have been noticing some dropping on my bench out front and we thought maybe it was mice so we set a few traps with no success.  Today he saw the that droppings are coming from way above-between our house and the siding of the awning.  Robby decided that it must be bats and thankfully, they are not in the house/attic.  Not much you can do about bats legally (especially ones way up high) but he did spray some bug spray into their little hidey holes and out they came...1, 2, 3, 4....Well, you get the picture.  He said that it was at least 15 but I don't really know how he could know that for sure when he was probably running himself.  And no, I wasn't outside-I stayed inside and would only peek out the window at the action on the front porch.  I did offer him a scarf at one point-didn't want anything sucking his blood.  That is probably only a temporary fix but we do welcome any and all suggestions.  
• Now the wildlife in the backyard is just fine with me.  We didn't play kickball tonight because of the rain and once when I walked by, there were 2 deer walking in the middle of our field.  They were heading to the neighbor man's deer feeder.  Even last night, we saw a deer eating from the feeder, about 30 feet from our noisy game.
• The kids all had baths tonight after supper-baths are pretty rare around here since we are usually trying to get everyone clean quickly but tonight we had extra time so they enjoyed their bubble baths.  And all too soon for them it was time for bed!