March 13, 2018

(click here for today's pictures)

• Whitman didn't go to school this morning so we could have laid in bed but instead we had an early morning homeschool day here at the house. The girls had made their beds when they woke up and so had the boys. Graham was the only one who hadn't finished his Bible study so he finished that before we started our morning.
• We ate together and then did our breakfast reading before everyone put on their clothes and did a quick clean of the house. Then it was time for our daily history reading before more chores. 
• Soon our homeschool buddies started arriving. Today was our egg day, and my people were very excited. We were down a few families today, but there were still quite a few. Candice had divided everyone up into teams. Then they had 100 pretend dollars to spend on materials to build an apparatus that would protect their egg when it was dropped from the boys' bedroom window. 
• I helped Charlotte, Whitman and Keaton who were on a team together. We spent 87 of our pretend money on one piece of cardboard, 12 inches of tape, 8 balloons, a toilet paper tube and a sheet of newspaper. It was so cute-Charlotte, Whitman and Keaton all told their ideas and then we combined them to make our project.
• I was busy with them so I didn't really get to see the other teams. I do know that Anderson and Alyssa Kate worked until the last few seconds and were kind of in a panic. Each group had 3 tests eggs that they could use as well, so a few groups dropped theirs in the house to check their projects out.
• Finally, it was time for Candice to drop the eggs. The kids counted down from 10 every time. When she dropped the egg, the team would open it up to see if their egg burst. They were allowed to crack but no yolk was allowed to come out. And can you believe, but not a single egg even cracked. We probably should have been from up higher, or maybe we just have a bunch of engineers on our hands.
• After the eggs, we moved inside to stuff over 1200 eggs for The Shack. This is our 3rd (?) year to stuff eggs for their Easter egg hunt. The kids worked pretty well even though the eggs can be quite tricky to close. It was a lot of eggs to stuff, and it really took a long while to finish.
• Then the kids had lunch and even though we tried to shoo them outside, they all still ended up inside after just a bit of outside time. It was probably more like an hour though that they were outside, and the house was quiet.
• Before everyone had left, some of the kids had an egg toss. I looked at the last 4 teams in the egg toss and we were sure to have a Dennie team win. We did-it was one of the boys and Noah, but I sure can't remember which boy it was. Possibly Graham or maybe Anderson. Alyssa Kate and Reagan were also in the finals. I have never seen an egg burst like it did all over Alyssa Kate.
• When everyone left, my kids dutifully went to work picking up the house and the yard. It didn't take as long today as it has some days, and soon I only had the kitchen left and released the kids. They went outside to play (Alyssa is spending the night) and played outside while I baked cookies for Graham's snack tomorrow.
• They spent most of the afternoon bouncing from inside to outside. I walked on the treadmill and even made muffin batter to bake in the morning. I was just about to make supper when Robby said that I better wait, and sure enough at 7:20, the neighbors came outside. The kids then played outside until it was dark.
• Most of them had taken showers when we ate-fish sticks, cornbread, green beans and corn. Afterwards, the rest of them had showers, and Robby made another batch of cookies. The kids ate those as they made their bracket picks. Then they watched a tiny bit of a show before bedtime.