What a silly little eater...

Miss F is enjoying getting to explore some new foods.  At first I thought she was not interested; she wouldn't take anything from a spoon.  Then one day I put a banana in a mesh feeder; she gobbled it up and asked for more.  She still wouldn't accept the banana from a spoon.  Oh no, only if she could feed herself.

Have you ever tried to clean one of those mesh feeders?  They are the most difficult things to clean.  We never could be sure we got them clean enough and she was holding on to this feeding method.  I suspected there must be a better option by now.  Sure enough, there is.  Silicone feeders!  We tried out a few and I posted my reviews on my other blog.  Bottom line?  She loves them all and we're all much happier with them too 'cause each and everyone of them is easier that those silly mesh ones.

Speaking of silly eaters....We love the book Seven Silly Eaters.  It's not often that we find books about large families.  This one has been a family favorite for years.  Some of our kids even have it memorized.  It's sweet, silly and encouraging all at once.

Our bottomless pit

Mr. M is currently functioning as a bottomless pit into which we throw food.

"Food!  Pass it!"

Thankfully he's got some sisters that love to cook.

Plant cells and squash

Most of the kids have been learning about cells in their co-op classes.  To review the parts of the cell that they were learning we had a fun breakfast of plant cell pancakes.  They each had their own little plate with everything they needed to put their cell together while identifying the parts.

Before breakfast Miss A spotted Miss E and Mr M preparing spaghetti squash to be cooked.  She wanted in on the stabbing.  She did a great job getting hers ready to cook too.

A new skill

Miss A has spent the summer mastering potty training.  Since she's getting so good at that one I guess she decided it was time to try something new.  This past week she learned that she can open up the refrigerator.  It's a very handy skill when Mommy keeps saying things like "no, your snack is on the table" or "wait, it's almost time for dinner."

I'm thankful that she still can't access most things in there.  About all she can do is look and let us know for sure what she wants since she CAN see it.  Poor girl, the cheese drawer is RIGHT THERE, she just can't get it open.  Well, she can also practice the skill of self control and wait; just like mama said. ;)

Happy New Year!

We started off our New Years day slowly.  Most of the kids slept in since they were up late.  We headed off to Starbucks for a late breakfast.  The kids were so exited to use their Starbucks cards they got for Christmas from Great Gram.

Thank you for the gift cards Great Gram!!!

The kids love getting gift cards.  I love seeing them making their choices and making their transactions on their own.  Even Mr. K had a great time holding onto his card, placing his order and presenting his card; just like the big kids!

Miss A slept through the whole thing.  Not to worry, she had plenty of breakfast earlier in the morning.

The roads were very clear when we left the house.  When we left our local Starbucks it was snowing.  We had one errand to run; this is what the roads looked like by the time we were heading home.

The kids were excited to go sledding in the back yard when we got home.

Num, num, num...

Besides a "k" sound for "kitty," "nu, nu, nu" (her version of "num, num" asking for food) is Miss A's favorite word.  She loves to eat, and we are happy to feed her.  She's discovered that one great thing about big brothers and sisters is that they often love to share.  Miss E introduced her to chocolate chip cookies yesterday.

Today after lunch she watched very carefully as Miss E passed out cookies to all of the other kids.  I was watching her closely to see if she was going to ask.  Sure enough, once everyone else had one she sweetly said "nu, nu" which earned her a small piece of a cookie.

*After running a couple of quick errands with only 3 kids we're enjoying this cool rainy day at home. I think the weather is telling us to enjoy a quiet afternoon of cuddling, reading and maybe some games.  Ah, I love fall!

Why so little blogging?

You may have noticed that my posts  are becoming few and far between.  If you are like my mom, you've figured out that we're super busy these days and I just have not had much time to write out posts.  I decided to make a point to blog about my day today.  It reflects many of my days, just different appointments/meetings/activities.  Same crazy busy days though.

This morning someone forgot something.  So I needed to run it to them.  Big kids that stayed behind did breakfast clean up and worked on AWANA verses until I got home.  Then we did school for a while.

Next up?  Hair cuts!  The boys were looking a bit fuzzy.  I did 2 haircuts and supervised 2 more.

A couple of little girls were needing baths.  Rub-a-dub-dub time for them to scrub while bigs cleaned up after lunch.

Nap time for littles gives us a bit of quiet time for reading a biography to bigs/middles.  We love to read out loud.

Off to our Azure drop.  We've committed to helping our drop coordinator with set up, passing out the bulk splits, and helping to get boxes out to cars for those that need the help.  This is such a great opportunity for the kids to serve and to learn some of the ins and outs of something like this.  It's not as easy as just taking boxes off of a truck!  We sure enjoy getting to see our friends and meeting new people.

Look at all of those boxes of food!  The kids had fun helping to unload the truck.

Dividing up the bulk splits.  Most of the kids helped with this as well.

Whew!  Time to sit down to a quick dinner (that was cooking in the crock pot all day) as a family.  Then its on too...
Daddy coaching Miss E and her event partner for Science Olympiad while I take care of littles, put away food and work on a Vanilla Bean Cake.

Well, that was my day....and that is why I'm not blogging much.  Everyday seems to be a bit like this one was. :)

May the 4th be with you!

This year I thought ahead enough to do something to make my older kids smile on May 4th.  They've seen Star Wars a couple of times and got the joke when I said "May the 4th be with you" after being asked for a hint as to what would be so special/funny about our breakfast this morning.

Miss E made "light sabers" out of large pretzel sticks last night.  I made "princess Leah buns" and "Chewy" bacon.  Miss C and Mr. K make Obi Won Kabobies as well.

Dairy is still a "no no"

Since he was just a week or so old Mr K has had a noticeable dairy issue.  Even small amounts of dairy can give him an icky tummy.  His digestive system may not show the nasty signs if he gets just a bit, but my night will be shot.  He feels icky and can't sleep peacefully.  Last week he helped himself to a bit of whipped cream that was on the counter.  He spent hours in bed with me tossing and turning that night.

*We're raising a little Trekie.  He loves to watch StarTrek with us.  At least we know how to make him happy on these nights.

Tonight a sweet (older, but not old enough) sibling helped him get some pizza.  That sibling left the mozzarella cheese on the pizza.  By the time anyone noticed; half the slice was gone. :(  He is a grumpy bug tonight and we've faced the fact that he will be hanging out in our room for most of the night.  Hopefully Miss A's teeth will not be bothering her too much tonight.

*Mr. K can tolerate small amounts of cultured dairy products once or twice a week.  Uncultured dairy in any amount is a big "no no" for him.  

Feed Me!!!!!

Miss A is just over 5 months old and has been very interested in food for a while now.  I've started feeding her some mashed bananas in baby oatmeal as well as some sweet potatoes.  She is also rather insistent that she be able to hold/chew on something while we are eating.

She likes her teething biscuits.

Celery is fun to gnaw on since she still has no teeth and can't get chunks off.

These mesh bag teether things are great!  She has enjoyed bananas and cantaloupe in hers so far.

Apples!

Apple season is just starting around here, the fresh organic ones are just starting to show up at the farmer's markets in limited varieties.  Last week-end Rob took our flat bed trailer to a "local" farm (just 90 minutes away) to pick up apples for our family, friends, and health food co-op.  I think he loaded over 70 40 lb boxes of organic apples!

Now we are processing our three boxes (Yes, that is 120 pounds of apples).   Before taking this on I checked with the kids.  Did they want apple butter and apple chips this year?  Yes!  Were they willing to do the work, knowing that I was not up to doing much of the work?  Yes!  OK then.  They have been pealing and coring our apples for the past few days.  The little kids love to eat the long strings of apple peel (its our version of "fruit by the foot").

 

Within a few hours of the apples arriving at our home we had a batch in the dehydrator.  The second batch is now drying.

Yesterday I canned our apple butter.  That was my contribution to the apple processing.

Miss E made an apple pie.  It was perfect!

Even the peels and cores do not go to waste.  After the kids got their fill (of the peels) we filled gallon sized jars with the cores and peels to make apple cider vinegar.  The rest are going to our rabbits and chickens (and if they get their fill we will take the remainder to our friends' goats).

You can see bubbles in the jar and foam at the top.  This is the fermenting process happening.  It will not be long before this batch is smelling like apple wine, then it will continue on to vinegar!  This will be used all year for cleaning and in some cooking.

The kids will continue to dehydrate apples for the next week or so.  They also have plans for apple sauce and maybe another pie.  The fruit drawer in the refrigerator is full of the smallest apples (the perfect size for little snackers) that we skimmed off of the boxes as soon as we got them.  We will be enjoying these apples in some form or another for the next year!

licking the beaters

Is that orange frosting he is licking off the beaters?  No, it may as well be though.  Its mashed sweet potatoes which this little guy is crazy for.  He was so excited when I passed him first beater, then the another one.  How lucky could he be to get both of them?  Turns out no one else was interested in licking them. ;)

Pancakes

On a recent trip to the library Miss C spotted this book of fun shaped pancakes.

Miss E thought it was a great looking book and asked if she could PLEASE make breakfast for us.  That sounded just great to me.  She spent the afternoon figuring out which pancakes to make for each person, figuring out what colors she would need to mix up and mixed all of the dry ingredients.  The next morning this was our breakfast...

A bowl of cereal for Mr. K

 

Duckies for Miss C.

 

Miss J requested a butterfly.

Our bouncy boy requested a frog.

 

A bomb seemed appropriate for Mr. M

Miss E knows that Mr. R always goes for a game of checkers.

 

Miss E is a fan of watermellon (it also happened to require chocolate chips!).

I had a stack of pancakes; complete with syrup and butter.  Miss E even provided a knife and fork!

 

There was plenty more batter to make an apple with a worm in it, eggs and bacon, spaghetti with meatballs, and balloons.

 

 

Thanks Miss E for the fun breakfast!