Mothering Many

Umm, I got distracted from the planning by the prospect of creative endeavors. So I whipped up a wee dress for Drama. I let her try it on real quick, and this is what I saw:

She really did like it, I promise!

We’re ho-oo-ome! We got in late last night, and I have been so sleepy all. day. long. I haven’t done much of anything beyond survive, and that was more or less successful depending on whether you require any amount of grace in your definition of survival or if just continuing to draw breath qualifies. BUT!!! FUN!!! Oh my goodness, we had so much FUN!

The girls rode several hard core thrill rides, the ones rated 5. I rode one, my first ride of the day, and then I stuck with 4 and under. Note for the future: Casses take special care. They are not meant to be turned upside down. You may spin the Cass, you may jiggle the Cass. You may even make the Cass go very fast, and she will laugh her fool head off. But do not under any circumstance turn the Cass upside down whilst you are spinning her very fast. No, no, no. If you do that, your Cass will not be able to walk, and you will be sad for her.

The water park was incredible. I really liked the water slides, and could have ridden on those over and over. It was so fun to slide fast down the tube, and then shoot out the bottom, like mail through a chute. And this brings me to the topic of mailboxes. We’re going to need a new one shortly, I do believe. I joked earlier that mailboxes were the one item where my large family size did not affect my purchasing decision. We may need the food service size can of green beans, but we have not yet reached the point where we require a commercial mailbox. I guess that’s a good thing, since I don’t find those very attractive at all. I’ll continue to browse the residential mailboxes until I find one that I like and I can afford. It will probably be a plain-jane metal box, which is kind of a let down after looking at these by Dahlhaus. I’ll just hint that I don’t want my neighbors to feel badly, instead of indicating TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR A MAILBOX!!!??? That’s a lot of beans and weiners. Which brings me around to grocery shopping.

I must go to the grocery store sometime between now and Saturday. Either DH or myself or both have been flying for the past few weekends, and so no serious shopping has been done. He’s going to be out again this Saturday, and if I don’t procure at least some snack stuff before then, the kids may want to cook some ladyfingers, and I am afraid they will be mine

One of the most rocking things I ever did was to go to Europe when I was in high school. The trip was organized by my French teacher, and we went to France (of course), Italy and England. I had wondered if there was anyway to do something like that for my kids, since we home school, and today I found out, that YES, it is!

Hemisphere Educational Travel offers international student travel tours, and they have no minimum group size. Discounts usually start with groups of 15, so it would even be relatively easy to pull together a group of home schoolers large enough to qualify for them. Hemisphere also offers custom tours with ethnic or religious focus. They can accommodate those with special dietary needs, as well. And if, English isn’t your groups first language, they can take care of that, too: they have bilingual guides.

My kids are so ready to get out of this house! I didn’t take them skating last week, because I didn’t feel like it, and I won’t go this week, because I am just certain Spidey would fall and bump his stapled head. Nor will we go next week, because it’s Daddy/Grand-Daddy’s birthday, and I’ll be going to his house for supper.

I think I need to come up with something for us to do. Maybe miniature golf?? I know there are a couple of those places around, and I know the children would enjoy it, if we can avoid swinging the clubs at one another. Heh, you reckon a big name company like Ping Golf makes the equipment for putt-putt? Or are there companies that specialize in just that?

Or bowling. But, you know, I fell once when bowling, and so I won’t go do that for fear Spidey will fall. Sigh. I sounds like he’s got a mortal wound there, don’t I? He’s fine. But he has StaplesInHisHead. It hurts me just to see them.

If I ask my three older children what they are willing to do for pizza and a movie with the express intent of getting them to clean up, is that bribery? Or can we call it a just reward for extra effort? I guess the answer to that question is moot, because we are now debating which movie it’s going to be.

I broke open one of the card games the Easter Bunny brought to me. Yeah, I know, I’m real timely and all that. Sigh. The point is–we played “I Spy Snap” last night, and again this morning, and it was a smashing success with everyone, including 13 year old Country. The youngest player was 3, and the oldest me. And just let me tell you, I am the Snap Champ.

The kids and I went skating last night, and we all had a grand time. I had to debate with myself on whether to skate or take pictures. The kids wanted me to have fun with them, so that’s what I did. But then, I fell twice and got hurt badly enough I decided to take the skates off. By the time I got home, my arm was hurting badly enough that I was ready to place an order for an ace bandage from an online pharmacy. Although I used to be an excellent skater, I had not been skating in over a decade, and that’s good news for you, because not only do you get to giggle at the idea of me on skates (and on the floor), you also get pictures of the kids having a good time.

Here we all are, youngest to oldest, including me! Click for bigger.

Here’s a cheap but fun thing you can make for your kids. Gather up an old dress shirt or two, some pads of paper, a few custom pens with logos and some business cards if you have any. An old cellphone would be great, as would a keyboard of any type. Invite the children to ply “office” when you need to be at the computer. Slide the box under your desk when you are done, and it will be a special thing for them, since they only get to use it when you are “working, too.”

Here’s a neat little craft that I’d like to try this with the kiddos. Marble Magnets are made with pictures, glue and the flat glass stones. And magnets, of course. These look like great fun, and something all but the youngest children could do. And of course, they make cool gifts. I bet you could even do this with those tiny pictures you get in photo packages!