Thankful Day #3

Today, I'm grateful for consignment sales and hand me downs. People always ask me how we afford to clothe our five kids. Believe me, it's not by paying for clothes full price! I cannot tell you how many friends and acquaintances have hooked us up with awesome clothes that their kids have out grown or never got around to wearing. There have literally been days that I've walked out on our front porch and a bag filled with goodness was there. That's SUCH a huge blessing to us and a financial burden lifted. We really have the best friends. I'm also really grateful for consignment sales. A beautiful smocked dress for $5? Yes, please and thank you!

A few examples of our awesome hand me downs! 

Thankful Day #2

Today, I'm thankful for my awesome paraprofessional (that's a teacher assistant for those who don't work in public school), Ms. Williams. She is the bad cop to my good cop. She knows what I need before my I open my mouth and already has taken care of whatever I was about to request. She makes me laugh until my sides hurt and completely understands my kind of crazy. I could not teach kindergarten without her. I love you, Ms. Williams!

Thankful Day #1

One of my favorite November traditions (when I'm not extremely pregnant and exhausted) is to blog each day about my blessings. As I am NOT preggo this year, I am jumping back on the gratitude bandwagon. :)   

Day #1: 
I am grateful for holiday traditions! I love Halloween's spent at the Todd's house and trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. I can't wait to go Black Friday shopping with my mom (at the reasonable hour of 8:00 AM) to walk off some of the turkey and dressing we consumed the day before. It makes me crazy happy to drag my kids to see Santa, because I love Santa pictures! I love driving around with hot chocolate and looking at Christmas lights in December, and I really love spending Christmas Eve with our family at our church's candle light service. Holiday traditions make my heart happy. I'm so excited for this upcoming season of back to back holidays! 

Summer Memories

I was blessed to be able to spend my summer at home with my kiddos. I'm so grateful to be in a profession that allows me to do that. It was exhausting, often hilarious, and a lot of fun. Some fun memories I don't want to forget...

Things that were said: 

• Sassy: I want to watch Squash! I want to watch Squash. Squash can make you smile! (That would be a line from the Veggie Tales theme song for those who don't have kids yet.)
• KP: Mom, your boobs are like storage compartments for milk, right? 
• Collin: I have a friend. Her name is Anna the ADVENTURE girl! 
• Sassy: Mama, Annalise likes your boobies! 
• KP: McLain has really luxurious armpit hair. It's black and spidery. 

Things that were done:

• Best part of lunch on July 8th: Amelia-Grace stood in her chair wearing a diaper, one purple flip flop, and a fire fighter hat singing the blessing with her "mike-er-phone" at the top of her lungs. Adorable.
• KP went to Mexico Beach, Florida with his Mimi, Pop Pop, Aunt Ashley, and Uncle Daniel. He got to snorkel, kayak in the ocean, and watch his Uncle Daniel catch a shark. He said that was the best part of his trip! 
• McLain went to Florida with a friend for a long weekend and to Summer Camp with our youth group in North Carolina.
• We all went to Myrtle Beach with Clay's and my parents. Packing for 7 is no joke. Getting 7 people coated in sunscreen, fed, and ready for the beach is a two hour process, but it was worth it the trouble. McLain and Keaton loved to boogie board. Collin and Amelia-Grace loved playing in the tide pools. All four of them had a great time burying each other in the sand. Annalise enjoyed a long nap on the beach every day and kicking her toes in the water with her daddy.  
• While at the beach, we went to Cow Appreciation Day at CFA. Being out of state did not impact my crafty ability to dress my herd  like cows and get free food. This year Clay and his parents got to join us for the first time of the moo-tastic day. 
• We spent many, many mornings at White Water, and yes I took all five kids with me. I had so many people this summer act so surprised when I told them that. (Side Note: If I can handle 25 kids at work, I can surely handle five at home, people!) Collin and A-G love the slides in the toddler section and would go down them over and over with lots of smiles and giggles. They particularly loved the slides on the pirate ship.You know you go to a water park a lot when the life guards know your kids names. :) My favorite lifeguard would say, "Come on, Sassy! It's your turn!" McLain and Keaton were allowed to venture off by themselves for four slides at a time. They loved this independence. They were also both pleased that Keaton is finally a bit taller and can go down some of the more adventurous slides. Baby Annalise mostly slept in a sling on my hip. White Water mornings are definitely my favorite days of the summer. 
• I took my herd to see Inside Out after much begging from my teenager. I try my best to do activities that McLain wants to do with his siblings, and I'm glad to have taken his suggestion. It was Collin and A-G's first movie, and I crossed my fingers and said a prayer that they wouldn't act wild and cause us to leave the theater, like when I took Keaton to his first movie. Thankfully, all five of them enjoyed the movie and were well behaved. Poor A-G didn't weigh enough to keep the seat from collapsing on her, so she stood for most of it. Annalise stared at the screen for about twenty minutes and then passed out for the rest of the movie. We'll definitely put more movies on our agenda.

Things that were learned:

• McLain began learning how to play the guitar. 
• Collin learned how to spell and write "stop" and "go."
• Sassy learned to write the letter /a/ and to sing all the letters in her name, including the hyphen! 
• Annalise learned to roll over and how to talk and squeal really loud. 
• KP learned how to torture McLain by talking to everyone he encountered about McLain's armpit hair.  

Now that school's back in session, I'm counting down the days until fall break. Well, sometimes I stop counting down when someone poops up the back while I'm doing coking dinner or when someone spills a whole cup of sprite in the middle of the living room. Then, I'm grateful to have work to go to, so I can have a little break from our chaos. :)