Our Trip to Mansfield and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum

As an early birthday present for Penelope I took her on a trip to Mansfield, MO to visit the Laura Ingalls homestead and museum! Her actual birthday is in October, but Wilder Days is held in September each year and we wanted to go! There's a big parade in town, lots of fun events, a fiddle off, and a pageant at the town park and amphitheater near the high school. We have been meaning to go for years and I realized time was slipping away from me. Penelope will always love Laura, and I am willing to bet her passion will find her in Mansfield many more times in her life, but she only has but this one chance to go to Mansfield as a (barely) 10 year old girl. At first we were going to take the whole family, but I soon started to worry about not being able to spend the quality time with Penelope at the Laura Ingalls-Wilder Museum that I had always imagined. I became concerned that Ricky and I wouldn't get to see much of the pageant because one of us would be juggling almost two year old Madeline at all times. Bea and Madeline, and even Everett, are really too young for us to take to most places without some degree of chaos.  I really wanted to experience the trip with Penelope rather than just something we drove her to go see and do. It was a  last minute resolution that I would just take Penelope, Sebastian, and Layla. We also invited Ricky's parents and sister to meet us there too! That made the trip even more fun! So, Ricky stayed back at home with the kids. It's about a three hour drive from our house. To a lot of people that's a little, teeny-weeny day trip, to me it's A BIG DAY TRIP. I'm not really a good traveler! And, I left my nursling baby at home. It's a big deal to leave a whole day from morning to bedtime! One day it won't be, but right now it just is.

We stopped for yummy pastries on the way and had a very nice drive through the country to Mansfield, MO. The park and amphitheater where the pageant is held had a playground and a great layout overall. It was nice to know for next time that this will be totally do-able with younger kids. While waiting we bought some handkerchief dolls that were for sale.

The Pageant:  “Laura’s Memories”
The pageant was very enjoyable. It's full of little children of all ages and it's so fun to watch! The kids work so hard and the program comes together so nicely despite a very large cast of mostly children!  It really told so many stories. It was so neat to have read the books, so all the story lines and songs were already very familiar to follow. Penelope looked on in awe. She had a quite serious face for most of the performance. I think she was so amazed as it came alive.

After the pageant we headed out a couple of short blocks away to the cemetery where we got to pay our respects to Laura. Penelope left a pencil on her tombstone thanking her for writing and sharing her stories with us and the world.

Penelope loved the brief bit we saw of Mansfield and so did I. We then headed to Rocky Ridge Farm!

Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum

There's a large museum expansion that just opened up this year. It is filled with so many personal items: clothing, shoes, toys, books, handwritten notes, real sewing and lace hand stitched by Laura. (She was wildly talented.) So many items that belonged to and were once used and well loved by all the family. It's a beautiful, touching tribute and time capsule of their lives. It was extremely special for us, even breathtaking at times. It amazes me more than ever how many people feel so connected to her and her family through the stories about her life. It's remarkable to ponder over and over how it really wasn't all that long ago that people had to work harder than we could ever imagine working just to survive. When I was a young girl I enjoyed Little House on the Prairie the book and I loved the television show. I think it's really quite special and amazing Laura ultimately got to talk to and hear from her fans as she lived out her days on Rocky Ridge Farm. She died a very famous and well known woman. I think it's special Laura got to know the imprint she made on generations of people, even having the Mansfield library dedicated to her while still alive. And now here we are, MORE GENERATIONS enjoying her work!  It's a very special legacy that brings tears to my eyes.

Each year more than 30,000 visitors from all 50 states

and about 20 countries make their own pilgrimage to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home

You couldn't take pictures in the home, but at the entrance of your tour you could take a picture with this accurately sized Laura cutout. She was very little!

There was no photography allowed inside the home, but this photo I found (stole?) online.

I ADORE the kitchen. 

The kitchen was divine and I loved it so much. The wallpaper made my mouth drop open. The home is perfect in every way. I absolutely fell more in love with it with each room we explored. I think we all did. I cannot wait to visit with Ricky. He loves old homes too and grew up in an old farm house himself. Ricky's parents and sister Deanna loved it too. We have a real *love* for this kind of thing!

Right after snapping this photo I was told I wasn't allowed to take photos in this area. OOOPS!

This is the beautiful Rock House, a beautiful more modern home that Rose (Laura's daughter) built for her. This is where the Little House books were written. Rose, a successful author herself, first encouraged her mother to tell her stories on paper.

You can read about both homes and their roles in Laura's life here 

 

Penelope's birthday gift from the gift shop: a new beautiful prairie dress, and Sebastian's coon cap.

We went a little crazy in the gift shop. We bought bonnets and coon hats and a lovely print of the below artwork.

Back at home we started planning next years trip. The other kids are so excited. I immediately followed a bunch of Mansfield pages on Facebook to keep up to date with the town. For fun we tried to think of businesses we could open up in Mansfield. Penelope wanted to move there so bad! (still does!) So we day dreamed about it and looked at maps of the area. Immediately the kids got right back into their prairie games at home. Something adorable is that Madeline will answer to the name Baby Grace just as well as she naturally answers to Madeline because they play so often. (Laura's youngest sister.)

I started a Facebook page to record the prairie kids' adventures, crafts, and play. I hope like minded Little House / Laura fans might find us. You can find that here:  Little Playhouse on the Prairie

Beach Vacation

Family Picture Gulf Shores 2015 ~8 kids and a baby on the way

Our beach trip was great. There were ups and downs of course... I somehow actually expected everything to be perfect and it wasn't (I know go ahead and laugh), but it was totally okay and I did not have my expectations ruin the trip in any way. One day it rained, two days were super duper windy but we had some beach time anyway, one day there were horrible biting flies, one day was pretty perfect. It was interesting comparing the things we liked last year and this year as well as the things we didn't like. The trips were at the same place with totally different pros and cons! I realized the crappy spring weather we got last year was made up for in other ways during that trip. Crawfish and frog leg feasts, for example, were out of season in September but not in April. While both trips were quite windy, the fall trip had MUCH warmer weather and water. Anyway, what I'm actually trying to say is that it's great to have perspective!

You know what WAS perfect this year!? I finally got my family photo on the beach (see above) and I am a very happy momma for it! We haven't had a good one on the beach since Penelope (8) was a baby (see below). I was thrilled. Last years picture was so windy that my hair was standing on end. See. 

Mexico 2007

 I dubbed our trip the 'fun animal trip.' We saw two sting rays in the ocean (Ricky and Charlotte found them while snorkeling and Ricky stepped on one!), some of us saw dolphins, we collected up sand dollar and small crab critters. We made 47 dollars in 'sand money.' We let them all go back to their home in the ocean. Charlotte (18) caught a BIG crab in our swimming pool! That was really fun. She said it was scary. It kept looking at her and snapping it's claws at her. She had to get it from the bottom of the pool and it took her a half hour to wrangle it. The kids told us something was in the pool that looked like a crab and that it even pinched some of them. We didn't believe them! Poor kids! I checked it out after a few minutes and sure enough there was totally a crab in the pool.

Beatrice, only two, had a rough ride to Alabama. It took us 19 hours to drive there instead of a more usual 12. We were pretty calm about it, taking it all in good stride. Over the course of six days I flip flopped between going back next year or waiting three years before traveling that far again (until the new baby is three because we don't ever want to road trip with a two year old again). I flip-flopped a dozen times as if I had to make the decision right then. It's my nature. One minute I was ready to put down a deposit for next year and the next minute I was saying how we are having a stay-cation the next couple years. I think vacationing with kids is like giving birth, you need the reality of how much work it is to wear off before jumping in and doing it again!

A moment for just us

We spent a lot more money on vacation than we wanted to. (Doesn't everyone?) But we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Rolling into Alabama at 6 am after driving all night we wanted a nice breakfast. Breakfast at Cracker Barrel was $112 for us all, but it was worth every penny! We had such a lovely time and enjoyed each others company so much. We almost went to the Waffle House nearby but in the parking lot we decided not to. There was not much space inside at all and we were SURE to be gawked at. I suggested Cracker Barrel across the street because they don't bat an eye when an army rolls in. And sure enough they didn't. We were treated to breakfast royalty and the wait staff acted like a family with eight and half kids waddles in the door every single day. We had fun browsing the gift shop after breakfast which gave the kids more time to stretch out too. 

We shared the ever so lovely and spacious purple house on the beach with our friends and their kids. All of the kids got along so well and had so much fun. I couldn't believe how much fun! I expected normal kid stuff and for everyone to tire of each other at some point but it didn't happen. The beach house we shared is very spacious though so we were never right on top of each other. The kids and adults alike had lots of good fun. It was wonderful to have friends to vacation with, we have never done that before! We had a private pool too, so when the kids weren't swimming like fish in the ocean they were swimming like fish in the pool.

Ahhh that water, those waves, and kids. Love!!

With Friends

In the days leading up to vacation I had the normal tiresome job of packing and prep work. It is so much work getting all of us, the house, and the animals ready for vacation. I asked my husband WHY were were doing this vacation again and said maybe we should have stayed home. He said, "Because you said you have to have pregnancy beach pictures." I smiled, "And why do you give your wife everything she wants?!" Then he grinned and kissed me on the head. Those small loving gestures keep me falling in love with him over and over again. I love him so much...

And sooooooo my mini maternity shoot. 33 weeks pregnant on the beach, thanks to my dear husband...

HOME
On the way home Beatrice understood much better that we had traveled far to someplace and we needed to get back home to our animals. We timed our trip home carefully, made two stops before dark that were about two hours apart (one was at a park to play and one was dinner), and things went much better. She actually didn't even cry once (whined a couple times). She is an amazing child and once she understands something she seems to really understand! She talked about home being 'far away' while at the beach. Now she tells us the beach or purple house is 'far away.' She is very smart and cute.

In a total of 19 hours driving there and 12 hours driving home I pitifully only drove 3-4 hours of it. Ricky did all the hard work. On the way home this exchange was funny:

Me: I don't think I'm much of a road tripper

Ricky: I know you're not

Me: Well I like the idea of it but...

Ricky: You like the "idea" of winter too.

Made me laugh so hard.

I am extra glad he was able to drive all the way home because this baby belly is moving up quickly into my diaphragm and ribs making sitting harder. The baby is bouncing around in there like crazy when I sit straight up. I can breathe okay...but I am slowly noticing a big difference in that too!

 ~~~

Pulling into our driveway at 4am the first words I said were "Home is where the farm animals are." I missed our place a lot. I am always amazed how nice coming come feels. We were all awake getting home, and the kids (especially Bea) were so happy with our familiar home. There is something so cozy and appreciating about being home after a week of being gone! I had even put fresh new sheets on the bed before leaving on our trip so that we would come home to a clean and cozy bed.

Ricky and I barely remember anything as we all crashed out. When we woke up at 9am it felt like we all slept for just a half hour. It was so weird and hilarious! It was like we were gassed out. (Kinda scary to be out that cold with kids in the house though!) I woke up to the kids crashed out everywhere all over the floor, which isn't *that* unusual, but it seemed extra funny that Bea and Everett were sharing and sleeping on a body pillow in the hallway. They were out cold! I would have taken a picture but I was still too tired. 

Ricky hasn't stopped working 12-14 hour days since we got home. He's been quite busy for months now anyway, but there is a even larger price to pay for being out for a week! Plus he is trying to prepare for taking time off when the baby comes (due on Halloween!) and then the holidays will come fast right after that.  Things are good but also tired and a bit crazy around here. I got back into the swing of things quickly and picked right back up with housework the first week we were home, and then school work this week. Vacations are lovely...but trying to settle in again can be so hard. We are all excited for fall and it's all I can think about now.

Oh, I almost forgot one of the best things! Ricky told me he feels totally refreshed after vacation. I was so glad to hear that. He so deserved a nice trip and some downtime. He works very hard for his family. He swam in the ocean a lot (he loves to swim) and I'm so very glad it soothed his soul. I know what he means, got to spend an entire afternoon in the water with him and it was very rejuvenating. The winds kept me out the last couple days though. (I get cold easy.)

Can't wait for next year...

31 weeks

31 weeks

This pregnancy is going by quickly! I find myself scrambling to enjoy this pregnancy and thinking up ways I can have weekly mini celebrations for myself as I close out the next nine weeks! I made a fall pregnancy celebration head wreath to wear already. I am taking online belly dancing classes (and signing up for a local one in October), I have started a list of must-get supplies for me and baby (waiting to purchase until October). I have plans to: do a belly cast, paint Beatrice's belly cast with Ricky (it is still just plain), color birth pages  and write affirmations on the back of them, go on a hike with the kids and tie prayers to a tree, and get pampered by my husband a bit! But ohmygoodness time is slipping away. I cannot believe it is September 1st and we leave for our beach vacation next week! When we discussed a possible beach trip for this fall I was very newly pregnant. The first thing I exclaimed to my husband was that I get to be pregnant on the beach and have beach-belly pictures. (I have never had belly-beach pictures! How fun!) Whenever I am getting ready to visit the beach I am pretty excited, but it is not until I am there that I can truly remember just how amazing the sight, touch, smell, and experience feels. Come to think of it,  it is a lot like having a newborn baby! Some experiences, no matter how fond and dear our memory holds onto them, are nothing like actually experiencing them all over again. I can't wait to feel the ocean's energy at my feet!

Life on Fast Forward
I started Oak Meadow with the younger kids this fall and although we have barely started we are loving it so much. I have wanted to dabble in this curriculum for years and years but I was too afraid. I realized I had way too many years left of being afraid and that I really just needed to take the plunge. I also am really tired of coming up with material on my own. I'm spread so thin. I wanted direction. I wanted help. There's some we add to it too, but having Oak Meadow be our focus has been simply wonderful. We have been sewing a bunch, finger knitting, working with clay, and keeping scrapbook journals filled with artwork and our schoolwork. Things seem to be really falling into place with the younger kids and this curriculum. The teens aren't complaining that they get to start school up after vacation. I am doing a mish-mash of stuff with them, but that is easier because they are largely independent learners and can pick and chose through many things I recommend to them easily.

 Ricky started a new job (at the same firm). As I mentioned we started a new school program and we are going on vacation. We are due on Halloween! We are in the middle of 'Birthday Season'. We have five kid birth days in three months ...and our anniversary. We absolutely LOVE fall and I am so looking forward to all the fall festivities as my belly grows. Whew! It's no wonder I feel like I'm on a Ferris wheel set on fast! (There have been some other not so happy things going on, like our air and septic system both needing major, major updates and repairs. Over the summer we also dumped thousands into repairs on vehicles...we have to take the bad with the good! Life happens.)

This baby is resting his or her head smack down on my bladder which makes cleaning house... and just walking in general pretty hard. Usually my babies are more centered on me with a lot more overall pressure and very low. I am walking a ton, staying active, crawling around on my hands and knees (scrubbing the floor is great for getting baby in a good position), belly dancing, and doing squats to all help optimal baby position. (I need to get to my chiropractor to check on/ align my pelvis, but since I don't hurt I have been so bad about taking the time to go in!) I'm not concerned about this baby's alignment, but I am aware of how to optimize my babies positioning in these last weeks!
Spinning babies is a great resource for learning about optimal fetal positioning for labor and birth.
See: The 3 Principles in Pregnancy Balance, Gravity and Movement! Positive principles to prepare for, and progress through, childbirth.

Nesting has started I think... I cleaned under the fridge yesterday (filthy!), I washed the silverware caddy out, I laundered the kitchen drapes, and cleaned nearly the whole (filthy!) basement, I washed the trash can inside and out (even the bottom). I sure hope the nesting energy continues. I feel like tearing the place apart (time to sort through fall wardrobe bins and paint the basement stairs)! This is all kinda bad timing because we leave for vacation next week! I sure hope vacation doesn't totally wipe me out. This mama is just getting started!

Out of nowhere I started getting baby-girl vibes. This happened last week. Usually by now I "know" what gender we are having through intuition/dreams. Amazingly I have never been wrong...yet! I'm not actually sure if I am sure...but I started feeling a girl. I think that I really, really do think baby is a girl but I'm afraid I'll be wrong and I've never been wrong! Yet!
I don't get scans so there are no opportunities for us to cheat and find out even if we wanted to. We truly love not knowing though! It's such a special surprise that Ricky and I just love sharing with each other and the kids. It makes the birth even more exciting and special to us. I love when the kids come down early in the morning and greet the fresh newborn baby. They marvel at the baby for a while then realize to ask, "Is it a boy or a girl!?!" Every where I go people ask me what I'm having. Most are truly surprised we don't know.   

Just because we don't do scans doesn't mean other people's experiences don't touch me. I actually teared up (like a few tears actually fell!) at this yesterday:

Charlotte, our oldest (18), is lead cake decorator at a bakery. Yesterday she got to make a surprise 'gender reveal' cake for an expecting mom. A lady came in with her *secret* ultrasound picture in an envelope and pleaded with Charlotte to not lose it as it was her only copy and she didn't even know her baby's gender yet! Charlotte said the lady was really cute about it and had a little toddler girl with her. The toddler wore the same 'Big Sister' shirt we had bought for Beatrice many months ago. After the lady left Charlotte opened up the photo. Charlotte was excited to find out the cute little toddler girl has a new baby sister on the way! Charlotte thought it was really special and fun to hold this secret. She did four stacked thinner layers of cake so that she could get more pink colored frosting inside of the cake. I totally teared up as Charlotte told me this whole cake/ultrasound story! I couldn't help it, dang pregnancy hormones! As Charlotte told me the whole story with excitement and sweetness in her voice - well it was just so sweet! I love that my daughter is so touched by the celebration of new life and feels happiness for others in such a touching and sentimental way. I love how much effort and time she puts into her work. She really goes above and beyond for people and wants their cakes to be as special as their event.

Big wonderful, amazing, magical Christmas Surprises!

Las Vegas was an absolutely fantastic time. Everything fell into place; it was an easy peasy, extra fun, trouble free, perfect trip there and back. Seeing my family was amazing. So many people to visit with and enjoy. So many people loving to see the kids and to share Christmas cheer with. Christmas morning couldn't have been better, the kids had so much fun, then the truly unexpected happened.

Rewind back to the day we left for Vegas:

I walked our house sitter Erin through our house as I explained to her the unpleasantness of our really janky toilet situation. The upstairs toilet hadn't worked in a year. We had it fixed once but it soon started having a leaking problem again. We needed to eventually call someone to look at it again but decided it was most likely just the toilet that was leaking. The downstairs toilet over the past year has been working less and less well. Finally it got to the point that we had to pour a half a pitcher of water down it, while simultaneously holding the flusher down in order to get solids to go down. Pee would go down, just maybe not your toilet paper. We lived like this for a long time partly out of not knowing where to begin (we usually try to fix things ourself first) and partly out of the costs involved. We also have a 'well things could be worse' attitude about life - makes things easier that way. We live in a very old house and we are do-it-yourselfers. If it can't be fixed by us then we live with it for usually as long as possible. The toilet thing was really getting crazy though. We needed new toilets.

The dishwasher situation wasn't much better. Our frugal side kept us buying used dish washers on Craigslist. They'd last a couple years but we only had to spend 20-60 bucks on them! This is what big families do. Families of nine don't go out and buy new dishwashers on a whim. ;) This last one we nabbed for 20 bucks was a real pain though. It wasn't cleaning anything. The kids complained. I told them to be happy we even have one. Besides, limping by builds character.

Once our character was built up some and we had limped and limped by a good long while someone put a call into Santa and Santa must have put a call into my parents (because he doesn't make appliances at his workshop).

On Christmas morning 1200 miles away from our home we opened a present that had a toilet seat inside! Attached to it was an invoice for 2 toilets for our house. In another box was dishwasher soap and an invoice for a dishwasher already purchased.

I was so shocked I could have fell over. It was UNBELIEVABLE! We were so excited. (Not kidding THE FIRST thing we did when we arrived at my parents was comment about how we have "working toilets here" and how nice it was to not deal with our freaking toilets at home.)

We were so grateful and felt so blessed and loved to receive such a helpful and amazing gift for our family.

A Toilet Seat!

The last gift we unwrapped was this piece of paper:

My shocked face opening the above paper. See how happy and surprised we are. Awesome.

What went through my head: "Are you kidding me, Ricky doesn't have to install all of this???!!!!"

What went through Ricky's head: "THANK GOD I don't have to install this, all of this would take forever!" (And it would have, we did need a little plumbing work done after all, and without the tools and experience it would have been a headache and we probably would have been with no toilet for more than a day -or 5!! lol.)

At some point I cried happy tears!

Then more of the story and gift started to unfold ...

Before we left for Vegas my parents asked several times who was house sitting for us. I did not ever think anything of it but I never gave them a name I just kept explaining she was a good friend who had three little boys and she's a great person... Finally my dad asked me over the phone, "What's her name?" I never thought it was weird. I thought it was out of character of my dad, but not weird. I told him, "Erin."

I had no clue my parents, being the sneaky sneaks they are, were trying to hunt Erin down. My mom found her through my facebook and asked her if they could talk on the phone... she set the whole entire thing up with Erin. Plumbers were to come the day after Christmas to install everything. So when we got home we would have it all already done. The entire time I was telling Erin about our Janky situation during the house sitting walk through she was smiling on the inside. She said that it was so much fun watching me explain everything and I agree, it was! I love thinking about it.

I realized immediately I now didn't have to mess with setting up appointments, putting the dogs up, wrangling the kids, having the water turned off. My house sitter had it all covered. I felt like a princess. When I talked to her on the phone Christmas day and told her I knew everything it was really fun. She was so happy for us and thought the whole thing was wonderful. It was. Everything was WONDERFUL.

When we got home from our trip we had a stomach bug so the new toilets got use right away! LOL! They flush so fast. It's fantastic. To be so excited about toilets is hilarious! I called a very good friend of ours, a family we enjoy having over, and told them the news right away. They had just been to our house before we left on our trip. We are so happy we can have company over without telling people they'd be better off just not pooping at our house. Hahahaaaaaa.

Because of the excitement I can't remember which surprise came first but the surprises just kept on coming! I believe this is what happened next...

My sister, Heather, the youngest of us five kids gave every household a tall package. Inside was a frame full of old pictures. Everyone loves old pictures! Childhood pictures of myself, my family. It's really special and priceless. She made several for our parents. One of each of their sides of the family, one of just them, and one of them and their 5 kids. The hours she poured into it was unbelievable.

Then everyone, one per household, opened up a tiny gift box. Inside was a flash drive. She explained that she had scanned, over the course of just about a month, 12,000+ old photos from mom and dads photo albums and photo storage. Baby photos of them, of us, family pictures and thousands of old snap shots now all digital and on the drive we each held. It was unbelievable. I knew instantly the amount of work that was. I cried! Her fingers hurt, her eyes were seeing nothing but pictures, she was sleep deprived. I'm a picture person and I spend a lot of time on my pictures. I can not imagine taking on a project like she did. For an entire day I was in shock that I now had all those treasured photographs. I love pictures. Memories are so important to me. It's why I write this blog and it's why I take insane amounts of pictures.

What a blessing my family is, and what a beautiful time we had. Both those gifts are life changing to us. The appliances because they make our life easier and better, the photos because they are treasures that can be passed on for generations to come. I can't wait to put some old photos on our walls!

 Photos of my dad

My Great Grandma

My Grandma reading to her kids

My Aunts!

My Uncle Doyle

5 kids (I'm the oldest)

My sister, Christy, and me

12,000 photos... can you imagine?

Having a wonderful time

I never stopped to love this view when I lived here. You bet I do now. My first home.

Day 1: Made Christmas candles and rosette cookies with my mom and Grandma Smith. Took mini hike in the desert and had a cactus scavenger hunt.
At 8:30pm we did Polar Bear Club at my dads -a family tradition every 10 years we jump into a 35 degree swimming pool. (omg it was WAY worse than I remember!)

Day 2: Christmas surprises galore ...life changing surprises! I will write more when I can! Amazing!!! Lots of family time, lots of blessings, lots of love.

Day 3 family pictures with 35 people! Tonight off to The Tournament of Kings show at the Excalibur. An amazing live action dinner show with dancing maidens, jousting, fireworks, and eating with your fingers! It's my favorite! I've waited a long time to take our kids! 31 of us are going! Then I want to show the kids the volcano eruption at the Mirage.

Desert hike

Polar Bear Club photo...getting ready to go in, most of us in clothes

Could NOT have planned this photo. I snapped it just the right moment. My dad and my husband lol!
They are getting fired up for Polar Bear Club

Christmas Day My husband and Dad still messing with the COLD pool! Ricky was jumping in the spa (not pictured) between cold pool dips, the kids were enjoying a hot spa dip as well.

Kids X mas morning

Follow up about the life changing surprises Click Here

LAS VEGAS BABY!

This year we planned a surprise Christmas trip to Las Vegas (my hometown) to visit family. We haven't been in a very long time and I never want to go. (Not because I don't want to see my family, my family is awesome, it's just totally exhausting to haul a million kids to Vegas and juggle 15 places to go in 4-5 days! And we have a ton of animals at home, and we are total homebodies!)

Since we wanted it to be a Christmas surprise we had to keep it a secret for a while and only reveal it as close to Christmas as possible! We kept it from tons of people, even friends and some family!

Ricky and I decided last week that last night was our Christmas Eve here.We wrapped the presents the other day and this morning we surprised the kids by having Santa come a week early. The kids didn't know what was going on this morning when they woke up. Penelope was running around excitedly saying there were presents under the tree. First we gave the kids a wrapped suitcase to open. It was a 3 piece suitcase set nested into each other.

Inside the suitcase was an envelope that

said "vacation 1" on it.

This is what they found :

I hate the cold! So this was a bizarre trip to tell the kids we were going on. Plus who wants to sleep in the snow?!!!! Charlotte said, "ARE YOU CRAZY!?" They decided the open the next suitcase.

This is what they found in

vacation envelope #2

This was hilarious. The kids were flabbergasted, wanted to know if it was safe, wanted to know how it would happen. (Would we be in a tank?) One kid asked if we would be in a cage. Hahaha. They decided to trade this vacation in for whatever suitcase # 3 had in it. Sage later said, "I almost picked sharks, would we really have gone?" LOL!

They open the 3rd and last vacation envelope:

They were very surprised and happy we get to go see our family for Christmas. They don't know we have more surprises that await in Las Vegas! They do know it will be a fabulous time though! yayyyyyy!

Overnight Trips Away ~~ PACKING



Why do these people have so much stuff and only 1 kid, does this make any sense?

My friend told me I should be helping her big family of six kids pack for a weekend away because I should be good at it by now, as we go away on 2-3 night visits more often than she does. Here's what I told her to do :) (Number 7 cracks me up! It's so true!)

1. Wash all clothes, or at least enough to pack. Make sure 1 load is drying right before you leave and stand around waiting for it.


2. Line up kids clothes on the couch in sets with socks and underwear. Older kids bring their own to you and you tell them which ones you approve of and then explain for the 1000th time what play clothes vs nice clothes are.

3. Use 3 laundry baskets instead of suitcases and start packing kids clothes in them. Don't forget extra blankets if needed and a sling (usually only need this for babies), bring a zip lock baggy of  Motrin and other care items for kids. ~~If you have a baby or two pack up the cloth diapers! (Or wuss out and decide to buy throw away diapers on the way there which I have done lol!)

4. Start packing the grown up clothing stuff in one of the baskets, top it off with personal care items: make up bag, toiletry bag, hair dryer, curlers or whatever.

5. Intend on having this all loaded up and ready to go the night before you leave but fail at that thought, I always do. LOL!

6. Get that last load of laundry out of the dryer but forget what you really need out of it because the baskets are already packed. So just pack a couple more clothes just for good measure.

7. Forget to pack your own pajamas.

8. Leave 4 hours later than you thought you would and now every kid is starving to death. At least one kid can't find their shoes. But more likely it's two kids.

9. Have fun :D

week in review : kids home, earthday, homeschool

The older kids are home! After a crazy 12 hour plane delay in TX due to two days of bad weather in he area. Poor kids! They made it home though. They had fun in Mexico and they came home with tans, stories, and a boat load of dirty clothes.

Earth day was yesterday. We spent it with good friends at the annual Earth Day celebration we go to in Rolla. The kids made pine cone bird feeders, and such. It wasn't as entertaining as last year (every year the booths dwindle to less & less), but it was good to see our friends and watch the kids play.

We found yet another early reader website! I swear I try them all. It's http://www.sightwordswithsamson.com/ I like it because it's focus is on sight words and not phonics. We found another site I'm thinking about buying the software of at http://www.readinghorizons.com/ . It teaches real reading rules in easy to understand format (and has games). One of their free movies is about why/when do words start with K/C; like why isn't Kitten spelled with a C? It's very interesting and I think it will help even older readers. I'm having fun learning too.

This week we tried a new homeschool "format" in the mornings after breakfast I have the little girls (age 2&4) do two letter of the day worksheets. The older three kids (age 9,9 & 12) do worksheets together. Monday they did a series of geography, latitude & longitude, map skills worksheets. On Tuesday they did a packet of about 6 worksheets on pollination (earth day related). The sheets were educational and also had mazes, word searches, Etc.

So now what to do today...

The dormant strawberry plants/roots we planted while the kids were gone are doing FANTASTIC! They have tripled in size! I hope I muster up the energy to garden today. I need to get a bunch of household stuff done first. I need to accomplish several things today since we'll be gone all day tomorrow again. I need to drop off the older kids to sleepover birthday parties back in Rolla again. So there goes our Friday. (Charlotte and the boys each have different parties to go to).

And people wonder how homeschoolers socialize. They should be wondering when homeschoolers have time for school work.

100 strawberry plants are a lot

Well I miss the older 3 kiddos. But not as much as I thought I would. I think they are finally getting old enough that I don't obsessively worry about them. Oh I worry...Just not as obsessively. Plus I know they are having so much fun. Away they come home tomorrow. Then it's back to homeschooling, a schedule, Etc.
I'm going to joke with them and say I missed them because I had to do the dishes while they were gone :D

I'm disappointed that we didn't end up taking the little girls somewhere really fun. We got really caught up in buying fruit trees, gardening, mowing, Etc. They had loads of fun in the dirt, on their playground, at the farmers market, digging up worms and having worm races. But still I feel bad. We were suppose to do something special with them. Maybe we'll come up with something.

I'm discovering that gardening is exercise. I'm exhausted. My leg muscles are sore. And planting 100 strawberries does not sound like or look like as much work as it is. Yesterday we also bought more fruit trees than we have room for. I think we have a plan though.

Back home

Our trip to Las Vegas was fun. The kids played a lot with their cousin Echo, which is a big highlight of the trip. Grandpa Craig (my dad -Pictured below with the kids) took the kids to Old Nevada http://www.bonniesprings.com/ where they got to learn a little about the old west and see two old west shows. We went along as well, and it was a lot of fun. They also spent many hours in the pool at Grandpa Craig and Grandma Mindy's house. My little brother's wedding was very beautiful and fun. We also got to see my mom and Grandma Smith. They had never met Penelope yet. My Grandma Smith brought the kids a beautiful chunk of petrified wood because she knew they loved stuff like that. (She is a great fan and collector of rocks, minerals, fossils and bones.) More pictures on my blog

It's good to be home now...