The Longest Day

Between everything that was on our schedule yesterday, I was out of the house with 7 kiddos for 13 hours.
You read that correctly. 13. Hours.
We have not had an opportunity for grocery shopping in the past  few days and were out of whatever we might need for breakfast.
Give me a break here, we're only into the second week of an entirely new schedule. One we've never had before, and with lots of highly dependent aged children.
We began by getting ready for school in a record low time frame. Offering kids breakfast out is a big motivator, but not cost effective, so I'll find an alternative motivator (fine, bribe).
So we found breakfast at Burger King. One of their breakfast sandwiches is 2 for $1. But their cinnabons are more, and I made the unwise decision that we each needed one. They were definitely yummy!
We packed our lunch and snacks for the day at school. This took up roughly half of the back of the van. It's an 8 passenger club wagon. Do you know how much can be piled in the back of that beast?
Lately, two strollers, a jacket for everyone, 5 full back packs, a diaper bag, Mom's bag of magical organization, Whatever we might need to run errands (dropping off clothes that are still useable, returning something to someone, riding around with things that are supposed to go someplace and never, ever, ever remembering to drop them off even though we see them every single day. Come on, you know you've done it.) AND, lunch and snacks for eight people, plus a gallon pitcher and eight cups.
A few moms have commented on and complimented my dedication to recycling and how 'Martha Stewart' like I am with my canning jar cups. We just used the Crop-adile to punch a hole in the lid and stick a straw through. It wasn't my idea. I saw it on Pintrest. Since I'm too cheap to buy SEVEN plastic or metal cups with lids and straws, this is what we use.        This isn't my photo, I found it on Pintrest without no credit sited. (If you see this photo, and it belongs to you, first of all, thanks for reading my blog!!!! But most importantly, if you would like credit for the photo, or would like for me to take it down, please message me, and I will.)


                                                            After school, which, by the way, we were at from 9 am until 4 pm., We had a make up voice lesson for our oldest. This isn't really a problem. The timing is quite convenient, as we live a fair distance from the location, but it is close to the school building. The make up lesson was at 4. Some how, her class was let out a bit early, so we made her appointment on time. (So many 'asides' in this post, I know. But you should know this. If you live in the Snohomish County area, and you have kids from 6-12 grade interested in music at all or visual arts, check out One A-Chord Academy)
So, I let the six kids waiting play on the grass at the music lesson and relax a bit. That was nice.
Now we need to do something for dinner. Remember my description of the back of the van? No way was I going to bring dinner fixings, too. Besides, I don't have that many containers at home to bring more food in!
After much collaboration, the children thought that Dairy Queen sounded like a great idea. None of us has ever eaten from their brazier before. We just went there for ice cream treats. Usually after soccer. Since no one in our home has played soccer for a few years, we've sort of ignored the Dairy Queen. Also, they heard that if I would spring for the kid's meal, they would get a free ice cream treat. So we did. I'm not sure how free the ice cream treat is when you get an 8 oz soda, a hot dog, and a banana for $4. If I were to feed my family that meal at home, it would cost me approximately .30 cents per person. I don't know, maybe a Dilly Bar really does cost $3.70.
At any rate, our next destination was a county wide 4H meeting. Don't roll your eyes!
This was a meeting to introduce 4H to people that don't know much about it, and various clubs around the county set up to show us what their club does, and to recruit new members.
My goal was to find a photography club for the oldest. We found some great clubs!
It was like a petting zoo there! we went the circuit three times so the kids could pet the Llama, alpacas, miniature horse, cat, dogs, bunnies, chickens, pigeons, goat, cavie, and a two week old calf. I'm still not sure exactly what a cavie is, or how it's pronounced. That's one of our research and journaling assignments for next week.
We did find a photography club, and we found the Mud Slingers and an antique tractor club.  My older boy, the 11 yo, spent nearly the entire hour and half that we were there chatting it up with the fellas at those booths. They talked about engines and motorcycles and quads. He was in his element. I think we found his niche! The 7 yo is desperate to join these clubs, too.
I want to clear out our little shed in the back yard and turn it back into a chicken coop. That's what it was for the owners before us. It would be great to have a kid in the 4H poultry club. And eggs!
We finally made it home, and children were telling me about hungry.
Seriously. Half the day involved eating. No More Food!!!!
No one argued about bedtime, though. Not a one.
This was for sure the longest day of the year for us!