Family Movie Night Large Family Style

A few nights ago, we had a movie night.  We were watching Tooth Fairy 2 in these pictures I believe, but we watched The Muppet Movie most recently.  Movie nights are about the only time that we watch tv in the formal living room.  Our kids know that while it is rare we go "out" to the movies, we will buy movies that we can watch over and over.  I can buy 15 or more movies for the cost of going to the movies once!  We can still have "movie meals" too!  I will even let them "junk it up"!

Above:  Unroe version of "movie meals"

This one was popcorn, cheese stick, gogurt, pb crackers,

M&Ms (we still have Christmas ones!),

pb/chocolate Easter eggs,

and Hershey kisses (left over from Valentine's day!)

YES THAT IS THE CRAZY WAY WE ROLL!

Above and below are a couple shots of the kids.

There were more behind me, but you get the general idea!

If you notice that we appear to have two of the same kid, it is just an illusion.  lol  Zeeky and Jacob are often confused for each other by people who don't know us very well.  That is when they aren't dressed alike.  It cracked me up on this night, because they both ended up in the same pajamas.  You will notice that they are both zipped up backward in them.  This is because they have both been known to pull down their clothes and pee on things, which doesn't amuse me much.  Much harder to pull that stunt when you are zipped up backward!! 

Movies sure are fun with a big crew!!  Of course, most things are more fun with a lot of kids!!

Cookies and Qwirkle

Tonight we had cookies and a new game to play.  Dayton, Jose, and Denzell made the cookies.  (Yes, all your daughters will be fighting for my young men some day because they will know how to cook, spoil children - Julianne's fault, set boundaries, and do stuff around the house!)  They took ready made sugar cookie dough and put little caramel baking bits into the center.  Dayton and Jose pressed their dough into shaped cookie pans and then put the caramel bits in and then a little more dough on top.  Denzell rolled his dough into balls and put the caramel bits into the center.  They all were yummy!

Qwirkle is a game that I had seen in catalogs before, but I'd never gone ahead and bought it.  It was on clearance at Walmart after Christmas.  (I love to go after Christmas and get stuff on sale that we can all play or for upcoming birthdays!)  We played it for the first time tonight.  Brent, Jose, Dayton, and I all sat in the floor and figured it out.  It is NOT EASY!  It was a lot of fun though! We didn't keep score the way it says to, because we were too busy just figuring it out.  Brent asked at the very beginning if we could just make up our own rules, because it was too hard.  lol  (He was not homeschooled! Our boys are homeschooled and they were up for the challenge.  haha)

Today we just played the game and the first one to use all the tiles up was the winner.  Jose won, Dayton came in second, I was in third, and Brent was last fourth place.  :)  Next time our goal is to figure out the scoring that it is talking about.  I think it is actually going to be a game that will be good for school time.  I love things that make them use their brains differently and I think it is very important that they learn to think outside the box!  This game is definitely OUTSIDE THE BOX!  I think my head is still hurting!  I am hoping that Destiny, Andrew, Crystal, and Forrest will enjoy learning to play it this coming week. 

I love these kinds of days with my kiddos!  We even had time to watch "Tangled" (I can't even watch that movie without thinking of a beautiful little girl named Mia Kareen that came home from Ukraine this year through Reece's Rainbow!).  I love that even my boys love that movie!  (Denzell was watching football in the other room though!)  We managed to watch that while the ham was baking in the oven.  A few flurries even flew around outside.  The fireplace was on. 

God is so good!  I can't wait until He bring my next 5 blessings home!!

We Went Out to Eat Last Night

Last night we decided to go out to eat after church.  We decided to go to Bob Evans and hoped that our late night trip would lead to it not being crowded and being seated quickly.  That was a success and we pulled in to a mostly empty parking lot.

As we started to unload the kids, I noticed that there were employees staring quite worriedly at us.  I had to chuckle at the worry on their faces.  If they had known all the "diagnoses" then they would have just slipped quietly out the back door!  I always wonder how fast people would retreat if they knew all the labels.  I mean, just the sight of all of those kids (knowing nothing more) unloading the van caused their blood pressure to rise!

We went in and they ask "How many?" while employees still peeked around the corner.  I had to laugh inside.  I told them "15" and you could see them look around like "nope we weren't hallucinating there really are that many".   They started to move together tables for us, but I let them know that there was no need to move things around.  We can just as easily sit at 4 tables as we can at one long one! 

Things went so smoothly.  My kids are REALLY good in public and especially out to eat.  We had drink orders ready to give immediately.  I had two kids who ordered for themselves (Dayton and Denzell) and I ordered the rest.  (I was letting others order for themselves, but recently they showed that they couldn't handle it and ate until all the food was gone on the big meal and I had vomit to clean up.)  I keep the meals uniform to make it simpler for the waitress and also because if we were home everyone would be eating the same thing anyway.

They brought out the food and everyone was served quickly.  I had ordered extra onion petals that I walked around and handed out.  There were no spills (though I thought Brent was going to spill someone's drink a couple times!).  The kids ate quietly and neatly.  The talking at the tables was low and no one got out of their seats.

The kids really enjoyed hearing the employees that dreaded us so bad comment over and over on their good behavior.  They laughed when we got to the vehicle about all the compliments to Brent and I about what a good job we must be doing.  When we were checking out and they were still complimenting the kids' behavior, I said "I saw your looks of dread when we came in.".  The lady replied with "Yes, but that was BEFORE we knew you and now we WANT you to come back". 

Yes, I was very proud of my crew!  I hope we changed some view points.  Maybe next time they see a large group of kids coming in, they will remember that children can be respectful, calm, and enjoyable.  :)

And for your viewing pleasure cause she really is THAT CUTE:

Ground Turkey Meals

I use ground turkey much more often than beef.  It is a lot healthier and frankly I don't eat beef.  I buy the ground turkey at Sam's in a package that has 2 packages connected that total 5 pounds. 

I put 5 lbs of ground turkey in my (very large) skillet 

Add a little water and minced onion and brown the meat

I season this with mostly Taco Seasoning, but sometimes a little Chili Powder as well

Then I add 2 bag of thawed (in microwave) Mirepoix blend (I get this at Krogers when it is on sale for like 98 cents a bag) that consists of chopped onion, carrots, and celery

I add two cans of Rotel (or off brand similar) tomatoes

Then I add one can of black beans when it is close to all done so they don't get mashed up.

I serve this over chips as the meat for a Nacho Belle Grande type of dinner.

This will also go into soft taco shells and be served as the main dish the next night.

We will have it a 3rd night (not consecutively or they get tired of it lol) as the meat over a salad with tortilla chips broken over it and salsa or other Mexican food sauces.  I usually serve a side with this of some time of bread or put shredded cheese into soft taco wraps and bake to go with it.

I get a 4th meal out of it by adding that same meat into my Spaghetti sauce for a Spaghetti dinner. 

By this point we've had 4 dinners (each serving 14 people with some left over) by using 5 pounds of meat.  :)  They get some vegetables and fiber snuck in as well without even noticing.  I also don't have nearly the prep time that it would take to prepare 4 meals if the meat wasn't already done. 

CHEAP, EASY, YUMMY, AND FEEDS LOTS OF US!  :)

Snack Mix

I get a lot of questions about how I feed them all, so I thought I'd do a series of posts about the ways I make food work.  :)

One of my kids' favorite things in our "Snack Mix".  I started making snack mix as a way to give them good snacks with stuff they like, but keeping it as healthy and low fat as possible.  I also HATE TO WASTE anything.  On top of that our snacks need to be low sodium because my oldest three had high blood pressure until I adjusted their diet (mainly cut out school lunches). 

Here's what I do! 

I go through our "cereal cabinet" and get different cereals that have been mostly finished.  I put them all into a huge container.  I add some type of small marshmallows (the kids especially like it if they are seasonal - snowmen, spring time, heart shaped).  I then add some chocolate chips, M&Ms, Reeses Pieces.  If we have a partially eaten package of pretzels or gold fish crackers then they get added. 

Just a quick and careful (non crunching) mixing with my hand and we have a snack that will last for quite a while.  If another bag of cereal gets almost empty then I just add it whenever it gets that way.  Right now I did a special one for Spring and added a package of jelly beans to the mix. 

It has just enough "sweet" and "junk" to it that the kids ask for it, but plenty of cereal, crackers, pretzels, etc that it is a good snack as well. 

I love it because it eliminates waste, saves money, and is something they all love!