Birthdaying Unroe Style

Jacob turned 9 years old today.  I'd love to show you what the day looked like and a picture of the birthday boy, but I didn't take any today.  Jacob will not look at the camera and it seemed a shame to waste time that we could be enjoying with him while trying to get him to do something that he is NOT going to do.  So I thought I'd paint you a "word picture" of Jacob's special day.

Jacob has RAD, selective mutism, and maybe a touch of Autism.  This was his 4th birthday home and the 1st time that he made it obvious that he definitely knew it was HIS special day and was excited about it!  When the first person told him Happy Birthday before church today, he took off dancing around the room.  He even tried to sneak and look in my Walmart bags when I came home from the store the other day and he heard the kids ask where to hide his presents!  (Come on special needs Mamas - you know that is big stuff!)  He also stood up for the Birthday Song at church this morning, but looked down like he was shy - yet had a very ornery smile on his face!

After church I headed to pick up the cupcakes and got some other stuff at the store, while everyone here had lunch.  When I got home, they were all very ready to get moving toward the wonderful day that was ready for them outside!  We got them ready quickly and out they went.  They played for quite a while.  I went out and got Cody to climb the dome climber all the way to the top.  That meant that suddenly Jacob and Zeeky wanted to as well!  :)  ( I love good peer pressure!)

Late this afternoon we went out to the picnic tables in the front yard and had Jacob's cupcakes and some milk. He was very excited about it and was very excited to open up the gift bag (yes, we've learned that especially with special needs kids that takes the stress out of it!) to see what he got for his birthday.  He was thrilled with the toys that you step on or it the little "thing" (very technical tonight aren't I?) and the Cars characters project from it.  I made sure to get 3 of them so that other kids would do it with him and it would be more enjoyable.

Then 7 of the kids and Brent played a game of wiffle ball out front.  I was putting on dinner, so I put Cody and Julianne in the plastic gate thing.  They'd only been in it 5 or so times ever, so they were excited about that even.  There were tons of giggles coming from that enclosure!  After I got dinner on, I went out to check on their game and bounce those big soft balls off of Julianne and Cody which was just a thrill full of continual laughter!  (Have I ever mentioned how much I love my life!?!)

I planned dinner to hit right after it got dark, since they weren't hungry from all the cake until late!  We took candles (real and batter powered both) out and ate on the picnic tables.  We had pork chops, asparagus, and stuffing.  The kids thought that was the best way to have dinner out in the dark!  Then, Dayton started sneaking up on people on scaring them while they were at the table.  Unique was laughing so loud that I had to make them quit.  The "non-homeschooled" neighbor children would have to have a hard time getting to sleep with all that loud squealing and laughter!

Then we started bringing some of the kids in for baths and showers, while the rest stayed outside in the dark with the glow sticks!  Yes, that is a favorite summer activity and they've been begging to since the first warm day.  Julianne, Cody, and Zeeky were done by that point and asking to come in, so they got to be first up for showers and baths.  The children managed to keep their squealing down to a minimum and played like crazy outside.  I was very glad that the gate was locked and I knew they couldn't get out.  I could however see glow sticks flickering all around the "ark" play structure.  :)

There is so much fun to be had in a large family.  Homeschooling gives us a flexible schedule that allows so much family time and we can adjust our schedule to what works best from day to day.  We don't take "snow days", but we can take a "Sun"day instead.  We can play out late, sleep in later, and still get a good days school in.  We get to spend time together and my kids are the best of friends.  The kids have a full "party" of kids here and can put together a game of about any size any day that they wish.  We don't need a bunch of activities, because their are enough of us to be active without the planned times.  :)  God has truly blessed us and right now all I could wish for us for our next 5 to be home with us too.

Now the children are all soundly asleep and the business day is beginning in Bulgaria, so I am going to head to bed myself and pray myself to sleep begging God to take care of my 5 Bulgarian Blessings as well as move our adoption through quickly so we can get them home.

The next birthday here is only 2 weeks away.  Destiny is exactly 2 weeks younger than Jacob and will turn 9 on Sunday two weeks from now.  I guess we really better get some rest!

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!!

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!