The Greatest Show on Earth

I love going to the circus. I love watching my kids laugh and seeing the joy in their eyes and on their faces. The Ringling Bros. circus is the best, we only go every few years so it is always exciting and new. I remember my mom and dad taking just me to the circus one year when I was about 12. I must have been the youngest one living at home at the time because with 8 kids I don't know how that happened! Anyway, I love that memory so it's always fun to take my family now. This year we went with the Bailey's and had a great time together. Before the show started we were able to go down on the floor and be up close to some of the acts. The best was when they brought out a couple of the elephants to paint a picture. We were so close to them it was pretty amazing. Logan was the perfect age this year to enjoy the circus, he laughed at everything and loved shouting Zing, Zang, Zoom!

Lyndi didn't care too much for the circus but she sure loved stuffing her head into the box of popcorn!

Love the elephants!

Happy Birthday Logan!

We had a great time at Chuck E. Cheese's today celebrating Logan's 6th birthday. He invited a bunch of his friends from church and everyone had a great time. He was so excited, and loved all the attention! Thanks everyone for making this such a special day for Logan. (gotta love the messy pizza face!)

Surviving Summer

I know there is still a lot of summer to go but so far it is better than I expected. This is the first year that I haven't sent my kids to a summer program through parks & rec and I was seriously wondering how I was going to maintain my sanity having all the kids home all day, everyday. My saving grace has been implementing a program called Accountable Kids that I ran across from a friends blog. Basically it is a system that keeps the kids on track throughout the day with chores and other basic responsibilities such as getting dressed and eating breakfast. They in turn earn tickets for completing their jobs and use those tickets to enjoy privileges such as watching TV, choosing a DVD, going to a friends, whatever they want to do. They also lose tickets for unacceptable behavior. I have never been one big on chore charts, I just expect the kids to do what I ask them to do but that really hasn't ever worked very good so I end up frustrated that I'm the only one trying to take care of the house being destroyed by 7 other very capable people. Plus, the kids weren't really learning any true responsibility from it. Now they have morning, lunchtime, and evening jobs that really only take about 15 minutes to complete and the house is staying clean and manageable (except on Sundays when it always seems to fall apart!) and I'm not yelling and fighting with the kids to get things done. The kids are realizing that it takes a little work to earn privileges, it's not just a freebie anymore. The whole system has been way easier than I thought to implement and the kids actually seem to be enjoying it. If you want to check out more about it the website is accountablekids.com. It was a little bit of an investment to get started but it has been completely worth it. Other than that we are just enjoying a typical lazy summer. We are looking forward to going to the circus in a few weeks and also celebrating Logan's 6th birthday. We may try to escape to the beach over the 4th but are still thinking about that one. The idea of going somewhere is always great but the logistics of finding a hotel that can accommodate us, and packing and planning and feeding everyone, ugh it almost doesn't seem worth it but somehow we do it and actually end up having a little fun! (until we have to pack up, come home, unpack, and do the laundry!) I think mom's need a vacation after the vacation!

Room to Grow

Little by little we are outgrowing our lovely home. We don't feel too squished yet but there are days when trying to put stuff away there just isn't a spot for it, or when both bathrooms are occupied and someones doing the potty dance! When we bought or house we thought it would be our forever home but then I was pregnant with #5 and did not anticipate having any more kids! Little did we know the little blessings that would come our way. With the housing market the way it is we realize that now is the time to buy a bigger house. Everyday I get emails of new listings on the market and although their are plenty of 5 bedroom homes available nothing really meets our needs. You wouldn't realize it but there are exceptional needs with a large family that I'm just really not willing to compromise on. For example, why do builders build huge homes with no laundry room or pantry? Don't they realize moms spend over half their lives doing laundry or cooking? Seriously, we don't feel as if we have to move yet so we really don't want to settle for something we don't want because of price. In our searching we came across an acre of land for sale near Crismon and Brown. We never thought of building our own home but the more we think about it, it just works for us. I love the idea of room for the kids to roam, freedom to imagine and explore, and room to spread our wings! So we are taking a giant leap of faith and buying land, the whole process is a little intimidating as we've never done this before but Randy and I both grew up in families who built their own homes so we know we can do it. We are really excited for the future and this new adventure in our lives, I just hope we survive!