Hot MamaJama

Well today was one of those days you just really don't know how to plan for. Tim stayed home sick, since in the middle of the night he started throwing up. I guess it's his turn for the flu. So now Savannah & Dawson are the only 2 people in our house to not have gotten it yet. And that includes Hailey who is here everyday. Anyway, isn't he so peaceful when he sleeps the day away? And yes those are earphones you see on his head. He apparently went to sleep while listening to his iPod. Then I took Savannah & Hunter for their first experience of the MiCasa homeschool group PE. It was fun & quite vigorous. Which is why even now they slumber in their beds. Anyway, here is Savannah racing to the cone for her team. She is the one going for the yellow cone in the middle. It was so cold out for Dawson & me though, so we spent quite a bit of the hour sitting in the car waiting. But once we were warm enough I let Dawson play on the park toys for awhile. ...

Well here I am again. It's been a rough weekend. Instead of going to the dentist Friday, I got sick & had to cancel. Today, I'm finally feeling all the way better though. Today I wanted to backtrack a little in time. Since I only recently started the blog, I thought I would share from a little prior to the start date. Jan. 11th (yes, actually on my birthday), Savannah attended her 1st spelling bee. It was with our homeschool group (the MiCasa group). There were only 3 kids in her grade competing. This is the first year that MiCasa has done a spelling bee. Anyway here is a picture of her spelling a word. She did a great job & came in first place! Then I wanted to share a picture all the way from Christmas (I know over a month ago). Here is Hunter (playing the wiseman that brings gold) and his cousin Corwyn (playing Joseph) in the Christmas pageant at my parents house a couple days before Christmas. My dad hand-cut each of them their beards for the play. It was quite ...

Well I feel like with all the excitement of last week there isn't really much to write about these days. We've just been doing school, cleaning house, playing cards, riding bikes, swinging... You know all of our usual daily stuff. The kids I think are glad to get back to school, give their minds something to do. They seem to bicker less when they have it to do. Savannah sat at the table & colored each of her school papers after she worked them, just because she could. She must have been at it for over an hour. But she's such an "ALL" colorer. I mean the sky is ALL blue, from corner to corner; the grass field that streches from one side of the page to the other is completely colored, etc. And now she's in this phase where she wants everything the right color. She'll even ask me "What color is a rabbits nose?", so she can get it all just right. oh well. I know I was never like that. Everything on my page was a rainbow of colors. That must com...

Happy Holiday! MLK JR. day that is! For most people holidays like this either means work as usual or the day off. For me it means more than usual. Since there's no school I have all 3 of the Ott's as well as mine. But that's no problem. So I just hope that all those on holiday are enjoying themselves today. :-) Just look at these big chocolate brown eyes. How can you even resist? Today we visited a new park in Mission Royale. We'd never been there before & man I wish I had taken my camera. (I'll do that next time, don't worry). Besides ya'll are getting spoiled with all the pictures. :-) Did you know there are actually blogs out there with no pictures at all?! I know, lame! Anyway, the park is big & has 2 really big slides. Dawson loved all the climbing. It's like 3 big ladders to get up to the top slides. Besides all the fun levels in between. And 2 rock climbing walls and lots more things I don't even know what are called. Like I would cal...

Well today we went to the Ostrich Ranch. It was great fun. My dad had the 4 Baldons & I had my 3 along with the 3 Ott kids that I babysit. Dawson was quite a champ in the Lorikeet's cage. Even when he wasn't too sure about his new "hat". He never cried, he instead was more curious about it all. Cynthia really enjoyed all of the animals. Here she is feeding the deer. I had to really try to get her to look at me she was so into the deer. We also brought along with us the Lorikeet whisperer apparently. They really liked my dad & he couldn't even get one off of him when he was done & trying to come out. It was pretty funny. Here's Hunter feeding the deer. Alot of the kids were a little skittish after the Ostriches because they do bite & got Kaitlyn pretty good on the hand. But they soon realized that the deer were much more gentle when eating out of your hand. See doesn't this guy just look so innocent! Think again! Savannah...

When you have 7 kids, 10 years & under in your care all of a sudden, you have to do certain things to not only keep your sanity, but keep track of the kids. Now maybe if I work my way up adding 1 at a time, I'll be better at this, but for now, we have to have a system that works. For instance, before we leave the house to go anywhere, I yell "LINE UP!". They do so in the hallway, tallest to smallest. So here they are before we head off to church Wed. night. I go down the line..."Have you brushed your hair?", "Do you have your shoes one?", "Are you taking your Bible & do you have it?", "Put on your jacket.", etc. So they were all ready or were sent to finish getting ready & then off we went. In 2 vehicles of course. Though the cutest thing about this, is that as I was going down the line, they all start laughing because then Dawson joined right at the end where he went. It was so very cute, but I had already put the camer...

Here's the riddle: What makes having 3 Penicks, 4 Baldons & an Ott seem easy? Having 11 kids all day the 2 days before that! ha ha. Anyway, here I am again, but today there are no Rakoci kids involved. Not that it matters which 3 are missing. Just that it's easier (& quicker) to count to 8 than 11. :-) Especially when it involves moving children. We went to the park again today, but nothing real exciting happened. Though I wish I had taken the camera because Dawson was climbing all the way up to the top of the monkey-bar thing. I mean really is that just something normal for every 17-month old to do? And to be able to get back down with no problem? Well the trip did work to wear the children down a little. I did get a shot of some of the kids watching a movie while I made tuna for lunch. Movies are a great thing when you have alot of noisy kids & want a little peace & quiet. Oh & yesterday Savannah tought Cora & Corwyn to ride bikes without training whee...

Well today marks my first day as an official blogger. Which is funny, because it's also a very busy day here. Why I do these things, we'll never know. Anyway, I thought I would let Candice & Charles all the way in Mexico see what we're all up to. So this mornig I had my kids, the Baldon kids & Hailey (which I babysit Mon-Fri). But my darling brother also wanted me to watch his kids today so he & his wife could get lots of lights down. hm, well might as well since I won't get anything else done anyway. so we have: Penicks - 3, Baldons - 4, Otts - 1, Rakocis - 2. Well until noon when the Rakoci score went up to 3. now we have a total of 11. no problem. so here is what my morning looked like. First Teddi came & brought me my all-healthy, get-through-the-day juice! What a life-saver she is! Me, before the coffee, thinking of what my day would look like: (ok, j/k) Ok then there's school time: The boys were allowed to just practice their creativity outs...