Saturday's Magic

One of the most difficult things about being a mom to six kids is dividing my time between them. I'm constantly being pulled in all different age directions, from supervising driving skills to teaching how to make bunny ears with shoelaces to keeping toddler destruction under control (impossible with my active girl!). Sometimes a couple of little ones get lost in the shuffle of busyness.

I love doing fun things as a family.....with ALL the kids, but it is getting harder with the age division of interests. Do we play Euchre or Uno? It's like when a big kid is shouting "Hey, watch me, Mom!" on the high dive and I'm stuck in the kiddie pool. (true story) Sometimes my kids do all agree on something fun together, like The Farming Game.

Funny how Faith just sits there like she is part of the game

I hate dislike that game. Who wants to play a game where you owe the bank tens of thousands and are always in debt? Sounds like real life to me. My kids know that as nice as I am :-) I will never play that game with them.

And sometimes I catch my big ones joining in on a make believe adventure with the little ones.

It makes my heart smile.

I'm letting go of the concept that all of my kids need to be present in order for us to enjoy family time. My preference is that we all play together but I'm coming to realize that it is okay if a big kid or two wants to stay home instead of going to the park with the little ones or whatever else we choose to do.

Today I invited all kids to go to town for some entertaining family time. Only two were excited about going. (Mostly because I had no details. For some reason big kids like specifics.)

So, I took my only two brown-eyed babies and headed out. Side note: The awesome thing about having kids with a wide age range is the babysitting. We don't (or try not to) take advantage of them. Really they love to babysit and ask to. Seems weird, huh? Don't let their innocent, teenage looks fool you. Free television and snack privileges come with babysitting in this house. Oh, and no other chores for the day. Good incentives. I hope they will always treasure the special bond they share.

Our charming town was celebrating the beginning of the holiday season. There were all kinds of fun activities. And did I mention....everything was free? One thing we were for sure doing was going to the movie theatre to catch a show.

It was a bonus that I had been wanting to see this movie. I was disappointed to learn that I wasn't missing much. (Sorry to all of you who love this Christmas classic.) Maybe had I not watched the movie through Corbin's eyes I would have felt differently? My 5 year old doesn't need the example of bad-mannered kids. (I'm sounding all prudish, aren't I? If you would meet my spicy little guy you would see that he shouldn't have that encouragement.)

After the movie we went on a game hunt. We walked from store to store to play carnival-like games and fill our lists with stickers.

There was to be a drawing later in the evening. Four kids would win $25 to spend at any merchant in town. Emmaly was one of the winners! I was overjoyed that my big-hearted girl won money for herself. Whenever she sees a bucket or coin jar for charity she gives all or most of the money in her purse. She doesn't usually have more than a dollar or so but she is very generous with what she has.

Guess how she is spending her newly won money? Christmas presents for her brothers and sisters. I love this girl.

The day was beautiful. The quaint town was decked out in her Christmas finest.

I had the most delightful company.

I'm not quite ready to celebrate the Christmas season since Thanksgiving is over a week away. And I [heart] Thanksgiving! It's a time to reflect on all our blessings and offer thanks to the One who makes all things possible. It's a time to get together with family without materialistic expectations. And the food..... I'm sure I don't have to tell you about the feasting! But right after Thanksgiving Day it is exciting to anticipate the coming weeks.

 After our trip to town we came home and continued our play day.

After the sun had said farewell we headed back to town to watch the nighttime parade and attend the Miracles at Main & Market Streets. We ate homemade (from the Amish community!) cookies, drank hot chocolate, huddled around cozy barreled fires, lit candles and sang songs. What amazing people fill our neighborhood. It was a magical day.