Day 8

Today was Parent's Day Out at church! It's a yearly thing where wonderful people from our church take our children for 6 hours for free so parents can get errands done, or cooking, or wrapping, or whatever they want. The kids have gym time, do crafts, watch a movie, and they had cupcakes for Jesus' birthday. We are so incredibly thankful for all the people who volunteer their Saturday to watch a bunch of wild and crazy kids!

Liam and his buddies!

I only gave them one shot at a picture--so this isn't the best, but I wanted to get home as quick as possible

Here's Brendan helping clean up and two of the volunteers that I am sure needed a big nap afterwards!

Every year I have one crier that doesn't want to stay. Last year it was Brendan, this year it was Rori. Her good friend wasn't there yet, so one of the ladies offered to play cards with her until her friend showed up. They told me they would call me if she ended up not wanting to stay. My phone never rang. When I went to pick them up at the end, they were all very disappointed and wanted to stay! I managed to wrangle them into the car with the second part of their Advent Activity. Aunt Nicki and Uncle Nicholas and of course Stanley were waiting for them at our house.

They were so excited to come inside and see Stanley in his costume!

Aunt Nicki made 25 meatballs and I made homemade garlic bread--roasted my first heads of garlic (I apologize to the ladies at church when I picked up the kids, I think I smelled like I was trying to keep the vampires away). We had a wonderful spaghetti dinner and all ate too much. Then the kids opened presents. Each kid received a homemade blanket in colors picked out specifically for them. They are all thrilled to to have their own "woobie" just like papa :).

Brendan is missing his shirt because 4 seconds earlier he dragged his sleeve through the sauce

It was really nice to see them and get to spend some time with them. We don't get to see them nearly enough since they live in the city. And it's amazing how big Stanley has gotten since the last time we saw him. Rori would looooove to adopt him! We are so appreciative of all the work they put into the day. They always want to make sure that we aren't stressed out and Nicki offers to do as much of the cooking as possible so that we aren't overwhelmed, and this is very much appreciated especially at this time of year!

All tuckered out from a very exciting day!

Also tuckered out!