january 11: cooking with Eli...

We are always looking for ways to have one on one time with each of our kiddos.  This has been a rough week for Eli and I, so even though I was supposed to cook with Joel tonight...I needed to spend some QT with my biggest buddy.

We pulled out a family favorite, homemade pizza!  I thought it'd be fun to "make" pizza dough, but after realizing the directions required the dough to sit for 5 minutes in 85 degrees...other than turning on the heater in the bathroom...not sure where that location would be at the moment.  So, the dough flopped.  Luckily, I had just bought a couple things of biscuits...worked in a pinch!

Elijah's favorite part was definitely the cutting.  I had bought a kid safe knife from Pampered Chef a few months back.  He was able to safely cut up our cucumbers for salad, and our strawberries for dessert.  I love the expression he makes when he is proud of himself and excited...he tries to hide it.

Can't say the biscuit pizzas were my absolute favorite, but hanging with my biggest boy was the highlight of my day.  Tad got home a day early tonight, so we were able to commend him as a parental unit and praise his efforts as a whole in front of the whole crew...he had the spotlight for a few seconds today, and for Elijah, that's important.  Special moments like these help set the tone for the rest of the night.  He an I were more in tuned with each other then we have been lately.  Hopefully he remembers things like tonight...I know I will.

Next week Dominic gets a turn, the next week Joel...Abram is always attached to my hip, so he's always involved.  This was such an easy way to spend time with one of my boys...we will do this again.

Tomorrow, we try a new food...

january 10: mad/sad/glad...

Dinner time is supposed to be a time to recap your day with your family.  We ALWAYS eat together at the table...gonna try and keep that going as long as possible.  I see already, though, a decreased vocalization about daily events from my strapping offspring...my boys don't talk about their day!  So, insert "mad/sad/glad".  We don't always get a whole lot out of it, but they do look forward to the family spotlight, even if for just a few seconds.

Tonight, we all shared the same sad sentiment...Daddy isn't home.  Tad is out of town for a few days...sigh.

I tried to explain my purpose behind our nightly routine.  Hopefully it sunk in...either way, tomorrow I'll look forward to a tiny glimpse into what made their day.

january 9: a day without loud voices...

There are lots of boys in our house.  There are also lots of personalities, needs, wants, and voices.  On a normal day, I/we try very hard to keep our boys in check using calm and direct voices...but sometimes our voices raise.  Our boys have the ability to talk things out...we've seen it done!...but sometimes their voices raise.

A goal of one day where we are super cognizant of our volume, seemed attainable!  We did fine...the day came to a close with several reminders of "we aren't speaking like that today"...both to the kids and to us parents.

Once the kids went down...it was much harder to follow through with our goal.  Our Tigers sucked it up against Bama in the National Championship...I thought Tad's head was gonna explode. =)

january 8: "super" dinner...

Tonight was silly =)  Originally, I had thought that tonight would be a "fancy" dinner.  We'd all dress up in unusually fancy attire and dine all fancy-pants style.  Maybe that's the girly-girl inside of me.  Reality was, that when I asked the boys what they wanted to dress in...they all named superheroes...sigh.  So, that's my life!  Well, I get it...and if this project has taught me anything so far...it's to be flexible =)

So, I'm not sure if you knew this, but superheroes LOVE...burritos!  OK, so maybe it's just my superheroes.  Tonight at dinner we had the privilege of eating with Batman in his jammies, Wolverine, Superman, mini-Superman, and Super Mom & Dad.  After dinner, Super Dad cleaned the kitchen and Super Mom ran around the house with her entourage like a fool...it was fun!

Here are a couple of priceless pictures from our adventure =)

Tomorrow, the boys go back to school.  Sure am going to miss them!  Although Super Mom is looking forward to some MUCH needed time to her self =)

Next up...a day without loud voices...

postponed january 7: favorite things...

We've hit a milestone...my two big boys had their first sleep over last night!  It's taken a little mental preparation on my part for this day to come, but I took a deep breath, prayed hard over my boys, and let them sleep out... 2 doors down.  They had a great time!  All that to explain why we postponed our family project for the day.

So, this afternoon I finally was able to pull the boys aside and do this =)  I had gotten this idea from this blog and thought "why re-invent the wheel?"  I took a moment with the 3 biggest boys and asked them most of the same questions she listed.  I videoed our little interview for a more accurate account of their demeanors and exact answers. Some of the questions were...what's your favorite color, drink, snack, dinner, friend, movie?  It was cute!

The point behind these questions on the inspiration page, was to capture their thoughts on their birthday.  I like this idea, and might do it when our next birthday comes around.  Her questions were good, but after hearing the answers...I think I'd ask things like...favorite ice cream, outfit, thing to do with mom/dad?

All in all, glad I got some footage of my boys.  We'll see if this revisits the Patella household in April.

january 6: game night...

Tad's grandma is Russian.  "What's her hurry?!"  (I find myself hilarious!)

Every January 6th Tad's side of the family gets together to celebrate "Little Christmas".  Grandma K gives us all a small wrapped gift of candy with a "little" money attached, and we eat a "little" dinner.  Nothing fussy or fancy...just a nice way to regather after the formalities of the past month.  This year we hosted at our new house!  We ordered pizza and had king cake...

So, while I had the whole family held hostage in our house...I announced that they were all going to participate in game night WITH us!  The boys were super excited.  Game night is something we normally do as an immediate family, so adding "hostages" is AWESOME.  Tonight we played Kids on Stage, which is a kid's charades game.

Everyone had to take a turn...

Pops was a LION.

Jackie was a PIG.

Joel was a HORSE. (Although his elephant and monkey looked a lot like this too.)

Katie was FLYING A BALLOON.

Dominic was PLAYING PIANO.

Mommy was a KANGAROO. (Katie's guess, "a jumping camel?"...thanks.)

Granny was a BUNNY.

Elijah was a SPIDER.

Abram kept watch ON the board.

Josh was a good sport, too.  I think this was him after someone guessed he was using a computer. (I won't post the pic of you being a chair...heehee.)

And my favorite...Tad being a FLOWER.

Game night was a success! 

Tomorrow we do a favorites checklist...

january 5: friends...

I have to admit...today snuck up on me.  I hadn't totally thought it through.  Part of me really wanted to just stay home.  As nice as it has been to have the boys home, I am starting to feel a slight tug for them to return to school.  

So, today was supposed to be about friends...  Fortunately, we don't have to look too far anymore! We walked a whole 2 doors down.  What was supposed to be an attempt at 3 mommas doing P90X for an hour, turned into an all day playdate...complete with fried green tomatoes (it's a hard, hard life...I know).  We have two families that have a bunch of boys just like us, and although my original plan was to be a bit more intentional with this project...hanging with this crew is pretty much what my kids have grown to expect.  It's funny, but they are more like cousins than friends. We now have 11 boys between us!  Each family has their kids in different schools and will play sports at different playgrounds, so their circles are going to be growing in the years to come.  We hope that this crew will have solid foundation and history, and remain close despite that.  This is the age where you start to remember your friends, and I want to make sure we are helping our boys become friends that are going to be wanted and valued by the other kids they are around.    

When it was time to go, I was glad we had gone.  The boys love hanging out with each other...I love when the boys are happy.  

Getting 9 boys (the babies were inside) to smile...quite a feat.  But here they are...the Band of Brothers...our little world changers...friends since the day they were born.  (It was an "arranged marriage", but it's working out wonderfully.)

Tomorrow, we have Game Night!