7 Children

Last night our church had a fundraiser at the make your own frozen yogurt creation place. I decided to give my friend that is moving a short break and take her kids for yogurt. By borrowing her 4 kids plus my 3 Lambs, there were 7 children ages 6-13. One was old enough to sit in the front seat and we have 6 seatbelts in the back of our new minivan, so all 8 of us fit. Unfortunately Ram had to drive himself because we didn't have room for him. (When we were car shopping the salesman suggested that a minivan that seats 8 was good for carpooling for sports. I replied that we didn't need it for that, we needed it for when we get together with this other family!)

I stopped and loaded everyone up at their house and then we drove to the yogurt place. Ram drove separately and arrived first. When he told some of our church members what I was doing, they replied that it was crazy to take 7 kids to the yogurt place.

It wasn't bad at all. All 7 kids were well behaved. I told them the "rules" when we got there-only take ice cream that you will eat, please don't waste what we purchase. I allowed each of them to get two kinds of ice cream and 3 toppings. Ram had an Amazon Local Deal which brought the cost down some. Everyone ate their all their ice cream except the little girls which couldn't finish gave theirs to their big sister and she finished it. Lamb 2 was the one that got the most out of all of us and he ate all of it.

Unfortunately their boy had a headache when we picked him up. I'm not sure if ice cream was the best thing for that, but we still went. When I saw he didn't feel well we ate and left. I had brought some card games and had first planned to be at the frozen yogurt place for awhile. I wonder what the church members would have thought of me staying there for awhile with 7 kids?

I changed plans and drove everyone back to my house in order to give their mom a longer break. When we first got home it was crazy. Ram stayed to mingle with our church members. I tried to get one of my Lambs to help their boy find a place to go lay down and rest. 5 kids ran out to the back yard and were literally climbing the fence, completely crazy. Only the oldest girl acted calm. Lamb 1 was really disappointed that here was his last play date with his best friend before he moves away and his best friend wasn't able to play. My boys wanted to go play with the neighbors when they found out only girls were able to play. It took me a few minutes to calm everyone down, settle their boy down, and suggest ideas of what they could do.

It ended up that their boy rested for a little while, their oldest girl checked my store Monopoly tickets for me and confirmed that we didn't win anything, and my Lambs and their two girls played in the front yard with neighbors. After that everyone was able to find something to do to entertain themselves. Lamb 3 had used pattern blocks during math in the morning and they were still out so all the girls used pattern blocks to make designs for a little while. After a little while their boy felt better and was able to play. Ram was home by then and he played basketball with some kids. Some stayed inside and played Skipbo with me.

The one part I messed up on last night was we went for the yogurt first and after we ate yogurt they told me they had eaten supper, but not much. They were hungry for more than sugar. We had eaten most of our leftovers and I never have bread in the house to make peanut butter sandwiches or something like that. I had not planned this part well, partly because I expected to be at the yogurt place much longer than we were. We ended up raiding our snack supplies that are really supposed to be for track practice. Their boy asked nicely if he could have some fresh fruit, and I honestly didn't have any to serve him. If I were to do last night over I would have planned some real food and healthier snacks in addition to the yogurt. Today I thought of food I could have served them, but I didn't remember last night.

It did get to be a much later night than I had planned because I did want to give my Lambs a chance to play with their friend after he rested. They were right that this was their last chance to play, they will be busy with moving. On the way home their youngest completely melted down. It's not a far drive but it is when one cries all the way home and the others are trying to help, but it doesn't help. Then their boy didn't want to go home (I wouldn't either with a crying little sister!) and tried to hide in my minivan and go home with us. I finally got all 4 of their kids in their house and drove home and put my Lambs to bed.

I had such sympathy on these friends. Their life has been crazy for the past few months getting their house ready to put on the market, packing, and preparing to move. They are currently homeschooled and they will go to school when they move. Dad currently works from home but will work outside of the home. It seems as if every part of their life will be different from what it is now. It brought back memories of our life changes with moving here 3 years ago.

It's all your perspective. The church members that made the comment that it was crazy to have 7 kids- one mom has 2 kids and one mom has 3 kids. The mom that has 3 kids spent about the same amount on ice cream for her family as we did for all 9 of us. We told the kids with us the "rules", but I don't know if we would have needed to, they were polite and well behaved.

Last night didn't go completely smoothly, but it really wasn't that bad. I have several friends with 5 or more kids so it didn't seem that abnormal to me. Everyone was potty trained and pretty independent or could ask an older sibling for help if they needed it. Everyone fit in my minivan. It was only for a few hours. We would have gladly had more than 3 Lambs if God would have granted them to us.