In November of last year, when my brother Jake found out that he got an internship at Intel and we moved into our new house, I told him it would be fun if they just lived with us in the summer with his family while he worked. On Memorial Day, Jake flew in from Utah, and he started his internship the next day. He flew back that Friday, and drove out with Stacey and their four kids that Saturday.
We had a week and a half of school left once they arrived, and then we’ve had fun with our summer activities. I think everyone thinks we are crazy living with eight children age nine and under, three of which are barely two, one, and 8 weeks old. It does make for a crazy house at times, but it has been so much fun so far. The kids have a lot of fun together, Stacey and I work together on meals (we each cook a week), cleaning up (the other couple cleans up their non-cooking week), and helping watch kids while the other runs errands (normally me with so many appointments lately – chiropractor, cardiologist, pediatrician, dentist). We’ve established a good routine for the kids each morning, where they do their job, read scriptures (or watch scripture videos), do some workbook pages, and write. In the afternoon, they read for 30 minutes (the older ones) during naptime. We have swimming lessons and I’ve started some French lessons with them too.
Thank goodness it’s summer! The kids spend a lot of time outside, playing on the swing set, playing games with the neighborhood kids, riding bikes, and looking at ducks in the frog pond.
Quiet time is more important than ever for mine and Stacey’s sanity! We’ve instituted some good routines to help keep the young ones napping and the older ones reading for a set time every day. Sometimes the older kids even read to the younger ones. Maggie really likes Landon, and so she has become interested in reading chapter books like him. One afternoon, we couldn’t find her anywhere. We finally found her “reading” in Landon’s room with him.
Another favorite thing to do is to go to the library. We walk over, and the kids have fun guessing how many things are in the weekly jar (part of the summer reading program). They pick out books and books and more books. With seven kids picking out some out, they really start to pile up quickly!
Maggie and Asher are about 10 months apart. While Maggie seems much older in most ways, the two have fun playing together (most of the time). There are time when we have found clumps of Maggie’s hair in Asher’s hands, or when Maggie has pushed Asher, but most of the time, they are good buddies.
One Saturday, it was Cruisin’ Sherwood, an old car show in old town. It was fun to walk down all together and check out the cars. The kids thought they were all pretty cool!
We’re looking forward to lots more craziness as the summer goes on!
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