Lions and Quints and Quads, Oh My!

On our recent trip to Denver, we met up with the Arnold Family at the Denver Zoo. Maureen Arnold and I have been in contact ever since the quints were little. Maureen has two older girls who are the same ages as Riley and Kaiya, and she has a set of quadruplets that are just a few months older than my quints. They live in Wyoming, but were willing to drive a few hours so we could get our two families together for the first time. It was so much fun! We have so many similarities in our families and our situations that it was great to be able to talk about our struggles and successes and compare notes.

The kids had a great time as well. The Denver Zoo is awesome, and all the kids enjoyed seeing the animals. The Riley and Kaiya bonded right away with the Arnold girls (Brooklyn and Alyssa). It was kind of funny to listen to their conversations. One I overheard went like this:

Riley: So is it really loud at your house all the time?

Brooklyn: Yes! Sometimes all the babies are crying at the same time!

Riley: That is the same way at our house. I can hardly hear myself think!

It was a fabulous day, and I hope that we can meet up with the Arnolds again next time we go to Colorado.

The Arnolds and the Wilkinsons at the Denver Zoo--4 adults + 4 "big kids" + 9 3-year-olds

The Quints and the Quads check out the giraffes

Ryder and Rustin---best buddies!

Looking at the Rhinos---every time we get together with someone whose kids are the same age as mine, I am reminded of how SHORT we are---With me being 5' 2" and Jayson being 5' 7", our kids aren't going to be starring on any basketball teams!

Lunch Break: Kassidy, Kaydence, Kyndall, Rustin, and Ryder

Lexie, Rylee, Maddox, Maureen (mom), Matt (dad), and Shilah

Alyssa, Brooklyn, Grandma Wilkinson, Riley, Kaiya

Quads + Quints: Rylee, Shilah, Lexie, Maddox, Ryder, Kyndall, Rustin, Kassidy, Kaydence. We always get a lot of interesting looks and comments when we take the quints places, but we REALLY got some looks with both families together!

Riley and Grandma Wilkinson---I love this picture!

5 little monkeys looking at 5 little monkeys

The Dads with all the kids---is that a crazy amount of kids, or what!!!

The Moms: Rachelle & Maureen

I thought it was quite appropriate that the sculpture the kids were climbing all over was entitled "Abundant Joy". That sums up our lives pretty well :-)

PTBC Update: Today was day 2 of "Potty Training Boot Camp"....pretty much more of the same. Lots of accidents (10-#1 and 2-#2) and only Rustin has figured out how to make things come out on the potty. Spot Shot has become my new best friend. I am confident that the rest of the kiddos will catch on any day now...at least that is what I keep telling myself :-)

Lions and Quints and Quads, Oh My!

Spring Break

Last week (or rather week before last, as it has taken me all week to finish this post!) was Spring Break for Riley and Kaiya. I started teaching again at Austin Community College this semester (just one night class) and it was spring break for me too. We didn't attempt a big family vacation, but we did try to do something fun every day. Here is a run down of the week:

Monday

Riley and Kaiya each made their own loaf of banana bread. They both love to cook and banana bread (no nuts) is one of their favorites. We always use applesauce instead of the shortening the recipe calls for, to make it a little bit healthier. Monday we also had a "High School Musical 3" movie night.

Happy Chefs: Kaiya and Riley

The finished product--yum!

Tuesday

Tuesday was St. Patrick's day. Riley and Kaiya insisted on having green eggs and ham for breakfast. We also had green rice, green jello, green broccoli and four-leaf clover rolls for dinner.

Green eggs and ham look very unappetizing to me, but Riley and Kaiya like them. They would eat them in a house and they would eat them with a mouse, they do so like green eggs and ham...

The thought of green eggs kind of turns my stomach, but green rice I have no problems with :-)

Kassidy

Kaydence

Rustin

Kyndall

Ryder

Wednesday

Virginia and another friend, Chris, came over to watch the babies so I could run errands with Riley and Kaiya. We met Jayson for lunch at Chili's and had an exciting visit to Costco :-)

Ryder, Kyndall and Rustin play in the boxes from Costco. Sometimes I wonder why we ever BUY them toys, when they get such joy out of free things!

Thursday

Thursday was our big outing for the week. We decided to take everyone to the Waco Zoo. My friend, Tammy, came along with her 12-year old twin boys Jackson and Jamison. We also took my friend Brenda's kids Joe and Luvinia, so in all there were 2 adults and 11 kids in our group. When we got to the zoo, we realized that everyone else in central Texas had the same brilliant idea to go to the zoo for spring break. It was pretty crowded, but we still had a great time.

The whole crew: Back: Riley, Luvinia, Jamison, Tammy, Jackson, Joe, Front: Kaiya, Kassidy, Ryder, Kaydence, Kyndall, Rustin. The parking lot was full, so we had to park in a grassy field nearby.

Checking out the elephants

Kaiya with the buffalo

Riley with the snakes

The Rhino was nice enough to pose for our picture

Rustin, Kyndall, Kassidy and Kaydence. The zoo has a little playground with a treehouse and slide that the kids all loved.

Joe with Rustin

Jackson with Kassidy

Kaiya

Riley and Kaydence

Luvinia and Kyndall

Ryder and Jackson

Tammy, Ryder and Jackson. Tammy's family has "adopted" Ryder. They always take him for me during church and they even come and get him for playdates! With his olive skin and dark hair, I think Ryder fits right in with their family! It is wonderful to have other people love your children almost as much as you do.

By the end of the day, Kassidy was worn out!

Riley and Kaiya pose by the waterfall.

Friday

On Friday, Riley, Kaiya, Kassidy and Kaydence went over to play at our friends, the Woods, house. They jumped on the trampoline and played with the puppies (the Woods breed labradoodles). Friday night Jayson and Riley went on a fathers and sons camping trip with some other families in the neighborhood. Riley had a great time, and I think Jayson did too. Kaiya and I took care of the babies and had some "girl time".

Kaydence makes friends with one of the puppies.

Kassidy and Kaydence jump on the trampoline.

Riley getting ready for his camping adventure

Riley on the campout

When I wasn't looking, Kassidy smeared her blackberries all over her head---except for the smile, she looked like she could have stepped out of a horror film!

Pre-Spring Break

I must admit that I started my spring break a little early by going to a David Archuleta concert in San Antonio. I went with my friend Natalie and her two daughters Holly and Andrea. The concert was awesome and we had lots of fun!

Rachelle, Holly, Natalie, and Andrea. Doesn't this picture make you want to sing, "One of these things is not like the other...."?

David Archuleta

Spring Break

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

This summer, we decided that going on a big family vacation would not be a good idea. Plane flights are expensive for a family of nine, and a 16-hour car ride with five one-year-olds sounded almost as pleasant as having a root canal. Because we were stuck at home all summer, we tried to come up with a few fun things that we could do with the kids, while still maintaining our sanity. A little before school started, we decided to take everyone to the zoo.


Anyone who lives in Austin knows that it has a really lame excuse for a zoo. There are hardly any really exciting animals and it is kind of pricey for what you get to see. However, Waco, which is about 1.5 hours north of Austin, has a really great zoo. The Cameron Park Zoo is not to big, but not too little. It has most of the zoo animal favorites (lions, tigers, bears, giraffes, rhinos, monkeys, etc.) It also has several trees and shaded walkways, which make a big difference in the Texas heat.


My friend, Halli and her three kids came with us. We also took Calvin, my friend Natalie's son, who has come over several times this summer to help with the babies. In addition we had my sister, Tiare, who was still living with us at the time, so we ended up with 14 people total for our Zoo excursion.


Despite the over 100 degree temperature and very high humidity, everyone had a BLAST! I was amazed that I didn't hear a single complaint from anyone---not even Riley and Kaiya. I think the babies were just happy to get out of the house. I am not sure how much they paid attention to the animals, but they were happy to ride around in the stroller and check out everything around them.

After the 1 1/2 hour car ride, the kids were anxious to get inside! Big Kids: Kaiya, Riley, Calvin, Lauren, Taylor, Carter, Babies: Ryder, Rustin, Kassidy, Kaydence, Kyndall

Elephants!

Giraffes!

Kaiya is testing out the awesome see-through tube slide that went through the otter tank.

Riley

Calvin with the Rhinos.

Bears!

Riley and Kaiya check out the Lions.

Each of the babies had their picture taken by an animal that seemed fitting for them:

Kassidy (with Tiare) gets her photo op with a snake, because she slithered like a snake when she was first learning to crawl.

Kaydence is pictured with the bear because she is my most cuddly baby. (She actually reminds me of a Koala bear--she clings to me the way Koala bears cling to their mom or to a tree, but this bear was the the best we could do)

Rustin had his picture taken with the monkeys, because he sounds like a monkey when he talks "ooh ooh ooh".

This animal (see the one up to the left of my head) reminded us of Kyndall because it was so small and petite, that you could hardly believe that it could walk around.

I always thought Ryder looked a little bit like a turtle (in a cute way) when he was an infant.

Carter, Lauren, Taylor, Kaiya, Riley and Calvin all take a take a break.

All in all, it was a great day! Maybe next summer I will be ready to tackle a family road trip!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!