Spring Break--Part 3, the Finale!

If you missed them, check out Part 1 and Part 2 of our Spring Break Adventure.

Thursday was St. Patrick's Day, so of course I woke up early to prepare a fabulous green breakfast for the family and prepare lots of fun Irish games for the day...NOT REALLY--actually I completely forgot about the holiday until my mom reminded me (which Riley and Kaiya were only too happy about, since it meant that they got to pinch me). My mom made Riley some green eggs for a snack and that was about as festive as we got (sorry kids, I'll make it up to you on April Fool's day---promise!)

Riley with his green eggs and no ham

Thursday afternoon Dr. Candice Park (now known as Dr. Candice Wood) with her mom and her new little baby for a visit. Candice was the resident doctor who took care of me during my pregnancy and who delivered the quints. It was so fun to see her! The quints especially loved the baby :-) (notice that she and her baby are wearing green and she even brought us green cookies---there is one mom who didn't drop the ball for St. Patrick's day!)

Kassidy, Ryder, Kyndall, Kaydence and Rustin look at baby Lauren while Candice snaps a photo.

After our visit with Candice, we headed out to the farm. My cousin's husband, Steve, is a dairy farmer and owns a small dairy farm out in Florence, AZ. I am not much of an animal person, so I really respect anyone that can do that for a living---especially in the Arizona heat! Steve and Kiera were great to give us a tour of the farm and let us help feed the baby calves.

Kaydence, Kassidy, Ryder, Kyndall, Riley, Rustin and Kaiya come face-to-face with the cows.

My cousin, Kiera, and her little boy Ledger

Kaydence, Ryder, Riley, Kyndall, Kassidy, Rustin and Kaiya

Filling the bottles for the baby calves....brought back memories of the early days when I used a similar process to fill bottles for the quints :-)

Heading out to the calf stalls

My cousin says that this little cow is considered "perfect": black face, white stripe and pink nose.

This little guy was born only a few hours before we got there.

Feeding the calves (Note: this is a rare sight---my MOM is feeding the calves. If there is anyone who is less of an animal person than me, it is my mom!)

Front: Kaydence, Ryder, Kyndall, Rustin and Kassidy, Back: Riley and Kaiya, Driver way in the back: Dylan (Kiera's son and second cousin to my kiddos)

Friday was our last day in AZ and we went to "Makutu's Island", a big indoor playplace with crazy slides, tunnels, fireman poles, etc. The kids thought it was super fun, but some of the less adventurous ones wanted me to go with them on everything. That was when I realized I am not as young as I used to be :-) My cousins, BrieAnne and Kiera, met us there.

Makutu's Island: Kyndall, Kaiya, Kaydence, Ryder, Rachelle, Rustin, Kiera, Dylan, Ledger, and BrieAnne

Friday night we had dinner outside on the patio

Papa, Riley, BrieAnne, Kaiya and Mimi

The "Goodbye" picture---it is tradition at my parent's house to take a picture in this spot before leaving

Ready for the trip home.

The drive home went fairly smoothly. I came up with a new plan for rest stops and actually managed to shave 5 minutes off our stopping time!! (It's the little things that make life exciting.) At our first rest stop, the kids were happy and well-behaved. As we paraded in, I could hear comments like "Oh, how cute!" and "That is so adorable!". By the time we got to our second rest stop, the kids were tired and ready to be done with traveling---they were not happy or well-behaved. The only comments I got were "Oh, you poor thing!" and "I'll pray for you!"

All in all, the trip was a lot of work, but a lot of fun! Crazy or not, I am glad that we did it!

Spring Break--Part 3, the Finale!

Spring Break--Part 2

If you missed the "Part 1" to our spring break adventure, click HERE.

One of the most anticipated activities of our spring break trip was swimming in Mimi's pool. This was the third time we have visited my parents since they moved into this house, but because of some issues with the county, the pool was not finished on our previous trips. Despite my mom's best efforts at pushing things along, the pool was finished just two days AFTER we left last summer. This time the pool was finished, but COLD! Only Riley was brave enough to go in the main pool, the rest of us wimps had fun swimming in the heated hot tub instead!

Ready to swim: Ryder, Rustin, Kaydence, Kyndall and Kassidy

Kaiya

Riley braving the big pool, despite the 54 degree water

Swimming in the hot tub

Tuesday was dollar day at the movie theater, so we decided to go see "Tangled". I think everyone in Mesa had the same idea---the theater was packed. With the high price of movies these days, we don't take the family very often. In fact, this was only the second time that I have taken the quints to the movie theater. (The first was last summer when we saw Toy Story 3 on our last trip to Arizona) We all loved it---definitely my favorite Disney movie. Ryder thought it was pretty cool that the main guy character's name was "Flynn RYDER"---a fact that he kept announcing to everyone around us.

After the movie we went over to a friend's house to pick citrus. My family lived in Arizona when I was in high school, and one of my favorite things about living there was the citrus. We had orange and grapefruit trees in our yard---there is nothing like fruit right off the tree! The kids had a blast! (except for Kassidy, who fell asleep in the car on the way over and slept through the whole thing...)

Rustin, Kyndall and Kaydence pick some oranges

Kaiya's "prize" grapefruit

The Pickin' Crew

Wednesday was Kids Day at the Rainforest Cafe---all kid's meals were $2.99. Usually when restaurants advertise "Kid's Eat Free" or similar deals, the fine print reads one free kid meal PER adult meal. With two adults and seven kids, it isn't such a great deal. At Rainforest, we could get as many kids meals as we wanted for $2.99. We took the kids to Rainforest Cafe when they were barely two-years-old and they were scared of all the animated gorillas and elephants. We have a picture of Kyndall eating with her head down on the table so she wouldn't have to look at anything. This time they loved it! In fact, at the end of the trip when we asked them what their favorite part was, this was it!

Looking at the big fish tank on the way in.

Kaiya, Riley and Papa

Kassidy, Kaydence, Ryder, Rustin and Kyndall

Mimi and Rachelle

Cute barstools! Riley, Kaiya, Kassidy, Kaydence, Kyndall, Rustin and Ryder

We tried to take a picture of all the kids in front of the elephant podium at the entrance to the restaurant. I tried to narrow it down to one to put on the blog, but Rustin was so funny in all three, that I had to put all of them. I have no idea what he is doing....maybe I should have left him there---he looks like he would fit in great with the monkeys!

Arizona has some of the most amazing sunsets! This was what the sky looked like when we came out of Rainforest Cafe.

............Stay tuned for the third, and final Spring Break post!

Spring Break--Part 2

Spring Break--Part 1

When people find out that I have quintuplets plus two older kids, I often get comments like "I don't know how you do it...if I was in your shoes I would go CRAZY!" They say it in a way that assumes that I haven't gone crazy, which makes me want to laugh, because I think being a little crazy is one of the survival skills of having quintuplets, or even having a lot of kids. For example, Riley and Kaiya (and me) had the week of of school for spring break. Jayson is trying to save up vacation days for a family reunion this summer, so he couldn't take any time off of work. A normal, sane person would have found some fun things to do with the kids around town and called it good. Not me---my "little bit of crazy" kicked in and I thought why let seven kids and a home-bound hubby stop me from going on vacation for spring break? I carried five babies to 34 weeks gestation, I survived an entire year with five two-year-olds who had to skip their nap to attend 1 pm church, I potty-trained five kiddos all at once (ok, mostly potty-trained), I CAN DO HARD THINGS! So why not take five three-year-olds and two older kids on a 16-hour road trip by myself? In fact, why stop there, why not throw in an extra kid just to make it a REAL challenge?? Yep, it's true...having seven kids really DOES make you crazy.

We left bright and early on Friday morning (the kids missed one day of school so we could be in Arizona for the weekend). In addition to my seven kids, I also took Roger, one of Riley's friends, who wanted to hitch a ride to Arizona to visit his cousins. I made sure he knew ahead of time that he would have to work to earn his way, but I don't think he was quite prepared for how demanding the job would be!

We're off! Sleepy, but excited for the trip!

The drive there actually went pretty smoothly. Riley and Roger changed out movies and passed out snacks while I drove. We made three stops for potty and gas. This was the first road trip we have taken with the quints since they were potty trained, and I worried that it would take forever to take everyone to the bathroom at each rest stop. To help, I brought three little pottys in the car, along with some sanitizing wipes (to clean the pottys) so all the girls could go potty at the same time. It definitely helped, but it still took a minimum of 30 minutes each time we stopped.

By our last stop, the kids were going crazy being cooped up in the car, so I let them get out to eat and play in the playplace for a few minutes. We were soooo happy to get to Mimi's house!

The next day, Saturday, we must have REALLY been crazy because we decided to take seven over-tired children to Kohl's. (We had a 30% off coupon and it's hard to pass up a good deal!) The demographics of Mesa, Arizona are a lot different from the demographics in Austin, Texas. In Austin, having a big family is kind of a novelty. In Mesa, there are a lot more big families, and at this time of year there are a lot of "snowbirds" (retired couples who live in Arizona during the winter). In Austin, when we go places, we tend to stand out and people look at us with awe...in Mesa, we are just another large family and I am pretty sure (given the looks we got) that we were a big annoyance to many of the snowbirds shopping in Kohl's that day. On the upside, I did find some great deals!

Saturday night we met up with aunts, uncles and cousins that all live in the area for a picnic at the park. We went to a park in Gilbert called Freestone Park. It was awesome! It is a beautiful park (and beautiful is not a word I use often when referring to Arizona!). There was a large pond with ducks, waterfalls, playground, a train and some kiddie carnival rides. The kids loved it! It was so much fun to watch their faces on the mini-Ferris wheel--pure joy!

Watching the ducks

Ryder & Rustin

Kassidy, Kaydence & Kyndall

Riding the train

Sunday we all went to church. The quints are in the "Sunbeams" class at church. When we showed up to my mom's ward, we doubled the size of their Sunbeam class (we did call ahead to warn them).

Ready for church: Kaydence, Rustin, Kassidy, Ryder and Kyndall

To be continued...

Spring Break--Part 1

Picture of the Week

I found this note on Kaiya's lunch sack one day this week....it is kind of sad when you are so busy in the mornings that your kids start writing their OWN notes on their lunch bags---she even signed my name for me!

Picture of the Week

Kaiya Turns 8!

For birthdays, the policy at our house is that the kids can have a birthday party with their friends every other year. This was the rule in my house growing up and now that I am a mother, I can fully appreciate it! Kid birthday parties are a lot of fun, but they can be a lot of WORK too! (That being said, I have no idea how I am going to implement this with the quints yet, since there are five of them....maybe the girls get to have a party one year and the boys the next---when I made this policy, I would never have imagined having quintuplets!)

This was Kaiya's year for a friend birthday party. Within about a month of her last birthday party (nearly two years ago) Kaiya decided that for her 8th birthday, she wanted to have a Hawaiian themed birthday party. I thought for sure she would change her mind in the two years she had to wait for the next party, but she stuck to it! That was fine with me, because I could think of lots of fun things to do with the "Hawaii" theme!

Party Invitation

When all the "passengers" arrived at the party, they boarded the "plane" for Flight 306 service to Honolulu, Hawaii.

All aboard Flight 306--10 very excited, very active, very LOUD girls get ready for take-off!

Once the "plane" had reached its cruising altitude, the passengers were served beverages and snacks.

Snack packs filled with macadamia nuts

The handsome flight attendant (aka Riley) serves drinks to the passengers

The flight attendant collected all trash and remaining service items as the passengers returned their seats and tray tables to their upright and locked positions in preparation for landing.

After the girls "landed", they were greeted with shell leis (which I picked up when I was in Kona in January). Then they completed two different craft projects. First they made some fancy flip-flops and then they put together their own candy lei.

Working on the flip-flops

Fancy Flip-Flops--The finished product!

Making candy leis

Riley models his lei (he didn't think it was manly to curl the ribbons like the girls did)

Next the girls learned a hula dance. I used to live in Hawaii when I was a kid, so I taught them how to do the hula to "Pearly Shells". Jayson took several pictures, but they must be on my other computer, so I will have to add them later :-)

After the hula, the girls played a game called "Boolah, Boolah", which we renamed "Hula, Hula" to go with the Hawaii theme. I remember playing this game at every birthday party I had as a kid, but I think it might be a game that my mom made up, because I have never met anyone else who knows what it is. It is basically a hot/cold game. Someone leaves the room and somebody else hides a prize. When the person comes back into the room, every one sings "boolah, boolah" over and over singing loudly when the person is near the prize and softly when they are far from the prize until the person finds it. The prizes for the game were these cute flower hair bows. I looked at the store for a more tropical flower to make the bows out of, but had to settle for these :-)

The game prizes: Fun Flower Hair bows

Goodie Bags for the girls to take home their loot

The evening ended with dinner! On the menu, Hawaiian Haystacks (which is rice, chicken gravy and toppings which included cheese, crunchy noodles, coconut, pineapple, and macadamia nuts), pineapple and cantaloupe skewers, and Hawaiian sweet rolls. To drink: tropical smoothies (with little umbrellas of course).

The serving table

The party girls enjoying their feast!

If after reading this post, you are thinking to yourself "Wow, she sure planned a lot of stuff for two hours!" You would be 100% correct! The girls barely started eating dinner five minutes before parent started arriving to pick up their daughters! We quickly sang "Happy Birthday" to Kaiya and sent everyone home with a cupcake.

Kaiya with her cake. The shape of the base of the cake is supposed to be an "8" for Kaiya's 8th birthday (it was pretty subtle, I don't think anyone caught on to that). The volcano was made by shaping rice krispie treats around the outside of an 8 oz water bottle. I filled the bottle with Cheerios so that the candles would say put and hopefully make it look like the volcano was exploding. The lava rocks near the base of the volcano are mini and regular sized chocolate chips. The "sand" on the beach is brown sugar. I picked up the hula dancer in Hawaii. The rest is frosting....lots and lots of frosting!

Make a wish!

On Kaiya's actual birthday, we celebrated with a small "family" party. We had GG and Ronnie and the Woods family over for dinner and birthday treat.

Kaiya opening her presents. Ryder was upset that he didn't get to open any.

The whole "family" at Kaiya's family party

I love planning parties, and Kaiya's party was a huge success, but I am glad I don't have to do another one for her for a couple more years! Now time to plan Riley's birthday party...

Kaiya Turns 8!

Hobby Lobby Adventure

The Fab Five at Hobby Lobby: Ryder, Kaydence, Rustin, Kassidy and Kyndall

I took the quints with me to Hobby Lobby to pick up some things for Kaiya's birthday party which is coming up this weekend. When I take the kids shopping by myself, I usually try to stick to stores with big carts (like Costco) so I can put everyone inside and keep them contained, but today I really needed to get some things for the party so I decided to brave it. The kids actually did really well...maybe they were excited to be allowed to walk in the store for a change, or maybe it was my use of bribery ("Kids who obey in the store get to watch a video on the way home!"). We only had one "incident"---Ryder somehow managed to pull the cart over on himself sideways, knocking himself to the ground. It scared him pretty bad, but no serious injuries. The store manager happened to be on the next aisle over when it happened and came running over, which was a little embarrassing (for me). However, we managed to make it out of the store with everything we needed and without breaking anything. And I saved money because each of the quints could be a different "customer" and I could use six different 40% off coupons :-) (Not to mention that the kids loved handing their item and money over to the cashier.) If only all my shopping trips could be so successful!

Hobby Lobby Adventure

Quote of the Week

I recently put BYU people decals on the back of the van. (The whole family just barely fit!) The kids were all excited and wanted to know which one was them. I pointed to the third one from the right and told Rustin he was the one with the hat on. He replied, "I don't want to be the one with the hat on! I want to be the one with the redhead on!"

Quote of the Week