Bumper Cars

Bumper cars are hard to take pictures of especially if they are moving everywhere which they usually are. They are fun to drive though. It is more fun to watch the kiddie ones though. Nothing like putting a bunch of 3-4 foot kids who have no clue how to drive in some cars. The ensuing chaos leaves you laughing. You shout too especially if your child is tired of being bumped and tries to climb out and leave the ride. Thankfully it wasn't my child that pulled that stunt.

I don't have any pictures of the kiddie bumper cars since my camera batteries died by then, but I do have some of the bigger ones. Joanna hated the big ones though. Charissa thought it was time to take out some hormonal frustrations on her dad, siblings and strangers.

Clint with his passenger, Joanna, are in the middle of all the cars for the first picture. Oren is in the second one. Perhaps he was looking over his shoulder to get away from his sister.

Okay, now a video. Watch close as you will see Charissa who was driving Cara around. She leaves stage right. Clint and Joanna then come into the picture (green car). Catching a video is almost as hard as taking pictures. It is really just complete chaos. Maybe that is why my kids like it. They are used to the chaos.

Summer Vacation Pictures - Cedar Point (Sandusky, Ohio)

While at Cedar Point we let the older three kiddos (who were all tall enough to ride any ride) take off with a cell phone and orders to stay together. Hubby and I handled the other four kiddos. After lunch we stuck together or at least tried so hubby & I could get a chance to ride some rides. Cara went on the big Ferris Wheel with Oren and Jonathan. The boys didn't think being so high up was too cool after looking down. Cara loved it and even swayed the car enough to freak out her older brothers, laughing the whole time.

This ride was the coolest as long as I didn't have to ride it. Cara wanted to though. Thank goodness she was too little. Who woulda thought my li'l whiny tattle-tale wimp adores roller coasters. She went on every one she was able too and still was asking for more. The roller coaster was called Top Thrill Dragster. It started from a dead stop and hit 120 mph within seconds. Up it went and came down spiralling. uh, no thanks!

Joanna's favorite ride

Oren

Charissa (trying not to smile)

Kalynne looking just thrilled

Eric rode in style too

Mom and Joanna one of of the many whirling rides

Cara accompanied Jonathan on one of the smaller roller coasters

An Excuse for a Party

We like to have parties. Actually, we just like to eat ice cream. Which is why we have a fun family tradition of Sundaes on Sunday. We eat sundaes for dinner. I could rationalize that with the ice cream (dairy), strawberry topping (fruit) and nuts (protein), we almost have a balanced meal.

I find that making memories and laughing together doesn't have to cost a lot of money. We have fun at home without spending lots of money. We have restaurant nights. We have movie marathons with movies checked out from the library. Another fun way we can create memories is through bizarre monthly holidays. I posted all about it in my other blog.

We are also planning on having un-birthday celebrations each month since only 5 months out of the year don't have birthdays for us. We will have weird themes like cowboy, frog, yellow and whatever our brains can think up.

Vacation Pictures

or at least a couple of Niagra Falls. I have a ton more pictures and stories to post later.


Gorgeous, isn't it? Pictures do not give justice to this amazing site ...er... sight (spend too much time on the computer, I guess). The Falls are simply breath-taking to behold in person.

Okay one story now ... This is how it really is for a dozen shots or so when you want a family picture taken. Our vacations are not spent sight-seeing. They are spent trying to get 7 kiddos to take a decent picture to remember all those happy memories (hopefully forgetting how many trys it took to preserve those memories).

Eric's Update

My baby is 9 months old already. He had is well-baby check-up the 30th (Monday). He is healthy and such a mellow li'l dude. He does have some allergies, namely any grapes, milk lactose, pet dander. I am hoping I don't discover any new ones.

Eric weighed in at 17 lb 1 oz. (5%). He is a light-weight, but most all my kids are. He weighs what Joanna did at a year plus. He is 27.5 inches long (25%). Then we have his head circumference. That is 45.5 cm which is the 57%. Hubby says it because I tell Eric how handsome he is all the time.

Eric sits up like a pro now and can inch worm wiggle his way to what he wants but doesn't crawl. He won't stand on his legs long either. He thinks it is more fun to be bounced up and down as you try to get him to do it. My others were that way too.

Eric also has two bottom teeth barely breaking through. He doesn't like teething so his normal mellow self is a hit and miss if the teething is bothering him. He rolls all over the place and has people pegged for certain jobs. Kalynne is the best at extracting belly laughs from him.

Eric has discovered the joy of Strawberry Chex. He loves those things. I even catch the older peoples eating them. They are pretty tasty. Eric likes food in general. It is just the food that doesn't agree with him.

Fresh Berries

With the price of groceries steadily rising in time to the appetites of this plague of locusts that live here, I try to find ways to coax some pennies from our budget. Gasoline ain't very cheap around here either and is needed to go to the store. I could ride my bike, but it is 7+ miles of hills which really doesn't appeal to me. I am imagining the steep hill right before my house with bike trailer full of groceries to feed my crew for two weeks. Can you even cram that much in a bike trailer?

One way I coax pennies from our budget is to grow my own food or find a place I can pick some for free. Luckily the place loaded with fresh berries is right on our own property. We have some woods on our property that houses a few blackberry vines and a couple of mulberry trees. We have some blackberry vines we transplanted in beds next to our house too. The biggest, juiciest and most flavorful blackberries are in the woods though, right in the middle of a huge patch of poison ivy.

That is why I take my kids with me. They think it is because of bonding experiences. You see, I am highly allergic to poison ivy. I can walk near some on a windy day and catch it. And when I catch it, I catch it. It goes beyond a patch of itchy skin. I am one of the lucky ones that it goes systematic on ... joy! So not to eat up our savings in doctor and prescription costs, I have the kids pick the berries while I yell encouragement like, "You missed one" or "That snake is harmless." We have a three foot black rat snake that lives in our woods.

See? It's harmless. Remind me not to share that bit of info of where it lives with hubby though as he freaks out even more than the kids when it comes to snakes. I was just trying to show him how cool it was and he went inside (rather quickly) and tried to lock the door on me.

Snakes are not the only obstacle though. I like to make granola and have the berries on top on that. Yum! There are so many berries this year that I can even have enough to make a cobbler. I picked just shy of a pound of berries last night alone. By getting the ladder I could even pick the higher up ones. I hate being short some days. I would have enough for cobbler except for this obstacle. He loves berries too.