Year 2, Day 292: Mountains and Mountains of Clothes!

This is break week, but it's a break week for the kids from most of their school work, but not a break for Mommy.  Nope, I'm working on making that long process of switching out the seasonal clothes.  The kids have grown a bunch and we also needed to find and process through all their clothes and what size comes next, etc.  The hardest one to do this with is Justin.  We basically touched every single piece of clothing because he is so differently sized than Benaiah was.  He's lanky, and Benaiah was/is husky.  I'm not sure what Abishai will be, so I've not getting rid of everything yet.  BUT, I did manage to pull a trash bag full out of the 5 boxes worth that I could get rid of, even stuff that was too big.  And now that I type this, I totally forgot to comb through the things that Abishai was done with that I'm willing to part with.  Whoops.  Those are easy to get to and I didn't tape them shut.  I'll try to do that tomorrow.  That kid has about 2 dozen pairs of pants in the 24 mo/2T size, if not more, including his Sunday pants.  Eek! Same with shirts.  And we went through Benaiah's stuff today and I put it away properly myself.  And all three boys' clothes fit in their closet and two dressers, so I must be doing something right there.  Not a minimalist with 33 articles of clothing though.  But it fit.  And the only thing that they need is that Justin needs gym pants (Benaiah wore jeans, but Justin prefers gym pants) and socks.  Benaiah started wearing Jared's hand me down socks at this point and they were very big then and now fit him well, lol, so from this point forward there are no socks and underwear to pass down. Some would find that gross.  The boys don't care and everything is washed so why does it matter?  Oh, and I found a bunch of white t-shirts in Benaiah's stuff that I believe were actually Jared's.  No wonder Jared was down to like 4 white t-shirts!  I just saved us like $12!  Woot! Woot!

Now, onto the girls' tomorrow.  Well, mine probably won't get done tomorrow or this weekend but we'll get rid of Keturah's too small clothes and see what's left.  I don't have anything in the next size for her and I know she needs all new pants because she's grown a bunch, and probably shirts, too.  Her clothes are more organized, though, because I had her pull everything out about a month ago because she is notorious for dumping things on the floor and then putting them in certain drawers wherever they fit instead of doing it properly.  At least I don't have to go searching for boxes in the shed or garage for her.  It's just the rest of her room that needs help.  She made some progress in it today putting up her Barbies and ponies.  But, there's numerous "miscellaneous" catch all boxes and her Legos are again scattered everywhere.  She's been using her time this week to make things for her dolls, so I can't complain too much.  I'll take pictures of her creations once we get the rest of the stuff redone.  But she's artsy so I know it will come undone again.  Then I'll need to do the same with Benaiah's stuff b/c he just doesn't care and throws it all in a box randomly, which wastes a ton of space.  I will categorize it for him, and then he can go through each category if he wants to.  I'm thinking he'll find 3 boxes of Zyrtec hidden among random socks, cd's, papers, books, toys, etc.  We'll see.

I don't have many pictures of these processes because I simply forgot and am just trying to focus on getting it done.  We have a somewhat big weekend ahead and I need to find some time to rest as well.  It's the Creek's 40th birthday celebration and friends and family are coming into town to celebrate.  Sunday is definitely full from top to bottom but Saturday might be our rest day.  I need to go shopping tomorrow for a gift for one of our guests and to finally pick up some random items from Meijer and the Dollar Store that I've waited on for a couple of weeks.  Yup, boring stuff.

Let's get to the pictures that will tell the rest of the story, shall we?  Warning: there's a ton of pictures because it's 3 days' worth.  Here we go!

Listening to tunes and doing his chores! (Not really, but he looks like a cute little janitor, doesn't he?)  When I tell the kids they need to do their chores, he volunteers to help!  And actually, he wasn't listening to tunes but rather talking on a radio in the "pit stop."  He's a bit obsessed with the Cars franchise and loves Luiji and the "pit stop!"

Totally Abishai's "cheese for the camera" face!

Playing the blues.

Mr. Orange Hair, aka Ethan, spent the night.  The best part of waking up (isn't Folgers) is younger siblings picking on you AND your friend!  Remember, Ethan is the youngest child, but I would think his older siblings mess with him, too.  The younger ones really like to get in there and both Ethan and Benaiah don't mind because it doesn't last long.

The dreaded drum set came back.  And the rest of his instruments he had stored at Grandma's and Grandpa's.  And what's with the backwards hat?  It's totally NOT his look.  He's had several days to set up the drum set and he hasn't attempted to, so maybe it will just take up space and it won't be played and I can tell him to take it back to his owner.  We'll see.  But seriously, this kid has this real drum set, two video game electric drum sets, a real guitar, two computer game electric guitars, and an electric keyboard.  Granted, some of these items don't work or don't work well, so we are going to have to discuss what needs to stay and what can go and where to store them, especially when he runs off to college in 2 1/2 yrs.  Hm,.....

These two have a rule that they have to stay up later and later each time they do a sleepover.  They made it until 3:30 am.  I just love it that they are listening to their own things instead of conversing (not!) Teens!

Finally a locking door on the half bathroom!

Hm,...Abishai needs to keep practicing his sharing skills because he was hoarding these toys, that he properly named, from the other kids.  He was pretty moody and didn't want to put away the toys, and I had to take him out! Then he threw a fit in the library and I got some stares as I gathered up the rest of the kids who were over near the computers.  We checked out and left quickly.

But he couldn't leave until he got all of these perfectly in place on the top.  He said something like, "put them all away."

Nice display case of probably some super expensive DC and Marvel figurines in anticipation of Marvel's Thor:Ragnarok and DC's Justice League coming out soon.

Let's just see what happens if we give the toddler some super charged Mountain Dew, shall we?  Don't worry, it was just a sip and it was way before naptime.

Because we were heading that direction to drop off recycling, and Abishai was agreeable, we checked in over at Daddy's office.  The worst behaved children were the oldest two children.  Are they 15 yrs old or 15 months old?  They were giddy from not enough sleep and too much caffeine.  They ran around the tables, played in the closet and nearly knocked over the lamp when Benaiah body slammed the couch which pushed the table back.  Ah!

Children, settle down!  You are in church you know!

Patiently waiting on a slide of grapefruit from Daddy.

Well, they moved the recycling bin to the new Kroger, which is much less convenient for me, but we had some time so I let the kids use up some of their energy.

Scaling the playground.

Are you sure these kids are old enough and responsible enough to leave the house in a couple of years?  I think they are trying to hang onto the last bits of childhood that they can.

Big brave Abishai can walk around this whole park all my himself and I don't have to worry so much and be close under him to catch him if he falls.

The slide was wet, so he was avoiding the puddle.  Smart boy.

Benaiah attempting to climb the pole.  He didn't make it.

Big girl in her new big girl shoes that even Mommy can wear!  They look huge on her though!

How can we not take advantage of this weather?????  Clothes and books and projects can wait until rainy, cold days.  Go outside!  Except when the playground has more bees than the apple orchard did and it freaks out one of the teens who thinks he's never been stung (Ethan).  I just had to keep moving so they wouldn't land on me.

Big sister, little brother trick.  The boys all took turns jumping down on this bridge and made such a racket!

His shoe fell off so he went over to fix it.

Spiderman pose.

At 5 years old, Benaiah would scream at us to not force him to do these kinds of ladders.  Now he just sits there like he owns the place.

Cutie.

Heart melter.

Always gymanstics, always.

Insurance will pay for water damage to the roof and to haul away some of the wood from the branches that fell.

I was able to show Ethan this special shirt.  The boys were 9 years old.  Yes, that's Ethan's signature and his brother Conner's and their friend Seth W.  Pretty cool!  And yes Indian Creek used to have humongous VBS.  I miss those VBS's!

One of Justin's chores is doing the day's dishes.  We let it accumulate for the whole day and then do it.  I help with some of the bigger stuff.

Look, "I'm on the new road!."

I play 'Miah's drums and I singing and I dancing.  So cute!

Another nice day at home.  Pj's all day, even to play outside in.

Trying to catch those baby blues!

There.  See, he's got his Grandma Howell's steel gray blue eyes.

Oh, and this kid can "pump" his legs on the swings already!  Keturah taught him!  I don't think its' strong enough to keep him swinging yet.

Sad face.  All the green leaves that won't turn pretty colors his fall because the whole branch fell in that crazy wind.

Belch.  Brown.

Jumping off the rock again.

I wish I interrupted these two less.  I'm always barking out orders instead.  Keturah read that whole stack of books to him without prompting.

Day 4 of gorgeous fall weather!  Abishai can fit and likes to be in the center piece between the tires.

Simple, but as neat as I can get it, backyard.  I did walk around the backyard a few times to get exercise the other day.  I used to do that in our Beech Grove backyard which was much smaller.  I need to measure it and see how many loops make a mile.  And I just need to start exercising period.

So here's the nice line up of pumpkins from Monday's field trip.  Benaih's is the one on the top of the pic and it actually is the biggest.  I picked the smallest apparently because it's on the bottom of the pic.  Justin's is next to Benaiah's, then Keturah's, then Abishais, then mine/ours.  And the spider craft came from storytime at the Library.  This week's theme was all about spiders of course for Halloween.  Next week is pumpkins.  I think I might skip the last Tuesday of the month because it's called "Halloween Hits."

Abishai insisted on reading next to Justin.  He often wants to sit next to Justin or Keturah at the table, too.  I might not be able to read in the traditional sense right now (I read blogs and listen to podcasts and the occasional audio book), but at least the kids know how to.  Sweet!

Size 7/8 toddler feet next to size 7/8 adult big tween feet.  Justin has super long feet.  At least they look that way because they are so narrow.

I caught the boy having a midnight snack!  I told him to eat bread and butter instead of crunching his way through the pantry.

Back to Wednesday/last night, walking into the church for Bible Bowl.  Abishai went with Daddy to his office and watched vrooms on the computer, while I walked and listened to podcats and Keturah had some tablet time.

The farm map at Tuttle's.  Well laid out.

Here's this year's corn maze at Tuttle's with all the names for the corny characters.

And then there's this character who took out all the toys in the box so he could dump his cereal in it.  I stopped him before he could that last part. 

Just watching his toonies on YouTube.  And yes, I put up some pictures but I need more frames and then I need to place some more and hang up the rest.

Boy's breakfast/lunch is 3x times the recommended amount.  He's hiding the cereal in the bowl because it's overflowing.  Abishai is loving this cereal and will even eat the cereal after he picks out all the marshmallows in it.

Again, it's a busy weekend.  We'll see if I can update you on it.  I also need to clear out my iCloud account because it's full again.  So much to do, so little time.  I'm glad we've had a week off so I could try and catch up and have some breathing room.  Back to the books on Monday.