Hey, y'all! Happy Friday! From speech evaluations to play dates, it's been another busy week in our household. All of the highlights from this week along with what we ate, are included in today's roundup of Around our Kitchen Table!
I've had lots of people send messages asking how our foster kiddos are doing and for Foster Friday updates. So....today I am launching an updated version of my Foster Friday series called Around Our Kitchen Table. Here I'll share a little bit about what we've been up to and tie it all into what we've been munching on this week. This series will give you a behind the scenes look about how I balance life as a busy, working foster mom to twin toddlers and a free-spirited 5-year-old.
Saturday
For the first time in forever, we didn't have a playdate scheduled for Saturday. Since we took the kiddos in back in May, we've made a huge effort to socialize the children.
We had a "chill day". I prepared a delicious ham, egg, and, cheese breakfast casserole. The kids climbed into our ball pit and we turned on a family movie ("Daddy Daycare") which is a rarity in our household.
Dinner was my famous meatloaf served up with fancy-schmancy unicorn-shaped Kraft Mac n Cheese and green beans.
Sunday
Sunday morning Ashley's friend brought her daughter over to play with 5. The girls had a blast playing in the pool while the boys prepared food in their outdoor play kitchen. The playdate was just what 5 needed, she's been regressing lately and we're trying to help her learn age-appropriate behavior.
All 3 of the kiddos have developmental delays. Twin L started walking at 18 months- just after we took them in. Although Twin G is walking and running all over the place, he has speech delays. In fact, all 3 kiddos are a bit behind with their speech and language. We've begun teaching them sign language to help them communicate. We use videos like this one to show them various signs. They have learned so much in such a short period of time!
Dinner on Sunday was my homemade crock pot sloppy joes with steamed broccoli. The kiddos tore the sloppy joes up! I have a feeling this simple meal will be making it into our dinner rotation!
Monday
On Monday the kiddos went back to daycare and Ashley went into the office which meant I had the house all to myself! I spent the morning catching up on blog work and household chores.
The afternoon was ridiculously hot but the boys were dying to go outside so I busted out the water table. Y'all, I'm telling you our outdoor toys have been a life changer for us- especially the water table and kiddie pool. We have definitely gotten our money's worth with these purchases!
Dinner tonight was our "Clean Out the Fridge" night. On nights like these, I pull out all of the left overs out of the fridge, heat them up and everyone gets to pick what they want to eat.
Tuesday
On Tuesday I did the one thing I've been avoiding all summer- I went into my classroom for the first time since school got out. I went in to work with all of the best intentions but I only manged to plug in a lamp, hook up my printer, and place 3 items on a shelf before I had a visitor and got totally distracted. Perhaps I'm just not ready to go back to work quite yet...
Ashley has been craving Hamburger Helper lately- to the point where she actually went out and bought a box. I usually avoid boxed meals at all cost (except for mac n cheese) but I caved and made it for dinner. Not surprisingly, the kids loved it. Maybe I'll work on a homemade version for them to devour next time...
Before bedtime, I worked with 5 a bit to work on her alphabet. We've got lots of work to do before school starts next month!
Wednesday
Wednesday are our busy days. 5 and I stopped at a local bakery called Good Dough for breakfast before we zipped over for her therapy appointment. From there we drove across town to her speech evaluation. Fortunately she qualifies for both speech and language therapy- we can't wait to get these services started for her!
From there we rushed back home to meet our caseworker- I told you it was a busy day! She has to stop by once a month to check in on the kids, to get an update with us and to see how they are doing. It's also our opportunity to ask questions about how the case is going.
Dinner tonight was an amazing crock pot beef strogranoff. Unfortunately both boys were a little under the weather, and since 5 missed her quiet time with all of our appointments, we called it an early night.
Thursday
Ashley jinxed us. Earlier this week she mentioned that it had been awhile since anyone spiked a fever (awhile in our world is a week). Naturally, since she put that out into the universe, one of the twins woke up with a fever and had to stay home with me. Luckily, my 13 year old niece Frankenstein, came over to help keep us company. She has such a big, kind, loving heart and has welcomed in all of our foster kiddos in with open arms.
While Twin L was down for a nap, Frankenstein blew up the kids Prime Day present, a brand new bounce house with a slide. I wanted to test it out...because...you know, science. I got about 2 mediocre jumps in before I fell out of the bounce house. It's a good thing Frankenstein got the middle name Grace and not me.
Twin G and 5 had a visit with their mom today. Twin L stayed behind with me so he could get some more rest. As usual, 5 came home absolutely wired after seeing her mom. Between the sugar mom loads her up with and not knowing how to handle her emotions- 5 gets super hyper on visit days.
All day long, I had my brand new favorite meal cooking in the crock pot. Oh my God y'all...it was amazing! Be on the look out for my Mississippi Pot Roast recipe next week!
Friday
Twin L stayed home from school with me again today. We thought 4 days out of daycare would help him get better faster. My nieces, Frankenstein and Monster, came over for a couple hours in the morning. I showed Monster the bounce house and she was beyond ecstatic. I can't wait for 5 to be able to try it out this weekend!
The agency that is assigned to the kids case transports the kids to visits on Tuesday and Thursday. On Fridays, we take them to and from their visits. Unfortunately, the kids mom has been late or a no show so many times that she now has to show up at the visitation center 2 hours before the visit. If she doesn't, the visit gets canceled. We got a call saying that she was a no show today so the visit was canceled. I feel bad for 5 (although she never knows when the visits are going to be) because I know how much she likes seeing her mom but with the visit canceled the twins were able to get some rest.
Check back next Friday to see what we've been up to in the next installment of Around Our Kitchen Table!
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