Hey, y'all! Happy Friday! From dentist appointments to playdates, 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....I launched 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
Boy, did we have a busy weekend! We kicked off the weekend with a hearty sausage, biscuit and gravy breakfast- a special request from Ashley. I think the kids might have a new favorite breakfast food. They all had a second helping- which is a rarity for our boys.
After breakfast, our friends T&E stopped by with their 7 month old foster daughter and 6 year old girl. Let me tell you, this was the best thing for 5! She had a blast playing with our friends daughter. They had so much fun playing on the bounce house ,in the kiddie pool, and of course, coloring and playing dressup.
I totally cheated for dinner tonight. I caved in, whipped out the laptop and ordered pizza. While we waited for dinner to arrive, we inflated a blowup mattress, and turned on "Frozen"- a movie 5 has been talking about all week. This is one of our favorite things to do. Our blowup mattress has a built in pump so it inflates in just minutes. We all pile on to the bed in the living room and watch movies. Of course...the boys last about 2 minutes before they are jumping on the bed and running all over the house- but at last we try.
Sunday
Sunday Funday's look a little differently than they did back in the day. We've upped our playdate game to include brunch! This week our friends S&C brought their 7 kiddos over. Our buddys J&D also joined us for a delicious brunch! The adults hung out while the littles played in the kiddo pool, splashed in the water table, bounced on the bounce house, and played in the outdoor kitchen.
After nap time, we took the kids to my parents house for a traditional turkey dinner. 5 got to play with my niece Monster while the boys ran around playing with my niece Gremlin. I love having family so close by!
Monday
With the kids in daycare and Ashley at the office for the day, I had the chance to bang out this week's blog posts- Apple Fritter Breakfast Casserole, Crockpot Teriyaki Pork, Sausage Biscuits and Gravy and the Weekly Meal Plan.
5 has been struggling with her behavior quite a bit lately. She's been starving for attention so Ashley checked her out of daycare early so we could spend some time with just her. We broke out a new Lego set we bought her and showed her how to follow the instructions. It held her attention for about 5 minutes- after that I ended up building it on my own but I have to admit, I did a damn fine job!
When I was younger my brothers and I convinced my parents into letting the boys share a room so we could use one of the bedrooms as a Lego Room. We built an entire Lego city complete with hospitals, garages, shops, and homes.
Once a week we do a "Clean Out the Fridge" night where we finish off any leftovers that are in the fridge. We munched on leftover pizza, fruit salad, and baked beans. For dessert we ate leftover Apple Fritter Casserole.
Before bed, we turned on our favorite ASL video so we could practice our sign language.
Tuesday
Tuesday afternoon, I swung by and picked my nieces up and surprised them with lunch with my mom. We popped into the girls favorite restaurant, Tijuana Flats.
One of my favorite family traditions is our Family Dance Parties. We started having Family Dance Parties back when it was just me, Ashley, and our Labrador Lady Belle (LB). Since then, we've added Parker (our terrier), and 5 foster children to the mix. As soon as the boys hear use say "Alexa" they rush over to the kitchen and start bobbing their heads. It is the cutest thing! We have big dreams of teaching them the Git Up dance...so we turned it on and attempted to learn it as a family.
We're definitely a work in progress! Dinner tonight was our favorite meatloaf recipe.
Wednesday
Today I had to take my mom to the oral surgeon to have a couple of teeth removed. Afterwards, I swung by and grabbed my niece so I could spend more time with them.
We had a very low-key day. After dinner, leftover meatloaf, we called it an early night and all went to bed.
Thursday
Today 5 had therapy. We decided we would both take her to today's appointment so that we could speak with her therapist about some recent behavior changes. Over the last week 5 has begun acting like she doesn't know Ashley's name. Yesterday, out of nowhere, she stopped talking to Ashley all together. It's the strangest thing! Nothing has happened between the two of them, 5 just looks at her, smiles, and pretends she doesn't know her name. The therapist said it's attention seeking behavior and discussed some of her concerns with us, as well.
We ended up doing a family session. In the session, 5 displayed all of the behaviors that we explained to the therapist. Out of nowhere she stated that her name was ___ ____ and then gave MY last name as her last name. It baffled me because I don't even know how she knows my surname. I've never told her it, and she can't read. It was really strange.
Dinner was one of our favorite weeknight meals, Beef Tortellini.
Friday
In Florida, we have Tax Free Weekends just before school starts. Our state gives a $300/child clothing allowance for back to school so we were able to use that towards buying the kids a whole new wardrobe. This morning, after we dropped the kids off at daycare, we headed to Walmart to grab all of 5's school supplies for Kindergarten. We also hit up sales at Old Navy, and Carter's before heading to Target. The kiddos got lots of clothes to carry them through the rest of the summer months (aka the rest of this year) and into winter (which usually starts around January/February here).
Tonight we had leftover tortellini. Twin G wasn't feeling well, and both boys were exhausted from daycare so we called it an early night. Gotta rest up for the weekend!
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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