the mom

I am playing mom for the week. I now have five kids to watch over and take care of. I began on Sunday and we are having a blast, as usual.

I have been watching these kids since I was 12 years old and started overnight stays when I was a senior in high school. It has always been a tradition that I put a treat under each child's pillow when they fall asleep. Who doesn't love waking up to candy?! I wish I had someone to put a treat under my pillow. We kept with the tradition this time around, and here is my mini candy store. The treats I get are always a surprise.

I felt like a mother hen tending to her chicks during church. I had to make sure everyone was reverent & somewhat entertained. Luckily the kids are old enough that we didn't have any major outbursts. Phew! I was probably the most irreverent of them all because Ben kept drawing these silly portraits of us. Oh my word, I was dying of laughter. I just about lost it. I am kind of glamorous with the snot dripping out my nose, don't you think?

We made these yummy rice krispy treats after church and hung out a bunch.

Later on when the kids fell asleep, I heard tapping on the window. Holy cow, it got my heart going, being a nervous nelly and all. I went around to all the doors and flipped the lights on. No one was there. I was hoping the tapping would just go away (yeah right). It definitely continued. I was checking everything and was just seconds away from waking up the oldest two boys to come help me (am I a scaredy cat or what?). I decided to put on a brave face and went outside to see who the little rascals were. Turns out, it was my cousin and one of my friends. We were all laughing so hard. They sure gave me a heart attack though, sheesh!

On Monday the kids were out of school, so we went over to my house and picked carrots. We always grow a little patch of them in our garden and love picking them every fall. They are huge this year!

This picture makes me laugh. Gracie is the only girl and the youngest. The boys were zooming across the streets, and of course she wanted to follow. But me, being the meanie I am, told her she had to wait at every corner for me. Here she is being obedient while the boys ride off.

We went to a pumpkin patch. A real pumpkin patch! I don't think I've been to one since the fourth grade. It was so much fun, and I am making it a yearly adventure now!

We met up with Jenny and g baby. Of course we both wanted to hold him in the picture, so we just decided to share. After the picture was taken, we both leaned down to give him a kiss at the same time, on opposite cheeks. Are we sisters or what!

William is one of the funniest kids ever. I really almost pee my pants every time I'm with him because he's just so darn adorable and funny without even trying. He was hauling this heavy pumpkin over to the handcart contraption, and was struggling the whole way. He almost dropped it every inch he went. Instead of helping, I was snapping pictures and laughing (I know, rude), but he made it all the way. How stinkin' cute is he! Are those church socks I see on him? I think yes!

Here we are with our pumpkins! It's funny because we had a whole huge patch full or pumpkins, yet it was the hardest decision in the world to choose just one. I really liked mine. If you look closely, my pumpkin appears to have some marks on it which I refer to as "stitches". It totally reminds me of all the cute little surgical kids I take care of at the hospital.

We wheeled our pumpkins off to be weighed. It was a whopping 102 lbs. for the six.

This last picture I had to include. Here is Will again, all ready for football practice - church socks and all. Aren't boys the best? Totally carefree, not phased in the least by something like that.