An amazing experience - part 1

Utterly and completely exhausted! Best way to sum up how I feel! I just spent three weeks with an amazing family. The Rogers family are adopting Jessa and Caleb (formerly Bernadette and Mason), and Erika and Mel needed someone to stay with the kids while they were overseas. I've never had much sense anyway, so I cheerfully volunteered to stay with their 7 kids (all ages 10 and under), 2 dogs, 2 cats, and a herd of alpacas. Where to start to tell you about this? I had planned to blog while I was there, so that Erika and Mel could keep up with the kids and our goings on. Yeah, right! By the time bedtime for the kids rolled around, I was so tired I couldn't have typed my name! But it was worth every single second.

One last family pic before they head into the blue skies!

And they're off!

The kids looked forward to the daily call from Mom and Dad. Afternoon here, but bedtime overseas.

Bathtime for seven kids can be kind of crazy but that meant bedtime (and rest for me!) was very close! lol

One last chance to get their energy out before bed!

I couldn't have done it without help though! Mrs. Debbie came to help us out overnight the first weekend and we even made it to church on time Sunday! 

Madison took over the alpaca chores while her parents were gone and did it like a pro. From hauling hay and grain to watering, and even to rounding up escapee alpacas, she did a great job!

Another fun part was checking the mail for care packages from Nammy, their grandma! This helped them so much to pass the time, from coloring to melty bead crafts, books, making picture frames. Here's Madison opening the first package!

Clare had fun drawing!

Malachi loved the crayons. First he had fun rolling them off the table, then he thought it was hilarious to put them in the opened package so they would fall out the other end!

The rain didn't stop the kids from playing outside! They had fun dancing in the rain!

Working on their craft from Nammy one day and their parents called. Love this look on Cailee's face!

 Clare was always so excited to see my hubby Dave come in! She took a shine to him the first time she met him, and any night he was there, she wouldn't let me put her to bed. Dave had to do it!

Dave taught them how to balance a quarter on their elbow and then catch it in their hand. 

Clare happy in Dave's arms!

Playing badminton

The one bad thing about doing this to one of them...they ALL had to have a turn! He got his workout that day!

Dave brought the tent up so he and the big kids could have a sleepover. That lasted until the scary story had them too scared to sleep outside!

They did have a campfire and roasted marshmallows!

And of course I had to spoil them just a little bit! One day was backwards day, where we started the day with brownie sundaes, and ended with french toast.

Movie night with popcorn. (I made kettle corn for the older ones, it was sooo good!!)

To be continued...