Extra Kids Thursdays

I've begun watching my nephews on Thursdays. It's been pretty fun. The cousins all get along (for the most part) and the only real challenge is driving anywhere to do anything. We only have 7 seatbelts in our van, so when I have 7 kids it just doesn't work. Josh and I both have to drive when we run errands on Thursdays.

Last Thursday I got a taste of what a *large* family deals with. Josh and I needed to get some things done and decided to try doing them with all the kids in tow: Cody (11), Emma (9), Abby (8), Matt (6), Brett (5), Ashton (20 months), and Millie (18 months). Josh took Cody and Emma with him to Walmart and started the errands there while I took the other five kids to check out what we needed to register our vehicles. Over by our former rental house is a third-party office where you can do your vehicle registration and so I went there. I just left the kids in the air conditioned van and ran inside the deserted office. I found out that I could easily register the van right at that moment, so I told the lady that I had a bunch of kids in the car and would go grab them and we could start on my paperwork.

When I re-entered with the five youngest kids, man, I got some looks. The lady said something along the lines of, "Wow, you weren't kidding when you said a 'bunch of kids'!" I told the kids to sit quietly and then I bribed them with candy. The kids were also offered suckers from one of the other ladies working there for being so good. And the kids really did a good job of being good and cute and helping me out. I got my van registered and there wasn't a single growl from any of us for any reason. Amazing!!

Then we went to Walmart and met up with Josh and the other two kids. We had one cart with Ashton in the seat and Millie in the basket and then the five bigger kids mulling around us. And we got looks and stares. I couldn't help but laugh. We were stopped by one guy who said he had to ask us if they were all ours. We kindly explained the situation. And then it turned out he was hitting us up to be our new financial advisor. Hello! We're in WALMART. We have no finances to advise.

Another guy asked if we'd had all these kids to get on tv. I explained that only four were ours. He kind of blushed and said that he just wondered since there are so many reality shows about big families these days. I told him that my husband and I value our marriage too much to do that. (Although I do like watching some of those families.)

Josh and I have always wanted to have a big family. If we can have days as good as last Thursday, I think I could handle a large family. Unfortunately, today Josh is recovering from working last night and it's 115 degrees outside (literally) so we're having a harder time staying home and staying quiet. I'm thinking I'm going to have to come up with something creative to remedy that.