Arabic

My oldest stepson is in World Languages class in 7th grade.

World Languages... I have no idea what this means...

But, right now, he seems to be learning ARABIC! Wow!

He made a point this evening to find me watching TV and tell me that he could write his name in Arabic. So... I made a point to go out to the kitchen (homework area) to watch him write it and even take a picture of it!  😁

Any guesses??

The First Thanksgiving!

... for THIS Horstmann family... 

 

I thought of this big huge plan... But then got busy with everything... So we just had a small Thanksgiving with Phil and the boys.  Sorry y'all... the thought was there.

 

The fine china came out...

INCLUDING fine cups. 😊

Instead of a huge turkey... I went to Hyvee and got turkey breasts.  I think the boys wanted an actually turkey, but... oh well.  😊  We had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, and crescent rolls.

 

Quite a nice spread...

We asked the boys what they were Thankful for and this is what they said:

• A large family.
• Dad and Jennifer.
• Jake* was thankful for dad, Jennifer, Matt, Chris, and Logan...
• NOTE:  He was not thankful for Cody.
• Dad keeping his job at Caterpillar.
• A roof over their head.

 We all enjoyed our first Thanksgiving dinner together.

 

Our helpers after dinner...

We even had two "volunteers" help clean. Ok, maybe they didn't volunteer, it was actually their first time to do dishes and we were teaching them.  But, guess what? We got done so fast and the kitchen is now SPOTLESS!

 

TA-DA!!

Wonderful, first, Thanksgiving dinner.  💓💓💓

 

 

 

*All boys' names changed for story.

 

 

Twins' Basketball Practice

I don't know if the twins have ever played "organized" basketball before. I don't think they have. I'm sure they've played basketball in somebody's driveway. Or, maybe they've played basketball at school.  Anyway. We were watching them play basketball...

And they did really well... There was nothing wrong at all... 

They learned how to rebound, they learned how to dribble, they learned passing,... 

And then...

Wait... What...? 

Uh oh...

Where is she going??? 😂😂

Practice was over shortly after... Luckily the little girl with the shirt over her head didn't run into anybody.  😂😂

Housekeeping Items

Where do all of the clothes go?  They've got to come into the house. For 5 boys. Lots of clothes. So where does it all go?

Today, Phil and I cleaned out clothes for the boys. FIRST, we started with the middle brothers. What can we pass down to the twins?

Then... We moved on to the twins room...

Things got a little weird... :-) 

But, we made some good progress and got FOUR large bags of clothes out the door... 

And straight to Goodwill!

PHEW! Very productive day of housekeeping... We even picked up a few things from Goodwill for the boys! (Hey, why spend so much money when they are just going to grow out of them in less than a year anyway???)

How do we do it??

So I've been doing this whole thing now... You know... Five kids and all... for about 1.5 years.  :-)

The most asked question that I get is, "How do you and Phil do it?"

This morning, one of our swimming friends found out that we have five boys and the exclamation was, "Five boys?!? Oh my gosh! How do you do it??" 

And this message is from this evening...

Well... here is the magic secret...  the boys are 8, 8, 10, 12, and 13 (Oh, in January, I get to say "14, 12, 10, and the twins are 8 - all even numbers!")... 

Ok, back to the magic secret.... Honestly, we put them in front of food or the TV. We make them do homework. We make sure to get them outside in the fresh, beautiful, air (when it's nice out). They play with blocks or legos in the basement. Sometimes they play x-box. And honestly, when all else fails, we just make them clean the living room or their bedrooms. 

(the last one is my favorite)   :-)   

But, we're very lucky that they all get along really well and play together. They are such good boys!

Date Night!

Last week at work, I responded to an email asking if anybody wanted Rivermen tickets (which, I've done before and was able to get 7 tickets).  This week though, I was only given 2 tickets. AND, we had the boys this weekend.  What to do... What to do...

When I brought it up to Phil, he suggested that I take Jake*, and it would be our "date night."

Hmm... Well this is a first... a date night. With a stepson.

We told Jake on Friday evening that I would be taking him to the Rivermen hockey game on Saturday and he was so excited! "Really? Awesome! YAY!"

Then on Saturday morning, he was so cute... "I can't wait for our date tonight!"

Saturday afternoon, I asked him what he wanted to do for dinner and we talked about it. He decided on Burger Barge in Peoria (the new one).

We played tic-tac-toe and hangman while we waited for our food.

I will keep that napkin forever.  :-) 

Then we got our burgers... Jake got a bacon burger and onion rings. I got a chili and cheese burger (tried something new!) and cheese blobs.  

YUM!!

Then we went to the hockey game and had great seats! 

The Rivermen were losing 2-1 until the last 4-minutes of the game when they tied it up 2-2! It was awesome!  He wanted to stay and watch, so I agreed since it was our first date.  LUCKILY, the Rivermen scored within 3-minutes of overtime.  :-)  We didn't have to stay so late!

So, for my first stepmom-stepson date... It was a really fun evening!  :-) 

Normal Size Recipe

What to do when a friend sends you a recipe... But you want to make it for 7...

Just increase the portions!  :-)