Disneyland Road Trip: Large Family Adventure!

I am so excited to share with you all of my tips and tricks as I planned our first family trip to Disneyland! We took 8 days, (2 driving from Oregon, 4 Park Days, 2 driving home).
Our kids were ages 8, 6, 5, 5, 4.

PREP WORK: 

Snacks! 
I made snack containers for each of us!
 I added a variety of snacks that would not go bad like fruit, or get too messy, like applesauce etc...

We included all GF friendly snacks: 
Cheetos, Popcorn, Whole grain chips, fruit snacks, Dry cereal, Pretzels, Larabars and cookies. 

Everyone had their own snacks with their own name on it. The idea was that  they could pick and choose what they were in the mood to eat at the time and eventually make their way through the tub.

The plan was to put them under their seat so they would have them with in reach as we stopped for breaks. However, our suburban was getting the check up for our trip weeks before and it turns out we needed a new engine! WHAT?! Yep that wasn't my favorite piece of news. SO thankfully we had our second 8 passenger vehicle available and squeezed into it. So my plan for room got tight real quick.

What I would do different: Put 7 of the same snacks in each tub, this way we can condense tubs when empty and just pass around one tub as needed. We ended up having to store most of them in the back because of space issues. 

DIY Homework Station

I am so behind on our vacation posts from this summer but wanted to share my excitement with you from my little DIY project!

This next year I will have four of my five kids in all day school and at the same school! It is going to be much different from this last year when I had kids with so many different start and stop times at three different schools.

So I am getting a little excited about how my routine at home will look. Last year I left every hour to pick someone up or drop them off or to take them to therapy.

So...in all of my day dreaming about this year coming up I did a little bit of prep work. Lets just say I am sure I looked like a crazy lady stalking the school supply isle at the store with supply lists for four kids. It is a good thing I went during a quiet time or things could have been rough for the other shoppers.

After bringing home, what felt like the entire school supply section I sorted (with the help of my two oldest girls who are organizers after my own heart) and we stuffed each backpack with their needed supplies.

Then came the fun part... 

Our own little organization station for homework folders, library books, and permission slips. 

I found this at my local office supply store and I did a little happy dance in the store when I saw that it had exactly five sections for my five kids. (Our two foster kids are expected to return to parent before the fall, and are not in school this next year.)

I was tempted to spray paint it white and I still might do that later on but for now it is perfect. I added their names in Sharpie and am so pleased with how it turned out.

Controlling the Chaos: Traveling with the littles.

Traveling with littles.

Going to the doctor with our group can be a huge adventure! :) The picture below is six of my kiddos while my oldest daughter was still in school. 

My new foster son put a bead up his nose, yep, he did.  Surprisingly, this was a first for me as a parent. It was way up there and we all had to go in, to a new doctor mind you, since he and his sister just came into my care a week earlier. 

Planning so we are early or on time: 

I have learned that the more I am rushing everyone, the more they are bound to meltdown from the stress. So for the sanity of everyone involved, I work hard to keep at a calm pace. This gives me extra time when I suddenly lose my keys while buckling everyone in the car and spend over ten minutes looking under all of their bums and carseats trying to find them; or for the times when the seatbelt has been pulled over and over by one of the kids and completely locks up and won't stretch to the buckle, and it won't retract because it is tangled in the carseat loop; or on the mornings when I hadn't even had time to look outside and I see that my car is completely frozen over. I plan in order to make time for the chaos. :)

Expectations:  

When we arrive at our destination and sometimes even while we are driving to our appointment, I go over all of the rules before we get out of the car. I talk to the kids about walking with a buddy and staying in our group while we cross the parking lot. I remind them we have to have quiet voices in the waiting room with no fighting or fussing. I let them know that I packed a special treat and if they can do these things, then they get a treat when we get back to the car to head home. I usually keep it a surprise so the anticipation keeps them going. Otherwise they sometimes decide that it isn't worth whatever I have. :) 

Controlling the Chaos: Large Family Style

So I love a good organized system. I have lived and learned, the hard way sometimes, how to get rid of  unnecessary chaos. Below are some of our new and improved systems in place since our two new littles joined our family. Right now we have kids ages, 8, 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3. Take a peek below and see how we add a little organization to our lives. :) 

One of the easiest decisions I made was to give each child a day of the week. If it is their assigned day then they get to make special choices, they get to serve snacks and meals to the other kids (one of their favorite things to do), and they get to be the line leader when it is time to go. This completely eliminated arguing over who's turn it was to do something special and fighting over every single time there was a choice to be made. 

Now they all ask, "Who's day is it?" And problem solved! With five kids we did the weekdays and my husband and I got to make choices or it was a free-for-all on the weekends, but now we have seven kids to fill seven days a week! 

Lining up to go out the door for school can be chaotic when you have tired kids. So to eliminate the pushing and shoving I created line up spots that give each kid their own bubble space. I started after the door mat so I have the space to unlock the door before everyone piles out. The rule is that if it is their special helper day as mentioned above, then they get to be the line leader that day. The rest of the spots are free choice.  When the kids are ready with their shoes, coat, and backpack they get to go line up and I know they are ready to go. They love it and it has worked so well! This is one of my favorite ways we control the unneeded chaos. No more crowding each other, knocking each other over, there is a perfect amount of bubble space marked with painters tape on the floor.

Entryway Closet Makeover!!!

I am so excited about this make over I can hardly stand it! 

I have been day dreaming about a solution to our closet mess for quite a while now. 

Not everyone has a garage or a large mud room. So many of us have these little hallway closets that we barely fit in.  We have lived in three houses with all five of our kids and I have tried several ideas. We have had a big shoe bin outside the closet, in the entry way. We have had individual baskets for each of us on the bottom of the shoe closet. All of which resulted in big piles of shoes messed up on the floor. 

The kids would dig through their shoe baskets and it would end up mixed up, messed up and spread all around our entry way. Every day we did this...then I would throw everything back in just so I could barely close the door. Oh and the next pair of shoes I needed, they were of course, on the bottom of the pile. :) 

Here is the BEFORE picture. I am sorry to say I should have taken a better picture. I was so excited to get started on my project and I wish you could have seen it at its worst.

Organization...a word that gives me goosebumps.

I get asked a lot about organization or running a house with five little kids. Well, our house is far from a perfect oiled machine but we have some things that certainly help! Here are some of our fun projects that make life go smoother so we have less chaos.

We started making our own laundry soap. There are so many recipes on Pinterest and we found one that works for us. Such a money saver and works great! I fill more than a 5 gallon bucket and it lasts us about 6 months. We have a TON of laundry. The whole thing to mix up is about 20. and so worth it. I put a batch in this smaller container and keep in my laundry room so I don't have to reach into the 5 gallon bucket every day.