Fun with Duplos!

I've found quite a few great finds at garage sales over the years. One of the best things I've bought at garage sales are Duplo Blocks. My kids will sit and play with them for over an hour at a time! One of the best things about Duplos is that my littlest kids love them as well as my older ones. They can all play with the blocks at the same time.

For the little ones, they like to build a bit with them, or just throw them through the air like this:

And then there's the older kids; they enjoy building dog houses, tall towers, and models of the digestive system (as pictured below):

We store the duplos in a large clear plastic container. Duplo blocks are not very expensive new, but you can get an even better deal at garage sales. Got to love the classic toys- expecially blocks. Kids can play with them for hours!

Why I Chose to Have More than One Child

Everyone has their own reasons for how they decided to have the number of children they have.

My reason? I love kids. I always have. I loved babysitting when I was 12, loved the kids I took care of at daycare as a teen, and loved very dearly the kids I nannied when I was 19. As a nanny, I had two little girls I took care of. Even though both kiddos were quite different, I had no problem loving them both.

I'm an only child and I hated being an only. I don't like using the word "hate", but it fits accurately here. I couldn't stand being an only, and it was only made worse by the fact that I was in daycare. It was so very lonley. I longed for a sibling, begged for a sibling, and instead lived out the rest of my childhood alone. It was even worse as a teen when my parents split and I found myself going through the situation alone, as well as having no one to relate to how I felt. As a kid, I knew I would have more than one child if I could help it, because of how much I disliked being an only.

Even so, that's not the main reason of why I chose to have more than one child.

I just love kids. I know sometimes I seem tired and exhausted and maybe happy to get a break to myself. But I love my kids and I love doing things with them.

Also, having multiple kids is just fun. Today we went on a 1-1.5 mile walk. With one child on a bike, another on a scooter, another child pushing a doll in a carriage, and the youngest in a stroller, it was like having a parade! It was a lot of fun!

Other fun things we do as a family of 6:

*Family Popcorn Movie Nights
*Read stories together- the kiddos huddle around and listen
*Play baseball- the boys even play baseball just the two of them
*Draw on the driveway together
*Play games together
*and my favorite- we do school together. It's fun. Having a big family for us is fun.

Life can be stressfull at times and moms like me may come across tired or stressed, but there's usually circumstances behind that that have little to do with the children. We all get tired and worn out at times, but most of us larger sized family moms love it.

So that's my answer- I had more than one child because I love kids and I know that however many kids I have, I will be able to love each of them. It was hard imagining loving anyone as much as my firstborn, but just as I had enough room for both my husband and my firstborn child, I likewise had enough room in my heart to love my 2nd. born, (and 3rd. and 4th. borns too : )

Nothing wrong with families that decide to only have one or families that decide to have 17. We each have our own reasons. Now you know mine.

Packing Tip

A good friend of mine shared a tip for packing that has proven handy:

*When packing breakable dishes and glasses, wrap them up in your clothes. By using your clothes to wrap them rather than newspaper, you will get twice the ammount of stuff packed into one box!

I have packed up two boxes like that so far and now have less clothes in the closset as well as most of my dishware packed!

Thanks Elisha for the tip!