Attention Christmas Shoppers!

Here we are on a Beautiful September Sunday afternoon and I'm home with 2 babies sleeping and the other 4 family members out.

I have much to write about...and I will when I have time! Which is not now! Here are the highlights I may get to one day:
-We celebrated our 10 year anniversary
-The kids entered the Saanich Fair and won some awards
-Our 2009/2010 School year began-Caleb is in Grade 2 and Acacia is in Grade 1 and Levi is thankful that he doesn't actually have to join us if he doesn't want to!
-Nathan turned 40 and I bought him a tractor, which is very vintage and doesn't actually run yet but he's looking forward to snow for the first time in years
-Caleb entered his "Beaver Poem" in a contest and it was chosen to be published

...and Christmas is COMING

For me, the Mom of 5 kids, which I keep in 2 bedrooms, this brings many mixed emotions!

Here are some interesting statistics I've looked up because I don't want to finish organizing the storage room in order to clean out my children's bedrooms while they are out with Nathan for a few minutes.

The average number of square feet per person in America is 721 square feet. The average number per poor person in America is 439. The average number per Scott family member is 229.

I've had people send me emails lately about the average number of children people have per household in North America and how our society as we know it is in danger. It's a scary statistic, buta lesser known fact that is equally as scary (to me and other Moms) is that each child in North America has an average of 100 stuffies. Because I'm now teaching basic math, I've been able to figure out that: 5 kids x 100 stuffies= 500 stuffies. 2 small bedrooms, 5 active kids and a bizillion toys will make 1 crazy Momma!

So, people have been asking-here is my response for those who would like to know if there's anything the kids need or want for upcoming Birthdays and Christmas:

First of all, Thank you so much for loving my kids and including them in your Christmas preperations! They LOVE getting gifts from you and they look forward to Christmas and birthdays largely because of you. I know a lot of those gifts have been handmade and a lot of love and care have gone into them. Thank you for spending the time and love on those beautiful gifts. The kids really do enjoy them.

For the last couple of years, we've done something that works really well for us. Nathan and I have chosen an activity or project and requested that in lieu of gifts, if you would like to contribute, we would be grateful.

2 years ago, many of you contributed toward family outings on our California trip. We were really strapped for money that year and we would not have been able to go if it weren't for those contributions. The kids LOVED the San Diego Wild Animal Park and Rawhide, Arizona-they still talk about it and they know it was because of contributions from Christmas from family & friends.

Last year, Nathan built an amazing backyard play fort. Our indoor living space is very small, but our outdoor space is huge and we like the kids to be OUTSIDE playing. Because of your gifts, the kids have a swing-set, fort, 2 slides, and a pulley-and it's not finished yet! They literally play on it every day.

This year, the kids would really love to have their rooms re-decorated and painted. If you would consider contributing towards that instead of buying them gifts, they would LOVE IT! I've begun to decorate the boys with camoflague stuff. I would like to do the girls room in yellow & blue with kind of a tea-party theme.

Because we're homeschoolers we get money every year for things like books, educational games, school supplies, etc. We have more books than we have room for at the moment and get funding for any schoolish thing.

Clothes
-we always appreciate clothes because the kids go through them so fast.
-Clothes are good, but each kid only gets 3 drawers of a dresser and I hang all their hang-clothes in one closet so it is also limited
-The girls always seem to need plain white tights.
-The girls love dance clothes-pink leotards, pink ballet shoes, tutus-all big hits with them!
-Socks make us crazy. Because the kids sort the laundry, having 85 mismatching socks is hard for them to match up. When I buy socks, I buy packages of all white and all black so at least there are less that get thrown out because they have no match.
-I always appreciate if the kids get things that can be mixed and matched rather than a strange greenish pair of pants that only goes with one top (I apologize in advance if you're in the process of knitting a strange greenish pair of pants)
-Sweaters that look nice with most dress clothes are really appreciated.

Toys
-the kids love toys, but we do have a limited amount of space for them. Because Eden has naps in one bedroom and Charis in the other, we don't keep many toys in bedrooms. Also, the kids have to clean their own rooms, so I tend to keep most toys downstairs in a locked toy room. They get them out when they want them and put them back later when I get crazy with the amount of stuff around the house.
-we have more than enough books, dolls, toy cars, games, little toys, etc.
-we don't want a lot of tiny objects. This is not fun for me when Charis gets into it and Eden spreads it all over the floor! We have a closet jammed with board games.

-contributing toward classes at the rec center or dance is always helpful. At the moment, the boys are going to do floor-hockey and Acacia, dance.

-Family entertainment is always a good one for our large family-something we can all do together, like contributing toward a trip to the Bug Zoo, Butterfly Gardens, the Vancouver Aquarium, the Zoo, IMAX, etc. We get to go to the museum for free because we are a school.

If you do want to give an individual gift and would like suggestions, here are some ideas:

Caleb-interested in building models, drawing and wood carving. He would love a gift certificate to "B & C Shavers" or an Art store.

Acacia-has an 18" doll that she loves collecting doll clothes for. It's the same as the "American Girl" doll. She also has a Cabbage Patch doll that she would love clothes for. Jewelery box maybe.

Levi-We have a billion of the things Levi likes to play with. He'd love a camera though, so contributing to a digital camera like Caleb has would be great for him. (Caleb got his for $21 on ebay, so it's achievable!)

Eden-less is best! We also have a billion of the things Eden loves. Play-doh would be good. Not the play doh toys-we have tons, but just plain play-doh. She loves dolls, but she has enough dolls to play with. Jewelery box maybe.

Charis-lesser than less! She's a baby who gets to play with all of the things that have been passed down from 4 siblings. She's a spoiled baby! I haven't even gotten out all the baby toys we have for her because we have too many.

I hope I haven't offended any of you. We really do appreciate it when people take an interest in our kids. We haven't been very good at Thank-yous for the past few years, but we're working on that now that a couple of kids can print a little. Thank you for your patience with us as we try to figure out how to be a big family in a world of little families!