Big Family

Saturday I had football and it was nice and sunny. We lost big time but it was still good to get out and work up a sweat! We play the same team next weekend so hopefully we can figure out a way to beat their defense at this weeks practice. Koen always seems to have his worst nights before football games so I'm always so tired on those days. Gary planted his upside down tomato plants so we'll see how those guys grow. Last year the tomatoes took over our whole garden so this will hopefully free up our garden for other things.

Sunday afternoon we got together with my whole family to celebrate my sister Jantina's birthday and have our Easter dinner. Jan is the 3rd from the left, with the pink streak. Jan and her husband were in a serious car accident last week and her car was totalled. Thankfully they are okay, although suffering from whiplash. Happy 26th Janny Bear!

I do want to get a full extended family shot one day but Koen went to sleep so I didn't want to have everyone in it except for him. There are 5 of us girls within 8 years and 1 month. How did my parents do that? Wow. And no, they didn't just keep having kids to have a boy. Both of my parents come from large families so it was what they wanted as well.

I have to say that the one downfall of larger families where the parents are both working (my mom was part time), is that my parents were never there for anything that I did in high school. My mom did go to parent teacher conferences because I wanted her to go:) No track meets, soccer games, or cross country meets. When I would get home, we would always have family dinners together but I think that I really wished that they would've supported me in my extra curricular activities. Sports were not encouraged (besides being available to pick us up or lend us a vehicle once we were old enough) and I wish that they were. They wanted us to be active and healthy but since my parents never did any sports, besides my mom playing baseball, I guess you kind of raise kids the way that you were. My mom did take us skating on Friday nights so that counts too:) We did do a lot of hiking as a family as well as skating and swimming lessons when we were younger. Academics and social skills were emphasized. My 3 younger sisters were big into music and my mom usually tried to go to their concerts which was good. That was kind of a random paragraph but my hope is to be able to support my boys as much as I can, whether it be their involvement in sports, music, art etc. And by support, I mean be there.

I could give you a ton of pros for large families too so don't get me wrong. I learned a lot about responsibility (taking care of my sisters, feeding them, doing their hair etc), team work and community. At this age, its great to have so many sisters around. It's interesting how we all grew up in the same home but are all very different. I would have to say though, that we are all quite active in part due to my mom always making us go outside and probably in part to inheriting our father's genes in regards to body type...ya dad, I went there.

Okay, time to get off the computer and do the mom thing.