~ Home School Convention~ Day 1.

This past weekend, we went to the area home school convention in Wichita. I went with " my other family". This is my 3rd or 4th year getting to go with them. I also go and spend a week with them either before the convention or after. This time it ended up being about 2 days before and about 3 days after.

With 6 kids, leaving the house for a weekend is not an easy task.  A lot of planning has to go into it.  " My"  baby sister Hannah had been sick for most of that week and let's just say we had been going through outfit changes like nothing else, so just to be safe we took about every nice outfit she owned with us, along with 2 extra outfits for everyone else just in case. We did manage to get it all into one huge duffel bag, diapers in all.


We only took 3 kids with us this year, Philip 10, Lora 7, and Hannah 16 months. Other 3, Heidi 5, Noah 4, and Isaiah 2 went to Grandma's to make things a little easier on us. Unlike last year, Betty's DH was able to go with us which also took a lot of stress off.

Thursday night, after supper and baths, we delivered the 3 kids that were going to grandma's house, to help make things easier for in the morning. The house felt EMPTY that night. We got up around   7 or so and got things around, ate breakfast, got kids dressed, finished any last minute packing and loaded the van. We left the house around 9:15 or so. It was a pretty peaceful, and uneventful drive for the most part.

We got to Wichita around 10:30 or so. We normally park in the hotel parking garage because its normally free for hotel guest...not this year. We get there and find out that its 8 dollars a day..WHAT???.....So we go and attempt to find somewhere to park that was free. We find a parking lot that has other 15 passenger vans parked there and it was right across the street from the hotel which we decided we could handle. We get the stroller out and packed and kids unloaded and head into the convention center to get our name tags and things of sort. At this point it's about 10:45 somewhere in there. There's nothing in the morning except walking through the exhibit hall and "shopping" So we split up and Brad takes the 2 older kids off to look at whatever they want to look at. While me and Betty look at whatever we want to look at. We decide to all meet back up about 30 minutes later, when we were going to head over the closest papa johns for pizza. Betty's friend Amy and her oldest daughter Megan joins us for lunch. It was fun to catch up and visit for a while.

The kid's AIC ( adventures in Character) started at 12:30, and the keynotes and regular sessions started at 1. so we kinda rush through lunch so we can get back over to the convention center on time.

We get over there in plenty of time. Brad and I drop kids off at AIC and Betty heads to her first sessions. I walk around with Hannah for a while and do some more looking.Then I headed upstairs to let Hannah run around for a while in a little sitting area they had up there outside the rooms where all the sessions are held. It's not long before Hannah crashes, so why she takes her nap I go ahead and head back down stairs and do some more looking, mainly because I was beyond tired of sitting at this point. Hannah took a pretty good nap. After she wakes up, I change her and Betty feeds her, and we both do some looking and shopping downstairs for a while. Not long before Betty heads back upstairs for more sessions. Hannah at this point is pretty stressed out from the crowds and kinda fussy, so I put her in the mei tie, with the feeling of security being strapped to her big sister she settles down and is in a pretty good mood. We go back and fourth between walking around downstairs and going up stairs and letting her run around and play.

Before long its' time go get kids from AIC and grab some quick supper before they have to be back at 7. We go get wendys which isn't to terribly far from the hotel. We get back to the convention center and drop kids off at AIC and I take Hannah up to our room to run around and get her away from crowds ( she had just about had enough at this point) Betty and Brad go and listen to more speakers. It winded down for the night around 8:30, 8:45. They come up the room and we finish getting unpacked and settled in. At this point Hannah is very unsettled and very fussy. We're trying to figure out what might possibly be the matter when it  dawns on "Mom" and I that ever since she got sick earlier that week, she had pretty much went back to full nursing and wasn't really eating solids or drinking water like she had been. It was HOT that day, with the high being in the upper 90's. She hadn't hardly drank anything all day, and she'd been away from mom enough that she didn't get to nurse like she was used to. Due to complications at birth, she doesn't handle getting hot, or cold well like the rest of us can. This baby was dehydrated. She nurses for a good 45 minutes and I give her a quick warm, yet cool bath and she is in a MUCH Happier mood and acting more her self. We get the rest of us bathed and ready for bed. We are all exhausted at this point and we had another long day ahead of us so we go to bed kinda early.I don't think any of us had any trouble sleeping. It had been a very good, yet exhausting first day. We were all looking forward to the next day.