The Family Room — Life With Our Family of Seven

The Longstreth family of seven holding hands — Stephanie, Jason, and their five kids standing together outside a brick building

Welcome to The Family Room.

We are a family of seven, and this is the room where all of us live on this site. That is my husband Jason, our five kids, and two very spoiled tabby cats. Four of our children came home through adoption and one was born to us, and every one of them is the reason I cook the way I do. The recipes are everywhere else on this site. This room is for the people I am cooking them for — the stories, the milestones, the Costco runs, and the everyday chaos of a house this full.

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Meet Jon

Jon giving a big thumbs up at Tropicana Field Opening Day

Meet Jon — Our Son, His Story, and Every Season So Far

If you only read one thing in this room, make it this one. Jon is our son, he has Down syndrome, and he has the biggest smile in Florida. His page has his whole story in one place — how he came home, the surgeries he fought through, and every season of Buddy Baseball and Special Olympics since.

Meet Jon →

Jon has a room of his own, too. Jonathan’s Corner is where he keeps his favorite things — also known as Jonathan’s Jam. And if Down syndrome is new to you, the National Down Syndrome Society has a kind, clear place to start: About Down Syndrome.

Jason and Me

Stephanie Longstreth wearing her StephanieCooksForACrowd cap

Supporting Your Spouse’s Dreams Goes Both Ways

Supporting each other’s dreams goes both ways in our house. Now Jason is all in on mine, and this is the story of what that looks like.

Read our story →

And if you want to know what the man of the house actually uses, he has his own room: Hubby’s Corner.

Our Adoption Stories

Four of our five children came home through adoption, and each of them has a story I love telling. These are three of them, in their own posts.

Hannah’s Adoption Story — After a Decade of Waiting, She Made Me a Mama — our first, and the end of a very long wait.
Kira’s Adoption Story: Tiny But Mighty — small from the very start, and mighty ever since.
Jon’s Adoption Story — Down Syndrome, Big Surgery, and the Baby Who Changed Everything — the baby who changed all of us.

Costco and Grocery Hauls for Our Family of Seven

I go to Costco once a month with a list, and I show you the whole cart every time — every item, every price, and the total at the bottom of the receipt. If you have ever wondered what it actually costs to feed a big family, this is the honest answer, month by month. Newest first.

October Costco Haul — $608 for a Family of Seven and a Thanksgiving Dinner in October — the monthly stock-up plus a holiday dinner for the college kids.
Fall Costco Haul — What $507 Buys for a Family of Seven — pecans, soup season, and half a cart for a ladies brunch.
Back to School Costco Haul — What $552 Buys for a Family of Seven — five lunchboxes stacked on top of dinner.
Mid-Month Costco Haul for a Family of 7 — the trip I swore I would not make, and the birthday cake that made me make it.
Costco Haul With All Five Kids — Our Big Summer Stock-Up — all five of them pushing one cart.
$200 Grocery Haul — A Full Week of Meals for My Family of 7 — one week of dinners on a set budget.
Publix Grocery Haul for a Family of 7 — $61 and a Cantaloupe Avalanche — a quick run that did not go quietly.
Costco Haul for a Family of 7 — What a Typical Month Looks Like — a plain month, no season and no party attached.

Not every haul is groceries. When the kids come shopping with me, it turns into a family thrift haul or a thrifting trip in St. Petersburg instead.

📖 The groceries are the easy part

Four Weeks of Family-Friendly Food cookbook by Stephanie Longstreth

A cart full of groceries is not dinner yet. The hard part is deciding what all of it turns into, seven nights a week, for a table this full.

That is what my cookbook does. Four full weeks of the dinners my family actually eats, with the sides already chosen and a shopping list for every single week — so the haul comes home already knowing where it is going.

See what’s inside →

Feeding the Kids

School Lunch Ideas Kids Will Eat — What I Buy for Under $5 a Lunch — what a former lunch lady actually packs.
8 Things for 8th Grade — Our Mommy Daughter Walmart Trip — getting a kid ready to walk back through that door.
Baking Mama’s Banana Bread for Finals Week Care Packages — how the college kids get fed from a distance.
Care Packages for College Students — 25 Fall Goodie Bags for the Kids at Church — pumpkin bread, ranch snack mix and a little squishy squirrel for every kid at church.
Cozy Creamy Pasta Night — Feeding My Crowd When the College Girls Come Home — the dinner for when the house fills back up.
All My Babies Are Under One Roof Tonight — the best kind of full house.

Milestones and Family Moments

Daughter Graduated College Today and My Mama Cup Is Overflowing — cap, gown, and one very proud daddy.
Special Olympics Flag Football — Jon’s Game Day — big throws and that smile.
Jonathan’s Last Buddy Baseball Game of the Season — Three Hits and a Home Run — the way you want a season to end.
Tropicana Field Opening Day — A Day Our Family Will Never Forget — and why that stadium means so much to us.
Alexander’s Birthday — Our Baby Boy Turns 14 — our baby boy, not so little anymore.
Olivia Turns 13 — Birthday Dinner, Presents, and the Best Cake Ever — a teenager in the house, again.
Raising Cane’s Review — Our Family of 7 Tried It for the First Time — seven opinions on one chicken finger.
My Big Easter Hosting Fail — 30 People and a Bag of Cat Poop — real life, as it happened.

Around the House

Storage is a problem in this house, and with seven of us living here, every room gets a workout. These are the honest ones: the messes, the resets, and the projects that made a little more room for all of us. Newest first.

Pantry Reset — The Room I Never Show Anyone, Before and After — the room I don’t show anyone, and how we got it back.
Hospitality in an Imperfect Home — My Most Humiliating Story — the day a guest saw my living room at its very worst.
Tuesday Tip: Get Organized — Start With the Room You’re Standing In — the room I claimed for myself, shown before it was ready.
Kitchen Favorites: Depuley Flush Mount Ceiling Fan with Light — the old patio we turned into a room for the teenagers.
Cooking for a Crowd Means Cleaning for a Crowd Too — the dishes that come with feeding seven.
Kitchen Reset After 2 Days of Real Mom Life — what two busy days do to my kitchen, and the reset after.

The Cats

Dustin and Eddie are our two tabbies, and they think every basket, box, and bag in this house belongs to them. Eddie fought FIP as a kitten and won, and you can read his whole story in Eddie FIP Warrior — Our Brave Little Cat Has Officially Recovered. Their favorite things live in Dustin & Eddie’s Corner.

Every Family Post, in Order

This room is the best of it, not all of it. If you would rather scroll through everything we have shared, newest first, see every family post.

🍳 More from My Kitchen

📅 My Weekly Meal Plans — A full week of dinners with a printable shopping list, every Saturday.

📖 My Cookbooks — My recipes, with the planning already done.

🧢 Shop My Merch — Everything from my kitchen to yours — wear it, gift it, cook in it.

🍴 Shop My Kitchen — The tools I cook with, plus every ingredient I keep stocked.

🛒 My Amazon Storefront — Curated lists for every kind of recipe.

📬 Come to the table on Saturday

Every Saturday morning I send a printable meal plan and full grocery list — the whole week, formatted for the fridge and the grocery run — plus new recipes and whatever’s happening with our family of seven. Drop your email below and I’ll save you a seat.

Our Family of Seven — About Stephanie Longstreth

Stephanie Longstreth is the home cook, mom, and storyteller behind StephanieCooksForACrowd.com. She cooks for a family of seven in Florida — five kids, two cats, and one husband who appreciates a good meal. Four of her children came home through adoption, and family stories are woven into everything she makes and shares. Find her crowd-friendly recipes, weekly meal plans, and real family life on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest @stephaniecooksforacrowd.