Good days start with tea.

 All good days begin with a Chai Tea Latte (no water, with whip-In case you were wondering) and end with a haircut.

The best part about the whole tea thing though, is the part where I announce to the kids, "Hey guys, we're going for a car ride! We gotta go get some tea and coffee!" They are so trained that they know just how to respond.

"Yay! We go in Mommy's car! We goin to get tea?" 

Secretly, I know they're excited because they know that trips to get tea always end with a trip to get donuts. :) They're like Pavlov's dogs that way.

Today, as we pulled through the drive thru window, our nice cashier lady yells, "Hey Mindy, quick! Look at the triplets!" And suddenly I felt as though we were zoo animals on display. Zoo animals wearing jammies....(Apparently, our cashier had tried to get 'Mindy's' attention several weeks ago, to no avail, so she was extra excited to see us once again.) I felt a little bad that her 'triplet expectations' may not have been met what with our forgetting to wear our triplet horns and all, leaving us looking like, well, normal kids.

(Note to self: Must get out new flash...)

(Oops. White balance-wrong setting.)
But don't you love how they eat chocolate frosted donuts? Makes me wish I could just order a chocolate frosted donut, hold the donut. 

 

In this house, we don't do donuts without our milk.  :)

And that's how it's done. 

 After cleaning chocolate off of faces  we spent the next hour or so outside enjoying the coolish air. It's kind of embarrassing how excited I get when the back porch is shaded. The  kids love to be outside more than anything, but the heat and high Arizona temps prevent that, more often than not.

This age is just fascinating to me. Listening to the kids play makes me smile. They're so imaginative.They create voices for their 'people' and their 'people' have conversations with the other 'people.' It goes something like this-

Mickey Mouse: "All aboard. Time to get on the school bus."

Alien: "Wait for me. I need to go to Sonshine Pre-thchool."

Woody: " I need to ride on the school bus too."

Mickey Mouse: "You want to ride the bus too? Okay. Come on!"

As with most things, they grow tired of one game before long and move on to the next activity. The sandbox as it would be.

(Well, she'd been here the whole time. Girl loves to make sand birthday cakes. It's always SOMEone's birthday in her world. )

 

She was especially proud that the sand actually held its shape this time. It had just the right amount of water mixed in.  :) Remember how great life was when all it took to make your day was a sand cake that holds it shape?? I love it. 

Later that evening, Mary called and said she needed our help keeping Brinley awake for a few hours. (She called the right people.) 

So we headed for Dairy Queen and the park. 

Happy kids eating M&M blizzards as the sun begins to set. 

These are the times when it's great to live in Arizona. 

Well at least someone's attempting to feed her child real food. 

Play time! 

His shorts were a little big. He felt the need to keep holding them up. Poor dude with no butt. 

And Hunter. Oh, Hunter. I let her go into her closet and pick out ANYTHING at all that she wanted to wear and she came out with her "Hello Kitty" dress that Nana brought her and some striped leggings and purple shoes. Frankly, she did a pretty good job if I may say so myself.  

And these photos are another reminder to get.out.that.flash. I didn't realize how dark it was getting...Sorry for the blur. 

But not for the cheesy smiles.  :)

As good a day as we had, and as tiring as it can be, it's all worth it when the end of the night comes and I find them sitting as close to one another as humanly possible on the couch-because they wanted to. THAT makes me smile. 

Good night, babies. Er...big kids. 

So you see, what had happened was....

I nearly crashed my laptop. 

I couldn't upload photos onto it, 

I almost couldn't get photos off of it. 

Because I was literally almost FULL to the memory capacity. 

Oops. Who knew?!

So I've kind of been at a very frustrating standstill. But never you worry, I have invested in an external hard drive and am now ready to rock and roll again. Not that I have any photos tonight, I just wanted you to know that I WILL have photos. Soon-maybe even tomorrow! 

I just wanted you to know we hadn't disappeared! 

So have a wonderful night and stay tuned for some Bunchkin awesomeness....  :) 

Random Ramblings.

I kept calendars for each of the babies to mark down milestones when they were in fact, babies. I did them for their first year and they have been SO handy for one reason or another through the years. So much so, that my sister and I were just commenting how I ought to have maintained that tradition even beyond the first year. (Bad for me, seeing as we're in the middle of year 3, good for her as my niece just turned one a few weeks ago.)

It comes up once in a while on questionnaires at doctor's appointments..."When did your child say his first word?", "When did your child roll from front to back?" Um, 8 months? No, 9 months. Wait, I think Colton was 8 months and Hunter was 9 months? Or was it Ethan who was 9 and the others were 10...." Pretty standard thought process for me.

I believe there are parents out there, who, even 15 years later can rattle off these important dates about their kids. I am not one of them. Maybe it's because there have always been 3 of everything to remember and those 3 things always happen so close to each other and maybe it's because I have an awful memory. I am leaning toward the latter....

So I think I'm gonna do it. Get new calendars, that is. Because there's so much greatness that happens in a day. So many funny anecdotes to remember, hilarious things they say. I never want to forget it. (And knowing that I have a tendency to forget...please remind of this 'goal' in a few weeks.)

The kids are knocking on the door of 3 and a half and I can't get enough of them at this age.

Preschool is doing wonders for them. Of that, I am confident. Not that I felt that they were deprived of socialization or craft time or stories before hand (because don't you forget, I am a kindergarten teacher!) but it's been great for their independence and ability to separate from the comforts of adult family members and strike out on their own, knowing that no matter what, "We come back."

We always come back. (You may recall, they scream it at pick-up time. :) They also scream it when I come home from work, when Brian comes home from work, when anyone comes to visit. "You came back!! You're home!" It's pretty touching actually.

They're doing great. They are loving it. They love their teachers and thank God we have Hunter to tell us all about it. She doesn't miss a beat that one. She still knows what everyone did during the day. She can competently report on who misbehaved, who kept his shoes on or off, who ate their peaches at lunch and who didn't want their gogurts. She can also tell us who went potty on the potty and who pooped.

Oh wait- speaking of poop. Ethan has made amazing strides in the poop department. So much so, that he apparently, on his own, went into the bathroom at preschool, by himself, and pooped. And then he announced it. Not  a quiet announcement either. More like a "Clean up on Aisle 12" announcement. You know, loud enough for the whole joint to hear!  "I went POOP!"  :) That's my baby.  He makes me smile.

He also believes his school is called "Shiney Preschool." That too, makes me smile. Recently, he's begun to show his approval for things with two thumbs up followed by "That's AWESOME!" Brian and I were at Best Buy the other day, and the kids and I cozied up in the recliners to watch an Elton job concert on approximately 50 TVs while Brian shopped. When the concert ended, Ethan leaned forward, gave Elton two thumbs up, said, "That was awesome!" and then clapped. Really Ethan? Where did you learn this?

He also tends to be the one to mutter "God damn it" under his breath when something doesn't go his way. I will refer you to his father for that one.

Hunter is very much into reading right now. She reads books all the time. She also reads everything else and calls it a book. (Door hangers left on the door by solicitors, coupon pamphlets, take out menus. They're all books.) And I love that she loves to read them. "Mom, can I read that book?"  "Um, sure,"  I say as I hand her my Safeway receipt.

The best part is listening to her actually read a book. To herself but mostly to someone else-like one of the boys. It goes like this. "Once about a time....(yes, that was intentional.) Shoe, and a hat, and a doggie, and a tennis ball. And there's a rug, and a couch..."

It makes me chuckle. Her 'reading' of new books is just a systematic listing of every object on the page and begins with "Once about a time." But, she has it in her-a love of reading and that makes me happiest of all.

Something else she does regularly which I find hilarious is begin nearly every sentence with "I think."
"Mommy, I think I want a cup of water. Fresh water. With ice." (Yes, she does request that her water be fresh and has ice." High maintenance much?) Or, "Mommy, I think that the boys knocked the clock off the wall." It's pretty funny.

If it's not 'I think' then it's "and I said...". For example: "And I said I want strawberries in my cereal," or "and I said I want you to make me a bath." Not quite as endearing....

Colton is still our sensitive one and I'm okay with that. He still "bumps his head" at least 9 times a day and cries about it each time. Though he's immediately healed if anyone kisses it for him. It stands to reason that the first "OUCH REPORT" we received from Preschool was for Colton, because (you guessed it) he 'bumped his head.' SHOCKING! Brian and I were thinking we'd just give his teachers back the report and give them permission to just keep changing the date on it.  :) To save paper and all. But I love that boy. And I'll take any excuse to love on one of my kids.



He's recently shifted his affinity for Lightning McQueen to Finn McMissile and is rarely without it. "Where's my Missile?" he asks always.

Interestingly it has been Colton, (who was potty trained long ago) who has had a few accidents at school. Why does this happen? Someone please tell me why kids regress like that.  Is he just too busy playing, you think? He loves school. He doesn't openly tell us much about school unless we pry it out of him.  Our conversations (supplemented by Hunter's information) usually go like this. "Colton, did you sing songs at school today?"

"PRESCHOOL!" he says. "Shunshine preschool!"

"Yes, did you sing songs at Sonshine preschool?"

"Instruments," he says.

"Did you play instruments at preschool?"

"Yeee-ay-uh," he responds. "Drums!"

(This, by the way is one of my most favorite Coltonisms right now.) The way he says yeah, which is a one syllable word made into three-"yeee-ay-uh") It's pretty cute. And the way he say DocMcStuffins. (Doc McMuffin.) I love it all. It's so, him.

He's so sentimental too. Never forgets to say, "I wuv you." At night time when he's all tucked in, "Good night mom, I wuv you. Good night daddy. I wuv you. Good night Heethen. I wuv you. Good night Honter. I wuv you."

This is a great age. They are so good at playing together and making up games and using their imaginations. I am constantly in awe of them. Now and again, I stand back and remind Brian, "I grew them," with a little elbow nudge :)  "At the same time, " I usually add.

They are pretty spectacular in my eyes.

Speaking of Spectacular...did I ever tell you how excited I was to meet one of my best blog friends in PERSON?? She's another triplet mom from....can you guess??? CANADA!! We've been following each other's blogs for quite some time now (she has identical triplet boys.)

She's one of those people I instantly knew I'd get along with! We have SO much in common it's almost eerie. So naturally, I was pretty stinking excited when all the stars aligned and there, she was, visiting me in my home!! Aaah!! Stacey, I'm still giddy about it. I can't wait for our next get together! And thanks again for the Canada shirts! They wear them constantly! Anyhoo, you should check out her cutie patootie boys over at The Alexander's Hattrick!