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.