Ice Skating

What did you do for Leap Year? I got to go on a field trip :) I haven't been ice skating in a LONG time but today I got a chance to put some skates on and get on the ice. It was great. Kaitlyn did well but she has the personality that if something is hard and frustrating and she doesn't get it really well right away then she doesn't like it. So, she struggled but I think she did great even if she thinks she hated it.

Here's a few pictures:

Getting on the ice...



Some friendly help.



Moved on to a "walker" so that she could stop hugging the wall.



So proud that she's getting out there!



Yes, I was there and on the ice but it's hard to get a picture of yourself :)




And tonight Kirk and I actually get to go on a date!! He's been working sooo hard and I'm so glad that my good friend, JoRonda (mom to 13-year-old triplets plus an 8-year old) volunteered for the job of watching my 5 kids for the night. God bless her!! I am looking forward to dinner and a movie. I think I really like Leap Year.

Big Kids Update

I have been feeling lately that the big kids have gotten a little lost in the shuffle. I've updated about the babies and the family in general but not specifically about Kaitlyn and Caleb.

They are doing amazingly well and they make me laugh every day. Lately Kaitlyn has been obsessed with tornados. She had one bad dream and we have been discussing it ever since. Do they come here? Do they kill people? What do they look like? I thought the "why" stage was over but now it's just deeper questions.

We've also been working hard on her science project. It should have been on tornados but "I wasn't afraid of tornados before my science project" so it's on the praying mantis and of all things we are growing them. Okay, not me. I was too scared - I sent them in to school for the teacher to help her with. Her teacher loves science. The thing is they send these things in a vial and they are wrapped in their harden shell. I open the thing and it says that this hardened shell contains 200 eggs! What?? I thought I was getting one. On the plus side only about 50 to 100 will survive. I am NOT feeling better about this. And when they hatch I am supposed to provide them with food. They are carnivorous (of course!) so I have to give them wingless fruit flies. If I don't give them the fruit flies they will eat each other. Great. That wouldn't upset Kaitlyn. See why I sent them off to school? That and the fact that you have to mist the egg sac shell thing every week. Not that hard but if you see my list from yesterday I WILL forget and they'd all die and they'd never hatch. Who's dumb idea was this anyway? Hmmm, sort of mine. Never give kids the option for science proejcts. And this is just 2nd grade.

Here's Kaitlyn. Yep, staged picture but we haven't done anything exciting lately and it's rare that I get her out of her school uniform. She HATES to change. HATES to pull her hair back. HATES leaving the house, ever. For anything. LOVES animals.



Here's Caleb. I don't know what's with the pose. He was just doing it. Trying to balance. Cracks me up. He's sooo funny! He spends his days playing super heroes and wrestling with dad. He hates school in the morning and loves it in the afternoon. He has a new boy in class who he says "sins a lot". When asked how many times he got in trouble. Caleb said, "about 100" - in one day! Probably not :)



And not to exclude the triplets:

Alyssa's stylin' - LOVE this hat :)



Darn dishwasher is so attractive to them now. But ask them in a few years and they'll be no way!



"Give me that" - essentially her motto

Confessions

So, the truth is I am a very disorganized mother of 5. Or I put too much on my plate. I think the most disorganization is in my home. I know lots of other mothers of triplets whose homes are perfect. I have friends without triplets as well and a lot of them have the same neat home. Apparantly I have misplaced this gene because believe me my mother's home is perfect. Whatever she taught me growing up has apparantly fallen out of my tiny brain. It leaked through all the cracks and floated away.

Lately I have been feeling just a bit overwhelmed by the state of my house. How do I keep it all together?

List of things to do this month:
- write a chapter a week in novel
- complete 2 lessons in writing course
- post responses to discussion questions in Master's course
- finish midterm for Master's course
- tag items for consignment sale (my own)
- tag items for consignment sale (other people's)
- list clothes on Ebay
- do 12 loads of laundry
- make 40 school lunches
- complete science fair project with Kaitlyn
- sign up as moms of multiples treasurer
- sign up as church nursery coordinator
- make 25 dinners - we go out a few times :)
- update blog
- take pictures and video of the kids
- take care of 5 kids 24/7 - thank God they sleep some of those hours!!

So, where to I fit in organizing my house? I clean it - vacuum, dishes, laundry, bathrooms but yet my house feels cluttered all the time. I have NO idea what to do. Any thoughts?

The Grocery Game

With a family of seven the expenses can get quite high. While I know very few things about saving money I've learned a few recently and I thought I'd share. A friend in Florida introduced me to the coolest thing - the grocery game.

Basically if you get the paper you just keep your coupons instead of clipping them and you file them by date. You subscribe to the grocery game and then every week Sunday through Tuesday she tells you what's on sale at your favorite store and then if there's a coupon to go with the sale she'll tell you and you buy that item for really cheap. She highlights the best deals in blue and the free deals in green.

From the website this explains what it is:

What is The Grocery Game?
The Grocery Game is a fun, easy way to save hundreds of dollars on groceries each month. TERI'S LIST reveals the "rock bottom" prices on hundreds of products each week and matches them up with manufacturers' coupons for the best possible savings at your local supermarket. The Grocery Game has exclusive databases that track manufacturers' coupons along with weekly sales and specials, both advertised and UN-advertised. With TERI'S LIST, the days of time consuming work required for effective coupon-ing are over. The Grocery Game does all the hard work and research, presented in a quick reference format on the internet each week, as TERI'S LIST. Members log in, spend a few minutes with a pair of scissors, and they're off to win The Grocery Game!

How Do We Play The Grocery Game?
If you have your Sunday newspaper and TERI'S LIST, you will have everything you need to play The Grocery Game. Each week, TERI'S LIST matches sales to coupons from weeks or months past, along with new coupons from this week's Sunday paper.

You can get started with our $1 TRIAL. This will give you 4 weeks of playing The Grocery Game. You will log in to TERI'S LIST each week, check off the items you want to buy, print your customized list, pull the corresponding coupons and you're off to win like a pro!

You will want to read TERI'S GAME RULES, for all of the best savings strategies and how to get the most out of TERI'S LIST.

I highly encourage you to check it out! Save money on your groceries and have fun doing it. It really works!! If you sign up please include me as a referral - every person helps :)

The Grocery Game

Easter Outfits

I love dressing my kids. It's just fun. And one of the biggest deals for us is Easter. Christmas is also a big picture deal as you all know from the family portraits but Christmas seems easier. The colors are pretty basic and there's not a lot you can do with that :)

And then there's Easter. Do we take the whole family picture? Do we do just the kids? How many family pictures do we need? Not much has changed since Christmas. So, because of that we decided to do just the kids this time. You know some fun pictures. Great. Now which ones? This is so complicated and I'm so picky. There are so many choices and yet not enough. And the price is crazy. I can't win!!! Try dressing five kids to coordinate and match - it's not easy.

After much discussion and fret (on my part) I finally came to something I wanted. I had it all in my cart on-line and what happens? Someone goes and buys all the dresses in size 7!! What? Who did this to me? I'm sure they knew I was ready to check out and took my dress!!! So, now I'm a bit annoyed because I finally came to a decision (and if you want an idea of how much of a decision this was just ask Kirk - I was driving him crazy) and then I couldn't have what I wanted. No fair!

Being that I am older then 2 I have to think through this in an adult manner. So, today we packed everyone up and headed to the mall. A real trip to Gymboree - not a mommy one on-line. Wow!! I am happy to report that everyone did very well. The triplets were a HUGE hit. Everyone stopped, started, pointed, talked about us, asked questions. Yep, that's normal. One man stopped Kirk and asked in earnest whether or not he had a son. Upon finding out that we do indeed have a boy the man patted Kirk on the back and felt good about our lives in general. So glad we could help! I even heard the "I'm glad it's them and not me" remark. Me too.

Beyond that they loved the girls at Gymboree and that was fun. We were their walking advertisement. I would so do that!!

And here are what the kids will be wearing in their pictures. We haven't done that yet but soon. I'm very excited. Caleb will be wearing a tie (probably pink so he can match his sisters). He's going to look so handsome!

Sleeping Beauties

Even though I'm not a very big Disney fan I can't miss the opportunity to reference the Disney Princesses since, after all, some of the most popular princess are Ariel (A), Belle (B) and Cinderella (C). I got great pictures of Julianna sleeping a while ago but Alyssa has been much harder to catch actually sleeping! But finally, I have acheived my goal so I'm going to share some cute pics of the girls at their best.

Julianna's under there somewhere...



Sweet feet :)



Rachel's easier to capture - she sleeps a lot!



Rachel's the only one of the three that does not cover up with blankets when she sleeps - this is probably because Julianna likes to steal Rachel's blankets at night or is it that Rachel enjoys giving them to her?



All previous attempts ended like this...



Finally today :) So cozy - I wish I could trade places!



And just some video I got of the girl's the other day - too funny!

15-Month Check-Up

Just under 15 months ago we walked into our pediatrician's office for the first time with the triplets. Then we were carrying two of them in car seats and I had to carry Alyssa in my arms because she had failed the car seat challenge and had to be transported in a car bed. Times have changed so much since then so today instead of being carried the girls walked into their appointment. They aren't exactly following directions yet so they found it more fun to explore but it was great to see the nurses and doctors who have watched them grow over the past year.

The girls are doing very well. They were all fine and healthy except Rachel who did have a minor ear infection and could (hopefully) explain some of her crankiness and tiredness as of late. She's now on antibiotics. I'll let you know if it helps!

Girl's Stats:

Julianna: 23.10 pounds putting her in the 60th percentile for weight
Rachel: 19.10 pounds putting her in the 10th percentile for weight
Alyssa: 22.12 pounds putting her in the 50th percentile for weight

By height Julianna is almost in the 90th percentile; Rachel is in the 50th and Alyssa is in the 70th. Julianna and Alyssa's heads are huge while Rachel's is still quite small :)

So, my girls are doing great!! This weekend we got a painful reminder of how blessed we are when we found out that a girl's in my on-line multiples club has lost one of her triplet daughters (Zoe). We are so very sad for her loss and ask that you would lift this family up in your prayers:

Tripled Pink

What's Changed in 15 Months?

A lot! Well, of course, we all knew that. But can you believe the girls are 15 months old today? I can't. Today we had the great pleasure of meeting three new little baby girls. These precious girls were born at just 24 weeks and spent 135 days in the NICU before coming home in January. Other then being born early and still being on oxygen they reminded very much of my three little girls so many months ago. To hear them all cry at once. I'm not sure that was the most pleasant of memories...

But they are adorable. Their mom gave me permission to post some pictures of her sweet little girls: Juliette, Katie and Sophie - that's their birth order - Juliette and Katie are identical. Welcome home little ones!! (Remember when my girls were this little?)





Now 15 months later my girls have their own personalities and quirks. I shared video of Rachel's earlier this week. Julianna is just a crazy little girl who loves to give me five, show me her belly and "talk" in a language I don't understand. She has become very vocal about her likes and dislikes.

Rachel can giggle so cutely when she's not screaming. She's also very inquisitive and can play so well by herself - provided I'm nearby.

Alyssa is just cute. She can be silly and interestingly she has turned into my easiest going baby. She can't give five - she can only give ten :) She just gets too excited (I promise to get video of this soon). She also gives the cheesiest of grins.

Today as I met three new triplets it reminded me of just how far we've come. Fifteen months ago the girls barely moved, now they're everywhere. Then we were juggling feeding three babies at once - we're still doing that but it's a tad easier - they do feed themselves pretty well. Rachel can clean her tray of just about anything - go figure huh?

Of course a lot has changed but it's fun to remember. Sometimes :)

Valentine's Day

Anniversary gift for my parents: $50
Food for school Valentine's Day party: $12.50
Triplet's Valentine's "gifts": $26.50
Big Kid's Valentine's "gifts": $25
Take-Out dinner on Valentine's day - whole family: $40

Getting the perfect Valentine picture:

Priceless:



Happy 38th Anniversary Mom and Dad!! And Happy Valentine's Day everybody else!!

The Rachel Switch

Off, on, off, on, off...



Mommy's girl?

Where's Your Belly?

How To Use a Roll of Toilet Paper in Five Minutes

(Taken while I was at my monthly moms of multiples meeting and dad was home alone with all five kids - when they're all giggling it's NOT a good thing)

Embracing Triplets

Thanks to everyone for voting! Seems like most people would vote for dressing the girls alike or at least to coordinate them. After talking to lots of moms of multiples, I have come down to the decision that I love having triplets and I want to embrace that. For now and for the most part I will dress the girls alike or at least coordinating. When they get older I'm sure they will have their own opinions about how they dress. So, until anyone else volunteers to do my laundry and dress my kids in the morning I will be taking the easy way out :)

On the same topic, I want to be able to go out in public and share my girls. I don't have a disease and I don't want to hide in my house. If people wish to point and stare and talk about me, that's fine. I'm proud of my girls. I'm proud of my five kids.

In fact my new license plate came today telling everybody I have 2 kids and triplets. I also ordered my new window sticker for my car:



So if you see me out in public stop by and say hi. Tell me how cute my girls are cause they are. I'm happy to have triplets!! They're not fun and games every day of course but it is a blessing to have three at once. Even now I can hear them upstairs giggling and "talking" to each other. I look forward to more years with them whether they're dressed alike or not :)

Go Giants!!!

I seriously meant to put this up before the game and then time got away from me and I wasn't able to do so. While I was born in New Jersey my parents are from New York and my dad has been a Giants fan for as long as I can remember (Jets too) so in honor of my dad I was rooting for the Giants. On the flip side, if the Patriots had won it would've given them a perfect season and that would have been amazing. But, still I was rooting for the Giants and after an intense 4th quarter it was great to see them pull it off!

That being said, the pictures we took tonight have nothing to do with the game. Instead my good friend, Joanna, and family came over in matching outfits (just the girls to my girls - not the whole family). To add to the voting dilemma about dressing them alike, how cute are they?

The girls in their Sunday best - this is coordinating - different tights :)



Sorry I have to be in the picture but I felt it was the best way to get all 6 girls to sit still.



Don't miss Caleb in the background...



And, finally, all the girls looking cute in their matching outfits! For the record if I dress them alike now doesn't mean I will forever - just while they're little :)



And I just have to add this - this is Julianna and her tiger. He has no name because she's not old enough to name him/her but she LOVES this tiger. If someone else has it she will complain to high heaven to get it back!