Pool Updates

My girls have made great strides in the pool area. In just over a week they have gone from clingy swimmers to ones that have run of the entire pool.

In fact I now have to wait behind them in order to go down the slide! Oh yes, they can do that by themselves as well.

Last week when Kirk was here the girls would only jump in the pool to him - they were even willing to wait in line to do it - but now they jump in on their own with no care if someone can catch them. Even my most timid swimmer last week (Rachel) is jumping in everywhere. She's more willing than Julianna to go underwater going so far as to jump in the other day without her life jacket on! I grabbed her right out but she seemed unphased - don't worry I have my eye on them at all times. Crazy girls :)

I'm so grateful because it's truly a lot easier for me to take all 5 kids into the pool by myself and more enjoyable for me to be in the pool with them knowing they are becoming more competent swimmers (though always with their life jackets on).

More pictures later but right now I'm spending the majority of my time in the pool!

Happy Birthday To My Husband!

Kirk,

Happy 35th Birthday! Can't believe you're halfway through your thirties. When we met you were just a teenager. We have grown up together - learned about life - brought five beautiful babies into the world. There's not a single moment that I wish you weren't by my side.

You are my best friend and I love you. I pray you have many, many more years to come and that I have the joy of sharing those years with you.

Thank you for who you are - an awesome husband and father!

Dorinda

1st Trip To The Beach

It is very hard to believe that I am from Florida. Well, for the most part. I was born in New Jersey but at 4 years old we moved to Florida. Lived in Pompano Beach (near Ft. Lauderdale) for 10 years then moved north to northern Florida for 4 years before moving to where my parents are now. After Kirk and I married we lived in Orlando for a year before moving to VA.

So, after all that I'm a "Florida" girl except I'm not.

I hate the beach. I really do. It's the sand/water mixture that drives me nuts. Probably that and the fact that I don't tan :)

Even though I hate the beach I'm still surprised that we haven't taken the girls to the beach before now. We changed that today by taking them to their first real beach white sand, waves and all.

They loved it.

If you've read the blog enough you're probably thinking "Rachel too?!" and okay, she liked it for a while then hated it but if you asked her she'd tell you she had fun :)

Getting ready to go out in the water:





Kaitlyn and Caleb need no coaxing to head in...



I didn't get a close-up of Kaitlyn because she spent all her time snorkeling out in the ocean. She really enjoyed it.



Caleb spent his time swimming and searching for shells. We now have a huge collection of shells so we can bring a bit of Florida with us when we leave.



Proof Rachel enjoyed it a little bit :)



But it didn't take long before she was totally done with the water and just wanted to hang out with Grandma under the umbrella:



Fortunately I have proof that she DID go in the water :)



As did everyone else...



Julianna loved both the sand and the shore:









Playing with Grandma in the waves.



Alyssa also really enjoyed going out in the water. She had no fear as she headed out into the ocean.





Being silly on the beach blanket :)



Our view of the beach. It's a private island that requires a boat ride to get to so it wasn't very crowded which was nice.





Grandpa and his three little "sweeties".



So, I still hate the beach. I don't like the sticky feeling when you leave and all the sand and water mixing but we had a good day and I'm glad we took the girls. I'm also glad I'm clean and in air conditioning :)

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish but No Blue Fish

We made it.

Safely :)

And we've been in the pool ever since.

Well, not quite but it certainly feels like it! Even after over 15 hours of traveling on Saturday the kids were asking to go in the pool! Like good parents (er, exhausted parents) we made them wait until Sunday after church AND after lunch. I think they were close to bursting by the time we actually let them loose.

As expected Kaitlyn and Caleb took to the water like the fish they are :)

One Fish.



Two Fish.



But this year I get to add a few "red fish" to the bunch:



I knew there would be a difference in swimming desire and skill and I wasn't wrong. In the first few minutes I feared that it would take a good week before any of the girls got acclimated enough to the pool to swim "on their own" - meaning I wasn't holding them every single time they left the steps.

Within an hour Julianna proved me wrong. Yea! I was so proud of her.



It took a little pursuasion but she got it pretty quickly and after a few times of me holding on to her was able to tell me that I could let go.

An hour later she was brave enough to take her life jacket off and swim with just the noodles.



As of today (day 2) Rachel was quite content to play in on the stairs with the water toys. We've coaxed her out a bit - swimming a bit with me and going down the slide just once with Kirk but otherwise she's just happy to hang out.



And Alyssa. Well, she's just different all around! I figured we'd never get her out of the shallow end - my efforts yesterday were thwarted but today she went down the slide with dad over and over again and as soon as she learned she could jump into the pool (a skill only Julianna knew how to do last year and the only one to try it yesterday) she jumped over and over and over again. At one point she even jumped straight in to no one :) She's not as "brave" as Julianna to swim by herself away from me but she has learned to swim from me or Kirk to the steps.



So it looks like we have 5 happy fishes. I'm fascinated to see how the triplets change over the next month and whether or not Rachel comes out of her shell this year and gives swimming a try (it's okay if she doesn't).

Fortunately we have no blue fish since the water is already quite warm and none of us are shivering while we're swimming :)

School's Out!!

I can't believe it but school is out for the summer. Kaitlyn has successfully completed 4th grade and Caleb is officially out of Kindergarten. Tomorrow is the official, official last day but it's just the school picnic.

But today was Field Day and I think the kids had a great time :)



They had a number of activities set up for the kids - fortunately a lot of them included water so they stayed pretty cool.



The triplets were doing everything they could to get in on the action. Those water balloons were very tempting. I can't be sure but Julianna seems to be making an argument for keeping them all for herself :)



While Alyssa LOVED getting herself wet:







Rachel wasn't so thrilled.



Amidst the festivities Caleb got a hold of a very cool beetle and his greatest joy about having me there was that I had my camera and could photograph this bug.



After the fun was over the kids got to ride on the bus back to school. Julianna and Alyssa wanted to ride but Rachel didn't. Alyssa can't wait to ride again. Seems all my kids are ready for school but I am so not ready to have them all there. I guess I should be grateful that it's summer and I don't have to think about it for a while!

Happy Birthday To My Dad!!

Today is my dad's birthday. It's actually a milestone birthday but I won't say which one - you can figure it out but he doesn't look a day over 40 :)

I am so thankful for my dad. Two weeks ago he was in a car accident. Kirk and I were on a date and we came home to hear that he was in the hospital. Fortunately I found out quickly that he was okay but talk about a scare! You never know when something could happen to someone you love. So today I am most grateful that my dad is alive on his birthday and while he's still sore (the car was totaled - not a fender bender) he's going to be fine.

Dad, Happy Birthday. Sorry I wasn't there today but I will see you soon. We all love you and miss you. You are a blessing to all of us and we thank God every day for you!

Newest Mother's Day Pictures

I know it's a little late but I finally got a picture of me and each kid individually. Remember the last ones I posted? They were all so little!!

Now they seem so big :)

But I can still pick each of them up and until I can't they aren't totally grown up! (This is me praying Kaitlyn isn't too big next Mother's Day!)

My oldest is growing up into a beautiful young lady. She'll be 10 in less than 2 months! 10! That's double digits. Good grief I remember turning 10. This is a big deal and I'M NOT READY!! Think if I put a brick on her head she'll stop growing?



He's 6 1/2 and he couldn't be happier about that. My little man. Such a handsome guy.



3 1/2. They are 3 1/2 - in less than 6 months they will turn 4. Someone told me that it gets easier when they turn 4. Someone in their family had triplets and they said once the triplets turned 4 things were easy. The way my life has been going lately I'm not so sure I believe that.

Born together but individuals each one. A blessing to me in their own unique way.

Julianna Mabel



Rachel Gabrielle



Alyssa Elaine



I have to add it is really hard to get a decent picture of Alyssa - the above is the best out of like 10 tries.

Let me give you an example of her picture taking skills:

Say cheese - with your eyes open please!



What's with the foot in the picture?



And the back of her head.



It's more fun to tickle mommy.



This is take 2 after all of take 1 failed miserably.



She is one unique little girl I'll tell you that!

All In The Line Of Duty

Is it just me or are there some days when parenting feels like war? Day in and day out you are battling with a teenager, a pre-adolescent, a toddler. Whatever stage you are in parenting is hard.

This week I can talk about it but let me tell you after it happened I was NOT a happy mom. It all started with Rachel coloring all over the wall. Such a mess. She now knows that she can't color on walls - again; not like this was the first time she had been told not to color on the walls!.

So, what was Rachel up to last week?

Well, if you can't draw on the walls with marker what else is there?

Toothpaste.

Oh yes. I realized that she wasn't in the basement like I thought she was so I went looking for her only to find her in my bathroom covering the walls (and everything else) with toothpaste.

Huge mess.

I sent her to her room and went back to clean up only to realize that I could not find the toothpaste. In fact, I was missing two tubes. There was no toothpaste in the bathroom at all.

I went back to get Rachel.

I brought her back into the bathroom and asked where the toothpaste was. She opened the toilet seat and pointed inside. If only it were that simple.

Inside were two tubes of toothpaste and about 10 toothbrushes. Nice. I had her remove them all and throw them away.

Problem was it still wasn't the two tubes of toothpaste I was missing. They were no where to be found.

So I ask Rachel if she flushed them and she had. She'd emptied and then flushed two tubes of toothpaste. Clogged the toilet quite completely.

Kirk and I spent a good hour removing the toilet from the floor, cleaning it out and then re-sealing it. Not a fun time at all.

But it did make this week easier when I was vacuuming up fish food from every crevice of Caleb's room after Julianna tried to "help" and feed the fish. Mostly I'm just grateful the fish are still alive and she managed to get very little in the bowl. Although I have to say that fish food is really gross and cleaning it up is a disgusting pain but I'll take it over toothpaste and clogged toilets.

I know some day this will all be in the past and I'll miss it but right now it feels like I'm walking through the trenches every day. But I'll continue to do - not for the love of my country but for the love of my kids :) Who are still all adorably cute by the way!