School Egg Hunt

Yesterday the triplet's preschool class had their Easter party/egg hunt. It was certainly a learning experience for the teacher and I! Wow! I think there is an art to making egg hunting not too hard and not too easy. Meaning I have a bad feeling there are a few plastic eggs still in the grass...

It started out so well - they were all lined up, ready to find the right numbered eggs for their baskets.



But a few of the eggs were just a little bit harder to find than others and by a little bit I mean impossible.

Still, it seems like the girls had a lot of fun! Probably because they were some of the most eagle-eyed of the group and had little trouble finding their eggs. Or maybe they're just used to fending for themselves against their older brother and sister. No, I'm sure that's not it - has to be that they're eagle-eyed.

I've got one!







Classic Julianna pose:



Rachel found some eggs.



Alyssa's having fun!



Searching, searching... This is serious stuff.





In between they waited patiently for the rest of their classmates to find the remainder of their own eggs.



Yep, patiently...



(And I've got to wonder what Alyssa is thinking! Any ideas?!)

Today is the beginning of spring break - 10 days of home with the kids! How many egg hunts can I do exactly before they get tired of it?

The Three Words I Hate The Most...

"She's NOT Sharing!"

Oh, I hate them.

If you have more than one child you understand.

The definition of "sharing" for any 3 or 4-year-old is really "she's not giving me exactly what I want at the very moment I want it"

My girls do fight but honestly for the most part they get along, however, when it comes to a toy or a game or a pillow or a blanket or a small crumb they've found on the floor - if one of them has it and the other one wants it then all I hear is crying and tears and the utter angst of a 4-year-old little girl.

With my older two I had the "advantage" of saying to my oldest, "he's younger be nice to him" but now...

Now they're all the same age so they are on equal footing so to speak - no one is younger or older - I can't say that so I'm left with the dilemma of how to intervene. Most of the time the fighting occurs out of my view - they're in another room and I have NO idea who had the item first and they're looking to me to resolve the situation.

Ultimately I let them know that they need to work it out among themselves but oh how I hate those words...

(Photo taken on St. Patrick's Day on a field trip to Harris Teeter - as if I'm not there enough already!!)

Silly Girls

I can't help it, my girls crack me up. Listening to them talk to each other - watching them interact - it's all just fun - mostly because I really love this age. Four is a great age - they can do some things for themselves, they can play together well while still taking naps (quiet time really) most days - what could be more perfect?

I've been capturing some of their funniest moments in recent weeks and thought I would share.

Before I share why I took this picture - do notice that it is bright day outside and they are wearing their PJ's or "pajammies" (pronounced pu-jammies) as they are called in our house - they are in love with all their pajammies and would much rather wear them ALL the time if allowed.

But for this photo they had found some "snapping dolls" that they have and the dolls had braided hair so they brought me the plastic dolls hair and asked if I could do their hair this way - this is the result:



(Disclaimer - I have 4 girls but I am NOT the worlds best braider...)

Piled on top of Daddy - also in their pajammies.



Apparantly these buckets are perfect umbrellas. I love how they all like to copy each other and when one decides something it's law for everyone and they all have to do it. So, someone decided that this was a great idea and they all joined in marching in cirlces around our house.



What makes me laugh even more is while I was the one that asked to take a picture of them like this they then gave me a list of what pictures they wanted:

Front angle:



Back side:



Turn to the left:



And then turn to the right:



Because you know those were important pictures :)

And no post about how silly they are would be complete without a photo of Rachel and her beloved books:



You have to notice the title of the book she's "reading": "Heaven Sent Husband" - while Julianna does ask me often when she'll be old enough to get married Rachel tends to keep these questions to herself. Apparantly she's found the answers in her books. Also notice how worn and turned the pages are - if you know me then you know that I have NOT read this book - this is not even close to the genre I enjoy so all the page turning is solely Rachel's :)

Gotta love it.

Bowl-A-Thon A Success: Thank You!

Thank you so much to all of you who sponosored our kids at their school's Bowl-A-Thon this past Friday. The kids really enjoyed bowling though the girls (and all the preschoolers) got really bored in between their turns. Since they had NO idea what the heck bowling was about or what the score means they didn't really understand why they got to go twice in a row but no more - and obviously no less :) However, they did seem thrilled whenever the board showed they got a spare - or maybe that was just me.

My bowlers:











The kids had a great time and raised money for the school at the same time. Thank you again to those who contributed! We really do appreciate it.

Way Back When-esday: 4 Years, 4 Months: A Look Back

These days my girls are playing together and bickering like sisters - sometimes this is cute and sometimes this is difficult. At lunch last week when the big kids were in school and it was just me and the girls having lunch together Alyssa was having a little trouble eating her lunch and Julianna had a few words to say about that:

Julianna: Come on, eat your lunch kid.
Alyssa: (beginning to cry) She called me kid.
Julianna: Well, yesterday when we were sleeping Alyssa called me potty talk.

How can I not laugh at the silly banter between them? I wish I could capture the way Alyssa talks - it's hard to explain. When we took Lollipop to the vet for his injury Alyssa had no hesitations about telling the vet, "Lollipop has a problem." And certainly he did :)

But 4 years ago now these girls who are currently best friends at one moment and mortal enemies the next looked a little more like well, burritos :)





And of all the little gestures newborns do, the one I miss the most is how they put their arms up in the air while they're sleeping :) How cute are they?





Where did these tiny stinkers go?! Four years ago they had their first professional picture done - they were so tiny but somehow we managed to time these photos at the perfect moment between sleep and food that they actually cooperated :)



Four years ago they weighed 11.7; 12.8 and 13.12 lbs and we had nicknamed them Little, Leaky and Loud. Four years later Rachel is still the smallest of the bunch and Alyssa is still the loudest but Julianna leaks a LOT less :) Since the girls are obsessed with them being babies and often tell me how much they miss being babies (not that they really remember of course) they love to hear what we called them and Julianna could probably tell you that we called her our Leaky Princess while Rachel was our Little Peanut and Alyssa was our Loud Pumpkin.

Sorry to take a trip backwards but I'm always thinking about them when they were babies on the 16th - it's so hard not to!

I didn't really set out to participate in Way Back When-esday but since the 16th fell on a Wednesday it just seemed appropriate!

You can play along at Twinfatuation

Owner And Cat: Matching Leg Wounds

Guest Blogger: Kaitlyn

You all know that I got a leg wound. Well, now it's Lollypop's turn. We don't even know what happened! Check it out:



When I first saw it (which you will see later) I told Mom and we took him to the vet.
She siad that he had to where a cone and stay in a easy-to-clean place until it stops oozing (yah,yah it's gross, save those "ews" for later). We chose the
master bathroom. That's where he is here.
Here he is with his cone:





This is his wound- (okay now you can "eww") what do you think it is?



(By Mom: we have no idea what happened to him - could have been a spider - could have been a sting - could have been shot by someone - we aren't sure. In every other way he seems to be healthy and is healing well.)

Caleb Had Some Fierce Competition

Today was Caleb's first Pinewood Derby race. Despite having never done this before and having no real idea what he was doing he came in 5th! I'm very proud of him even though he was quite disappointed that his best friend came in first and he didn't.

Caleb's car is the green striped one:



At least he looks like he's having fun:



The big track:



The boys got to race their cars on each of the tracks so there were no unfair advantages - then their times were calculated and the fastest overall was the winner. Caleb actually won one of his races but overall he came in 5th.

His car on the track - it's a little blurry but you can see his in there and you can see big sister Kaitlyn cheering on her brother :) So sweet.



There's his name on the big board:



Apparantly when he won the board displayed just his name - he was pretty excited but Kirk didn't get a picture of that. Oh well, we're proud of him :)

February's Over

And I'm so behind.

The thing about 4-year-old triplets is that they're not that different from day-to-day. We are crazy busy but it's all kind of the same. Last year it was potty training - this year they are in school 3 full days a week which you think would translate into more time for me but ultimately it doesn't. It does mean that I have more time to have my devotions and spend some quiet time with God which I have been very much enjoying and I've had more time to coupon so I'm either saving more money or just buying more stuff - still trying to figure that out!

Plus there are all the days I spend at school to read to the preschool class or help with classroom parties. So we all stay pretty busy and sometimes (okay often) the blog gets neglected.

We are still alive.

And they are still so very cute :)









Favorite recent sayings:

All the girls: "It takes for a while. Why does it take for a while?" - obviously when they feel like anything is taking a long time - which for them is just about everything!

Julianna when we went out to dinner - the girls know not to play with knives and they always give us their knives from the silverware at the restaurant - this past week Julianna said, "Here daddy, you can have my knife so I don't cut off my fingers because that would be hurting"

I know they say cute stuff all the time and I want to record it but it goes in one ear and out the other no matter how much I try to commit it to memory. There's something to work on in March...remember more :)

Hope your February was great and your March is better! I know we're thawing out here in crazy warm (but rainy) temperatures.

Happy Valentine's Day

I can't say I'm the most romantic person in the world but I can say that I love my husband and am grateful to God for the man that he is both to me and to our children. I know I have been blessed to have him in my life and I pray that each of you may be so blessed.

I also want to wish my parents a Happy 41st Anniversary! Forty-one years and still in love - a sure testament to the goodness and grace of God.

I love you, Kirk and look forward to reaching 41 Anniversarys with you!

Visit Recap with Aunt Kim and Uncle Daniel

Yes, I'm behind. They've been gone for 4 days and I have yet to post pictures. Sad, I know. But we did have a good visit and I think, just maybe that even Uncle Daniel enjoyed having the kids around.

But I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...











Of course, Aunt Kim was there too.







The girls fought over Aunt Kim and Uncle Daniel constantly. Mom and Dad were old news in favor of holding Aunt Kim or Uncle Daniel's hand. I don't mind - I love that they are getting to know our family better.





Besides tubing we hung out, played a lot of Pictionary on the Wii Draw (highly recommend it - love that game!) and took them to the Air and Space Museum to check out the planes.

In other news, I'm also a triplet!



I'd say we look alike :)

From left to right: Liz Nelson (Kirk's brother's wife who now lives down the street from us - yea!); Kim Hildebrandt (my brother's wife - yes, that's my maiden name) and Dorinda Nelson - yep, triplets. I guess they do run in the family!