6.26.12: Water painting

 

The girls (left to right: stella, daphne, fiona) received a wonderful gift of watercolors from Peter for their birthdays.  We haven't done watercolor before, just acrylic.  I figured they'd be super excited for a new medium because they really love to create/color/paint anything.  What I wasn't anticipating was the creative use of the paints.  Even though the process of adding water to the paint and then painting on the paper was described in full (and replicated at the beginning), the girls decided it was much more fun to paint their water.  They all started dipping their brushes in the paint and then putting it in the water to turn the water different colors.  Needless to say, we ended up with very little paint on the paper, some very colorful water, and a whole new art medium.  I love how their minds work. 

Nene came to visit and brought with her some magnifying glasses (color coordinated, of course).  This is a good thing, because the girls (left to right: daphne, stella, fiona) have all be fighting over the one pretend magnifying glass we have (aka the frying pan). Ahhh our imaginations are blooming these days.

6.20.12: Movie fears

The first movie we went to as a family went really well, so I thought I'd take advantage of the bargain kids movie mornings and take the girls to see Rio on my own.  Of course I had several fears about this adventure: 

1.  Potty breaks.  If the movie has started and someone needs to go potty, I have to convince all three girls to leave a dark movie theater and attempt to wrangle them to a public restroom.....cringe.....don't get me started on triplets in a public restroom, I'll just summarize with 'thirty fingers touching everything'. 
2. Scary parts.  Since the girls haven't seen many movies I still don't have a good sense for what they will find 'scary' and what will be tolerable.  Obviously this differs greatly amongst the girls.  If one (or all) find something scary and freaks out, what do I do?
3. Bored, antsy.  This was a kids viewing, so of course it seems acceptable to have some noise, but what if everyone (or just one) wants to leave.  How do I convince everyone it is time to go or that we should stay?

Thankfully the movie went really well and none of the above fears were realized.  I'm not sure how much longer I'll be this lucky. I think the girls are learning quickly that if they all refuse something, I am totally paralized. 

6.11.12: THREE

HAPPY THIRD BIRTHDAY GIRLS!!!

This year has brought a lot of changes and you have embraced every one of them. In the past year you have learned your alphabet (including reading your own name), numbers, developed a sense of humor, learned to sleep in toddler beds, become fully potty trained, eat at a big table, walk everywhere independently, talk and tell stories, recite books, sing songs, and so much more all with a zest for life we admire.  You make your own choices and have your own opinions, you are truly little girls (not toddlers).  You have grown to show compassion and love for each other and really begun to embrace the camaraderie of being triplets. We are so proud to be your parents and love every moment.

love, mama and daddy

(left to right: fiona, daphne, stella)

***************************************

 

fiona at 7:35am

(exactly three years old)

30.5 lbs and 37.5"

daphne at 7:36am

(exactly three years old)

33.5 lbs and 38.75"

stella at 7:39am

(exactly three years old)

29.5 lbs and 37"

This year the birthday theme was the girls' favorite colors.  I asked repeatedly what type of cake/theme the girls wanted for their birthday and always got the same answer, stella:pink, daphne:green and fiona:blue.  They are obsessed with THEIR colors (cups, plates, clothes, underwear, brant's shirts...everything).  After a solid month of trying to convince them to pick an animal or object, I decided that a pink, blue and green theme would work out perfectly. The decorations around the house were all pink, green and blue.  Each girl had their own 'doorway' of streamers in their own color (see pics above).   In addition we had colored balloons and streamers everywhere.  It was pretty fantastic to go crazy and decorate our whole house for the first time.  The girls awoke with some serious excitement when they saw their favorite color - everywhere.

Thanks to some food dye and white cake, the girls each got their own cake (giant muffin) in their favorite color decorated with color appropriate candy flowers. We haven't done much with sweets, but I am starting to relax a bit.  The girls were very excited to blow out their candles and eat their cake...until they tried it.  Daphne liked the candy flowers but Fiona and Stella took a bite or two and then asked for cheese instead.  They wouldn't even eat the vanilla ice cream.  Does this mean my plan to avoid a severe sweet tooth like my own, worked?  Only time will tell. At least they enjoyed looking at their cakes.

The girls were spoiled once again by endless gifts from family and friends.  Brant and I (clearly during a moment of weakness) decided to cave to their musical interests and get our little 'band' started.  Below the girls are enoying their xylophone, guitar and piano (don't worry the full size drum set is upstairs).  In an effort to stay sane we have decided to have daily music time versus freeform music play hoping to curb the chaos by said 'band'. 

 

It was a wonderful day and the girls loved hearing Happy Birthday sung to them over and over again. This is the first year I think they really understood what having a birthday was all about.

6.10.12: Movie partrons

(left to right: daphne, stella, fiona)

Seems notable that today we went to our first family movie. We borrowed Madagascar from Peter for our airplane ride and the girls really enjoyed it. The girls have only ever seen one full length movie (curious george 2) and that was at home. It seemed too much of a coincidence to have Madagascar 3 coming out in the theaters so close to their birthday. So we HAD to take them. They had a great time. It was cute, during the previews they kept asking when the movie was going to start - seems no one really likes to sit through the previews.

6.7.12: Cousin!!!

Welcome Cooper Ingalls Kochman!

After seeing auntie's belly grow during weekly skype sessions, the girls are very excited to finally see their first cousin. 

Congratulations Kelly and Rob!

6.1.12: Defiant dancers

(left to right: daphne, nene, stella, fiona)

Immediately after returning from new york, Brant had to leave for an international business trip.  Given that the girls schedules were a mess (as expected), we had just converted to toddler beds before leaving and therefore sleeping was a mess (as expected) and everyone got sick immediately after getting home with pink eye, snot everywhere and 2/3 had ear infections I was very thankful that Nene was able to come and help.  I just love that regardless of illness, the girls still found the energy to dance.  You would never know they were sick by the giggles throughout the week.

(left to right: stella, fiona, daphne)

5.28.12: Penguins

(left to right: daphne, stella, fiona)

On our final day in new york city, we adventured to the central park zoo.  The zoo was rather small, but they did have penguins.  We lingered in the penguin area for a while because they were swimming all over and the girls were very entertained and let's be honest partly because it was air conditioned.  We were able to see many family members one last time before we adventured on our twelve hour trek home. From the time we left Ragan's apartment to arriving at our door was a solid twelve hours....it was a long day, but our time in new york with family was priceless.

5.26.12: Flower girls

Before we even left the apartment, we took a family photo (left to right: fiona, stella, daphne).  I just couldn't risk missing a photo of my wonderful family all decked out for Uncle Ragan's wedding. 

 

A majority of our time was spent wrangling/entertaining during the special day so my photos are limited.  Regardless, in this one moment fiona, stella and daphne were all sitting still.

The beautiful bride and groom.  We were so excited to witness and be part of this very special day.

After an unsuccessful attempt at rehearsing the flower girl walk the day before, we weren't sure what to expect for the ceremony.   We did however practice a lot in the morning with toilet paper 'flower petals' and a paper bag 'basket' to show the girls their responsibilities as flower girls.  We practiced so much, when we left all dressed up for the wedding, the girls were upset that we weren't bringing our paper bag/toilet paper with us.  Thankfully the Priest family had great flower baskets and purple petals for the girls to use in the real ceremony. 

Turns out the girls actually did really well.  They started off strong, fearlessly walking down the very long aisle placing petals.  Then...they ran out of petals.  Unsure what to do they dropped their baskets and began looking around for daddy (their go-to person at the front of the church).  Daphne and Stella spotted him and began running down the aisle.  Fiona turned around and started looking for me at the beginning.  Thankfully Ragan and Christina are laid back, so I became an honorary flower girl picking up baskets while convincing Fiona to run to daddy.  Christina got her flowers (although all within the first ten feet of the aisle) and the girls completed their task as flower girls. It was a very proud mama moment for me, the most adorable flower girls ever.

We found Great Nana.  After the wedding was the first time we got to see Great Nana and oh boy, were the girls (left to right: fiona, stella, daphne) excited.  I believe it went something like this "mama mama, look great nana, mama mama, great nana, great nana" followed by giant hugs.

I'm not sure that Fiona understands that her middle name came from Great Nana but she had been telling me for weeks about how Great Nana is her friend.  Every morning we were in New York she'd ask if we were going to see Great Nana.  Needless to say, once Fiona found her - there was no letting go.  They were connected the remainder of the night.

The girls had an amazing time at the reception, dancing like I have never seen them dance before.  Daphne found a friend of Ragan and Christina's and danced with him, pushing aside his girlfriend.  Stella had a great time dancing for the crowd and with Grace.  Fiona, well Fiona went crazy.  That child was grinning ear to ear the entire time dancing, bouncing on anyone who could hold her.  There was no shyness at all.  The girls got so tired from all the dancing, they began falling down and that is when we knew it was time to head out.  Of course we wish we could have made it until the end, but we all had a great time.  The next morning the girls woke up and wanted to do it all over again and it went so well, that we did too. Congratulations Uncle Ragan and Aunt Christina!