9.21.14: More science

Today we completed Auntie Kelly's box o' science the girls (Stella, Daphne, Fiona) got for their birthday.  Today was my personal favorite....liquid chalk.  Combining baking soda, corn starch, food dye and water into a squirt bottle provided a whole new approach to decorating the driveway.  Then add to that the vinegar which makes the liquid chalk fizzle.....well I'm just not sure anything else could be as exciting.

Last week's project (Stella, Fiona, Daphne): Shaving cream + school glue + glitter = puff paint.  So many creations, so few places to hang them.

9.19.14: Fiona's surgery

Fiona has oral surgery today to have two extra teeth removed in the front of her mouth that were blocking her adult teeth.  We desperately tried to find a medical opinion telling us this surgery was optional and could wait but everyone agreed.  It was a really tough day and I was a complete mess, but she did really well.  When she was waking up, she smiled and said, " Why do you guys have two mouths, two noses and four eyes?"  It was enough to help me stop crying, for a few minutes.

How on earth are kids so resilient?

9.16.14: Homework....please

Stella, Fiona and Daphne were ready for school a little early this morning and instead of playing, decided that they wanted to do their weekly homework.  I wonder how long the excitement about doing homework will last - hopefully forever.

Daphne, Fiona and Stella waiting in the rain at the bus stop.  Who knew umbrellas could be so much fun.

9.14.14: New entertainment

Apparently a new washing machine will entertain triplet five year olds (Stella, Fiona, Daphne).  Being able to see into the washer made clothes washing fun....perhaps next we can find something to motivate them to fold clothes too?

9.13.14: Lighting

When we bought our house, we knew pretty much all the fixtures and appliances needed to be updated  - but the bones were good.  After several consecutive nights of Fiona waking up in the middle of the night (more frequently than normal) we decided that any change we could do to help the situation would be worth it.  Her ceiling fan was pretty old and made odd noises so we decided it was time for an update.  We ended up with three new ceiling fans (all installed same day by Brant) and one little girl who finally slept through the night.  It is amazing how trends change. Less than 25 years ago it was probably really great to have fan lights made of brass with exposed light bulbs and big globes.  We hopefully selected something a little more modern although not what the Daphne, Fiona and Stella really wanted....this crystal disco ball.

9.7.14: Reunion

After swimming today, we went to a have a playdate with our best friends from preschool.  Stella, Ariadne, Molly, Daphne, Fiona and Summer.  We haven't seen each other in a while so there was a lot of squealing initially.  Eventually everyone got dressed up and went running around the house.  We even caught the girls sitting in a circle playing music, singing and dancing together...just like preschool.

9.6.14: Air & Space Museum

The Robertsons (Fiona, Brant, Daphne, Kari, Stella) and Marrones adventured to the Air & Space museum together today.  We started off by making snap kit space shuttles.  I have to admit, this is not something I remember doing as a kid so it was a first for all of us girls.  Brant and I had a decent assembly line going by the end of it.  Perhaps a bit more adult involvement than we were expecting, but it was our first time.

 Stella

 Fiona

 Daphne

 Daphne and Peter preparing for flight

Stella, Fiona, Peter and Daphne examining the helicopter.

9.5.14: Medieval Book Fair

What do you do when you have three adorable little girls (Fiona, Stella, Daphne) who want to participate in the school book fair which apparently encourages you to dress up in a medieval theme?  Better yet, what do you do when you have less than a week notice?  You do your best to make everyone happy while realizing that there are only so many hours in a day after work and these costumes will be worn for ~2 hours.  With felt, markers, glue and thread our three little ladies dressed up as their desired 'medieval' characters.

 Daphne as Elsa

 Stella as Belle

Fiona as Anna

This serves as a good reminder to start on Halloween costumes early this year  :)

9.4.14: Extra Teeth

At our last dentist appointment, we confirmed that Fiona has two extra teeth in the front of her mouth that are blocking her adult teeth from growing in properly.  The bad news, these teeth with have to be removed; the good news Fiona and Brant had some special one on one time while getting multiple consultations.  While I have a lot of anxiety about this procedure, Fiona is excited about her extra teeth because apparently the tooth fairy pays out big for these type of 'extra' teeth.

For the first time in a very long time, the girls decided today was 'matching shirt' day and proudly wore their beloved letter shirts that Auntie Kelly made for them to school.

9.1.14: Camping at Mt. Lemmon

That's right, we did it - we went camping as a family.  We adventured for the girls' (Fiona, Stella, Daphne) first overnight camping trip...ever.  The girls were really excited, Brant and I were a little nervous to see how some of the camping realities would go, but everything went really well.  We found a lake, watched people fish, went hiking, ate smores (thanks Auntie Kelly), played with glow sticks, cooked our own dinner over the fire, found a tree swing, climbed all over nature, went to the bathroom in the woods, played baggo and frisbee, slept outside in a tent, and ended our camping adventure with giant smiles....no complaints...not one.

We found a lake.....in Arizona!

Supervising Daddy while he gets the campfire going

 Glow sticks were a definite hit while camping

Eating our first smores

 We are ready for bed mama, why are you taking pictures?

 Proof we slept outside in our tent and were happy the next morning.

Baggo playing in the morning

8.27.14: Rocket ship

Waiting around all morning for mama's release COULD have been boring, but when you decide to create a rocket ship with a tunnel, life becomes so much more exciting (Fiona, Daphne, Stella)

Fiona, Daphne and Stella enjoying one of their favorite past times, reading books at Target

8.15.14: Avoiding ants

Waiting for the bus....where the ants can't get to us (Stella, Fiona, Daphne)

8.11.14: Bus

Today the girls took the bus to school for the first time.  They even walked to the bus stop a short distance away.  Getting to ride the bus is a big deal and we have been talking about this as one of the major features to the new school.  After 15 minutes of waiting (we weren't sure about the accuracy of arrival time) the bus pulled up and whisked away the girls to school.  No tears, just excitement - after all riding the bus is something only big kids do  :)

8.10.14: Science Experiments

Thanks to Brant, the girls have become obsessed with Mythbusters and therefore science.  I am excited for them to have interest in science....Mythbusters a little less.  Regardless, we are trying to embrace this new love for science and experiments.  Brant decided to was time to 'test' the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment.  In addition, we also created a volcano just to watch the explosion...but it couldn't be a simple volcano, instead we had to cover the volcano in rainbow clay and dye the lava our favorite colors.  Who knew science could be so much fun!

 Daphne's volcano

Stella's volcano

 Fiona's volcano

 Daphne Diet Coke + Mentos

 Stella Diet Coke + Mentos

Fiona Diet Coke + Mentos

8.7.14: Kindergarten

Today was the first day of Kindergarten.  We started our morning by parking in our neighborhood and approaching the school from the back to avoid some of the drop-off chaos we had been warned about.  The girls were very excited even though we still walked into a pretty chaotic situation.  I have to admit, it was much easier leaving the girls at school knowing they would be there together, looking out for each other and making sure they stuck together when necessary.  Upon completion of the first day of school, they were all a chatter about the new friends, teachers and school they were so very excited to be a part of.

Fiona, Daphne, Stella

They have English Kindergarten in the morning, Spanish Kindergarten in the afternoon and then Gardening and Crazy Math class during the after school program.  They have a three week rotation between 'specials' of Art, Music and PE.  Essentially, they have a fabulous mixture of play and learning.

8.1.14: Olaf......or Elsa

The flyer from the bookstore said Storytime with Olaf, so clearly we had to go.  Upon arrival and a crazy amount of people, Olaf was a cardboard cutout but thankfully Elsa did arrive.  After a few books (that no one could hear) and countless screaming/whining children (not ours), we managed to get a picture with Elsa (Stella, Fiona, Elsa, Daphne).

7.19.14: Breakfast request

Some mornings, Daphne has a hard time getting ready for school.  Lately, we have been making a list for her to checkoff the items she needs to do to get ready, this seems to motivate her - she loves checking off items on her list (she clearly knows how to make her mama proud).  Well today, she changed things up a bit and drew a picture of her breakfast request even providing instructions on how to make it.  

Bread + Toaster + Jelly.

7.12.14: Hiking

We were in need of a driving adventure to test out the new car, so we drove up to Mt. Lemmon to go hiking and play games for the afternoon.  It was a wonderful break from the heat.  (stella, fiona, daphne)

7.10.14: New car

Back in March 2008, we bought a Honda Civic Hybrid and about eight months later we learned we were pregnant with triplets. Many said we would have to upgrade to a bigger car, but we are proud of the fact that we did not.  We fit three bucket carriers, three rear facing convertible seats and still three forward facing seats in that Civic - much to many people's disbelief.  We survived in that one car until our relocation to Arizona at which point we had to have two cars.  

Having just bought a house and only one of us employed, we bought a less expensive second car that already had >100,000 miles on it.  We knew this car wouldn't last forever.  Days after Brant drove back from Santa Barbara, the car reached its end.  With Nana in town, Brant and I took advantage of the babysitting and went out car shopping.  After hours of negotiations we ended up with a new car.  We asked the girls what their favorite part about the new car was....the air in the back, the 'tv' (dashboard screen) in the front, and my personal favorite...the one that got the biggest oohs and aahs...the back windows go ALL THE WAY DOWN.  Yes, that's right, turns out this minor detail made our kids thrilled.  We were just excited for a new, safe, reliable car.

7.6.14: 6th Annual Family Day

Today was our sixth annual family day, the day everyone was finally home from the hospital back in 2009.  This is a very important day for us as it always brings back memories of those tough weeks while the girls were in the NICU.  This day always reminds us how lucky we are to have a happy and healthy family - none of which we take for granted.  We celebrated by spending the day together and, as is our tradition, getting pictures taken (left to right: Daphne, Stella, Fiona).  We love you girls!

7.4.14: Nana one-on-one

Not only did Daddy just return home, but Nana came to visit.  Since preschool was ongoing but Nana was in town, we came up with a compromise.  Everyone got a special day with Nana, just one-on-one.  Each girl independently got to skip school for the day and do whatever she and Nana wanted to do.  Then Nana picked up the remaining girls at school and they all got to spend the afternoon together.  We figured in less than a month, the girls would be attending 'real school' where skipping was less permissible so we needed to take advantage of this opportunity now.  Needless to say, they all very much enjoyed there one-on-one time.  I think Brant and I were even a little jealous that we can't do something similar  :)

7.3.14: Daddy is back!

We were more than thrilled when Brant arrived home safely tonight.  Santa Barbara was amazing, but having Brant gone for five weeks was tough (thankfully we were all together for two of them in California).  No picture capturing the moment, we were ALL too excited to be together.

7.2.14: Movie Week

Stella 

 Daphne

Fiona

During the month of July, preschool is only open until 2:30.  I'm sure this is manageable for most, but for two working parents, this provides an additional challenge.  With Brant still gone, the girls and I decided we would have 'Movie Week'.  This meant each day when I picked them up from school we would come home, have a snack, and watch a movie.  That allowed me the opportunity to finish working while the girls were thrilled to relax and watch a movie after a full day of playing in the hot sun at preschool.  Without having to commute home at night, we were able to squeeze in some extra game time each evening.