3.21.15: Dining al fresco

With Brant leaving for a trip and me stuck working we decided it was the perfect time to have a tea party inside the house for morning snack.

After a day of errands, we wanted to do something special.  We decided to enjoy the beautiful weather and eat our dinner outside watching the sunset.

3.14.15: Books

Daphne woke up this morning and decided to read us this book - and she did - all by herself.

We went to the university for the book festival and stopped by Brant's classroom.  The girls decided they needed to count every chair and test most of them out.

3.9.15: Surprise contemplation

Stella surprised us when we came to pick her up from school by having lost another tooth.  Apparently it came out during after school care and the very prepared staff had a molar necklace to store her tooth in for safe keeping.  She was very proud of her necklace.

Daphne came home from school not feeling well at all.  She even fell asleep before dinner, posing like this - in contemplation.

3.8.15: Ladybugs

Today we went to a ladybug release.  6000 ladybugs were released via ~100 kids.  The girls had a great time holding the ladybugs and watching them all fly away.  It was hard to convince them not to take some home as pets.

3.5.15: Musical Chairs

Daphne, Stella, and Fiona decided to play "musical chairs" (which really seems to be a cake walk - but don't dare tell them that).  Someone turns on music then they run in circles on numbers they wrote, eventually the music stops and the someone reads the numbers they are standing on.  I'm not quite sure other kids would be interested in this game, it only seems to make sense to them - but they love it.

3.1.15: Special Wish

At school the girls' made new year's special wishes "I want to sing so all can hear my special wish for the brand new year..."

Daphne - I wish for kindness and love
Fiona - I wish all people had what they need
Stella - I wish the whole world would pick up trash

2.28:15: Indoor picnic

While daddy was busy with tax preparation, the kitchen table was covered with paperwork, so we decided to have an indoor picnic for lunch.  Turns out three princess fairies arrived (Stella, Daphne, Fiona).

2.27.15: Rodeo Break

The last two school days in February every kid in town is out of school to celebrate Rodeo Break. This longstanding tradition is challenging for non-native families like ours to understand, but we took the opportunity this year to go to the Rodeo Parade.  Showing up just before it started but full of smiles and cuteness landed Stella, Daphne and Fiona these prime seats to watch the largest non-mechanical parade in the country.  In case you are wondering this translates to a lot of horses, wagons and marching bands.

After a busy morning at two different parks, Fiona, Daphne and Stella decided it was time for a water balloon fight....where fight = throwing balloons at each other's feet or the garage.  I think it took us longer to fill the balloons than smash them all.

2.25.15: American Performance

All of the kindergartners at school held an American performance show full of songs, jokes and each child memorizing a fact about America.  Daphne, Stella and Fiona's class shared information about the Statue of Liberty.

Yes, an outside performance in February is seen as normal here.

2.21.15: Somersaults

We have been very interested in doing gymnastics lately which has proven challenging when coupled with a tile floor.  Brant and I ran into a great deal on this tumbling mat and well...the rest is all smiles.

 Stella

 Fiona

Daphne

2.17.15: New seats

Daphne, Fiona, Stella in the old seats

Finding out you are pregnant with triplets less than six months after purchasing your first new car made us wonder about the longevity of our Honda Civic Hybrid.  However, it has successfully fit three infant carriers, three rear facing convertible seats and three forward facing seats - we assumed once we made it past the buckets seats this car could meet any future car seats needs without a problem.  Today we tried to install three booster seats and failed miserably.  Was this the end of the Civic?

Daphne, Stella, Fiona in their new seats

Thankfully we found some award winning inflatable booster seats that do fit in our car.  Of course, they are a bit of pain to latch - but nothing we can't overcome.  Go Honda Go!

2.15.15: Flag

In preparation for president's day the girls have been talking a lot about american symbols at school.  Upon finding an empty wrapping paper roll, Stella, Daphne, and Fiona turned it into an american flag - all on their own.

2.13.15: Reading night

Tonight was 'Love of Reading Night' at the girls' school.  They each made their own hand puppet and put on a puppet show.  We took home two puppies, one dragon, and a lot of puppet show memories.

2.8.15: Celebrating with Kelly

Kelly was in town visiting family, so we took the opportunity to celebrate with her when Daphne, Stella, and Fiona successfully swam across the pool in swimming class.

Then we put her to work reading books because, well, Kelly is one of our favorite book readers.

2.7.15: Preparing for valentine's day

We spent time making our valentine's day boxes and writing a valentine's card for all 22 kids in Spanish kindergarten class.  Turns out the girls liked their valentine's so much, they wrote one to themselves.

1.28.15: Compassion

Fiona wasn't feeling well and her sisters took especially good care of her.  When they arrived home, she had made this sign for them.  You just can't teach this kind of compassion.

1.19.15: January rain

Okay - maybe it wasn't real rain, but the weather today was absolutely beautiful and the girls and I decided it seemed appropriate to play in the sprinklers.  Felt a little odd playing in the water in the middle of January - but we had a blast - so that is all that matters.

Holiday + ridiculous sunshine = sprinkler time

1.16.15: 100th day of school

Today was the girls' 100th day of school.  They got to wear special hats and celebrate all day.  Stella, Fiona and Daphne are now closer to first grade than kindergarten.

1.10.15: Resolutions + Samurai party

Daphne, Fiona and Stella made resolutions at school for the new year. These little ladies are so thoughtful and considerate.

Today we experienced our first martial arts/samurai party.   The highlights included ninja games, cutting the birthday cake with a sword, and a samurai sword party favor that lasted about a week before it disappeared.