11.9.11: Lions, groceries, and toes...oh my

Stella found this lion costume at a new playarea and asked me to help her put it on. She even played in it for a few minutes and then decided she was done. I was amazed she tolerated it at all. Perhaps her new nickname should be StellaLion...


Fiona filled up her grocery cart as full as she could and drove it all around the room. Good thing she isn't in charge of our food budget or we'd be broke.


Daphne....ahh Daphne...somethings never change.

11.5.11: Books

The girls love books. They love books more than any toy, food, or activity. I actually found myself taking away books as a consequence once. (Who am I? What kind of mother takes away books???)

The girls still have quiet time in the morning and one day when going into their room I saw the following:
- Stella and her dog were reading to Fiona from across the room
- Fiona told me 'Alligator likes to look at pictures. I am reading to alligator."
- Daphne set up all of her animals to read to them as a group.
The girls have most of their board books memorized, so I even hear the correct words on some of the pages. (I suppose they could just be super geniuses and actually reading, but given the amount of times we have read the same books to them - I am assuming it is memorization.)




So when our library held their yearly event downtown, how could we resist. The librarians from various branches acted out popular books, played music, and there were more books than a little one could dream. There was an opportunity to play dress up - which was tolerated just for the picture (stella/postal worker, daphne/cop, fiona/astronaut). Please also notice that we finally had to break out the long sleeves...I suppose it is November. The girls had a great time and even got to take home two books each. Another benefit to having triplets...coming home with six new books! Don't worry, they'll have them memorized within a week.

10.31.11: Halloween

My little cupcakes (fiona/purple, daphne/blue, stella/pink). That's right the girls were cupcakes this year for Halloween. Thanks to Auntie Melissa for finding the pattern and Auntie Kelly for collaborating on the construction the girls wore adorable homemade cupcake costumes.

The girls each picked their own colors, so it was really no surprise that Stella was pink. Stella LOVES pink. Daphne and Fiona needed to be reminded over the past couple of weeks about the colors they chose, but all the hype definitely paid off. The girls did a practice Halloween run at the zoo this weekend with Peter and Nicole and then successful trick-or-treated tonight around our neighborhood even saying 'trick or treat', 'happy halloween', and of course thank you appropriately. We also painted pumpkins and made cheesecloth ghosts hung outside in our trees. Their favorite part is sorting, stacking and shaking their new toys (aka candy). All in all, a very successful Halloween.




Now for my personal bragging on thriftiness. Given that we have triplet two year olds and just one two year old can be unpredictable with regard to wearing costumes, I wasn't sure about investing in 'real' costumes. After consulting with friends and family, we decided on the cupcake pattern. Then comes the thriftiness. Kelly brought down a left over tree costume which had plenty of brown felt used for the dress bases and some crate and barrel ribbon used for the straps of the dresses = both free. Using Joann's coupons + sales we were able to get the pink, purple and blue fleece for $2 each, $.25 for each sprinkle felt color, and $3 for the cupcake wrapper felt, + some glue sticks and that is it. All three costumes for $10! The hardest part was making up a pattern, but construction was pretty simple. Thanks again Melissa and Kelly!

10.28.11: Future firemen?

The girls awoke this morning to some malfunctioning fire alarms at Nene's house (thankfully Nene and I were already awake making breakfast). After valiant attempts to silence them, the fire department showed up. During the firemen's first visit, the girls were able to tour/play on the fire truck. During the second visit the girls got stickers and pencils. Who knows what a third visit could have gotten them??? All in all not many toddlers get to play in a real working fire truck, so they were pretty excited regardless of the blaring alarms going off in the house. Nene was a little less excited to have all the surprise company.


(left to right: stella, daphne, fiona)


(left to right: daphne, fiona)


(left to right: fiona, stella, daphne)


(left to right: daphne, fiona, stella)

10.27.11: Adventures at Nene's

With Brant thoroughly stressed out writing grant proposals, the girls and I attempted the 2.5 hour drive to Nene's on our own. The drive was a challenge and not something I plan to relive anytime soon. Of course, if I figure out a way to detach my arm thereby allowing me to hand over dropped toys, sunglasses, or shoes while driving - then perhaps another attempt will be in order. In the meantime, we stayed very busy with exploring a new house, eating at a big(ish) table, swimming, going to the zoo/aquarium and of course reading every book endlessly.



(fiona/pink, daphne/green, stella/flowers)


(left to right: daphne, stella, fiona)

10.22.11: Decorating daddy

While skyping with Nana, the girls (left to right: daphne, fiona, stella) began to 'decorate daddy' with their alphabet puzzle pieces. I was impressed with their teamwork and perseverance to get all the letters to stay. We still have no idea why they started to do this, but every time Brant laughed the girls just replaced the letters that fell off with new ones.


Daphne likes to jump in her bed. Let me clarify, Daphne REALLY likes to jump in her bed. Most mornings we wake up to this smiling face with proof of said jumping in her crib tent.

10.21.11: Meat Sciences

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

Tonight we went to an event at the Meat Sciences department, mainly because we were promised farm animals - obviously not for the food. While we didn't get a chance to see the piglets, the girls were able to see horses and (jumping) goats. In this picture, Peter and the girls were trying to coax the horses to come and talk to them. Perhaps the horses knew better than to approach four toddlers.

10.16.11: Pumpkin patch

We had a successful trip to a pumpkin patch this weekend. We drove down south to a farm with lots of fall activities. Unfortunately, we drove a bit past the exit and had to turn around, where we ran into border patrol (even though we were still in the US). We hesitated with no identification for the girls on hand, we knew we were still in the US, but told the girls to smile and be super cute - we didn't need any problems. Brant rolled down the window and the agent says "Are those triplets?" Brant say yes and the agent responds with a chuckle and "Cool". From there, we were on our way. Perhaps the easiest border patrol pass through ever!

The girls (daphne/purple, fiona/blue, stella/pink) had a great time climbing haystacks, going through a hay maze (although I'm not sure they understood why we kept turning around) and of course picking out pumpkins. We also pet a goat and sheep before Brant and I deemed the petting area unsafe as a goat near toppled Stella over.

10.9.11: First Hike

(left to right: kelly, kari, brant, rob, fiona, daphne, stella)

Oddly, our weather was extremely mild while Kelly and Rob were here. We were finally able to go on our first hike. Of course the girls didn't walk on this hike (we actually wanted to see the mountains). While hiking/strolling we even found a small river with fish! With the unexpected fish siting, we needed something to feed the fish so the girls could see them move around. The only food on hand was the snack that the girls were eating...so now the girls think that all fish eat waffles. Oops.

We also got to play outside and spent hours covering the driveway in chalk. Eventually I will have to hose off the driveway or the same chalk drawings will be around until the girls are ten, okay maybe just for months due to the lack of rain.

Brant and I took the opportunity to do a bit of yard work while the girls were napping. Then the excitement happened. Brant found a baby rattlesnake in the cactus right next to our driveway (can you see it in the picture below?). Yikes, that was not what we were expecting. Thankfully our fire service removes poisonous animals immediately, so the whole scenario was quickly resolved. I guess we really do live in 'nature' these days. This of course all happened just one day after we found a scorpion in our house - ahhh nature.



Since then we have been heavy into cleaning up our yard and getting rid of any cactus that animals can hide in. With my shovel in hand, I am now known as the 'cactus destroyer' (perhaps just to myself). For now the yard will be a little barren, but that is much better than snake ridden.

10.7.11: Ribbon and clings

Auntie Kelly and Uncle Rob came to visit and brought their own entertainment; a long ribbon and window clings. Who knew! The girls had fun running in circles around Kelly and each other. They all had a great time hanging onto the ribbon. If only I could institute this when walking around town. Once the ribbon lost some of its luster, they moved onto window clings.


(left to right: daphne, auntie kelly, stella, fiona)

By the end of day two, the halloween window clings started to loose some of their cling - something I have never seen happen before. I suppose this is what happens when they are applied and reapplied endlessly.


(left to right: stella, daphne, fiona)

When they started to lose their cling, the girls decided to decorate the next best thing to the window - Uncle Rob.


(left to right: daphne, fiona, uncle rob)