February - Dress Up Day

Sorry to everyone who I am friends with on Facebook.  The following pics are repeats, but I couldn't resist documenting them on our blog :)

In late February, Quin had 'Dress Up As What You Want to be When You Grow Up' day at school.  How sweet, she decided she wanted to be a teacher when she grows up.  She had a very definite outfit in mind when we were putting together her outfit.  She thought she needed khakis, a cardigan, a necklace and a bag.  

When filling her bag she NEEDED pencils, a white board with markers, a pointer, a ruler and lamination (because ALL teachers have that, you know!).  HA!

 I was hesitant to let her decorate her own side of the bag, but I am so glad that I gave in.  I am in love with her picture!  She drew the two of us getting into a van to go and teach TOGETHER!

 I was so excited to come home and hear all about her morning at school.  When I asked her how her day went, she gave me a sympathetic look.. and told me that it went "good", and then paused just staring at me.  After a few moments she told me "I am sorry mom.  I think I want to be a police officer instead".  What a hoot!  I told her that she has many years to decide what she really wants to be, and all mommy wants for her is to be happy!!!

February - Valentines

After I posted last year about Quin's Heart Crayon Valentine's I had a ton of people ask how we were going to top it this year!  We have been so busy lately that my creativity has just been drained.  There were SO many cute ideas on line this year - so amazing!  I decided to use other people's ideas and change them up slightly :)

Quin passed out these adorable mint valentines to her classmates.  I found the idea here.  

 I have seen several different versions of this one floating around Pinterest.  I have seen them used for everything from back to school, to Christmas to Valentines.  I used Rolos for the inside of one pencil and Mentos for the other.  

 Quin and I happened to find these adorable gummy butterflies at our local candy store and she wanted to make a special valentine for her friend Izzy!  We used a freebie bag topper from here, and then added a butterfly cut out.  

 I made these for my own students - we are the Sizemore Superstars :)  They were a hit!  I found the idea here.

A huge thank you to all of the talented and creative people who share their ideas all of the time!!!

I have to say that I had some excitement when I glanced at my stats in early February.  I had over 800 hits on Quin's Heart Crayons post - just in the first two weeks of February.  It was also 'pinned' 22 times - hee, hee!  I know those are small numbers compared to the crazy talented craft bloggers, but it was fun to see for a few weeks :)

January - Birthday Hats

 Keeping with tradition, below are current birthday hat pics!  They were taken a few weeks after the triplet's birthday, but still are great benchmarks for how they look now! Boy how they look more like 'kids' and less like 'toddlers'.  If you go here, you can see my post from last year that had each kiddos newborn, 1 year and 2 year old picture.  Below I added last year's picture along with their new, 3 year old, picture.

Ellery

Ellery continues to be the most serious of the triplet's.  She takes everything in, and is full of questions!  She is stubborn and strong willed, and will probably give me a run for my money in about ten years.  She loves to color, cut and create with playdough.  She could sit and watch TV all day long.  She isn't a big eater, but loves anything sweet.  She loves Quin, and mimics everything Quin does.  At times it feels like we have two sets of two because Ellery and Quin play very well together!  (All four do play well together too)

Ellery was discontinued from speech right before her 3rd birthday.

Gianna

Gianna is our 'mini-momma'.  She is sweet and loving, but does have a short fuse.  G is her own little person, and doesn't mind hanging out by herself.  She can surround herself with all of the babies and play.  She is very protective of 'her' things, and tends to hoard things that she is afraid someone might take from her.  If someone is hurt, she is usually the first to give out hugs.  She is shy and takes awhile to warm up, but watch out once she is comfortable.  Gianna (along with Easton) goes to speech therapy once a week.  

Easton

And then there is Easton!  Our 'lil stinker ;)  Easton is the epitome of BOY.  He is non-stop, and he is loud.  He has a killer smile, and is a huger lover.  He loves cars, tractors and still loves his vacuum.  I can't bribe him to watch TV for a half hour.  He is a little peanut - weighing/measuring in at 4% on the growth chart - his personality makes up for it though.  He is rough and tumble, and loves to torment his sisters - but will not go to bed until he gives all three of them a kiss and hug goodnight.  He and Gianna are buds, and are often playing near each other.  

I am so happy to say that all three are POTTY TRAINED - Woo Hoo!  I was shooting for them to be potty trained by three years old.  Gianna and Easton were close in the fall, but Ellery was stubborn and held out as long as she could.  We went away for a few days over spring break and put them in pull ups for the sake of my sanity, but they out and out refused to go in the pull ups.  Good news for them, not so good for us as we quickly search for clean public restrooms!

January - Junk Day

Right after the babies were born, I 'created' a new family tradition... Junk Day.  It just so happens to coincide with Super Bowl Sunday - hee, hee!  I came up with Junk Day because the triplets were in the NICU and I knew our family of six wouldn't be going to any Super Bowl parties for years to come (I sure wish they would have the game early in the day, but that is besides the point!).   I really could care less about the game, and although the commercials are fun to watch, they are usually released early.  What I knew I would miss the most was the food.  I LOVE appetizers!  I am not a big 'meal' person, but I could graze all day long on, well, junk!  

Keeping our Junk Day tradition alive, we invited my brother, my parents and my sister and her family over to gorge upon junk food!  We could have called it 'Smother Isadora Day' too ;)  Poor girl!  She is one loved baby!

 A few shots of our goodies

 And, yes... the day ended with more smothering of Baby Isa!

I couldn't tell ya who played, or what the best commercial was... but I can tell you what we ate that day!  And I was able to share the day with my family!  I am calling it a win for me ;)

January - Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday!!!

My babies turned 3 - yes THREE - years old at the end of January!  I cannot believe how fast the last few years have flown by, and how fast my tiny miracles have grown.  Ellery, Gianna and Easton are each such unique and special kids - and I am sooo lucky that I get to be their mom!

Instead of buying birthday presents, we bought a family membership to Deanna's Playhouse as their birthday gift.  Deanna's is such a neat place!  It is basically a huge warehouse turned into an indoor play center.  They have areas around an extremely large room that are intended to stimulate pretend play and to get kids active.  This is perfect for my kiddos.  Because we have a woman who watches them in our home each day, they rarely leave the house :(  Deanna's gives them a place to go, during the day, that has new and exciting toys and activities!

We took the kids there on their birthday, for the first time.  There is a pretend 'house' where Ellery loved doing the laundry.

 Gianna (my mini-momma) immediately found the babies.

 Ellery loved shooting hoops.

 Easton had a great time trying out all of the riding toys.

 There is an over abundance of dress up clothes and a large stage.

 {side note - I know, I know... you may be wondering about the germ factor???  First off, I am far from a germaphobe and tend to think that it is good for kids to be exposed to germs.  Deanna's seems to be kept super clean, so that does make me feel better.  With that said, I do have a large hand sanitizer that they must use as soon as they get in the car though.  :)  What the teacher in me has a bigger issue with is head gear...  just typing this makes me want to itch my head!  I have never heard of anyone catching anything from there, but it still gives me the heebie-jeebies.  The girls must wear their hair up when they go - and NOTHING is allowed on their heads.  I have actually heard Quin tell other kids about that rule too - ha!  Again - this is totally my issue though - and I have never heard of anyone getting lice from there!}

There is also an arts area where kids can color and play with playdough.  What's not to love about that - all of the fun and not the mess in my rug at home.  Woo hoo!

 After we had our full of fun at the playhouse, we met my parents for dinner.  My camera took horribly blurry pictures of dinner, so here are a few pics of the birthday kids opening their presents from Gigi and Popa.

How very special to have three 3 year olds!!!  How did I get to be sooo lucky!  (No, that is not sarcastic!)

January - Snowy Fun

What?!?!?  It has been slightly over three whole months since my last post... well, um, yeah... I have no idea how that happened...  I guess I am chalking that one up to 'Time flies when we are having fun' (and are busy!).  It is my hope to catch up before school starts again, so bear with me as you are inundated with posts the next few days.  I promise that it will slow down again after spring break - ha!

We had the craziest winter.  It hovered around freezing for most of the winter, so we had very little snow that hung around long enough for the kids to play in  :(  The kiddos were disappointed!  They got new sleds for Christmas and were only able to use them once.  {The lack of snow didn't disappoint me though - all of the below pictures... taken from inside the house!}

Gianna and Easton ready to go out.

 All four kids have their own shovels and started out really shoveling away.

 Within a few minutes though, shoveling gave way to snow angels :)

 Easton

 After the driveway was cleared, they had fun pulling each other (that is Ellery pulling Quin!)

 Jason kept moving snow to the end of the driveway and pulling/pushing them down the hills. (This was at the beginning of his piling) They had a blast!  They will surely be ready for the big hills next winter!

 So Gianna, is not a snow lover either (that's my girl!)... she only lasted a few trips down the little hills.  She was as happy as a clam watching and waving from inside!

My excuse for 'having' to stay inside is to be the official hot chocolate maker!  I saw salted caramel hot chocolate online and HAD to try it.  I warmed milk on the stove, and added a few spoon fulls of Nutella until is melted.  Once the hot chocolate was ready, I added a spoonful of caramel and a smidge of salt.  It was all by taste - but if you like this combo, you could figure it out!  SOOO YUMMY!

Mmmm... I may have to try these 'iced' too :)