A Pat on the Back!

I am pretty proud of myself today!

{For all you Mom's of singletons...I'm sure you will not quite get how proud of myself I am today. But that's okay. }

In fact, I think I should give myself a pat on the back. 

Today, for the first time EVER...

I took all four little ladies out to the park for a play date!

I know this may not sound like a lot to most, but with 3 toddlers running in different directions and a 3 month old...this is HUGE for one person to handle! It is not at the least bit easy! In fact if you're are thinking, how hard could it be??? HA! You haven't a clue, my friend, you haven't a clue!!

But as I always say, we are determined to do things, take the girls places and let them experience things, even though we may do things a little different and it may take us longer...we will do it!

Our Infants and Toddlers Program sponsors Wednesday morning play dates at a local park and they have staff there to help out with everything. They bring snacks and lots of fun activities for all ages to enjoy!

And I will be honest, I wasn't completely alone when I got there but I didn't know anyone, so it wasn't like, "hey, come help me with all my kids!" But it worked out so well because one of our teachers came after we arrived and helped me out!

And I must say, it was TONS of fun!

The girls had a freakin' blast. Madelynn and Claire especially LOVED the bubbles and water toys!

Natalee had fun pushing around the stroller and eating the doughnuts!

They playground is great because it's for toddlers and it's completely handicap accessible, which is a super plus!

Also, they each enjoyed swinging and running around the mulch.

I brought my camera and video camera and didn't take one photo because I was running around with the girls and talking to other AWESOME Mommas! 

Annnd.....

the best part...

I found another Mom of triplets who does it all on her own too!

It's like we are long lost friends!

Her and another mom get together for "mom nights" and have play dates all the time! Holla! They were like we have some "no-drama friends" and invited me to join in! Big smiles!

They even invited me over tomorrow for a picnic and water day with everyone!

Umm..heck yeah!

It's wonderful to have friends of all kinds. But mom's of multiples just get each other. We know. And when I saw, we know, I mean we know!

I can't help but smile. This is wonderful. Unless you have been where I have been, I can't expect you to understand just how hard it is for me on some days. Not to say I don't love it, but I do get a little jealous that I can't just run here or there with my one child.

Nope. Can't do that! The preparation it takes day in and day out is not for the weak. And I am not weak.

And I am proud of myself for it!

Our Very First Family Trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

On Saturday, October 15th the weather was crisp and cool and it was a perfect day to visit the pumpkin patch for the first time with the girls! We went to a fun place a few minutes from our house, and it was so fun!

Even though we call our Nana, "Nana", we wore our "Grandma's Pumpkin" shirts, because after all she still is our Grandma, no matter what we call her (and Nana shirts are hard to find, for some reason!)!

It was PACKED and let's just say, we became an exhibit very quickly, with again people asking if they could take photos of my children. Weird, but whatever. I totally love talking to people and answering questions, but having random people just come up and say, "can I take a picture of your kids?", well that's just WEIRD! I didn't like that and as much as I wanted to be there, I suddenly knew we needed to leave as soon as we could. There were seriously a thousand people around, but I still wanted to enjoy the time because I was so looking forward to making this memory with my little girls at the pumpkin patch fir the first time!

Here we are getting out of the car, I never seem to be in the photos, so this is the best we got with the wind blowing:

Of course Claire had her tongue out the whole time since the wind was blowing!! Such a ham!

After getting a little overwhelmed, we managed to find a little spot to take some photos of the girls without being a main attraction...but of course trying to get them all to sit still and look at the camera, is, well, impossible at this point!

We then went to try to explore around the farm a little and look at all the animals (even though we have been there a million and one times, we had never been with the girls).

And just for fun...

To be honest, they didn't have any small pumpkins and the lines were out of control so we got carmel apples and left to go to another place and get pumpkins, cider and apples and I am so glad we did. We got such better deals on apples and lots of pumpkins to choose from which were perfect for the girls since they were much smaller.

Fall photos to come!

Busy Weekend: First Trip to the Zoo, Poolesville Day and

Friday afternoon/evening we went to the National Zoo! We had fun, once we finally arrived!! Traffic in DC on Friday afternoon at 6pm, was well, horrible! Parking at the zoo was apparently quite confusing for some to figure out and I must admit, by the time we arrived, I was rethinking our decision to go. The weather was cool, with temps in the high 60's, so we dressed warm!

We were there for Lockheed Martin's Family Picnic, which for the last 25+ years has been held at Smokey Glen Farm, but this year it was at the zoo! I couldn't even remember the last time I was at the zoo, so I think I was the most excited. Plus, so many people that work with my Dad hadn't seen the girls, only heard about them for a year, since last year at the picnic I was only pregnant, so they of course were quite popular...as they are anywhere we go!

Having the picnic at the zoo this year, was one of the worst decisions ever made by Lockheed. Especially, on a Friday night during rush hour. When we arrived, we basically walked in and saw the looong line for food and Tim had to leave and go back to work. I was sad he would miss this fun event with the family but really after the night was over, he didn't miss much.
We walked over to a secluded area so we could share the gender of the new baby with our family before Tim left. I had a cookie pie made with the saying "It's a Boy" or "It's a Girl" on it, it's all I could think of quickly since everyone was driving me nuts and wanting to know the gender.

We got a bunch of little animals, so we stuffed them in the girls jackets and they loved playing with them and giving them "kisses"!

By the time you made it through the food line (never ever has their been a line at Smokey Glen, and the food is BY FAR MUCH better) it was dark and then there was only a few things opened to visitors. No elephants. No giraffes. No bears. No monkeys. Only the Small Mammal House, the Ape House, the Reptile House (which I could have done without) and the Lions and Tigers (which the tiger was sleeping and couldn't been seen and so the lions took the show). The baby lions had turned one and so were playing with their new "toys" aka boxes they received. There was nine all total. They were cute to watch but it was so dark that you could really barely see anything!

We made it home by 10pm and the girls did so well. They loved walking around with everyone and no one had any meltdowns! Tim got home around 1am and brought home some food because I was starving. We made it to bed around 2am, only to have to wake up by 7am!

Continuing with our busy weekend, Saturday was Poolesville Day and we woke up bright and early! I always look forward to Poolesville Day and all that it brings! Some may say that's totally silly, but I don't care! Last year I was so looking forward to all the food since I was pregnant and well, this year I was looking forward to the same! Plus, I knew lots of people wanted to see and meet the girls!

Here's my post from last year on Poolesville Day, it was soo hot last year! This year, I didn't take any photos! Oh well, it was just too rainy!

This year it was crisp and cool and pretty rainy all day long! In fact, I'll go so far to say, it was FREEZING. Luckily I dressed the girls very warm, but I was still cold and made Tim keep getting me hot chocolates until lunch time. This year, I had ribs and since the booths SOLD OUT of funnel cakes and "walking tacos", I didn't get those this year and might have thrown a little fit! Err!

But the girls did great and had so much fun. They hung out with us at the booth, walked around with their Auntie, Nana and us and met so many new people that have been dying to see them! There wasn't much to buy (well, there were lots of stuff to buy and do, just none of it appealed to me, but we did buy an Eagles blanket and some Eagles hair bows for the girls.

We left around 4:00pm and went up to Nana's house for the evening so Tim could help his step-dad do some work and so Nana could spend some more time with the girlies. We had a yummy dinner and even did a little shopping for the girls!

Finally, it was Sunday of our super busy weekend. We were looking forward to attending the Shady Grove Fertility Clinic's Family Day as a "featured family" at Smokey Glen Farm (where the Lockheed Martin Picnic normally is on this day). I was so glad not to miss out on the yummy food and show my little ladies off!

Claire



Madelynn...everyone ALWAYS comments about how smiley this girl is!

Unfortunately, Dr. Stillman couldn't be there as he was in Canada working with the donor egg program. But we did see our beloved nurse, Sharon. She is such a sweet lady and I couldn't believe the last time I saw her, I had no babies and now I have three beautiful girls and another on the way! It was surreal! I am so glad we got to catch up with her and say thank you for all her kindness, as she told us in just a few weeks she is moving to Washington State!

There wasn't a lot the girls could do, but in a few years I'm sure we'll be spending hours at the pony rides and moon bounce! I cannot wait! I enjoyed these activities each year at the Lockheed Martin Picnic and I hope we can attend Family Day each year and see our nurses and doctors that made our four miracle babies a possibility!!

What a wonderful family weekend it was!