Back to School!

Natalee went back to "school" August 28, 2014. This year she has speech twice a week for thirty minutes, Monday and Thursday. She loves "school" and I am so glad she is eager to learn!

Sisters were all excited too!

A few weeks into the year, Natalee started riding the school bus to school! It is so nice to have her picked up from the bus stop! :) She absolutely LOVES riding the school bus! I must admit the first day was really hard on me...I've only let them ride with family members, and very few at that, so a complete stranger, phew, it was a tear-jerker for me! My little tiny baby is getting SO big!

Seriously, I don't think I could love her anymore than I do!!!! 

This was just a few weeks ago, waiting at the bus stop with baby Brooke too! 

First Day of Ballet School!

This fall the girls started at The Little Gym! I was so excited to start them in a ballet, tap and gymnastics class once a week. Once the winter starts, I will also take them for a gymnastics class too. They seem to really LOVE the gymnastics part of the class.

One of my favorite photos!

I chose The Little Gym for many reasons. One, it is close to our house. Two, it is VERY reasonably priced. Like, holy cow, the discounts for having triplets, sibling-discount, ect, make it SO affordable. Not to mention, if you sign up for multiple classes, you get a discount on those classes too. I feel like I need to pay them more, but shhh, don't tell them that. :) Three, the classes are small. Four, they are not super strict on anything. You can borrow tap shoes or ballet shoes from their stash of hundreds. You can wear anything you want. It's not all uptight and strict like some dance studios are. I really wanted something where they can just express themselves, get some energy out and have fun! For goodness sake, they are only three! Five, if you miss a class, you can make it up by just calling and picking another class for your child to attend. Super easy. Six, the classes are an HOUR long. And I mean a FULL HOUR. Seven, the teachers are SO sweet and SO fun! Eight, they have "practice" times during the week, which I can bring all the girls and they can all "practice" and play! Nine, I can use "ballet class" as leverage for good behavior all week. :) So you get the gist, I really am happy with my decision to start them in classes. 

The girls are just loving the classes and I am loving being able to watch them improve and learn each week!

C, N, M - BEST FRIENDS!!!!!!

Another super awesome benefit...right before the first class started, ANOTHER set of GGG triplets walked in. My mouth literally dropped. They are two identical and one fraternal just like my girls and almost exactly one year older. Her mom and I have so much in common, and it's so cool seeing another set of triplet girls! 

In the winter, Emily will also start a class when she turns three and I may separate (ekkk!) the triplets and put one with Emily. We will see. Emily got to join in with her sisters during "Bring a Friend Week" and she of course loved it to pieces! Nana and Grandma have come to many of the classes too to watch the girls, which of course the girls love too!

Just a Summer Day...

We spent a lot of time at the park this summer. It's so nice to sit and relax and just watch the girls play. This one day, the weather was crisp and cool and you would no way think it was an August day in Maryland. I love listening to and watching the girls play together. Their imaginations run wild, especially when they are all together.

This photo makes me smile because this game is played all day, everyday. Chase. "Emily, be a monster and chase us......" Hehe. Followed by, "I gonna get you guys...." :) LOVE!

Summer Camps!

This was the first year that the triplets got to go to summer camp! This was the first time I had ever dropped all three of them off somewhere without staying and I was a little nervous about it. But as usual, my girls just go with the flow and don't miss a beat. Five seconds after going into the classroom on the first day, they were like, "bye, mom" and that was it. Just me, Emily and Anna for 2.5 hours. (Whoever complains about two kids... :) What a vacation that is!)

I didn't get a photo of the first day of camp, so this was on the last day of the first week:

The first week was called Wee Adventures. They had scavenger hunts, went digging for bones in the sandbox, made lots of arts and crafts and had so much fun! On the last day, a local nature center came and one of their camp counselors snapped some photos for me because I wouldn't be caught dead in a room with a snake, let alone even the same building. But my girls...no fear. They are way better than me.

The second week was sports camp! Each day at camp was a different sport. And everyday, they were exhausted and SO hungry at the end of camp. The whole way home they were begging for food and would pass out the minute they were done with lunch. I thanked those counselors for their hard work! They ran all the kids HARD and all of us parents appreciated that! :)

This was the first day of sports camp:

And on the last day they all got medals. Let me tell you, that was the best thing ever to my little girls. The medal has a football on it and they were SO excited to show it to Daddy because he would love it (since it had a football on it!). It proudly hangs in their room! :)

When did they get big enough to go to camp all by themselves?! :(

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I'm sure you can imagine how busy we've been all summer! Phew, I can't believe fall is right around the corner and Labor Day Weekend is here! We've had a fun summer and I am slowly adding some photos of all the things we've been up to!

We are starting our Home Preschool program next week again and the girls are so excited.

Natalee starts back to speech tomorrow (08.28.14) and she is excited. She also will get a bus to pick her up and bring her home after the first few weeks, so that makes me so happy that I don't have to drag everyone out of the house each week during the winter! :)

Maddy and Claire are completely potty-trained. Can I get a AMEN?!?! All night, all day, they do great, with no accidents! :) Three in diapers is SO much more manageable and we can't believe how long a box of diapers lasts! Natalee is right behind them and is working hard every day to be fully potty-trained!

The triplets went to camp for two weeks this summer and having only two kids for 3 hours was a breeze. Really, like why would anyone complain? Ha, try five, all day, then tell me your life is hard. ;) They did an adventure camp and then a sports camp. Both were really fun and wore them out like nothing else. And the best part, I didn't cry (and neither did they) the first day I dropped them off! More in a separate post!

We are currently OB-SESSED with Frozen. All day, all night. They know all the words, songs, hand movements, ect.... It's ridiculous. Even Daddy is a little obsessed...did I just say that on here? Yup, sure did!

Speaking of Daddy...he is busy working a lot these days. Every weekend, some nights and when he isn't working he's begging me to let him go hunting or play golf. It's true. He leaves for Maine in a few days for his first hunting trip of the season and despite my hatred of these long hunting trips, it makes it that much easier when I ask to go see Luke Bryan or go to Cancun! ;) So, go ahead dear...fill our freezers with some meat and fish, but hurry up and get back home because I might ready to jump off a bridge by the time you return. Ugh, there isn't enough wine in the world. 

And speaking of me, I am still kickin'. Surprisingly, I make through each day and pass out each night from pure exhaustion. These girls drive me crazy!!!!! I still am learning to sew, slowly but surely. Trying to find more time to myself, but I hate spending time away from the girls, so it's extremely bittersweet and a constant battle. And then another day goes by, and before I know it, it's a new month and so on. Oh well. Gosh time goes so fast.

Here's a little update on each of the girls:

Madelynn: Full of sass, is this girl. Good gracious. Man, she gives a run for my money. Determined and always thinks she is in charge or everyone and everything, despite me telling her that Momma is in charge every.single.day! Wants to play "catch" with Daddy all hours and is so good! 

Claire: My little Momma. She follows me around all day. Talks all day too. Never stops. LOVES to sing and dance. Knows every word to Frozen, no joke. Asks to be "snuggled" all day and always asks "rub my belly momma". Lord, she is so cute. Loves sports but also loves everything girly. Still loves to color and do anything artistic.

Natalee: Talking more and more. Almost potty-trained. Didn't care for sports camp, but LOVES to dance. Still loves to be my helper in anything I do. Head-strong and stubborn at times and still spoiled rotten. Cute as a button, I tell ya. Oh, and she is finally over 25lbs! Ekk, that is something celebrate!

Emily: Talks all day. So advanced. She really isn't a toddler anymore and more a little girl now. She loves snuggling too and will ask to "nuggle" with you all the time. I love it! Still loves her Pooh bear. Loves to sing and dance and her smile lights up my heart. Very determined and loves the word "no". She can be so sweet and then the next minute, you ask her something and she point blank will say, "no, I not" and walk away. Umm, yeah, Maddy has taught her well. ;) I often describe her as more challenging than all four of the others put together, but she is just finding her own.

Anna: This child is proving to be head-strong and going to always be "the baby" for sure. She is still working hard at her PT twice a month to learn how to properly stand, kneel and walk. Everyone comments about how much she looks like her Daddy. No complaints, he was a cutie pie even when he was little, but I gave birth to her, so I know she looks like me too. Loves to clap and scream at her sisters when they take something away from her. Man, can this girl throw a fit at 15 months!!!!!! Oh and, she LOVED the beach!! 

And here is a photo of them all that was taken on Sunday at the zoo! :)

Lazy Summer Days at the Pool....

We went to the pool a few times this summer and of course had a blast. The girls improved on their swimming so much over the summer and are really fearless when it comes to the water. I am so proud of them!

We had to cut our pool trips short this year because of a terrible incident in early August. And to think about again, makes me so mad!! My MIL and I got to the pool right as it opened one Sunday morning with all the girls. We were the first to get there with all the girls and of course went right in. Luckily for us (not knowing what was to come) the water was freezing and we didn't go in much past our hips. But of course the girls jumped right in and were swimming all around. And every parent knows that kids drink the water and as much as we tell them to keep their mouths closed, it's hard when you are little to do that. 

Some other families arrived and a few other kids started swimming around. A few minutes later a kid yells, "there's poop in the pool"...to which I think, no way, but inspect anyway because it was literally a few feet away from where I was standing in the pool, holding Anna as she splashed away. Sure enough, POOP! Like, not a turd here and there, but big piles of poop. Numerous piles. I was speechless. It was disgusting. We got out and prayed that since my children were just swimming in this bacteria infested nastiness they wouldn't get sick. 

They closed the pool and we went home. I won't go into the other details of how the life guards handled it or the fact of WHY they didn't inspect the pool before they opened it, but our HOA sure got a piece of my mind later that day. 

Fast forward a few hours later and Madelynn and Claire start complaining of a tummy-ache. Like really? How could this be happening?! UGH! And that started a few days of around the clock vomiting and explosive diarrhea. It was hell for them and I felt SO bad for exposing them to it. They even had to wear diapers for a few days, it was that bad. Of course I googled everything about pools and bacteria, which totally makes me re-think ever going swimming again, but our doctors pretty much confirmed that they had some sort of bacteria infection from human feces in the pool. It disturbs me, really. There really are sick people in this world and the fact that some sick m-f made my little girls so sick to where I almost had to put them in the hospital, makes my blood boil. 

So, please, inspect the pool water before you get in. Ya never know! I know there is SO much bacteria floating in the pool that we can't see, and that makes me shiver. Nastiness for sure.

Wordless Wednesday: Our Drive in Movies...

4th of July

This year was a really great 4th of July weather-wise. It was a pretty cool day in Maryland, which was weird because normally our summer weather is full of hot, sticky humid days. So, we really had no plans other than to hang out with our good friends and eat good food. Like, what else are you suppose to do, ya know?

So after we decided we just couldn't stay inside all day, we ventured to Baker Park where they were having a free concert of some great country artists. I could have cared less about the first few but one of my FAVORITE singers, Cole Swindell was performing that evening. In the car if we aren't listening to Luke Bryan, we often listen to Cole. I often hear Maddy begging me in the car, "no more yuke, momma, I sissen to Cole!!!" It's so funny. And they often ask to see my videos on my phone of when I was in the front row at the Luke concert and Cole opened for him. It was AH-mazing! I shook Cole's hand numerous times when he was signing. :) 

So we loaded up everything, grabbed our choo-choo wagon and off we went. We had A LOT of stuff and got A LOT of looks like those people are C-R-A-Z-Y. Here are some of our photos of the day!

Grammy stopped by for a bit!

And then the Cole took the stage. He sang EVERY song on his album plus probably 8 more. It was awesome...and free! Like, what could be better? Well, front row wasn't half bad before, but it surely wasn't free. The girls and I danced to all the songs. It was so cute. Claire dances like no one is around. I love how they all love music so much!

Afterwards, we enjoyed some sparklers, and waited for the fireworks which didn't go off until after 9:30pm. It was late, and I had VERY cranky girls. The fireworks were great, and I can't believe I am saying this, but a little long in my opinion, only because I had very tired girls and I was ready to go home. Once they were done, we loaded them up and off we went. Traffic wasn't took bad leaving because we only live a mile away and all the girls fell asleep the second they hit their car seats.

AK so sleepy!

Messy little Emme!

My sisters crazy boyfriend and the girls.

The best family photo we could get at 9:15 at night. Oh well, we had a lot of fun! 

I am so glad we decided to go. It was a great time and now we have these wonderful memories with our girls. Tim and I always pride ourselves on "just doin' it" and that's what we did....and I am so glad we did.