Boys Night...

Drew's swimming meet last week was "away" and since it was kind of far away, Spencer stayed home with Ben, Jack and Charlie. They enjoyed their "boys' night" with Daddy. The next day, they were telling me all about it.


Ben: "Daddy made us pizza for dinner last night"

Jack: "Daddy let us have ice cream for dessert"

Daddy this....Daddy that....blah, blah, blah.

Charlie desperately wanted to participate in the conversation...

Charlie: "Daddy...ummmm.....Daddy....ummmm....Daddy has NICE HAIR!!!"

Gotta love Charlie!!! Daddy was very happy and said that it was the first compliment that he has ever received about his hair. :)

Nice Hair Dude!!! ;)

Creative minds needed!!!

I got a new car today!! Woo Hoo!! It is a very cool car...if you think a shiny, new, white 2010 Toyota Sienna MINIVAN is cool!

Now, one of my favorite parts of my old minivan was my cute little stick family in the back window.

Right now, although my new van is cool, it is a teensy bit bland. It really needs something to make it "ours". I was thinking that I wanted to get another stick family, but we already did that and it is sooooo 2006. ;) I found a site that did little flip flop families that were so cute. We considered that, but I'm thinking that because we would need 12 shoes, it might be a little much. The same site also had a penguin family that is really cute. That is actually the one that I am leaning toward. Here is the link if you are interested.

So, here is where I wanted some help. I want a little saying or something below the "family". Last time it said "Life is Good". I still like that, but again, it's been done. I'm considering "No Vacancy" because our van is filled up....get it??? But, I was wondering if any of you could come up with a better suggestion? Please.....Spencer just suggested "No VANacy" and that is just dumb. Maybe I'll do "#1 Cubs Fans!!". HeeHee!!

I'll end this post with a farewell to my old van. I'm sure the boys will enjoy seeing the pictures of our family van 20 years from now.

So long van....

Here's a "Flashback Friday" for you....

June 26, 1999

Wow, I can't believe it has been 10 years!! It has been an amazing 10 years. I really, really can't believe that it has been 10 years already! It just doesn't seem like it has been that long! I guess that is a good thing. ;)

Honestly, I've been staring at the computer screen for quite a while trying to figure out the right words to describe how I feel about being married to the best husband in the world for the last 10 years. I apparently don't write "sappy" very well. When I go back and read what I type, I think it sounds corny and don't think anyone will believe me so, I delete it. Now, it is getting late and I've got to be well rested for some 10th anniversary celebrating tomorrow (oops tonight). So, if you think I'm sappy, that's fine, I'm not writing it for you.

Spencer, I love you very much and marrying you has been the best thing that I have ever done in my life. I thought that I knew you pretty well and thought you were pretty cool when I married you 10 years ago, but now I have a much deeper understanding of the kind of person that you are and every day I feel even so much luckier and blessed that you are mine. You are an amazing person and you have made me the happiest wife in the world. Thank you.

Of course, we knew it was going to be a great marriage after this AWESOME party!!!

Who's watching Jon + Kate tonight???

I'll admit that I'm watching that stupid show again. I stopped watching it a few seasons ago because listening to Kate was making me want to pull my hair out. But, now with all of the controversy, I set my tivo a few weeks ago. What a train wreck!

Anyway, People Magazine just put out a blurb about them and it is probably a spoiler to tonight's show. So, if you don't want it to ruin your viewing pleasure (?), don't click on it, otherwise check it out. I'd love to hear comments. I am also anxious to hear what they say about it tonight. If Kate's comments are as asinine as they were in the first episode this season, I'm going to be ticked off, but it just may get my blogging juices flowing again.

Go Drew!!!

As summer was approaching, we were trying to think of a sport or fun activity that Drew would enjoy. Ben and Jack were definitely going to play baseball and were quite excited about it. When baseball was mentioned, Drew *said* that he was interested in playing, but at the same time, he never wanted to play catch, or do batting practice, or watch baseball and he wasn't exactly enthralled will t-ball last year. Here is a link to an example, if you don't remember from last year.



Anyway, our neighborhood has a huge swimming team. A few months ago, I asked Drew if he'd be interested in that instead of baseball. He wasn't sure, but then I was explaining how a swim meet worked and he was convinced when I said "they have a stop-watch to time how fast you swim....just like on WIPEOUT!".



It was a great plan except for one small problem....he..... ummmmm......didn't really know how to swim. Ooops. But, I had a plan!! When I signed him up a few months ago, my plan was that we would get him in some lessons before the season started and as soon as our pool opened, we would get over there and get him up to speed. It was a great plan except for the fact that this is the kid that BROKE HIS ARM! It's hard to learn to swim with a broken arm. We also got really busy with school, the birthdays and all of the year end activities so, needless to say, when the season started Drew still did not know how to swim.



I was really stressing about what to do. I ended up taking Drew to the first practice and quick ran over to the coach to tell her to make sure that he didn't sink. He survived the first "practice" with his bright red cast, and a lot of help from the coaches and the lane lines. Unfortunately, it rained the rest of the week. He skipped the first 2 meets because we figured that he needed a little more practice before swimming in a real meet. This week was a bit better, weather wise, so he got to participate in all of the practices. Even though he still really needed to rely on the lane line, he no longer needed the coach so, he participated in his first meet Thursday night.

Our little fish getting ready for his 1st meet...

Drew swam in boys 8 and under, 25 meter, free style. It was definitely a proud Mom moment. He worked so hard and made his way across the whole pool. I even had enough room on my memory card to record the whole 1.31 minute swim. It was very cool!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

After the race...

One proud kid!

Drew is very much looking forward to his next meet and improving on his time. We can't wait!!

Life is good....

...when you are two, and the "snack" at your big brothers' baseball game includes a bottle of Gatorade for everyone....including little brothers!!

Happy Father's Day......2002!!!

I remember Father's Day 2002....vaguely.

Proud new Dad and Grandpa with teenie-tiny Ben.

Father's Day 2002

Father's Day 2002...Hmmmm....Jack and Drew were still in the hospital. Ben had been home for about 36 hours. I think of those 36 hours, he had slept about 10 of them....none of them between the hours of midnight and 5am. It was a rough 36 hours and I remember having a little bit of a panic attack at 3:00 in the morning, when I was up with my 4lb. baby boy, that would not sleep, and I started to realize that within a week, I was going to have 2 more babies home. Yikes!!

Needless to say, it has been a busy 7 years.

When I was shopping for Spencer's father's day present 7 years ago, I thought that I had found the perfect gift for a new dad to triplets. I bought him a HAMMOCK!!

In my mind, I pictured him relaxing in the backyard on the hammock, while the boys took a nap, or while they quietly played around him. LOL! I was so nieve.

Well, he did think it was a fabulous gift and he couldn't wait to relax on it in the backyard....if only assembling it would make it to the top of the "to-do list". Ummmm....our "to-do list" is a bit long. The poor thing has been in a box, in our garage for the last 7 years. Well, it has been in this garage for the last 5 years and the garage at our old house the 2 years before that. :(

But, yesterday turned out to be the BIG day! After almost 7 years, the hammock got assembled and daddy could finally relax....well, he could relax at least for a minute.... until Charlie found him and wanted "a story".

Happy Father's day...to the best daddy!

Now THAT is a Birthday Party!!!

Yesterday was the boys' last day of first grade. Since the last day of school is only 1 hour and 5 minutes long, we decided to have the boy's "kid birthday party" in the afternoon. We figured that there would be no better way to celebrate being out of school for the summer and being 7 years old than a big ole party!!

Whew, let me tell you, it was quite a party! Ben, Jack, Drew and TWENTY-SIX! of their closest friends spent the afternoon in our backyard for a "Survivor Birthday Party".

The invitation...

I must give credit to my friend, Theresa, for this great idea for a theme. However, if it had stormed yesterday, as they were predicting, it would have been the worst idea ever....30 kids in my house would have been really, REALLY BAD!! Thankfully, the storms stayed away and it turned out fine. It really was an awesome idea and the kids loved it!

We started the party by giving the kids a red, yellow, or green "Survivor" shirt. The red shirted kids were Drew's friends and team, the yellow shirted kids were Jack's friends/team and the green shirted kids were Ben's friends/team. Each team then had to design their flag and search the yard for all of their party supplies (plates, napkins, silverware, drinks, water ballon sling shots, etc.).

Team directions...

Personalized shirts for the Survivors

The team competitions consisted of a race across the yard and through the slip n slide. Another competition was finding jewels in a pool of freezing water. Then, the boys participated in the gross food competition where they got to choose whether they wanted to eat bird poop, snake eggs, bird legs, volcano rocks, or drink coyote pee. The final competition was a water balloon fight.

Each winner, good sport, great slider got a gold coin. The plan was for the team with the most gold coins (which was really a lot) to go to the treasure chest to pick out a prize first, and then the second place team and then the third place team. But, by the time we got to the counting coins part of the party, the boys were much more interested in water, mud, treasures and candy. So, no coins were counted, but each of the boys went home with a prize, some candy, a ton of gold coins, and some treasures in their fanny pack.

A friend of mine took a ton of pictures from the party. Here is a fun slide show of the festivities.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Birthday Boys...

...and 26 of their nearest and dearest friends.

We were very happy to have "survived" the party. All 26 kids went home wet, dirty, sugar-ed up, and very happy. We were so thankful for our party helpers. Spencer took the day off. My mom and dad came a couple of hours early and stayed through the party and that was a HUGE help! Our neighbor Reyna was a great assistant. And, Jen got a friend to watch her trio so that she could spend the afternoon in our yard with 29 recent 1st grade graduates, including her 3 favorite! Now, that is a cool Aunt, crazy but very cool!!!



The boys are already wondering what we are going to do next year. Hmmm.....I'm thinking bowling might be a good idea. ;)

Friday was "Clean Out Your Desk Day" at school...

While I have to say that it may sound like this a good thing....it is NOT!

What a friggin' mess! It was like we walked in the door and the backpacks just exploded. I couldn't even get the whole mess in a picture. It's like they don't have a trash can at school....what are we going to do with all of this stuff?!?!

Yup, definitely *not* my favorite day of the year!

Family Movie Day...

For the first time, all 6 of us went to the movies!!! Yay! We even stayed for the whole movie, nobody cried and nobody asked us to leave...well, except Charlie, but that was over 2 hours after we got there.

We went to see "Up" in 3D. I don't know what we were thinking...Ben, Jack and Drew's first movie theatre experience was also 3D. We saw the Muppets 3D movie at Disney when they were 2 and a half. It was a DISASTER!! They all hated it and totally FREAKED OUT! It's always fun sitting in a movie theatre, that you can't leave, with three screaming 2 year olds. Sooooo not fun!! And, it took us over a year to work up the nerve to take them back into another movie theatre.

Thankfully, "Up" didn't have any of the really crazy 3D stuff like the Muppets movie did so, Charlie did fine. In fact, a few times I forgot he was there. That may have been because he was sitting next to Spencer and not me, but whatever. ;) The movie was excellent...really a cute story and awesome graphics. We all highly recommend it!!

A beautiful day for a parade...

Today, Charlie and I went to look for "da brudders" marching in a parade at school.


In case you can't tell, it was not the best weather for a parade.


Luckily, at least for the parade participants, it was an Umbrella Parade!!

Seriously!! Some guy named Matt Lamb started an organization called "Umbrellas for Peace" after 9/11. He travels around the world working with kids to paint umbrellas symbolizing the messages of peace, tolerance, understanding, hope and love. He came to our school last week and every kid in the school painted an umbrella. It is a very cool program.

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate today. Charlie and I were cold and wet after spending an hour outside, in the rain. At least the parade participants were pretty dry. ;)

Drew

Ben

Jack