Nine. Years. Old...

Can you believe it??? Wow, time has gone fast!

July 2002

Today...

So, today we celebrated...

Notice the odd-ly placed baseball. For the first time in 9 birthdays, they could not agree on a cake. And actually, it was only Jack and Drew that were with me. Jack wanted the sports cookie-cake and Drew DIDN'T! I try to be sensitive to the whole triplet-sharing-a-birthday thing, but we already had 20 left-over cupcakes at home and I was not about to buy 3 cakes. To further complicate the matter, this all took place **this** morning, as in 4 hours before the party. Fortunately, the nice lady at Jewel added a baseball and everyone was happy enough. Whew.

Having a birthday around Memorial Day in Chicago means that you never know what you are going to get. But, today, we switched the "heat" over to "air-conditioning" and enjoyed 90 degree weather for the party, which seemed to make everyone happy.

Charlie looks happy.

Aidan and Liam look happy.

Connor too...

Ben definitely looks happy hanging in the hammock after a long weekend of soccer.

I know that Grandpa was surely happy, but that was because he beat us all at Pentago, after getting "humiliated" on Mother's Day.

Happy Grandma's...

And, a Happy Charlie at the "Little Kid's Table", where the little cousins hang on his every word.

And, here is a funny story to hopefully make you happy too...

Here are the boys looking so excited about opening the ping-pong paddles and balls that they got from Grandma and Grandpa. I'm sure they are thinking "but, we don't have a ping-pong table!". They were good sports as everyone was suggesting how they could play with them, even though they don't have a table.

Since it was strongly suggested that they give them a try in the garage, they did. And, since that nice big box was leaning against the wall in the garage, they decided to use it as a ping-pong back board.

Apparently, "observant" is not a skill that kicks in until past 9 years old...at least I hope so. There is a new ping-pong table in the box. It was finally pointed out to Ben, Jack and Drew, because they never noticed.

Ok, after re-reading that funny little story, I realize that it does not translate very well for people that were not actually here. But, I'm leaving it in because it makes me chuckle. Sorry for those of you that missed it. It was really funny in real life. :)

Happy Birthday to my favorite NINE year olds, in the WHOLE WORLD!!

Love ya!!

Same Class for My Triplets...NO WAY!!!

Whether or not to place multiples in the same class at school is probably one of the most debated topics within the "multiples community". While we've always felt that our triplets needed to be in separate classrooms, I still enjoy listening to people's reasons for the placements that they choose for their children.

One of the reasons that many people choose to keep their multiples together is because they figure it is easier on the family to have the same homework, on the same night, for as many kids as possible.

I used to think that made sense.

Then.... we had 3 dioramas due on the same day.

Yikes!

That's a lot of shoeboxes, paper, dirt, string, balloons, clay, cutting, drawing and glueing.

In spite of the cute smiles that they are faking in the pictures, 8 year old boys do NOT want to make dioramas. Oddly enough, 4 year old boys DO want to make dioramas. So the whole time we were hunting down three shoe boxes and researching, and painting, and cutting, and glueing the habitats of a beluga whale, a beetle and an aardvark, Charlie was following us around yelling "WHEN ARE WE GOING TO MAKE MY CAMEL?!?!?"

But, we survived and I think they turned out pretty well.

Ben's Beetle in the Rainforest
Jack's Beluga Whale

Drew's Aardvark

And, if life wasn't "fun" enough, the Cub Scout Cake Bake Contest was the same day that the dioramas were due. Supervising the creation of three dioramas AND three cakes must qualify me for some sort of raise, or bonus, or something.

So after school that day, we quickly threw together three GoGo Crazy Bones cakes. They didn't win any awards, but Drew said his cake ROCKED because it was the first cake to be completely eaten. by the scouts ;)

And, although we never got to that camel diorama, Charlie did manage to design his own GoGo's cake. Whew!

Now it is back to the world that I know, where the same math homework comes home on 3 different days. Lovin' life again!!!

What happens when Mom is away....

I went to a lovely wedding shower this weekend in Michigan. I had a very nice time at the shower and had a great time with my mom and sister. I did not bring my camera and it is not really a great blog-able event. Soooo, I will blog about what Daddy took Ben, Jack and Drew to do while I was away.

Isn't that nice, they are going to be in a race.

On your mark, get set....

Go Ben!!

Hmmmm....now this is a different kind of race.

Go Jack!!!

Jack still in the mud pit.

Drew in the mud pit.

Ben in the mud.

Post Race Picture

(Ben, Jack, Drew)

"I wanted to go faster so I swam in the mud."

(Jack)

Drew is ready to go for next year!

Next year, Daddy and Charlie want to join in the fun. Me??? Not so much!!