Weedeating

After watching Pop Pop use the weed-wacker the other day, it has been all Arthur can think about. Today he went around the room with a foam stick, humming for almost an hour. We wondered if he would go hoarse (or run out of gas). And then at nap time, Nana heard him start weedeating again, in his sleep!

Hanging Out in the Kitchen

Recently we've been trying to finish toddler-proofing our kitchen so that the kids can be in there while we make dinner. Here they are, after taking a break from playing on the back porch.

Don't Try This at Home

The kids always try to get into the laundry room. As a forbidden room, it contains all sorts of wonders that they are eager to get into, such as the trashcan, the dirty laundry, the dirty cloth diaper container, etc. They either try to sneak in after us before we are able to shut the door, or if it is left slightly ajar, they sneak in and slam the door behind them. Today it didn't take Betty but a few seconds to find the one truly dangerous item in the room. *Sigh*

Our Baby Birds

We've been watching a nest of baby blue jays in the backyard of Nana and Pop Pop's house for quite a while. Every day the three baby birds (triplets!) grew larger and larger. That is, until the other day, when one of the baby birds fell out of its nest, landing at Betty's feet. Everyone ran to grab the triplets, and Sophie the dog, as the upset parent birds dive-bombed the lot of us (striking Erin in the head!), shrieking loudly in concern over the baby bird. Eventually all three baby birds were out of the nest, and their practice flights took them out of the backyard. Ever since then though, the girls have been playing "baby bird" - which usually involves them flying around with their arms out before falling to the ground in a seated position. We're hoping that they aren't waiting for Arthur to bring them worms.

More Memorial Day Fun

Yesterday we finally allowed the kids to do something they've been begging to do for weeks - ride down Nana and Pop Pop's driveway in their "motorcycle." We had finally found a cheap helmet at a garage sale, so Erin thought it'd be safe enough for them to try it. All of the triplets had fun taking turns racing down the hill.

Of course, this means we need to get two more helmets.

Cabin Days

We finally made it to one of the Cabin Days at the Ingles farm, though for our kids it should have been called "Lamb Days." For while we were busy learning about shearing sheep, making clothing from flax, and creating split rails, the triplets ran around for an hour making friends with a pair of lambs.

Duck Pond Photo Shoot

With the help of Grandma Toni and Grandpa Carter, we had a couple of great photo shoots at the Duck Pond yesterday. While on the tree, though, Betty kept playing with her dress and pulling it up. So I had everyone pull their dresses and shirts up, before putting them back down again. That fixed the problem. Oh, and the hug between Betty and Coraline was spontaneous (Arthur was then told to hug Betty).

A Day with Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma Toni and Grandpa Carter stopped by for a visit today, and we all went out to eat at Five Guys and Fries. While we waited for our burgers, the kids enjoyed eating their first peanuts, and trying to figure out how to open the shells. Afterwards we all went for a walk by the Duck Pond at Virginia Tech.

It was a great day to be out, and a nice couple gave us a bag of bread to feed to the geese. We're not sure if any of the bread actually got to the birds, but the kids loved throwing it and trying to convince the geese to not run away from them.

Betty, once again, went off on her own bird adventure.

Festival in the Park

On a summer-like day, we lathered the kids up in sunscreen and took them to a festival in downtown Roanoke. We all had a picnic eating fresh corn-dogs and sweet potato fries, and then looked around at all the craft booths.

We also stopped for a while at the llama exhibit, which Betty especially enjoyed. As we left, we checked out the antique cars with Pop Pop.

Up a Tree

After coloring the trunk of one of the trees in the back yard, Betty got an idea, and asked Pop Pop to lift her up. Soon she was perched on one of the branches, coloring with her blue chalk on a higher portion of the tree.

A Safe Place

Now that the rain has stopped, I finally had a chance to mow the lawn. But since the triplets were playing in the backyard, it was impossible for me to mow it while they were playing. Luckily Nana found a safe place to put them.

Jam Session

Grandma Toni, Uncle Matt, and Aunt Allison stopped by today for a quick visit. Betty was in a cuddly mood, and loved to hang out on Grandma's and Allison's laps. We played with play-doh out on the porch, and for a while in the backyard.

Then we had a jam session with Matt's guitar. At one point Arthur had so much fun that he got embarrassed and had to hide his face in the floor.

Dancing at the Disco

Almost a year ago I tried to retire their old baby toy that flashed lights and played music. But the kids were too fast, and pulled it off the pile on the stairs to play with again. So tonight they put it on top of their toy piano, and it became a juke-box for dancing to. While Arthur and Betty argued over which song to play, Coraline practiced her wild dancing.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Last night the bear returned to Nana and Pop Pop's house, but luckily the police managed to scare it away. However, that wasn't the end of the night's excitement, as the enormous amount of rain caused a flash flood in Nana and Pop Pop's creek! The water washed away a few of Nana's flower beds, hundreds of pounds of soil, and knocked over a tree. Betty shouted "Tree!" as we pulled into their driveway this morning. The kids loved playing around the tree, and tried to push it back in place.

The rain also brought out the worms. They all were fascinated by them, and we carefully put them on the back of their wrists to explore (look, but don't touch). It went great, until Betty walked over to us, saying - "Broke!"

Our New Hide Out

The kids found a new play area in the midst of Nana's forsythia bushes. Now we have to add this to our list of places they can hide in the back yard.

Bears! Oh My!

I was just about to load up the kids in the car this morning when I got a call from Nana telling us not to come over yet. It seems a Black Bear was prowling around the house, tearing down and eating the bird seed in Pop Pop's bird feeders. In fact, it had climbed into the backyard to rip one down. We later saw the claw-marks on the tree, less than a foot from the kids' climber.

Needless to say, we waited until Nana was certain it had left the area. Coraline later practiced her "scared" face in case the bear were to return.

Playing Catch

I forgot I had this video to upload from last week. Here's Coraline and Betty playing catch - they are very considerate about taking turns, and even if the ball rolls back to Betty she'll walk over to hand it to Coraline to throw. However, since they never actually catch the ball, Arthur found this video hilarious to watch.

Bye Emmm and Eyic

Aunt Emily and Uncle Eric (known by the kids as Emmm and Eyic) left this morning. The kids already miss them, and keep asking about them. Hopefully we'll be able to do more video chats with them when they return to Singapore.

A Wacky Mother's Day

The kids had a wacky Mother's Day, with the help of Aunt Em. She dressed Betty in Nana's sweater, wrapping her up in it like a kimono. They then all snuck into one of the closets to hide.

And then later on the girls decided to run crazy circles around each other. Luckily they only hit heads once.

Play Doh Day

We finally got out a package of play-doh for the kids. Cora made a blob that she was convinced was a kitty, Betty squished balls of play-doh with her finger, and Arthur practiced cutting it with his spoon.

And we think Betty has a crush on Uncle Eric. When he's in the room she follows him around with puppy-dog eyes. We think it's cute.

Sick Boy

Arthur's been sick the past couple of days, but he is trying not to let his fever slow him down one bit. He helped out by taking his own temperature (it read 76 degrees according to him). We'll hope he gets better soon.

A Hugging Day

Every now and then we have a hugging day, where all the kids are in a hugging mood at the same time. (often only one wants to hug, and the rest try to run away and escape) It started with them all wanting to hug in their play tent at Nana and Pop Pop's house, and continued over at our house.

In other news, Arthur finally got in another one of his bottom teeth.

Tooth count: A-14, B-16, C-16

Free Comic Book Day

Today was Free Comic Book Day, and we picked up two comics for each of the triplets. It was great to expose them to them, and to have some that we didn't have to worry about them ruining. They enjoyed looking at all of the pictures, and having Erin read a few pages to them.

We were disappointed though, that the Owly comic we were hoping to get for them wasn't carried by our local comic shop :(

Story Time with Eric

Eric had a nice moment reading a book to Betty today, and then we decided to use the opportunity to take a rare group photo of the kids with their Aunt and Uncle.