Happy Birthday Nana

Betty has been practicing saying "Happy," and often hops around the room repeating "Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy." Today though, everyone was able to use it to wish Nana a happy birthday. When we brought the kids over in the morning, Arthur ran into the house (opening the door himself), and started shouting, "HAPPY! HAPPY! Nana? HAPPY! Nana?" Eventually he found her, even though he had forgotten the 2nd half of the birthday greeting. Luckily Coraline quickly caught up to him, and in a shy voice told Nana, "Birthday." Betty was in the rear, and as the greeting had already been given, she decided get to the more important item on the day's schedule - "More...More...More...CAKE!"

Singing

With all the news surrounding Michael Jackson's death, there has been a lot of music segments on tv. The triplets often run and grab a "microphone" (cylinders from their foam block set), and jump around the room singing. Of course the retrospective segments are short, so the kids often end up begging for more of the music.

Take Out

We've been so busy organizing a garage sale this weekend, that we've had to order take out for the past few nights. The kids love chinese food (especially the noodles), and today they tried out chop sticks. We gave each of them a single stick, and they enjoyed stabbing pieces of chicken on it to eat. Arthur tried using his stick to eat rice, but it didn't work out well.

Spaceman Arthur

We're cleaning out the garage today in anticipation of tomorrow's grand garage sale. Arthur found this item to play with.

A Trip to the Children's Museum

Guitar Hero

We're having a great time in Richmond. After spending a day at the pool, we celebrated Uncle Matt's birthday at Grandma Toni and Grandma Carter's house. For his birthday, he got the video game Guitar Hero, so the kids had an exciting dance before their bedtime.

First Time to the Pool

Nature Hike

Before it got too hot today, we took everyone on a hike up the hill. On the way, we munched on fresh blackberries, mulberries, and huckleberries. The recent rains had left the area a little muddy, so we paused to throw rocks in the little ponds, and to look at the deer and bird tracks.

And of course, Arthur found a giant walking stick.

Finger Painting

Puddles

Finally we had a break in the rain, and took the kids out for a long walk. At every puddle we passed, they all had to pause and throw in a few rocks to watch them splash. Betty, especially, loves playing in any type of water, so this was definitely the highlight of her day.

Anonymity

We think Coraline has realized that I post these pictures of them online for the world to see...

Pop Pop's Bird-Feeder

Now that it's been quite a few weeks without having seen the black bear again, Pop Pop felt that he could safely hang up his bird-feeders again. They have been quite a source of amusement for the triplets, who eagerly look for birds, and enthusiastically shout "Shoo!" at the squirrels who inevitably eat most of the seeds. Here Arthur sits patiently with his bird book, awaiting a bird to come near enough that he might identify it.

Playing in the Dirt

Dump Truck

Today we had a giant dump truck come to drop off a mound of topsoil, as Pop Pop continues to try to repair the damage that the recent floods have done to the culvert (a stream runs under the driveway where the dump truck is parked). I am not sure if the kids were more excited to see the dump truck, or the pile of dirt it had dropped off. But at naptime, as I put the car in reverse, Betty started saying "Beep Beep Beep" as if it were the truck backing up.

In other new, Arthur got in another tooth (top left). One more to go until he catches up to his sisters.
Tooth count: A-15, B-16, C-16

Jumping

In the past month, all of the triplets have learned how to jump up in the air and actually get their feet off the floor. Arthur is the first, though, to start trying to jump off of objects. Luckily, he seems smart enough to jump into the beanbag for now (though before I started filming, he had been doing belly-flops into it).

And as Arthur tries to break a bone by jumping off every-higher objects, we get to have Erin home unexpectedly for a few days, since she had her nose broken at school.

Sock-Gloves

We glanced over at Coraline today (she had been quite quiet), and found her pink socks off her feet, and then carefully putting them on her hands. She thought her new sock-gloves were hilarious.

A New Hat and a Dry Day

Digging around in some old boxes, I found an old green and yellow Snoopy hat that I used to wear as a kid. Now the triplets love wearing it - especially Coraline. Today Coraline would not take it off. She wore it through all of her meals, and even at nap time. Here's a picture of me wearing the hat when I was almost 4.

And today also was the first time that all of the kids were dry for the whole day - they each only used a single pair of underwear. We celebrated by eating ice cream sandwiches after dinner. We'll move up the potty timer to 40 minutes tomorrow.

Flea Market Day

Today we took everyone to explore a giant flea market that comes twice a year to our area. The kids did a great job, walking around most of the day and holding our hands. More importantly, though, we only had one accident! It did require, though, returning to our car every 30 minutes to sit them on the potty. Betty picked out a dinosaur crayon holder that all the kids love using now when they draw at the kitchen table.

Snakes!

Yesterday, as I went to bring in Arthur from his nap in the car, I almost stepped right onto a six-foot long black kingsnake that was draped across Nana and Pop Pop's front step. I called Nana over, and the three of us watched the giant reptile slither its way off the porch. It then turned, and slithered up into the outer walls, in a gap in the house's wooden siding. This eventually started the "Great Snake Battle of 2009." We managed to get the giant snake out of the house, and filled in the gap so he won't be able to return. Arthur talked about it all day, and we love how nasal his pronunciation of "snake" is.

Then today, the girls got to see a few other (smaller) snakes slither across the driveway. Evidently the rain has driven them out of their homes. So after our encounters with the baby birds, the mice, the squirrels, the opossums, the bats, the deer, the wild turkey, the coyote, the black bear, the turtles, and now the snakes, we can't wait for what other adventures Mother Nature has for us.

Puppets

Since it was a rainy day (and because the kids were also cranky), we set up for them a new puppet theatre to play with. They are still too young to understand the concept, but I tried to show them how you play with the puppets inside the booth, and stick them through the curtain. Betty proceeded to gather up the puppets one by one, and throw each of them through the curtain until she had made a large pile of cast-off puppets.

Water Fun

It was so hot today that when we got out the water table, Betty immediately started dumping cupfuls of water on her head. It didn't take too long before she had soaked herself completely. And then she proceeded to cool off her siblings as well.

Night Music

Arthur snuck past Erin the other night into the girls' bedroom, and immediately started playing with their sound machine (it has better sound choices on it than the one in his room). And so now we have a new nightly routine - dancing!