2 Days of Summer = Bone Tired Mommy

Good Golly, summer may be the death of me! Monday we did the following:

• doctor appoint for Addison and Reese
• ran a couple errands to return something and drop off clothes to Good Will
• went to the Dollar Store for batteries where I chased after Ethan no fewer than 3 times and seriously lost him once almost to panic mode
• play at a park
• got lunch, ate outside in the backyard
• baby took a nap, older kids had quiet time while I cleaned for the cleaning lady and did laundry
• played an opposite card game
• got ready for swimming lessons
• swimming lessons which one kid was super excited for (Addison), one kid didn't want to go (Caden), and one kid had no clue about it (Ethan)
  
• dropped off Reese at Y's daycare and watched swimming lessons
• dressed 3 wet kids after swimming lessons by myself because my husband conveniently disappeared when it was done, which was proceeded by a classic Jon & Kate moment in the hallway at the Y
• picked up dinner in drive-through
• more cleaning for the cleaning lady!

Today:

• I got up at 6am, showered, dressed, prepared "breakfast to go" in the car, cleaned more for the cleaning lady
• Got kids up and dressed left house at 8am to go to Y
• Pilate's at 8:30, Pilate's is hard, I can't even do some of the exercises
• Walked 2 miles on the treadmill
• Went to the library, checked out books and signed up for the summer reading program
• Ate lunch at home
• Colored upstairs together
  
  while Ethan read an entire Wiggles book to himself (out loud)
  
  
• Reese napped, quiet time for older kids while watching a movie, I blog surfed and tried to price yard sale stuff
• Passed out one million snacks -- I am going to have to stock up on food for these kids, they are so hungry!
  
• played outside on trikes, scooters, and "bounced" as Ethan calls it
  
• made towers with blocks
  
• walked/rode tricks to post office
• fixed dinner and made brownies for desert

Aaron did baths and now I think I may collapse in bed, too tired to do anything else. Wow! They need to be busy! I am not letting them watch much TV, some in early morning before 9 am but most days we have left the house way before that. They get one movie during quiet time, we're taking turns on who picks, then about 3:30/4:00 I let the TV come back on. Otherwise they would watch TV all day long. This week we aren't in our regular schedule -- that will be next week. Tomorrow they are going to Grammy's for most of the day so I have the morning to myself -- need to do a million and one things that I haven't done this week yet including get things priced for Keely's yard sale this Saturday. In the afternoon I have conferences with the kids' preschool teachers.

I am exhausted, so now I'm off to bed! Please tell me I'll get used to this!

Last Bit of Freedom interrupted by Thickers Emergency

I have one hour left of freedom before summer officially begins (along with the decline of my sanity) and preschool is over. So what am I doing on this last day? Being a lady of leisure? no. Cleaning like a mad woman? no. I had no intention of even leaving the house today until I read Megan's blog and found out that Big Lots had Thickers. Some of you are wondering what is a Thicker? Well if you are a scrapbooker, it is about as necessary to own Thickers as it is scissors and adhesive. They are fancy letter stickers that come in foam, vinyl, fabric, chipboard, and epoxy. I use them on almost every layout for my titles. They come in a million fonts and colors. I have quite a few sets but one can never have too many of these and when Megan wrote they had them for $2 a pack, I got the baby up from her nap (she technically wasn't asleep yet) and off to Big Lots we went . . . 22 packages later I am home.

It was a Thickers emergency! Now in my defense 8 of them are for Keely. I almost didn't call her because she claims she owns almost every Thicker made . . . but I think that is not entirely true because she said she didn't have some of the ones Big Lots had.

The rest of my day was spent finishing our teacher gifts. I waited until the last minute to figure out what to give them even though about 2 weeks ago I started thinking about it. And in the last 48 hours I have changed the gift about 80 different times. I always go to the internet for ideas. At one point I was making a gift card wallet out of fabric scraps but I couldn't think of any place to get them gift cards and I have 5 teachers to give gifts so there wasn't time for big sewing projects and no place good around here for a $5 gift card. Next I was going to go the Bath and Body Works route but when I was at JoAnn Fabrics I was reminded I own these cute flower pretzel molds. So all I had to buy was the chocolate, pretzel rods, and some bags. I decided the flower theme would be good and found a tutorial to make these cute pins that you can wear on a jacket or shirt or pin on a purse or tote bag.

To top it off the kids helped me make the flower cards, with their photos in the center that say "thank you for helping me grow and bloom". I wrote the teachers each a note on the inside thanking them for all their hard work and patience with my kids. Our gifts aren't extravagant but as a former teacher I know it's nice to be appreciated even in little ways. After school today I am going to try to get a photo with each kid and each teacher too -- you know scrapbooking is always on my brain.

So that's my last day . . . oh yeah, I squeezed in a quick layout for LOAD (only 2 more days left).

It's a lift from my new found friend also doing LOAD who has 5-1/2 year old triplets. It's fun to find another triplet mom who scraps too. She lives in California so we'll have to be computer friends.
I hope your day was productive too and that you don't have a Thickers emergency after reading this post!

It's the final Countdown

Ugh! Preschool is down in 3 days. UGH! I know at the beginning of the year I was all worried about them now I'm all for year round school . . . don't get me wrong I love my kids but geesh, I will have NO breaks at all . . . they don't nap anymore or if they do they are up until the wee hours of the morning, so are Aaron and me but that's our time not more kid time! I know already I have to start planning it all out. They have to be busy so I don't hear whining and fighting and crazy out of controlness and all the other things that go along with no structure when structure is needed. I started a list, of course, since I am Queen of List Making . . . not sure where the list is but I did have an idea burst one night and put them all on paper.
I signed them up for swimming lessons at the Y today . . . we'll see how that goes. The Y is definitely going to be on our list, along with the library, park/picnic days, field trips to the zoo and museums. I plan on doing art stuff and trying to squeeze in learning kinds of things too with letters and numbers and writing. Physical activity will also needed to be incorporated to get out all that energy . . . obstacle courses and jumping rope and running games. I'm tired already just thinking of all this stuff. I plan on having quiet time almost everyday . . . got some ideas for that . . . busy boxes that rotate between them . . . listening to music . . . watching a movie . . . Something so I can have a small break during Reese's nap. I certainly need to plan this all out because it will have to be planned to have things ready and incorporate our errands into the day trip stuff. I definitely don't want to be going every single day of the week . . . I hate that. I hope we can be home at least two days each week. I'm trying to get Grammy to take them for one play day each week too. Then I'll have some alone time to do cleaning or scrapbooking or errands or absolutely nothing! I think she'll do it but I hope they don't wear out their welcome. I just don't want to spend the summer yelling and having them watch TV. On top of all this "fun" stuff I need to plan, I also want them to become more responsible in helping out around the house. So I have chores I want them to do too; I have ideas on how to incorporate all this too but of course I have nothing ready and really need to do that too. So three days until my freedom ends -- that is if I can get them all to school tomorrow, I had two sickies at home today.
My LOAD project is winding down but I'm still going maybe not as strong as I was in the beginning but I'm so glad I did this. Here's a layout I made a couple days ago:

AAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

If you heard a blood curdling scream this morning about 8am -- that was me! It was when I took Reese's temperature and it read 101.8. This can't be happening although it was inevitable . . . I think I will live in denial about it for a few hours and pretend she's really not getting this week and half high fever-vomiting-bacterial infection/virus that the other two kids have had. Ethan's still recovering. On Wednesday night Ethan continued with 105 fevers so I took him back to the doctor where he endured (and screamed and fought) chest x-rays and more blood work. The findings were: on paper he's getting better so the doc thinks in the next day or two he will start feeling better. He was eating a little last night so I think she's right. It took Caden 4 extra days to recover after I thought he was all better -- he was still super tired and grumpy and not very hungry. For me, if I have to sit in the doctor's office one more time for 2+ hours and visit admitting, and waiting in waiting rooms for labs and x-rays, I may go crazy. We need groceries, we to do fun things, we need normalcy . . . life is never dull with kids.

A Hunting We Went

Last weekend we took the kids to an Easter Egg Hunt at the elementary school. It's an annual thing but we've never gone before. I was a little apprehensive because I figured it would be everyone standing in one large group where "Go!" would be yelled and 200 kids would scramble for 50 eggs, big kids would be pushy little kids, and there would be crying, and more than likely my husband would be yelling at a non-family members. Fortunately it was nothing like that at all, they had separate ares for groups. Reesey could have hunted in the 0-3 year old group but that meant one of us had to stay in the 4-5 year old group with kids, so Reese just joined in with her brothers and sister.


It was so fun at this age they are just getting it so there was no pushing and my kids didn't even run.



There was tons of eggs and toys. Everyone (except Reese) got a WHOLE full of stuff.



They all took there time and enjoyed the hunt, no rushing, what's the hurry? There was even time in the middle of the hunt to hug the Easter Bunny.





Reesey found a bunny face whistle that took her back to the good old Paci days. She was happy with it!



More hugs for the Bunny after all the eggs were found!



Ethan played a quick game of Ethan Says with the Bunny.



Reesey wanted nothing to do with the Rabbit, I should have gotten a photo of the tears but didn't.



It was a great day!

Sewing Bug

I'm done painting the kids' walls and trim . . . then I ran out of paint for the ceiling. The part I can't wait to start is making quilts for all of them. There's the fabrics I have so far for the girls and I plan on getting a few more too . . . you can never have too much fabric. I have a couple things for the boys so far but it's definitely harder to find fabrics I like for them. My resources are limited too since I'm trying to save money and using coupons at JoAnn's and they have a lot of fabrics but there is so much more out there . . . I've been browsing on-line something I shouldn't do . . . cute, cute, cute stuff but I'm not paying $13 or more a yard for fabric! I just can't wait to start sewing but really I should have all my fabrics before I start. It's hard to wait though, we all know how I love to START a new project that's all that is probably. I have been wanting to sew lately. I read a lot of crafty blogs where people are making the cutest clothes for their kids and themselves. Then I was at JoAnn's on Friday and at the checkout, the cashier talked me into buying this Fashion magazine for a couple bucks because it had all these coupons on the back. She said "I know you don't want this for the fashions" maybe it was my stained t-shirt or my too tight jeans giving me the ever so attractive muffin top or my Goodwill green coat (that I love) that made her say that, I don't know but when I came home I looked through it and saw it said fashions inspired by Project Runway (I loved that show!) however I would never fit into anything they stick on those stick models but the key word was inspired. I tore out several pages of things I might try to make. I would love to make some tops and skirts. I have trouble finding clothes that fit me right so maybe making my own would be better. For some reason they just don't make clothes for "mummy tummy". Anyway I might give it a go, I see a lot of sewers find a pattern they love and make it several times in different fabrics and it looks like a different top or skirt every time. I've never been big into making clothes but lately I'm feeling all Little House on the Prairie like -- I need to be Mindy Homemaker or something. Why not make all our clothes? I need more going on don't I?

So back to the kid's room, I'm almost done except I need to paint their bunk bed and the 4 (yes, four!) doors in their room but they have to all be primed too so that's a warm weather project to do outside which may never happen since I don't think it will ever be warm here again -- we just got some more snow last night. I need to order some things I have in mind for their walls too and paint the closets add the accessories I have to paint for closets. And do something to the front of their dresser . . . and sew the four quilts . . . then I'm done. I hope you're not holding your breath waiting for the reveal as that may be a few years down the road!

and don't forget I have to make two sets of curtains too . . .

Me too!

Reese must do everything the older kids do -- if they have popcorn then she better get some too or she'll let you know. Good thing I remembered to buy the "baby" kind (corn pops or whatever they are called). I got them plastic popcorn boxes at the Target Dollar Spot -- I had three in hand and then remembered Reese will want one too, so I picked up another or that would have been another protest.

No school today for President's Day --- I haven't done a lot except a second coat of brown paint in their room during Reese's nap (now I have 3 walls and the ceiling to go) and bathed them all. Other than that they are destroying the house and running and screaming and I think I will prepare dinner now and we will eat the minute Aaron comes home then I think I will exit upstairs to do some scrapbooking which is long overdue and hopefully make me feel a little more energized. I must remember this for summer since they don't nap anymore . . . I need to have the day more planned out with projects and activities especially on days we stay home all day: structure is the key to my sanity or what's left of it. It will be easier in the summer when we can go outside . . . I hope!

Gloves, Hats, Scarves, Coats, Oh My

I really try not to yell before school because I don't want my kids to start their day like that nor do I want that to be the last memory of me while they are at school. But it's inevitable with winter time attire. Usually I'm yelling because nobody will put on their boots and coats so we can get out the door. At least 2 children can get their coats on now and one can zip! But today we couldn't locate any hats or gloves (well we found one mitten) and I think they did bring them home. It's my fault, I don't have a place for them to put their outdoor wear when they come home. Our current coat closet (built in dining room cabinet) is not working for them. They aren't able to help put away their own coats. They can't reach the handle to open it and it's too small for all these winter coats anyway. So I need to come up with a better system. I would love to have something like this from The Shabby Nest blog

Of course I don't have any spare closets to turn into a mini mudroom.

This from the The Pretty Neat Company blog is fabulous

but since I don't have a long empty hallway to build a bench.

This from Soule Mama blog is more what I will have to aim for

still nice and completely functional. Here's what I have to work with.

A leftover {cheapy} shelf from the kids' room that will no long fit. The shelves are adjustable so I can get some baskets to label with their names for their items and we're going to try to hang some hooks near the bottom for their coats that they can reach. My husband says it isn't going to work because the shelf doesn't have a thick enough back for coat hooks but this is the man that told me for 4 years a dishwasher would not fit in my kitchen that is until I became pregnant with triplets and the doctors wouldn't allow me to stand and wash dishes therefore Aaron became the head dishwasher. When he began complaining about it I told him he'd better get used to it because when the babies were born there would be at least 24 bottles, nipples, and rings to wash every single day. Hmmmm . . . then surprisingly a dishwasher would fit in my kitchen so I think the coat shelf idea is another dishwasher in our home. He's not concerned about it because he doesn't have to deal with the coats and hats and gloves and scarves and boots and book bags and library books every single day.

So stay turned to see if by next week we can get this area of my life under control then I can concentrate on getting their hair and teeth brushed before school too . . . it's easy to pick out my kids at school: messy hair, bad breath, no gloves or hats, book bag unzipped and not on their back as they are runny to their classroom and their mom is screaming "did you get your lunch and have a good day!"

Poop Central

That's right, we have some stomach bug floating around here. Fun, Fun, Fun! Addison calls it explosions so ya know it ain't good! She was sick yesterday and I thought was better today now her tummy hurts. Ethan calls "mommy, daddy" about 3 am last night and I'm thinking, he wants to get up. He sometimes wakes up in the middle of night, ready to get up and go. But I opened the door to their room and the smell smacked me awake. He said in his Polish accent, "mommy, I spilled". He threw up. I went to wake up Aaron and told him and he said "oh,no" and went back to sleep but I'm not doing that alone so I made him help. He changed and bathed him and I did the bed. You'll remember that Ethan sleeps with no less than 89 stuffed animals. But luckily most of them were at the other end of the bed and he localized his sickness. As soon as Aaron got him bathed and changed into new jammies, he threw up again. So more new jammies. He went to bed fine not even complaining about not having all those animals in his bed. Caden woke up at 5 am with "explosions" too. At least Addison and Caden are potty trained and have made it to the potty. I can't believe how many times we've changed Ethan today . . . we should get a prize . . . a good prize . . . not sickness. I have washed my hands so much today that they feel like sandpaper. Let's just hope we're over this in a day or so and healthy for Thanksgiving and Reese's birthday. I remember 2 years ago (I think) when we went to Keely's house for Thanksgiving and my kids were throwing up at the dinner table, now that's a Thanksgiving to remember!

I finished something and some photos

Okay, this is rather rare but I actually finished a project! This never happens -- I'm really good at the "I want to do this or make that" part and I'm actually great at starting things but finishing happens to be my downfall. I don't have enough attention span usually to see things through to the end (maybe that should be a resolution for next year, hmmmm . . .). Anyway I started this a few weeks ago

I found the directions for this pocket board a few weeks ago when I made my creative journal (hey -- I finished that too!). I tore this out of a how-to magazine a few years ago {I think} and as I was sorting my stuff into my creative journal I saw it and thought it could be a way to help me organize some of my printed photos. Originally, it is supposed to be used to hold office supplies but I think it will work well for photos. There are twelve pockets and I can even fit 5x7 prints in the middle pockets. I have photos separated by subject so when I have a little bit of time to scrapbook I can just pull out a set and go! Many times I want to scrap but don't know what I want to do and I can't even remember what photos I have printed up so this will help. Now my only problem is it's a little heavy to hang. I don't think that's gonna happen. We used a piece of plywood we already had so we didn't have to spend any more money on it. It does sit nicely on a table or desk as long as it can lean against a wall, unfortunately I don't have a table or desk big enough or with any good wall space to put it now so I will have to do some thinking as to where to put it plus it will have to be out of Reesey's reach -- she will never be able to resist pulling all those photos out and crinkling, sucking, ripping, and eating them. I spent about $8 total on it -- the printed brown/teal fabric was $5 and the foam was $3 (with a coupon -- foam is outrageously priced). I already had the brown suede fabric, batting, and the plywood too. Now that I can see some of those photos I want to scrap . . . maybe they'll be some time today!

And yesterday this girl couldn't find her shoes and our rule is if you go outside you must have on pants and shoes. So she found the cowboy boots that are from when they turned 2 years old and way too small and on the wrong feet but doesn't she look sweet skipping down the sidewalk without a care in the world!

And because I loved doing my week in the life project so much that now I'm trying to photograph more of the everyday moments and it's hard not to be taking photos all the time so this morning before school I got these:

Look who learned to play peek-a-boo just yesterday:

As I was sitting at the end of the train table watching all 4 of them play together, I just thought what a great moment to see the children I never thought I have, having a good time, laughing, learning, thriving . . . it's nice just to sit back and soak it up sometimes . . . they are great kids!

Sick Day

It's an unusual day for us today -- all the kids are home with me. Caden is still not feeling 100% and now he says his throat hurts (I think it's just a ploy to take some medicine -- my kids love medicine). Addison came in our room at 5 am saying her tummy hurt so she crawled in bed with us. Reese had an EXPLOSIVE diaper this morning: PJs & sheets had to be changed -- she's still not eating much either. I figure it's just a matter of time before Ethan is sick although he's sometimes the one that skips it. Aaron was sick all day on Sunday and I didn't feel the best yesterday either. So I made the executive decision for us all to stay home. I'd have to pack them all up in the van to drop off and pick up Ethan so I figured let's just stay home and take it easy. Ethan said to me after we were dressed, "ready for school, Mommy?" He is really talking up a storm in sentences and it is getting more and more clearer to me. So it'll just be a relaxing day here at home and I will have to somehow, someway get to the grocery store tonight since we seem to be out of staples of milk, veggies, fresh fruit, and the ever important ketchup! But Aaron called and said his truck is not working right again so that will have to be taken to the mechanic tonight and he also has one little part to finish on the back porch roof. So if I could please have about 2 or 3 extra hours added to this day, God, that would be great!

Anyway I have been working a little bit on some projects:

Because I have so much Halloween paper and I NEVER scrapbook Halloween I thought I use a little of it and I made this pennant out of chipboard, scrapbook paper, modge podge, and ripped fabric. After I made it I realized I have no good place to hang it. It was too small for most places and too big for others. I ended up putting it between the big doorway between our dining room and living room. I had to use those removable sticky hooks not the best but it works and the kids love it.
Here's another project that is going to help me {I think} organize my printed photos so I can scrapbook more effectively in little bits of time that pop up from time to time. Right now when I have some "extra" time to work on something, I usually end up spending the entire time looking for photos and supplies and then my time is gone. This is only part way done, I have to buy some foam (which I had planned to do today) before I can finish . . .

I did make a lo for Caden's first day of Preschool last night too but I need to take photos of it. I'm off to watch my house become a disaster area since all the kids are home today!

I'm Ready

Preschool officially begins in 2 days. We have to go to an open house on Monday to drop off the supplies and see the classrooms and meet each teacher. I thought I would be really emotional and who knows how I'll feel on Monday after we attend the open house or how I'll feel after I drop them off on Tuesday but right now I feel I'm ready and they're ready. After a lot of soul searching, well over a year and half about my feelings on preschool, this is right choice, right now. I was a little disappointed at the beginning of the summer when I was called and told the kids had to go all day and not half days as I had requested. Ethan is going half days but Addison and Caden will go all day. I asked why they wanted them to go all day and they said we were taking up 3 spots for other children that could go all day . . . hmmmm . . . I wonder if three moms said they wanted each of their children to go mornings only would they let one mom do it and not the other two? Probably not, so I feel like I'm being "discriminated" against (in a way) because I have triplets. I figured I'm going to pick my battles so I let it be because who knows there may be worse things around the corner. Anyway Caden and Addison are ready to be there all day and since they pretty much don't nap consistently or at all . . . let the teachers deal with that rather than me. Ethan, on the other hand, will need to come home to nap (and let's not even think of how he would act at lunchtime); I think his teacher will be more than ready to send him my way at 11:45 each morning. I have concerns that they will all be in trouble a lot and hope that the superintendent doesn't have to install a hotline directly to our house or he has to set up a little corner of his office for Reese and I to just hang out there every day. Ethan is so challenging at times and I hope he is cooperative at school with the other kids and teachers. I worry . . . I've been a teacher . . . I know how it is . . . I don't want him to be the student that the teachers say "YES!" under their breath when he's absent from class. I want him to love it and I want them to like him.

I could have just kept all of them home another year as they can go to preschool next year too. But really I know I am doing this more for me than for them. I need the break especially after this summer of Aaron roofing. I haven't had much of a break at all in a few months. It's hard and even harder when there are many, many days they don't nap. I feel so "behind" with so many things. I need some time to myself. I need some time with just Reesey. I need to be happy to see the kids at 11:45 and 3:00 instead of looking at the clock and seeing how much longer until bedtime.

When we went to registration, Ethan's teacher said, "You aren't going to know what to do with just the baby at home. You'll probably just spend the entire time looking around asking yourself, 'What should I do?'" I think she's right. Last week I started a list of things I want to do and things that need to be done. And I do think I'm going to work out some kind of schedule for myself so I have time to run errands, workout, complete house projects of painting and cleaning (oh, the closets), and do stuff like scrapbook and just relax with Reese. I was ready to try to figure all this out on paper and start in on Tuesday with a schedule but then I decided that maybe we need a transition period for all of us. So I think I'm going to play it by ear for the first couple weeks just to see how it all works. It's really weird though because I can't really comprehend some things without 4 kids because I keep thinking things like I need to get my hair cut so badly -- it's been about 3 months -- I start to stress about it wondering when can I do that with Aaron roofing every night after work, it's not the kind of thing I can take 4 kids with me to do then I remember, Oh yeah, I'll only have Reese I can just schedule it when the kids are in school. She can easily sit in the stroller for 20 minutes when I do that. It's a whole new way of life for me.

I wouldn't be surprised if my attitude about school changes a lot over the next few days but with a little time and patience I think things will work out and I may feel a little less stressed about life in general!

I Won!!!

Here's The Girl:


Consequently, here's my scrap desk. Yesterday there was no less than 3 piles at least 12" deep each. You can almost see the top and I could actually scrap on it tonight! WHOOOO HOOOOOOO!

Spoiler Alert: I hear a baby crying . . . must be too quiet here for her to sleep!

Nappin' and Poopin'

Oh these kids, seriously I am counting the days to preschool -- sometimes I am sad about it but sometimes I feel like calling the school right now to ask if they can start this minute and if they have a boarding school affiliation. With vacation Bible school every evening last week, the kids decided they weren't going to nap, well Addison and Caden decided that. I can count on Ethan to nap mainly because he's still locked in that crib tent and he has no choice and after he plays a while, boredom overtakes him and he's out. When boredom begins to overtake The Girl and her Sidekick, they begin the party or the fight or the coming down the stairs 500 times to tell me this or that or get this or that or see what I am doing. I'll tell you what I am doing, I'm busy trying to keep all these kids in bed without losing the little bit of sanity I have left! I thought with 3 hours of Bible School every night they would be exhausted and they were but did it make them sleep more? No, less, go figure! Back to my old adage: Sleep begets sleep. The more you do it the more you have to do it! Every day The Girl becomes a little more and more like the devil. No kidding after 5 days of Bible School (that's 15 hours of education and listening to religious CD approximately 5 million times) she told me while looking at her Vacation Bible School book during a nap strike "I cannot want to like Jesus" that would be the devil talking! And last night, I believe I did see the devil rear it's ugly head more than a few times -- down right scary!

So no more, I am stubborn and I'm not about to give in -- today is a new day and new rules -- everybody sleeps, do or die! Addison is sleeping on the downstairs couch and I say don't get off this bed (don't call it a bed as I did, "She said this is not a bed, it is a couch!") so I repeat don't get off the couch! At least there's nothing much going on in the party room -- they are both out in 41 minutes -- world record, I believe for the Murray Team. I think the Murray Team broke another record here earlier today when I had 3 people poop in less than 15 minutes of each other. At least Caden made it to the potty, Ethan on the other hand decided he would remove his pull-up then tell me he pooped after a little couch jumping (which is not allowed). Thank God, we have a wipe-off couch now -- don't worry I sanitized, if you visit, you can still sit safely. Reesey decided she needed to join in and it was everywhere, I went through 2 diapers and half a box of wipes just to change her and then she somehow removed the new diaper while I was trying to fix the malfunction of the diaper genie thing where it somehow spit poop out and I finished the other half of that box of wipes to clean that up. I have washed my hands a million times today already. So everything is a little quieter at the moment, now that 3 out of 4 kids are sleeping and 3 out of 4 kids have pooped.


See that's how the 4th kid looks right now, doesn't she look tired? Actually look closely, see the red eyes, there's still a little bit of devil in there.

Guess who's going to Vacation Bible School?

If you answered these three,

you'd be partly correct. They all went last night but tonight Mommy and Reese are going too, at least for a while. They are attending Bible School at Aaron's Parents' church and it is from 5 to 8 this week. I wondered how they'd do but they were super excited and I was thinking a 3 hour break each night might be nice. Aaron and I dropped them off last night and we both worried that the church may burst into flames when the Murray kids walked in since we still haven't made church a priority in our family (but we plan to soon). After we got them all settled and we went out to eat with just the baby, ahhhh heaven and made a small trip to Target -- it was so nice not to have to chase after everybody and actually look at stuff. We made it back to the church and the teachers told me that Ethan had some issues. Basically he didn't want to do anything they were doing. It doesn't surprise me, he usually has his own agenda. He had to have his own attendant all night, (I'm sure that Jeanette was tired when she went to bed last night!) So tonight I think Reese and I will hang around for all or part of Bible School and if he doesn't do well again, he may be a Bible School Dropout. On the other hand Addison had a great time and I think Caden did too although he became quite "sad" when he saw us. We were given a CD of songs they are listening to at Bible School and Addison was so happy on the way home when she heard the words, "thankful" and "faith". At least somebody getting something out of it and maybe tonight I will too!

Here's your Sign:

I sometimes feel like I should attach the above sign to me and my kids when we go out in public. This was the case yesterday at the zoo. Same questions over and over again. I guess most people don't take 4 children to public places alone. Maybe I was drawing a lot of attention because Caden and Addison were always about 25 feet ahead and Ethan was 25 feet behind and I am yelling both ways to "slow down and wait" or "hurry up"! I know people are interested but it's hard to keep your eye on the kids and listen to them while complete strangers want every detail about our life. I want to be nice but I am a little bit busy and they all know because every single person says "you've got your hands full" or "you must be busy". I know people are just trying to be nice but it becomes extremely annoying when it happens every time you go somewhere and it's all you hear. At least yesterday, no one said the "If I had triplets, I'd kill myself" line that us multiple moms hear quite often. I don't even know how to respond to that statement when people say that.

Even so the zoo was pretty fun. It was a million degrees and Reese instantly turned bright red after about 2 minutes of being there. She finally fell asleep for a little while.














We saw the giraffes run around their pen for a little bit. Those animals are just awesome but to see them run is breathtaking. The baby monkey we saw a few months is getting bigger and still very cute!


We spent a long time in the Reptile House because we were out of the sun for a while and I am thinking I should invest in a Water Monitor. A Water Monitor is this alligator looking reptile that my kids thought was the best thing ever because it was trying to climb the glass. They laughed and giggled so much!
One of the highlights for me are these giant fans the zoo has has that also spray a mist of water on you. I wouldn't mind having one of these in our yard. It was very hard to walk away from and Ethan loved it a lot too!

We rode the train but I had told them earlier (several times) that we would not be able to ride the carousel since I couldn't hold the baby and lift them all up onto a horse and hold on to them all during the ride. They were very good about it as we passed it and didn't cry a bit about it. I let them play on the playground equipment for a while at the end but didn't get any photos since some mom was doing research for my unauthorized biography. Addison had a total meltdown outside the zoo door and fell into a pile in the driveway and I contemplated leaving her there especially when she wouldn't get up and follow us to the van. Finally we all got in and blasted the a/c and we all felt better.