Weekend Re-cap

We've had a delightfully busy weekend, so I thought I'd just do a quick re-cap now that it is almost over.



Friday morning Scott and I took the girls out early in the morning to a nearby nature preserve and did a "little" 1.6 mile hike, with the Runabout stroller, and Ella in flip-flops. What were we thinking?!? It was so hard because I ended up carrying Ella on my shoulders about half of the way. Scott would have gladly carried her, but I couldn't push the stroller on the up hills and couldn't control it on the down hills.... it contained over 60 pounds of precious cargo after all, and the terrain was basically ALL down and up hills! They had a great time anyway, and we were able to get a couple of cute pictures.

Scott mumbled something about the wrong setting on the camera once we were home, so sorry the picture quality is not very good. I have no idea why because I still only shoot in AUTO mode. Anyone who can suggest a good starting point for learning about my Nikon D80, I'd be forever in your debt. It is a heavy duty camera to be carrying around and not utilizing all the capabilities!!

Friday night, as I mentioned earlier, Scott and I went out on a date. We went to see Tina Fey's new movie Baby Mama. I really like Tina Fey. I think she is both funny and smart. The movie, while not exactly smart, is very funny. We had a good time, and enjoyed each other's company and undivided attention on the way to and from the theater without anyone crying in the background.

Saturday we all headed out early together once again. We went to a Christian Couple's Conference. It turned out to not be as interactive as we had hoped (it was a live simulcast being broadcast all over the nation) , but it was new experience, and we all learned some things. We arrived in plenty of time to get all four of the girls settled in to the childcare area... except when we were getting out of the car Ella said, "Mom, where are my shoes?" I hadn't noticed in the chaos of loading the car that she got in bare footed! Scott had to return home with her to find her shoes while I got Maggie, Kate, and Sarah settled. Believe it or not, they did great! Only Sarah cried for a few minutes. Maggie and Kate were both completely happy to stay there and play with two college students they'd never met before. Looks like we may be able to give that gym daycare thing a try again in another couple of months when Sarah comes around. We picked them all up after lunch and came home for naps.

Today we went out to breakfast with Mimi and then to Sunday school and church. We played outside this evening at Nanny and Pop C.'s until dinner time. The girls have had so much sugar today- between Sunday school and nursery snacks, the cookies Mimi made this afternoon, and the cake Nanny C made today- that they were spiraling out of control by around 6pm. We called it quits early and had everyone off to bed by 6:30pm.... sugar high followed by hard crash!

I've got so much new blog material with all of their new little tricks, habits, sayings, etc., but I think I'll save it until another day when I have it better organized in my head. I don't want to leave anything out!

Happy and Blessed Sunday everyone!

Big Talk

This afternoon Ella looked me square in the eyes, stomped her one little foot down on the ground, and said, "Mom, would you please get me some chok mook right this instrument!?!"

I don't aspire to have a bossy three year old, but it was all I could do to not laugh right in her face, so I figured punishment for bossiness would have to wait for another day and the chocolate milk ..... well, it took a little more than a few minutes to prepare.

3 Year Check-up

Ella went for her 3 year check-up a little over a month late... we were trying to avoid the flu at the doctor's office. She is growing perfectly, on the low end of the weight and the high end of the height scales for her age. She has had some seasonal allergies, so I asked the pediatrician about that, but otherwise has been perfectly healthy as far as we knew. However, the doc discovered that she has double ear infections. This is the first time Ella has been on antibiotics, so I'm hoping she won't be allergic like Kate is.

Because all the little gals ended up with the same season allergy type symptoms that Ella had while we were down south, I asked the doc about them as well. We ended up taking them in the day after Ella's check-up just to have their ears looked at, and Maggie also has an ear infection. At least that explains some of the fussiness of late.... well, that and the 2 to 3 new teeth that Maggie, Kate, and Sarah are each getting in right now! Yikes!!

Now I have to go get ready because it is Friday night and Scott and I are going out on a date. **gasp** I can't even remember the last time that a weekend night meant anything other than any other day/night, but Kay-Kay graciously offered to come and sit for the girls tonight so we could escape. They are all in bed, and Kay will be here any minute. Woo-hoo!!

Day Three: Lots of Cousins, Take Two

This probably will not be as well written as last night's post; I'm tired. Thanks for all the emails and comments... I have no idea where the lost post went, but it wasn't published and it wasn't auto saved. Hope I have better luck this time!

On the third morning of our trip we loaded the stroller after breakfast and hit the same park playgrounds and did the same walking tour of town that we had the previous two days; the girls were really getting the hang of things. We had lunch downtown (inside a restaurant, not on the street) with Gamma, and even had a couple of visitors come by to meet the girls for the first time. After lunch the little gals went back for a nap, and Ella got to spend some quality time with Gamma at her antique shop.
When Maggie, Kate, and Sarah woke up from their naps, we headed over to Scott's grandparents house for an evening of fun with the cousins. While we were waiting for the rest of the crowd to arrive, the girls snacked on fresh strawberries and bananas. Maggie was a huge fan of the strawberries!
The shot above is one of our multiple multiples photos plus Ella. Courtney and Kimberly are Scott's cousin Rosalie's 6 year old twin girls. As a side note, people are always asking if triplets run in our family. I know enough triplet moms to realize that this is a nice way of prying asking whether they were conceived spontaneously (naturally) or as a result of fertility treatments. Because ours are spontaneous the question is not a painful reminder of infertility for me, but I still just usually say, "They do now." But seriously, we have quite a number of twins on both sides of our families. Scott has these second cousins pictured above and I believe a great aunt and uncle were fraternal twins on his dad's side as well. My great grandmother on my dad's side was an identical twin, and I have great aunts who are twins on my mom's side as well as several sets of 3rd cousins who are twins. So twins definitely run in our families, but do triplets really run in any family?!?
The great grandparents had everything set up for a fun afternoon and evening. There was sidewalk chalk (or chonk) as Ella calls it, bubbles, balls, and lots and lots of running around enjoying the company of cousins whom we almost never have the chance to see.
I think one of the very best parts of our whole trip was having all these people who have loved and prayed for our girls over the last couple of years actually get to spend time with them in person playing and getting to know them in real life. Just look how happy Sarah and Great Grandaddy both look!?!

Great grandmother wisely planned to have pizza for supper... the girls' favorite meal! She sure knows the way to her little one's hearts. There was the "big girls only table" pictured above with Mackenzie at the head....
.... and the "small fry" section on the floor nearby.

Before we left we tried to get a group shot of all the great granddaughters. Scott's grandparents have 9 great- granddaughters and one great- grandson on the way.... finally. We were missing one set of cousins, and Jessi, the little one on the left kept trying to run away, but this was our attempt to document this evening for them. Unfortunately Kate was crying in every single one of the shots.

Overall, our trip was off the charts for fun, family time, and great memories! If it weren't for the pesky road trip there and back, we'd be planning our next trip there already. A huge thank you to Gamma, the great grandparents, and all the cousins for making the girls' first visit a wonderful one. We love and miss you all!

Blogger AHHHHHHHHHH!!!

After spending an hour or so on my post about the last day of our trip, I hit the publish button and it went to Blogger never-never-land. I don't know if I'll get it back or not, but I'm going to give up trying for now.

Day 2: Playgrounds and Family Night Supper

Something that the girls enjoyed an extra measure of last week while we were on our trip was playground/ park time. Gamma lives downtown (at least compared to where we live...we are about 12 miles outside of the nearest town). Every morning after breakfast we would load them all up into the Runabout stroller and head out to the nearest park. It was only a few blocks away so we spent several enjoyable mornings there.

They did the usual ..... swinging, climbing, and lots of running. Park freedom was wonderful because it was the middle of the week and school is not out for summer yet, so we basically had the run of the place.
We also walked around downtown a little bit and then attempted lunch at a little ice cream and sandwiches joint. Right on the street, with only one high chair, and four very tired little girls, this did not prove to be a good choice of locations for lunch, and we called it quits before we even ordered our food. Because Ella was the biggest cause for our sudden change of plans, she required a nap on day number 2. Fortunately, I was able to make her take one without too many tears or too much fuss. Again on the second day the little girls happily took their almost 3 hour nap without any fuss at all! Hooray!!
When Ella finally woke up at 4pm we all headed over to the playground at Scott's home church to play. There were other people coming in and out of the play area because they were preparing for the church's weekly Family Night Supper... which we were able to attend with Gamma. Fortunately, one of the people we met on our way into FNS was a teenager named Brittney. She was a very helpful, delightful, young lady, and I'm sure our overall FNS experience would not have been as smooth and enjoyable without her help. As with all new situations, it was a little stressful at first trying to get all set up with 3 high chairs, food served to four little ones at the same time, etc, but the girls did great. Most importantly, I'm sure Gamma had a wonderful time showing off all her little beauties to her church family. After the meal was over the program began which meant time for a little bit of live music.... Maggie, Kate, and Sarah loved it! They all signed for and requested "more" at the end of each song and danced while we were singing. Before the speaker started the children were invited to the children's program, and amazingly enough Ella asked Brittney to take her! I was shocked that she would be interested in going off with other children she didn't know, much less to ask a girl who only an hour earlier had also been a stranger to take her?!?

We decided it was in every one's best interest for us to take our little girls back out to the playground while the rest of the adults heard the speaker. It was already bedtime by this point, but we had to wait on Ella to finish up with the children's program. Thankfully, Brittney stayed around and helped us chase the girls around and push them in the swings.

One thing that I was amazed by on Wednesday was the number of people who mentioned the blog and how much they enjoy reading and keeping up with the girls.... I just assumed Gamma was doing a lot of reading based on my stats counter/visitor locator thingy. I'm glad to be able to keep everyone up to date, but I have to say it makes me a little nervous to realize that I have a whole "other" audience than I originally thought! Perhaps I should do a post sometime with instructions on how easy it is to comment here... just so I know you're reading!!

Day 1 Barbie Jeep Adventures

Okay, day one's adventures actually included much more than a Barbie Jeep, but the Jeep was definitely one of the highlights as far as the kiddos were concerned. It also happens to be in almost all of the photos from Tuesday, so I think the title of the post is going to stick.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we started the day off at our usual 7:20am.... even though we didn't get everyone to sleep until around 2:30am. The girls were a little cranky, but not terribly so. We were able to go over to Scott's grandparents house late in the morning. We tried to stay long enough to have lunch, but by the time we sat down to eat the girls were pretty much melting down. The great-grandparents graciously offered to pack up lunch so we could feed them once they woke up from their much needed naps. Back at Gamma's house the naps went off without a hitch for the little girls... down without tears and up 3 hours later. Ella pretended to be interested in watching a DVD on the portable player and managed to squeak by without a nap on the first day.

Everyone was in great spirits late in the afternoon, and we were fortunate enough to have an invitation over to Marty and Charity's house for a relaxing evening of grilling out and letting the girls run and play in the yard. Scott and Charity are cousins, though I'm not sure whether 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or what because both Scott and his mom are only children, and the extended family still is pretty confusing for me! Marty & Charity are the parents of 3 year old AnnMartin and ~12 week old baby Leila.... of course I didn't manage to get any pictures of Marty or Charity, but here's one of Ella holding Leila with Gamma supervising, and AnnMartin is the little blond beauty in lots of the jeep pictures.

They were too kind to have our entire rowdy crew over.... and on the night before Charity had to return to work from maternity leave, no less! We are so grateful that they did, though, because the girls had a great time playing with AnnMartin and her Barbie Jeep, and as always we enjoyed catching up with the grown-ups.

Although I'm not eager to make the drive down there again anytime real soon, I hope that they'll consider coming up here sometime because it was so nice to spend time with them. Ella has mentioned AnnMartin and Leila (and all her cousins from later in the week too) in all of her prayers since we've returned home.

Overall, our first full day there went much better than I had anticipated. They were filthy and exhausted when we got back to Gamma's that night, as were their parents.... sure signs of a day well spent!

Tales from the Road

We made it to Gamma's and back safely, and aside from a little vomit, without incident. Granted, it used to be a 5 hour trip.... now it is more like an 8 hour trip one way. Ah, well, nothing in our lives is as it used to be!?!

We left Monday, shortly after Maggie, Kate, and Sarah woke from their afternoon naps, and drove for a couple of hours. The conversations were interesting and the music selection was rapid change kiddie fare. Ella was very curious about all the big trucks because we were traveling on the interstate. She doesn't see big trucks often around here because we don't have any interstate access in the county where we live. Oh, my, the questions... "Where are those big trucks going to? What are they carrying? Are they going to Florida? How do the big trucks drive to China?" On, and on, and on...

We made our first stop a few hours south at a McDonald's selected purely because of the big play place. Some dear family friends, the Bell's, joined us there to meet the girls for the first time. All four of the girls played all over the 3 level play area and had a great time. They also warmed up to the Bell's in no time, and everyone had an enjoyable dinner. We tried our best to take a quick photo of Mr. and Mrs. Bell with all four of the rowdies, but little Miss Ella was being quite contrary so this was the best we could do.

After the McDonald's adventure we went back to the Expedition to change into PJ's and get ready for the rest of the ride. Then we said our goodbyes and hit the road. The girls chatted with us and each other for a while, we made a couple of unnecessary bathroom stops for Ella, and then the whining began. The little girls were sick of being strapped into their car seats for hours on end, and who can blame them. It was past their bed time and they were just plain uncomfortable. Ella was using her trump card of "I have to go potty" way too often, and I finally told her that I should have brought Pull-Ups instead of expecting her to use the bathroom like an adult on the road trip. Her only comment regarding that was "Mom, what will be the source of my Pull Ups?" What 3 year old talks like that?!? I don't know if she even knows what a Pull Up is, much less where she gets these questions.

Finally, the bathroom breaks ceased and we had a request from the back of the car to play Daddy's favorite song On the Road Again. Scott searched through the pile of junk in the console, found his iPod and played some Willie Nelson for the gals in the back. I realized after the Stardust Melody that things were awfully quiet behind me, and it was at this point that I realized what good Southern girls we are raising.... it took 10 minutes of listening to Willie Nelson's greatest hits to tame the savage beasts that our children had become. They were asleep by 9pm.

Once the girls were asleep Scott and I attempted to listen to an NPR podcast entitled "Nurturing Your Children's Spirituality", or something like that. It was very interesting, but we kept having to stop it to discuss, and then there was the road construction.... very hard to hear the message with the bump-bump noises from the road. Just as I thought we'd finally be able to hear again, the girls each began to wake up, and sadly enough, they cried for the entire final hour of the drive once we got off the interstate.

Thankfully, Gamma had everything all set up for us when we arrived at 11:30 pm. However, the girls had never been there before, never met her cat, and they'd already been up crying for about an hour. Needless to say, they did not go straight off to blissful sleep in their unfamiliar surroundings. I think the last of them dropped around 2:30am, and we started the next day as usual at 7:20am.

This is getting very long, and I still have tons more to say, so I think I'll stop for tonight and post again tomorrow about how our time was spent once we finally settled in. Honestly, you'll want to check back tomorrow because the driving portion (there and back) was the only bad part of our entire week!

On the Road

Well, we're finally going to do it.... travel the 5 plus hours south to visit with dear friends and family in Scott's hometown. Some of these folks have never even met the girls. They are excited, we are excited, and this ought to be fun! Don't know if I'll have an opportunity to post while we are away, but there should be plenty of great pictures when we return. Now, please wish us lots of luck and driving graces as we head out the door with four children 3 and under to spend 5 or more hours in the car (knowing all the while that no matter how the drive down goes we have to turn around and come home at some point)! Adios...

Feeling Like Miss Hannigan

Our sweet friend Brian, who happens to have more videos and DVDs than a movie store, is constantly going through his extensive collection and bringing over movies for the girls. He has shared more movies with us already this year than we have actually watched in the last two years. However, last week he delivered a real gem. For my oldest little theatrical princess, the Disney version of the movie Annie was just perfect. She watched it all the way through one time and has been singing the songs (her own versions, of course) ever since.

Ella woke up this morning with one of her eyes matted shut. All day long she had nastiness pouring out of both eyes.... I'm afraid she may have her daddy's allergies and the cheery disposition to go along with them at this time of year. Yuck. It seemed that Maggie, Kate, and Sarah got in her way, they got into her stuff, and they got on her nerves! All. Day. Long.

At one point this afternoon, I overheard her singing in her very best Miss Hannigan voice, " Lit-tle girls, lit-tle girls, Everywhere I turn I can see them. Lit-tle girls, lit-tle girls, Night and day I eat, sleep and breathe them." Even in sickness she totally cracks me up!!

Writer's Block

Scott and I have been hard at work this week on our very first attempt at a garden. It has pretty much consumed our days with work and our evenings with planning. We have had lots of excellent help in the form of four eager little girls, and they have gotten a fair amount of sunshine as a result.

I've also had a bit of writers block due, at least in part, to a tooth ache I've had for the last few days. At night I just haven't felt like sitting down at the computer to concentrate. I went to the dentist today finally, and they took x-rays and then the doc said, "Well, I can't see any reason for it to hurt." Yep, that's exactly what I was hoping to hear, NOT! So he filed on some teeth in the back of my mouth and said if that doesn't "fix" it to come back. So far I can't really tell if it is better or not, but hopefully the fact that I actually feel good enough (without Advil) to write a little bit on the blog tonight is a good sign?!?


Perhaps tomorrow I'll have some original or otherwise cute post about the girls, but not today. However, I do have details yet again of a cute contest that I read about on another blog that I read. The contest is basically to "dump" your digital camera and submit your favorite photo from the random ones just sitting on the card. We are good about carrying our camera around most all the time, so when I read about the contest I knew I'd have plenty of material to choose from... only 71 photos from yesterday and today. The picture posted below is the one I used for Jen's contest. Scott took it after they had eaten pizza and ice cream for supper. Kate's shirt is a good indicator of exactly how much fun they had today. It is a mess! I chose this picture because it is the essence of Maggie and Kate these days... Maggie was pushing and shoving her way right into Kate's space, and you can see the distress on Kate's face and the gleam in Maggie's eyes. They have both been cooperatively wearing their hair in bows or pig tails lately, too cute... Enjoy!

Toy Giveaways

Just thought I'd share with all my mom friends that over at Five Minutes for Mom they are having toy give aways daily for the next two weeks. Basically all you have to do to enter for their cool toy prizes each day is post a comment over there when toys you like are up for grabs. Pretty simple, so I thought I would share. You can get there via the link above or through the link on my sidebar... if you are interested.

Jealousy and Fibbing

People often ask how Ella is handling having 3 little sisters and sharing her once undivided attention with them. Usually she is exceptional. She has handled all the changes of the last 2 years with much more ease and grace than I would have ever imagined or asked for. She has the occasional bad day, but so do I, and I have an extra 30 years worth of coping skills on her! However, the one time that our first little sweet pea turns green with envy is when it is time for me to go through their clothes and bring out the old season and in the new. It really doesn't matter how I approach it... if she is around she gets jealous! After all, there are three of them and therefore three times as much clothing for them, and she just lives for fashion and sees that fact as such an injustice.

Ella got an invitation to spend the night with her Pop and Mimi last night, and I took them up on it so that I could use the opportunity to go through the boxes and boxes of spring/ summer clothes and get out lots of the winter wear.... without Ella's "help". I got most of the work in Ella's room done that I need to for now, and she had a wonderful time being the only child for the night.

I sent her overnight bag with a long sleeved dress to wear to church this morning. I was surprised to see her wearing her favorite pink tank top and blue "flowey" skirt after Sunday school. Ms. Cindy said that she came straight in and immediately stripped out of the dress referring to it as "my coat". Mimi told me during church that she had no idea she had the tank top on, though she knew that E was wearing the skirt underneath the dress. (I thought we had until at least middle school before we had to worry about her changing outfits after she left the house!)

After church we went to Nanny and Pop C.'s house for lunch with cousin Cayden and Greg, Carol, and Mimi. When we finally got home and Maggie, Kate, and Sarah went down for their naps I asked Ella how her night with Mimi and Pop went. She was eager to tell me about having breakfast at a little local restaurant with Mimi and Pop and running into Pop C. there. She said she went right up to Pop C. and gave him a big hug "even though he was sittin' with his friends."

She then proceeded to tell me that Nanny C. was there for breakfast too, right beside Pop C. But I know that Nanny wasn't there because she was here with the girls and I this morning. The story went on, in that Nanny and Pop C. spent the night over at Mimi and Pop's house with her. I said that couldn't be true because I knew for a fact that they both really like to sleep in their own bed, but Ella insisted that "they even managed to bring their bed over there."

Since the first of April, better known as April Fool's around here, Ella has been making up some great big whoppers. I asked her if she was telling the truth and she insisted that she was, but she was "April Foolin' " me. Time for a little lesson in telling the truth I suppose.

This Family Circus

After Ella's crummy afternoon Tuesday and subsequent 2 hour nap, she woke up without fever and claiming to be fine. She might have made said claims because we had already mentioned going to the circus that was coming into town that day. So, with proper coverage for an outing we'd never tried before (that is one adult per child for us these days), we set out almost an hour early for the circus.

Once we arrived I remembered why I had only been to the circus one other time in my life... it is just sad to me. All those animals, not to mention the people, who live out of vehicles and travel around performing for the world?!? Just not my cup of tea.

Anyhoo, we adults took turns standing in the line that had formed almost an hour early of ticket holders waiting to get in for a seat. It was first come, first served seating, with about a third of the "seating" being on rubber mats that they pulled out onto the gravel after the rickety bleachers were filled to capacity. That fact alone, if advertised anywhere, would have been enough to make me realize that we did not need to take one sick 3 year old and three 19 month olds to the circus!!

Meanwhile the girls and three adults wandered the grounds checking out all the animals. Sarah was pretty interested in the calf... she has been over to the barn right by our house zillions of times to see the 15- 20 calves that Uncle Joe keeps in a separate pasture from the other cows... but has apparently never seen any of our cows poop. That was, and still is, all that she will talk about when the circus is mentioned.

About 5 minutes before show time they started letting people enter the big top. The line went on for hundreds of yards, but fortunately we didn't wait long to get inside. Unfortunately, once we got in and found ourselves a seat on the bleachers, they just kept piling people into the already hot and crowded tent.... packed us in, I'm telling you, and finally started the show about 15 minutes late.

I am certain that if you ask the girls they would tell you their favorite part of the circus was the snow cones that they wore had. They were all miserable and hot and wiggly and completely uninterested in the "show" for about 80% of the acts. The ones we saw anyway. We left before the intermission, after the thong- clad, overweight, young lady's daring pole stands, her brother's amazing high in the air balancing act, and the fire breathing magician. I know, I know, what was I expecting anyway???

The best part for me personally was our exit back into the fresh air outside of the tent. We took advantage of the weather (and capitalized on my lack of a supper plan) and had a drive through then home, picnic dinner in the back yard.

Wednesday morning we took our little family circus act on the road with Ella's first trip to the dentist. She was still not feeling her best and occasionally claimed that her belly hurt, but I chalked that up to nerves over her first dental visit. I also, apparently, missed several other of her "truly not well" signals while battling it out through out the morning trying to get both she and I dressed and out the door while dragging at least two children from my legs everywhere I went trying to keep the peace with the other little clowns.

Once we were in the car on our way, she was not her normal self.... didn't want to talk (**gasp**), didn't want to listen to music, wouldn't put her shiny pink flip flops on once we arrived, etc. The signs, well, they were just all over the place, but again I assumed it was nerves!!

I carried her into the building, we checked in, and then I sat her on the couch beside me so that I could fill out the three pages of paper work required for new patients, all the while grateful that this was not one of those trips where I have to fill out said paperwork in triplicate.

About one page into it she looked up at me and burped... and you can just imagine how the rest of our trip went downhill! Fortunately we ran to the bathroom and made it before she got sick, but I wasn't nearly as lucky on the ride home. We'll from here on out refer to my car as the vomit comet because every one of the girls except Sarah has been sick in there. You'd think I'd be prepared for that by now, but other than carrying wipes and a towel for clean up, really, what can you do?!?

We've been home for the last two days trying to fully recover before going back out into the world. We did have some good times yesterday playing with Nanna Betty and Aunt Debbie. They both used to be regular weekly helpers here, but we realized yesterday that they had not seen the girls in about 3 months. I think they were pretty amazed by the changes here. The girls were thoroughly amused by Debbie's dog Rummi. She would fetch tennis balls and the girls would pat their legs and say "back here", "drop". It was so cute. They would wait until she was just at their faces about to get a good lick in to get squeamish and turn and run... all of them except Ella. She enjoyed Rummi's show from the comforts of some one's arms at all times, and if she got too close Ella's legs would go up as if on strings.

We've done lots of coloring, playing hide and seek, and I even broke out the Rubbermaid box full of toys with 10 million parts at one point yesterday.

Today Ms. Faye came by and gave me a much needed break so I could run out, have lunch, and grocery shop. I can't tell you how nice it is to go to the grocery store by myself! My batteries were re-charged, and I was much better able to appreciate my little clowns and their antics this afternoon.

I've played the part of audience for many shows lately as they have recently dubbed our fireplace their stage. They perform there several times daily. Ella is usually in charge of the music, and Maggie and Kate are always good to be her back up singers/ dancers.

Kate takes up her baby doll and any purse she can find lying around numerous times each day and declares she'll "be right back". Maggie's most commonly heard phrase these days is "old me"... meaning Hold me. She says it in the absolute sweetest voice I've ever heard!!

I've watched as they play tricks on each other and chase. It is fun to watch when Sarah steals Maggie or Kate's paci and then takes off running. She usually keeps on running, whereas when Maggie or Kate get their hands on someone else's paci they run and immediately hide behind a door or in a corner. They all take turns being the paci thief.... and repeat over and over again.

I also have really enjoyed them coming to each other's aid. If someone is in need of a hug or kiss because of a fall or the like, there is usually at least one sister to count on for a kiss. In the mornings when they first get up, they often like to greet each other with hugs. I adore watching them interact with these sweet gestures.

All in all, the traveling circus was a big, huge, bust for us, but our little family circus... well, I wouldn't change a thing!

From Aspiring Jokester to Sick Kiddo

A certain someone, I think it was her Sunday school teacher, explained April Fool's and all the trickery involved to Ella this past weekend. She sat around last night racking her little 3 year old brain trying to come up with something good to trick everyone with, and her best efforts on her own included telling people that they had a hair on their phone or (insert other random inanimate objects here). Eventually she decided that it would also be funny to make Kay-Kay (the shameless Sunday school teacher who taught her about this incredible opportunity to be deceitful holiday) believe that her aunt Kari was expecting a baby... which she is not. So this morning Ella snuggled up to Kay and said that Kari was going to have a baby. To which Kay responded by shrieking a joyous yippee and then immediately looking at me to ask if Ella was just "fooling" her.

Unfortunately for Ella, the joke seems to be on her today though, because she is now running a fever and taking the first nap she's had since, oh I don't know, fall of 2007?!?

Still looking forward to having a house full of well children...