The Good, The Bad, The New, and the Dead

We’ve had a great fall this year and had a lot of fun with the kids. They have a way of letting you know which events they really like, too, by asking to repeat them over and over again. We have a few such activities that have started to become annual events for us – giving ample opportunity for more adventures to find us.

The GOOD

One of the kids’ favorite events that we have gone to several times is at the hospital where we just got 3 new bellybuttons. Every spring and fall, they have a big FREE carnival, complete with bounce houses, all kinds of wild and domestic animals and free lunch. In the fall they give out free pumpkins, too (unfortunately 2 of the 4 have now disappeared). At the face painting booth, the kids were excited to make their choices. Alyssa requested an iguana and Lauren a flower. The boys got a little more unique with Jack requesting Elmo on his hand (so that he can see it) and Drew asked for a house (complete with a sidewalk, tree, sun and clouds). It was almost worth the hour wait to see that!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another highly requested tradition we started last year is a fall hike at a local park. It’s so exciting to go empty-handed now and leave the strollers behind! We went on a beautiful warm day with the leaves showing off their gorgeous colors. Back in the days when I was pregnant with Alyssa, the first shirt I bought her said “Hiker in Training.” Now I feel like we’ve lived up to it a little bit with our new tradition. We had a great time walking around, taking it all in, and nature put on quite a show for us (or we must have just been there at mealtime). We got to see a hawk make several unsuccessful bids to make a squirrel his next meal. We also got very close to another squirrel that was working very very hard to crack open a walnut for its chow.

Also, way back before we started having kids, we started visiting a local pumpkin patch every year (I went there as a young kid, too). Through the years, my Mom, sister and Dad have been able to come with us. This year my Dad joined us. We were able to enjoy our normal routine of taking a hayride out to the pumpkin patch, checking out the log cabin built in the 1850’s, petting the farm animals (and feeding a goat), and sitting in the “Cinderella carriage.” The kids seemed to have the most fun with the straw maze and bales of straw all stacked up for the kids to climb on. The triplets (minus poor allergic Jack) were able to try their first elephant ear this year. The first time we got one for Alyssa there a while back, she said, “Who would want to eat the ear of an elephant?” It was a big hit, though, and the kids had a great time.

THE NEW

This year we also got invited to a fall party at the place of one of my old high school friends. It was fun to see people I haven’t talked to in 20 year (where does the time go!?) and watch our kids play together. We also got to go on a hayride there and eat some good chow. But I think the highlight for us was seeing our first ever pumpkin cannon. Here’s a video for you to the “Punkin Chunkin” in action for yourself.

THE BAD AND THE DEAD

Some of you may remember this post about the annual field trip the preschool takes to the apple orchard. I don’t know what it is about that place, but I’m beginning to think all the preschool field trips there are cursed (good thing this year was the last one!). We were running a couple minutes late to leave the house and ut oh, the van door didn’t open. The battery was dead. In the garage. Someone had left the lights on. Poor Dave got a panicked call in the middle of a class he was teaching, asking him how to get the van into neutral. Long story short, my awesome neighbors rescued me. We never did get the van in neutral (and I even had to borrow one of my kids’ flashlights, because the batteries in mine were all dead, too!). We had to take a shelf off the wall just to pop the hood. The other side of the garage was full of all kinds of stuff we had to move out of the way to get my neighbor's truck in the garage. Our batteries were on opposite sides, so we strung 2 sets up jumper cables together. But we did get to our field trip – just in time for the trio’s class to get off the hay wagon and end the field trip. <sigh> So, I let the kids play on the playground for a bit to make up for it. Despite being told not to, they ended up stealing some apples off a nearby tree and 2 of them chomped away. When I told them we had to apologize to the cashier and pay for them, I immediately got tears from the nonconvicted thieves. Secretly, I was glad to see their repentant hearts, but I felt for them, as I remember well that pit in your stomach when you have to make amends. One kid told me he was afraid that the police would be called and haul them away. But, eventually, we made things right again and I bought some goodies for the neighbors that rescued me earlier. Always an adventure when we are around!

I have a ton of pictures from all of these events that I was going to put in a slideshow, but, let’s face it, I’m not going to get to it. I still have stuff from this summer I want to blog about like visits from family, the boys’ new room, the basement finally got finished (a YEAR ago), swim lessons, the big birthday party… Someday……

Hope you are enjoying what’s left of the fall and getting done the most important things – spending time with family.

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Greetings Family and Friends,       

How are you? How has your year been? Thanks to those of you who have blessed us with your own Christmas updates. We love hearing from you, and we hope to hear from the rest of you soon!

As for us, if we had to describe our year, it felt like a return to normal for us. OK-- normal for having a 6-year old and 3-year-old triplets! For example, instead of having swings, exersaucers or a changing table, our dining room now has a table and chairs in it. How normal is that? Some nights after putting the kids to bed, we just talk and watch TV. We went a long stretch without doing that! We have no booster seats at the kitchen table anymore, and our Christmas tree has no gate around it. Best of all, we were blessed to be able to finish our basement this summer, so most of the toys now reside there. So, the transition from a daycare center to home is going very well! On top of that, no one had surgery or went to the ER this year, either! That hasn't happened since 2004 for us! (Urgent care center visits for sprained knees or extracting broken Qtips from ears or don't count, do they?)

So, since we spent a lot less time at doctor offices, we were able to do some fun things this year. We attended 2 family reunions. We boldly drove the clan to Colorado (only 2500 miles in the van) to see Dave's family. We also took a trip to Canton, OH to see family on Amanda's side. After the kids proved to be so adventurous, we tried some other "firsts" with them, like a bonfire, the zoo without a stroller, a family hike, and movies. We are really enjoying this age with kids and the whole new world that has just opened up to us as a family.

As for the kids, Alyssa is now in kindergarten and absolutely loves it. We are amazed at all the things she is learning, like reading some words already and writing sentences. Alyssa and Lauren took a ballet class this summer, and enjoyed every minute of it. They were also very excited to become roommates this summer, in a pink princess garden room. Lauren, in addition to ballet, has turned out to really enjoy sleeping in on weekends (one day until noon!), puzzles, coloring and music. She walks around often singing little songs she has made up. Lauren, Drew, and Jack are now in their first year of preschool. They are learning a lot about their letters and numbers and seem to enjoy school as well. They also have done a great job with potty training (not without incidents, though), just in time for those funds to go towards the grocery bill. Drew, especially, has grown to be a voracious eater. He works up an appetite running around the house doing sports drills he invented or asking lots of questions about the world around him. Jack and Drew also took a beginners sports class this summer. While Drew couldn't get enough of learning more things to with balls, Jack seemed more interested in calculating the circumference of the balls. His curiosity continues to grow as he tell us all the things around him that are "coo-ul," and he shows a deep love for animals by pretending to be one or cuddling up with 3 stuffed ones as he goes to sleep. He also claims to have seen a crocodile when we were in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Dave continues to run some races throughout the year (including a marathon relay), although he's been sidelined with some minor injuries. He also got to return to his homeland - a Notre Dame football game this year! He and Alyssa enjoyed a trip out the FL for his cousin’s wedding, too. Amanda's health is better than ever, and she's been doing some exercise of her own and is almost back to normal (just had to use that one more time). She has also been organizing some playdates using our church’s warehouse. But the best playdate of all, was getting to see her sister and hubby (who happen to live in Hawaii) ALONE thanks to the World's Greatest Husband manning the fort. It was a great time to visit, while enjoying some much needed relaxation, peace and quiet!

Well, that should do it for our family update. We'll leave you with some favorite 2009 quotes, as we wish you a very Merry Christmas and all the blessings from God in 2010!

God bless,     

Dave, Amanda, Alyssa, Lauren, Drew & Jackson

Alyssa: "Does God have a wife?”
Drew: (while watching a robin in a tree) "He is looking for his wallet."
Jack: "This needs new batteries" (referring to a pencil that needed sharpening) 
Lauren: (suddenly in the middle of lunch) "My armpit is cold."

PS We had rounds and rounds of fun this Christmas. How about you?

The Girls' Room

So project #2 for us this summer is the girls' room. (Number 1 is the basement.) We knew the big transition to big kid beds was coming soon, but we weren't sure how to handle it. 4 kids don't divide evenly into 3 bedrooms. However, Alyssa and Lauren have been the best of buds lately. They ask to dress alike all the time; sometimes they are the ones who act most like twins! They also did pretty well when they shared a bed at Grandma and Papo's in April. (Sorry, I thought I put pictures up of our Spring Break trip there, but I guess I didn't). For over a year now, Alyssa has complained that she is the only one in our house that sleeps alone. So we decided that we were going to try putting them in a room together, and they are incredibly excited about it.

What sealed the deal was when a friend of a friend   gave us the cutest bed for Alyssa (thanks Joey and Tim & Amy!). It is like a bunk bed on top with all kinds of shelves for her to hide her treasures from her siblings. Then underneath, there is a little playhouse.

 

 

 

My dad was kind enough to help Dave disassemble it and bring it over here. We are currently working on sanding and repainting it while we have it apart anyway. My Dad is also working on a picket fence headboard for Lauren's bed to match Alyssa's bed.

I had fun teaching Alyssa about the process of redecorating a room. She went with me to pick out 2 matching bedspreads. She did a really good job of picking a flowered quilt that went well with her bed all by herself. Once Lauren gave her approval, we picked out a wall color from it. The girls agreed on pink, so Alyssa went with me to pick up some paint chips. I wish I had recorded how big her eyes got when she saw how many different shades of pink there are! Then the girls narrowed them down to their top 3 choices, and 2 of them went up on the wall as samples. At first we were going to to use both colors (with one being an accent wall), but it turned out not to look so great when we did it. So the process dragged on and on with a few setbacks, but we finally got the walls done and woodwork painted after two weeks of work. (Is it me, or does something always go wrong for us?) We decided on a light shade of pink called Princess. That color became an early favorite just by virtue of its name.

Dave's parents were also nice enough to pick up a quart of glitter glaze for us so that we can have one special sparkly wall that the girls are really excited about, too. You can just barely make it out in the upper left corner of this picture.

The girls have been very patient lately while we have been working on the basement and not on their new room. Every once in a while Lauren will say, "This summer, I get to sleep in Alyssa's room." She doesn't get yet that it will be her room, too. We are hoping that this week we can switch gears and get the bed primed and painted. Until then, that's one more part of the house that is torn up. We do have the mattresses, sheets, dust ruffle and waterproof mattress pads ready to go, though (thanks to an IKEA trip by Grammy).

So here's what it looks like finished. We obviously still have a lot more work to do before it looks like a little girls room, but at least the painting is as done as it will be in this house! It's not our best work, but at least it's done. So if you come over to visit, you have to promise not to look behind the furniture!

We are really hoping this will work out, so that the boys can have a room  and we'll still have a guest room/toy room. That's not to mention how much we don't want to do anymore painting!!!

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

The Basement

Over the past couple of years, many people have said to us, "I don't know how you do it." Well, one of our big dark secrets is that our basement has turned into a Sanford & Son dream come true. For those of you who watch Friends, did you ever see the episode where Monica's secret closet was uncovered? Well, that's what our basement has become. Whenever something came our way, and we didn't have time to deal with it, we just threw it in the basement to deal with "someday." Well, guess what, someday has finally come.

The sad thing is that before I got pregnant with the triplets, I spent a lot of time working on the basement and had it almost cleaned out. Then I got pregnant and the exersaucers, high chairs, clothes and cribs came pouring in. It worked out pretty well that we had a place to put all of it, huh?

So here, at the risk of you losing all respect for us, is what our basement looked like when we first attacked it in March. That was when our loan went through, after starting the refinancing process back in December. We started lining up estimates from contractors, and there were no more excuses left to start cleaning out the basement. Up until then, I think it raised Dave's blood pressure every time he thought about all the clutter down there.

So we started with this.............

A month later, after putting all the Christmas stuff in the attic, giving away the rest of the baby stuff, several trips to Goodwill, and putting the rest in our garage, it looked like this...............

Then, after recycling the rest of the boxes, giving a few things to their rightful owners, and shoving the ping pong table in the corner, we were ready for our contractor. The framing and insulating began, and we even got the ductwork insulated before the drywall went up. The closets took shape, the lights went up, and our vision for this space started to come together.............

Now, with a lot of screws, several coats of mud, and lots of sandpaper later, we up to painting. We are doing this part of the project ourselves - thereby delaying the progress a bit. We did get in touch with  our inner Aunt Jemima and primed and painted the ceilings. We have also wiped down the walls and done some touch up sanding. Now just a few more holes to patch up, and we are ready to prime the walls. Anyone out there like to paint?

We'll keep you posted on the progress.

God bless,

Amanda