When Life Gives You Lemons...

And since toddlers copy everything, they made their own version of lemonade for their dolls afterwards.

Family Fun

We had a full house for Father's Day and Keith's 30th birthday weekend. Keith's parents joined us along with his sister, Chelsey, and her wonderful family of five. The cousins had a blast playing together. From left to right: Hayden, Payson, Emma, Mikayla, Chloe and Madison.

Chelsey and her girls came down a few days early so the kids could have some extra time together. Our 8-passenger minivan came in handy. Poor (or lucky?) Payson was literally surrounded by girls!

The kids played dress-up and had music time. With five girls around, Payson couldn't help but to add fairy wings to his Policeman costume.

We were a few days away from taking our kids to see Toy Story 3 with Keith's company which would be their very first movie to see in the theater. And, if successful, it would even be their first movie to watch from start to finish. So we prepped them with a movie night at home with their cousins, popcorn and all. They loved it! We even gave them their first, brand new pillows for their cribs beforehand which they were so excited about! (They loved their first movie on the big screen, by the way!)

The kids got to decorate their own cupcakes for Daddy's birthday. As always, it was messy fun! Here is Payson showing off his chocolate-covered hands.

Hayden was the only child out of six to choose vanilla over chocolate... and she was the last to choose! Confident in her decision, she chose it again the next time. This is one strong girl who knows what she wants and does not seem to be affected by peer pressure.

Madison eats her cupcakes lick by lick until it's finally time to start in on the cake.

For Father's Day we honored the dads with a bagel family portrait for breakfast. Everyone was depicted and it made me smile afterwards how everyone wanted to eat their own bagel face.

Keith with his wonderful dad, Rick. Happy Father's Day to all!

Grammy (Roxanne) and Madison happy as can be.

Grammy planned a super-fun Treasure Hunt for the kids. They loved finding hidden treasures on their way to the playground and pool... rocks, pencils, pirate patches... all sorts of fun little things!

After swimming hard, the little ones rested while they enjoyed their after-swim snack.

We had such a fabulous weekend with our family, and as always, we cherished our special time with them.

Sparkabilities Toddler DVD!

Many of you may remember the kids participating in a video shoot for Sparkabilities a little over a year ago. Well, I am excited to say that Sparkabilities has released their Toddler 1 DVD and Hayden, Payson and Madison are featured several times throughout the program!

Click HERE to see a 6-minute preview of the new DVD. You will see two babies you recognize in a short clip at the 5:32 mark. Check it out!

To find out more about Sparkabilities, go to: http://www.sparkabilities.com/

Going to Work

Keith's office put together a super fun "Take your child to work day" with a Toy Story 3 theme. I was a little unsure of how the kids would do as the last time we were up there, it was a lot of work keeping them out of trouble. There was a lot of mischief going on that first time around!

This time it was all about the kids and there was plenty of entertainment starting with coloring and lots of kid food!

The kids enjoyed looking out the window at all of the small cars and people. You can see a bit of Victory Park and the American Airlines Center in front of them. (What a view!)

Hayden being active, silly and full of life as usual!

I just love watching Payson and Daddy horse around. They really are having as much fun as they look like they are!


Next up the kids got to pick their favorite mix-ins for cupcakes: marshmallows, sprinkles and M&M's!

This kept them entertained for nearly half an hour. Just look on the smile on this boys' face!

Here, Payson is learning how to play foosball from our friend Brian. In their last match, Payson beat Brian 5-0. He's a very fast learner.

Back at home, Payson got hurt and said, "Hayden, I need a hug." He is so sweet and loving and will ask for hugs from his sisters when he is sad or upset. And the no-pants look just made it even cuter.

That evening, we went to our street's block party. Kids have always been drawn to Keith, so I officially gave him the name "Toddler Whisperer" at the block party.

After we ate hotdogs and burgers the kids went for a swim in the perfect-sized kiddie pool. The kids' friend, Charlotte, was with us for a sleepover and joined us for the fun. She blended in so well with her blonde curly hair that people kept asking which three were ours!

Madison was the only child brave enough to go down the giant water slide with Daddy. She wanted to do it over and over but you'd never believe it by the look on her face! And one of the neighbor girls decided she wanted in on the group slide.

Down at the bottom Hayden, Payson and Charlotte cheered for them and the other sliders exclaiming, "Yea!" and "Good job!"

The next day I did storytime with the kids and told them the story of Noah's Ark using our Little People set. They loved it!

Here are Madison and Charlotte painting with brushes. These two were deliberate and tidy in their work while Payson and Hayden were a lot more carefree and messy!

When the kids saw that Charlotte was going to wear her Minnie shirt, they wanted to wear their Minnie (or Mickey) shirts too! They all had a blast and it was the perfect first sleepover. Charlotte, you're welcome to spend the night any time!

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Memories

Later this month the kids will turn 2 1/2 years old. While this year has certainly been a challenging one thus far with three outgoing, persistent, independent and opinionated toddlers, it has also brought with it a lot of fun memories.

We value our families so much, and we were super excited to get to travel over Memorial Day weekend to spend time with Keith's family. Chelsey treated Hayden and Madison to double french braids which they, surprisingly, sat quite still for.

The cousins are getting closer and closer as they get older and learn to play together. Here are Emma and Hayden mimicking each other at the park.

Hayden was thrilled when Grammy let her go through her purse filled with all sorts of treasures. Hayden is drawn to all things grown-up.

We were excited to meet Joey and Cristin's newborn, Gianna. The kids still love babies and I found them singing "Jesus Loves Me" to her while she was swinging.

They were so sweet to her, making sure she always had her toys, patting her softly and trying to help feed her a bottle.

Keith had a few days of vacation so we spent one fun morning at the Ft. Worth Zoo. Here are the kids expressing concern over the elephants' dirty backs.

I couldn't believe that the kids weren't fearful of this white tiger walking back and forth right in front of their faces. Even I was a little frightened when he seemingly glared deep into their eyes.

A nice lady stopped us and offered to take a photo of our family for us. Yes, that's a splint on my wrist. I have recently been diagnosed with wrist tendonitis (inflammation of the tendons) after injuring it simply by being too active and hard on my dominant hand. (What's a mom of triplets to do?) I've had it for 10 weeks with little improvement which is quite frustrating. You never know how debilitating it can be having an injured arm until it happens. I am still in the process of treating it and am hoping and praying for a full recovery.

The kids loved feeding the parakeets with seed sticks. They even caught and held the birds on their sticks, allowing them to get an up-close look.

Later that week we met Pops and Nunie for another round at the Children's Museum. This time the kids were old pros. Here Hayden is sharing fruits and vegetables from her garden with her grandparents.

The kids' worked hard trying to reach the pedals on these tricycles. Payson has had a growth spurt since we last measured him in December, but he is still just a little shorter than Hayden. Madison continues to be our petite little baby doll. She is the last to reach door knobs, tricycle pedals, etc but is best able to hang from playground equipment and the like since she is strong and more than five pounds lighter.

We ended our fun week with very special visitors: Hayden, Payson and Madison's great-grandparents from Colorado! We were delighted to have them in our home and cherish our wonderful time together. Granny and Papa were brave to visit Texas in the middle of June and didn't seem to be phased by the heat one bit!