Outside, inside, and potty training!

Our little kung-fu master has completed her first karate session, earning a white belt with four black bands - whatever that means. While Ellie enjoyed the classes and was the only best girl in the class, she confided in me on the way home from her last class that if she had to make the choice between karate and swimming, she'd rather go back to swimming lessons.

Which is fine with me: swimming lessons are cheaper than karate, I've found out. But, I'm glad she branched out of her comfort zone and tried something new!  

With the temps slowly climbing towards 50 this week, we've been getting outside as much as we can.



Zoe at her cousins' birthday party this weekend

 

Aidan - does every boy have to try this??

 



Ellie - complete with dress shoes - was right in there with the boys playing football!





A rare photo of Maddie actually looking at the camera



Ellie - helping me play with my camera

We've had to get a little creative in playing inside lately too; we pushed the kitchen table and chairs aside last week and rolled out big sheets of paper for the kids to color. They had a blast!

And, another attempt at a group photo of the kids. This was a rather impromptu attempt, as you can probably tell by the disheveled hair and clothes. I'd turned on the TV in our bedroom to the "Funny Show," aka America's Funnies Videos and the kids crawled up on our bed to watch.

Aidan, Ellie, Maddie, Zoe



A serious Ellie

What else have we been doing? Dave and I are sitting here trying to remember. My birthday this week was quite memorable - but not for the right reasons. The triplets are typical 2 year olds and certainly have their moments, and my birthday was no exception for typical 2 year old behavior. I won't go into details other than to say our attempt to go out for dinner ended in me slamming my 2-for-1 margaritas while Dave loaded screaming hellions into the car. 'Nuff said. Of course, when we'd stopped in for a quick visit with Dave at work earlier in the week, they were perfect angels.

Oh yeah, almost forgot: Aidan is POTTY TRAINING! He pretty much just figured it out for himself last week and is so proud of himself! He's wearing a pull-up during the day now, and is fairly good at telling us when he needs to go. Otherwise we'll remind him, and he has been doing great with on only about one accident per day. He even stayed dry all night Friday night! It has been a challenge with the girls though - they're very interested in "trying" to go - but nothing ever happens. And when Aidan has to go, they want to try as well. And when we wash Aidan's hands, we have to wash their hands too. I never imagined I'd be spending so much time in our bathrooms! We haven't really been pushing the girls but I think we'll have to step up the program pretty soon and get them on track with Aidan. I never imagined I'd be wishing they'd just stay in diapers, but honestly - it's easier to just do a quick change than to lounge around in the bathroom as they all take their numerous turns. Please pray for us that this stage goes quickly!