First Day of School

It has happened. Somehow in 5 short years our 33 week preemies are now 5 and off to school. I did cry. When that yellow bus pulled away I fell into my Beloved's arms and sobbed behind my Jackie O sunglasses. Then I went inside and washed up breakfast dishes, listened to music loud and ate all the bacon, toast and tea I wanted. Uninterrupted.

Meeting the Kindergarten Teacher

We had the "meet and greet" yesterday. Of course, Benjamin blushed when Mrs. Wholey knelt down to introduce herself to him. In that moment, I saw him fall in love with his kindergarten teacher. Do you see the look on Elijah-Max's face? It's priceless. Mrs. Wholey is that perfect blend of Mary Poppins and fashionista. She is adorable. I remember feeling this way about my kindergarten teacher Miss Douglas. She wore blue eyeshadow and powder blue suits. I always thought she had just stepped off of a Pan-Am airplane. She could balance books on her head. I don't remember her kneeling down to greet me. I do remember finger painting and standing in line to recite the numbers zero to one hundred and feeling petrified. I went to the back of the line a number of times until I got it right.

Our trio found their cubbies and coat "closets" with their own names on apples in them.
They found out that there will be a Guinea pig furry love in the classroom next week and this said furry love will live in the classroom the whole school year!

The theme for this week is "Wild, Wild West". Their bus info was laminated on cowboy boots strung on yarn. They will wear these this week to and from school so as to not end up on the wrong bus.
We had about 40 minutes to look over the classroom and find important things like the bathroom and the teacher. They are excited and talkative about tomorrow; the first real day of school. They get to ride the bus!
How can it be that in a few small moments our little preemies went from babies to big kids?!

New Blog about life with triplets plus one

I felt like I needed to start a blog about life with triplets plus one. So often people ask me, "How do you do it everyday?" and I'm not sure how we do it. We just do. It's the families who have more than four children that I admire. It's the single parents who fascinate me. How do they do it?! We just do what we need to do to get through the day. We pray, we play, we discipline and most of all, we LOVE.
So, here goes my second blog. You can find me here too.
Today was an attempted nap day for me. We drove home from Wyoming without any stops except to eat, fill the gas tank and use toilets along the way. We left Grand Teton National Park on Friday afternoon and made it back to Massachusetts last night (Sunday) right after supper. The children were dirty and hungry. The trio bathed together in our big bathtub and then their older brother Grant bathed after them. It was good to smell them so sweet and tender and warm AND clean. They were the cleanest they've been in over a week. Lake water just doesn't get kids as clean.
They were fed pasta and sent to bed way too late. It took moments to get back into the routine of songs, prayer and kisses. Then moments after I made my way down the stairs they began to run amok and had me come back up the stairs with threats for lost privileges if they didn't settle down and go to sleep.
They played hard today on Wii and with friends. They rode their bikes and got back into the routine of tormenting the cats. Elijah-Max found a fuzzy caterpillar and put that on the stray's back and then tried to keep the caterpillar inside as his "friend". Charlotte tried to convince the stray cat that it would love to live inside. Benjamin gave the stray dog food and a bowl of water out on the deck. Once our Charlie (pup) got wind of the cat, he pestered it until it lashed out with sharp claws and ran into the bog. What a smart stray cat. I don't think it'd be too happy here. I know our other three cats wouldn't like another cat! My beloved said in a loud voice, "we do NOT need another cat"!
Tonight one of us picks up the Panera bread donation for our bread ministry and tomorrow starts a new chapter in our lives. Our three five years olds start kindergarten!
I have a feeling I will cry buckets. Stay tuned, I'll let you know.

note to self: trim 40 nails tonight before they go to school tomorrow and braid Charlotte's hair so it won't get so tangled in her sleep.