Kids Sixth Birthday Party: Knights and Princess..

For the kids sixth birthday party we used the theme princess and knights. Lets just say it was awesome. I am not sure that I could ever duplicate this party, but I have to say it was well worth all the efforts that T and I put into it.

My invitations were printed on cloudy paper, with the wording:
By Royal decree, for all in the land, A grand birthday party is now being planned. Sir D, Sir JM and Princess Kalie are six. We are really excited, if you could please join us, we would be so delighted! Every Princess and knight, mark the notable date. At 6:00 o'clock have your carriage arrive at the gate. The 23rd of April is the festive day. At the famed ****** castle, your mom knows the way. We shall have a grand time, so come one and all. If you plan to attend the queen request a call ***-***-****. Well have a yummy banquet and games to entertain and no one goes home until the dragon is slain. If I tell you much more, it wont be a surprise, youll have to come see with your own eyes! So please be our guest, oh before I forget the party ends at eight.


My menu was simple, we served: Dragon Dogs (hot dogs) Dragon Scales (Doritos) and Dragon Nails (Bugles) as well as Capri Suns, Soda's and of course cupcakes

My cupcakes were Pebbles Cupcake Cereal, Made like rice Crispi treats. Make sure to use an ice cream scoop to put them into the cupcake shape.I topped the boys with dragons, knights and horses and the icing was red..The girls were topped with a princess crown.

Decorations, this is where I went overboard.. With the help of a friend we made a castle entrance, draw bridge and dragon that were placed on my fence.

The garage was decorated with yet a second castle, this is where I had the tables for arts and crafts set up as well as the food. For arts and crafts the girls made fair lady hats, princess pointy hats and wands. The boys made shields.

I filled a small chest with the kings jewels, crowns and beaded necklaces, do not forget the rings.

For favors I had a medieval cup, bubbles adorned with a sword and fruit gummies. In addition each child got to take home a sword and a horse on a stick.

For fun we had many games sat up, sack race, ring toss, horse shoe toss and even a castle to color.

I got an awesome blow up dragon from Oriental Trading that we used to end the party. It was taken down off of the play system and the kids attacked it with their swords, and ax's.

At the start of the party all the horses were placed at the bottom part of the play house with the weapons at the top.

Yes I overdid it but it was so worth it to see the look on all of the kids faces.
all the pictures can be viewed here...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=205977&id=568670038&l=0e7a57ad35

Weight loss sucuss

I am very happy to say that I have now reached my second mini goal. With one more Mini goal to go before I make it to my main goal I am very happy with my progress. When I started this journey I had allowed myself to get up to 168 lbs. I decided that I was fat and happy, so why bother and after all I had triplets what are the chances of me losing the weight and looking good in a bathing suit anyway.
So what snapped me out of it, I went home over the holidays for a family funeral. While at the funeral NO ONE knew who I was, I was even mistaken for a family member that is over 200 lbs. I got home and told my husband not ever again. I started my diet and exercise routine.
After a month I joined a gym and since starting to go to the gym I have lost even more weight.

I am doing the bike and circuit training. I hope to start a spin class in about another month. I also hope to be down another five to ten lbs by then. My goal weight is 130 lbs, however I am thinking of changing it to 125.

So what am I doing, the first thing I did was give up cokes, I was drinking five a day. Now I drink one Coke Zero in the morning and have a bowl of Special K with low fat milk for breakfast. For lunch I have a protean drink or a salad, my snack is a Special K snack bar or fruit and dinner is baked or grilled and never fried. I also switched to I can not believe it is not butter, EVO and multi grain pasta. I am down to 145 now and am very happy to say that a lot of my clothes are falling off of me. I am however not going shopping till I get to my goal weight, so if you see me and it looks like my pants are falling off, well they probably are.

Swollen Lymph Nodes, cough- when will winter end???

I am so done with flu and cold season. It has been a hard winter for us, the kids started it off with getting swine flu which was followed by three kids with strep throat, we have stomach virus's and a handful of colds.
Sine the start of the new year we have had two stomach bugs (fun times) one case of Strep throat and three colds. Now I have one with an infected lymph node (my strep throat child) which is believed to be caused from the strep, and one really bad cold.

I am so ready for this flu and cold season to be over, to have healthy kids for more than two weeks in a row and to not be running to the doctor every week. It is just getting old. I know that this is just part of having children and that all kids get sick from time to time, it just seems we have had our fair share of sickness this year.

Okay vent over..

On a side note I have finally made the decesion that it is time to lose some weight. I have been yo yo dieting since having the kids and think that it is time that I change the way I prepare our food and change our life. In doing so I have joined the gym, to which I work out for two hours five days a week, I gave up coke's and now drink water more than anything. So far I have lost 18 lbs, I started this on Dec 26. Yes I know most start this on Jan 1, but when I do that I end up yo yo dieting. Now I want to make a real difference in our lives, eat right, exercise and take care of ourselves so that the children will see us, daddy and I, doing this and they will in return hopefully have a healthier lifestyle as they grow up. Not to mention how much better I feel and how much more energy I have now that I have started.

Funny Conversations with Triplets

Having triplets you find yourself having conversations you never dreamed you would have, from do not play with your brothers penis, play with your own to trying to explain to a five year old that she does not have a "winny"

Last night was one of those times and it was well just to priceless not to share:

So keith is out of town this week for work, last night for a treat I let the kids take turns taking a bath in our room and watching tv on our bed.

Kalie was last when I get her out of the tub and am trying to dry her off she says to me

"Mom, I will dry my winny, its my privates and you should not touch it"

It took all I had not to bust out laughing. I explained to her, yet again, that she does not have a winny, she has a vagina, a monkey or a frog but never a winny.

she said

"but the boys have a winny, I want a winny, why can I not have a winny, mom can you make doug or jm give me their winny and I can give them my vagesta"

okay by this time I am rolling on the floor. I can not help it.

Douglas then says "there is no way I am giving her my winny, I like it, it makes going potty easier and I do not want to potty out of my but like Kalie does"

John Michael

"No, Way mom. I am keeping mine, what would I play with in the bathtub if I did not have one"


so we have a winny and a vegesta... I have always called them penis and vagina to them. Just goes to show they are going to call it what they call it.


As you see it is not all hard work, there is a lot of laughter as well

Life is back to normal..

All three children are returning to normal now, swine flu has moved through the house, it still lingers with my husband and I. Odd all the news reports say that it is hitting children much harder and yet the two of us have suffered much worse than the triplets did. Which I am glad it turned out that way. I would much rather my be sick than them any day. It is so much harder when a little one is sick.

I had parent teacher conferences yesterday and was plesently surprised at how things turned out. First their grades were awesome. JM had the most areas in which he needs help (which was no big surprise) and the areas that he needs work are things that I already knew he needed extra help on and is getting at school and home. The teachers love him and say that he is very well behaved and that other than typical boy behavior they have had no issues with him. I am so happy that he is adjusting so well and doing so well in school. I was so worried that I would get reports home and be called to the school often due to him not doing well. His teacher's in fact said that had I not told them and if not for a few minor personality things they would have never guessed he had aspergers. I attribute this to him being in therapy since he was one years of age and all of the hard work he has done over the past several years to learn to deal with all the sensory input.

Douglas had a great report as well, he had 3's on everything with the exception of two things, address and patterning. I am so proud of my little man. The teacher said he gets the giggles so easy and has such a contagious laugh. She also said he seems to be a care taker, I was aware of this and will need to work on him doing things for himself and not giving up his things for his brother and sister. I want him to be happy and not always worry about everyone else.

Kalie Rose, like Douglas had mostly 3's with a handful of 2's, the teachers love her and call her their fashion princess of the class room. (big surprise there) the things she needs work on were no big surprise to me either. She is such a smart girl and is doing so well.

Again, all and all I am very proud of the three of them and how well they are doing in school. They all seem to have adapted very well to being in the new school, to being in separate class rooms and to the longer days.

Swine Flu update

My boys are doing very well, they have been on thamaflu for some time now and doing breathing treatments three times a day. I thought that JM was without fever yesterday but at bed time his fever went back up. He has been fever free most of today. Douglas has been running a low grade fever today.

Kalie got off the bus yesterday with a fever, we started her right away on thamaflu and breathing treatments. I have started to feel bad and am running a fever, right at 100. My husband is not running a fever but is feeling run down and tired.

We are hanging in there and hopefully almost to the end of this with the boys.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support

Swine Flu times two

My boys started running a fever yesterday, D's has gotten as high as 104 and JM has stayed around 102. They say it feels like something is in their nose and there is nothing there and that their stomachs hurt. So we will spend the next five days hydrating them and keeping their fevers down. It is going to be an interesting week to say the least. Please send your prayers that things go well and we do not end up in the hospital.

I will update everyone on how they are doing, but my post will be short this week as my focus will be on the boys.. Lets hope and pray that Kalie stays healthy..

What to do with my time?

Now that is something I never thought I would say again. The past five years of my life has been devoted to my children. I have been busy making sure they have everything they need, running them to therapy, school and various events. Now they are in school, they get on the bus at seven and get off at three. I have so much time and not much to do. I have put my name at the school to volunteer in the classrooms, lunch room etc.

In addition I have started to help out at the church every day for two to three hours, doing various office work that is needed. I just started this week and am very blessed that I have some thing to do other than clean house all day long. While to some it may not seem like much, shredding documents, cleaning the sanctuary, and preparing the bulletins, it is still God's work and I am sure that our family will be blessed by my being a small part of making our great church work and run as it does.

School is going great for the kids, really great. John Michael has had some minor issues over the last few weeks but nothing that is too concerning.

Having a hard time getting going this morning!

For some reason this morning everything seemed to go wrong, from my sleeping late, to Kalie not wanting to wear what daddy had picked out for her and ending with not one but three glasses of spilled milk it has just been a morning from hell. I am not even sure it if it worth going back to bed to start over again. (with the fear that it would just be worse)

On a good note I am going to lunch with my husband today, something we have talked about doing since school started, yet I have not found the time to make it down to where he works. In fact I will be leaving in about an hour. I hope to get a jump start on my Christmas shopping while I am out.

The milk has been cleaned up, the kids are off to school and I have had my morning shot of caffeine. I guess all in all things have to go up from here. Right!!

Edited to add...

Well my day did not get much better, I went to get the regular flu shot at my husbands office and then to lunch with him. By the time I arrived home I had a migraine headache, that has stayed with me for most of the day. I have not been able to check emails or work on my Christmas PTO project, that I have got to get organized and soon.

Thank goodness for awesome neighbors that invited me and the kids over to play. They could see that I was in bad shape and suggested that I go lay down in the guest room. I took her up on it and was able to sleep the headache off. Lets hope that tomorrow brings better things for us.

Sweet Birdie and PlainlyJanes

I just have to brag on this site that I have stumbled upon. I love having unique clothes, one of a kids and not something that you will find in your local department store. As a result I have spent a great deal of time on etsy, one of my favorite sellers is Sweet Birdie. She makes great quality merchandise for mom and her children.

Her site can be found at

http://host.pappapak13.com/~sweetbir/

and her blog is located at


http://www.plainlyjanes.typepad.com/


Her work is truly unique and high quality. You can not find a better made dress/or skirt around. You will not be disappointed in your selection.

Life goes on..

I am so tired of being cooped up inside and am so ready to get back in the swing of things. I hope to spend some time this week out on the back deck at least. I am still non weight bearing, so anywhere I go I will be on crutches. I am not up for that. I am not really a fan of walking on those things.. but I may have to venture out, at least to lunch this week.

In fact I may suggest that my husband met me for lunch one day this week. Now that sounds like a plan.

The kids are doing real good with mom not being able to move around. They have been helping me out, bringing me things and helping me clean things up (maybe that is the silver lining to all of this)
In addition I think my husband is starting to get the idea of what all I do around here.

This week is more of the same, the kids will have school all week. Thank goodness we were not more effected by the flooding in the state. My prayers go out to those that were. It has been a stressful week for those of us that live here in Georgia, I can not watch the news feeds without crying, even now a week later it still makes me cry. I am not even native to Georgia and I feel such heart ache for the state and for those that have lost loved ones in this great flood.

Have a blessed Sunday..

Wetting the bed.

About two weeks ago JM wet the bed, I thought well he just had too much to drink and did not wake up, changed his sheets did not make a big deal about it, then last week it occurred again. So we made some changes and said we would make sure he goes to the bathroom prior to going to bed, no big deal. Well this morning he was wet again, that is once a week for the past three weeks. He has never wet the bed before, in fact none of them have. This is new to us.

I am not sure if something is bothering him, if it is related to my surgery, if it is school or if this is just part of aspergers and part of our life now. I hate to think of him going through this and waking up scared and ashamed. I have to make sure that my husband knows not to make a big deal about it, the last thing I want is for him to be made to feel bad about an accident.

So we are now going to make sure he does not have liquids after a certain time and that he goes to the bathroom prior to going to bed. Poor guy...

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. He is now five years old and like I said this is a "new" problem, we did not even have this problem when we were potty training him. So please any ideas..

One day post surgery - Ankle preaneal Subluxation Surgery

My big day was yesterday. We arrived at the surgery center at 6 in the morning after check in I was given a mixture of medication to help keep me calm and happy, wish I could have those happy pills at home...

Before I knew it I was in the OR and then waking up in the recovery room. The entire procedure took about an hour, I was then in recovery for an hour before I was allowed to go home.

Once home I went right to bed and sleep all day. I was woken a few times to be given medication and went right back to sleep after words.

It was a very uneventful day. I was not in a great deal of pain, thank goodness we were able to stay ahead of the pain.

I woke up last night around two am and was hurting, and itching. I took some benedryl and my pain meds and was able to get back to sleep.

My foot is in a soft cast and will remain there till Friday when I will move to the smasher as the kids call it, or the hard boot. I am very happy that I do not have to be in a true cast for six weeks.

The children are being very sweet, they all brought me a hand made card yesterday, they were so proud of what they had done and I have to say that they did a great job and were all so sweet to me. They even let me use their coveted blankets..

Thank you again for the continued prayers and support.

Childern learning "more" than I want them to learn.

I knew it was going to happen, as children go off to school they are exposed to different nationalities, different kids of different back grounds, families that have different rules etc than what we do at home. In previous years they have been in a private church ran preschool, so my concerns were not as great as they are now.

I am sad to say that in the short time they have been in school they have picked up some new behaviors and learned some things that we are having to unlearn at home. To start off my weekend Douglas was very proud to show me that he knew how to flip people off. Granted at age five he has no idea what he is doing nor what it means. I sat down with him (when we got home from church, as this is where he showed me his new skill) and explained that while it may not seem like it to him that doing that is not a very nice thing and not something that we do. He went on to tell me who in his class showed him how to do this and that this "friend" thought it was funny. I told him that if his friend did it again he was to simply tell him that what he is doing makes God sad and it is not a nice thing to do. I am proud to say that when he got home on Monday that he said he informed his friend that he was making God sad.

Then Monday morning as I was getting JM's clothes out he informed me. " Mommy, Morgan from my class gets behind me and pulls my underwear up my but" so now a girl, of all things, is giving my JM a wedgie, again JM thought it was funny and laughed about it. I spoke with him and told him that this was not a very nice thing to do to your friends and he should tell an adult when she does it. I then had to of course tell him that it was not something that was acceptable behavior for him to do either.

Kalie came home yesterday telling the boys they were fagots and to suck her balls. Now she did not hear this at school it came from a friend in the neighborhood. I am very good friends with the mom and know that I need to say something to her. I just do not know how to approach her with this, we are very good friends. And I know that the person that said it has some issues, I do not want to add to her plate so to speak, but on the other hand I have to let her know that her son is saying these things around the young girls.

Now how to explain to Kalie that well she does not have balls and that neither of these sayings is acceptable.

I am also having issue sright now with JM saying Stupid and Frikin, so Frikin is not really that bad but it is the context in which he is saying it. I have tried many things to get him to stop and would love suggestions on things that have worked for you.

Thanks again, Constant reader


on a side note, please say prayers for us on Thursday, that is our big surgery date.

Surgery _ Ankle Peroneal tendon subluxation and Primary ATFL Ligament repair

Yes it is as bad as it sounds. Next Thursday I will be going under the knife to finally repair an ankle that is well past the time to get fixed. The final straw occurred last November when I fell while walking with the children.

We were walking around the block after eating Thanksgiving dinner and when I went to take a step my ankle was no there, this is a common problem of mine with my left ankle. I injured it when I was in highschool and have continued to injure it since. This will in fact be my second surgery on this ankle, lets hope this one does the trick.

After my last fall, which resulted in a break and a grade three sprain (my third one in three years). As a result of the fall it was determined after doing an MRI that I have in fact split my peroneal tendon, the doctor says it appears it is cut from top to bottom and that I have no ligaments attached to the bone any longer. His exact words, "I do not see how you are walking"

The procedure is expected to take right over two hours, we will arrive at the surgery center at 6 in the morning and I will be home later that day. I will be placed in a soft cast for two weeks, at which time I will move to a walking boot, however will not be able to be weight bearing till I reach the six week mark. I will undergo extensive therapy during this time which will continue till six months post op. At which time I should have an ankle that is better than new...

Lets hope so as I am tired of being in pain and having to limit my activities for fear of getting another sprain.

So what am I going to do after I am healed. My goal is to start running, which is something I have never done. I want to run a marathon, or at least a half marathon. I want to get back in to shape and start taking better care of myself. So much of my time and energy has been spent taking care of the triplets over the last 6 years that I have forgotten to do the things I love and to take care of myself.

So next Thursday morning say a prayer for me, the doctors and my family that all goes well with the procedure.


The pictures are from Last November when I had the last injury.

Walking in the park!!

For Memorial Day Weekend we deiced to do things as a family, we have spent so much time this summer with friends that we have not done much with just the five of us. What a relaxing weekend we had.

The kids were all very excited about spending the day with just us, we made plans to go to Swanee Mountain and hike the trail and then have a family picnic. It was a fun filled day that was full of exploring our world and getting to know about things in the woods. They loved hiking the mountain, seeing the trees, squirrels and various bugs. It was a lot of fun seeing who could find the most Grand Daddy Long legs.

Needless to say when we got home everyone was worn out, but it was a very much needed hike. It did all of us some good to just be together as a family and enjoy all the great things nature has to offer us. Not to mention that mom wanted a chance to walk the beautiful trails one last time before my surgery. It will be a long time before I get to make the trip again.

Good week at school

We are having a much better week at school this week, the kids seem to have been going through an adjustment period and now they seem to have settled into a new routine and are used to things. They really enjoy going and are liking their teachers and new friends that they are making.

Life seems to be setting in for us again, getting into a routine, every day things seem easier.

I went to Appleseeds yesterday and am going to create a word wall for them, to help them learn their site words. I will post pictures once I am done. In addition I got bob books and site word books. I had Douglas and Kalie sitting to read them last night. I got a site word card game that I am playing with JM. He learns better this way.

Who knew that it would mean I would be going back to school as well.

Now to the fun part, I will be having ankle surgery in two weeks, my MIL is going to come and care for the kids. I am not 100% sure of all the details of the surgery yet, just that it can not be avoided and after six months of intensive rehab I will be back to knew. I will post more about the procedure as I learn more, I have a doctors appointment soon to go over all that will be done and why.

Daddy!

It occurred to me that I rarely post about their dad, my husband the man that helped to make all of this possible.


K really is a great father, he goes above and beyond for me and the children. I could not ask for a better husband or dad for the kids. He is always there, helping every steep of the way, always has been. He never blinked when I needed him to get up two or three times a night to help me with feeding them when they were babies, then as they grew he continued to change diapers. help with potty training, help with what ever I needed help with. Even now at the age of five he feeds them dinner every night and puts them to bed. He also does bath time.


I do not believe we could have a better father for the kids or husband for me.

Do not get me wrong we have our moments, like all married couples we have out times, our fights, our issues. Having multiples has not always been the easiest thing in the world, there has been fights, times that we were so tired from lack of sleep that we could hardly kiss good night (much less anything else) Then there is the stress of having three babies at once, premature ones that puts so much stress on a marriage, the hospital visits, then the sleepless nights.

Through it all K was my rock, the one thing in my life that was constant and secure during all the hard times was K.

So while I may complain about him from time to time, while I may not always show how much I appreciate all he does for our family he is the rock that keeps me going, a great husband and an awesome father.

First week of school

This has been such a big week for us and it has been a good week. Our family, the triplets, have taken a new step in life and have begun a new journey. For the most part it has been a great week. Mommy has found that she enjoys the quiet of the house and being able to get things done without the stress of the kids.

The kids are thriving at school, they get up wanting to go and excited about what new things they will get to do during the day. They are making new friends and memories. I am so proud of them and of what they have accomplished.

It does not seem possible that they are old enough to go to school. Just six years ago I was starting my cycle of shots that lead to the positive pregnancy test that resulted in finding out that our family was growing by three and not one.

It has been an amazing journey to get to this point. Do not get me wrong there were times that all four of us were sitting on the living room floor crying or that I was singing at the top of my lungs to try and get two of them to stop crying while I gave one a bottle. Then I learned to sit on the floor and give all three a bottle at the same time. So while it has not always been easy it has been well worth every hard day, every tear that was shed and every stressed out evening. I would not trade the past five years for anything. But in saying that I must say that I am really enjoying this next phase of our life, I am going to enjoy being able to do some things for my self for a change to be able to be something other than the triplets mom.

Gone are the days of the rude statements, I am glad it is you and not me, ON My Triplets did you did IVF, or my goodness what were you thinking. Now I have a quiet house, I have kids that seem to really love school ( I know it has only been a week) and I have me time.

I have no idea what I am going to do with all of my spare time, I am sure I will come up with something.

Thanks again for reading.

Kindergarten Rocks..

What a great first day of school we all had. I got some much needed rest, visited with friends over a moms breakfast at my house and the kids loved every minute of it.

They got off the bus all grins, smiling from ear to ear and chattering up a storm. They could not get it out fast enough. Their favorite part was lunch.. They loved picking their own food and sitting with their friends.

The best part, no one cried, not even mommy. Okay I think daddy got a tad teary but that was it. I am so proud of my big kids.. Where on earth has the time gone

It seems like they were just babies and here we are going off to school for the first time.

I think I am going to enjoy my peace and quiet for a while.

So all that no sleep last night was for nothing..

Now I am exhausted and they seem tired as well, so the first day took it out of all of us. I think we will all sleep well tonight.


I did put them in different classes and they did great today with it. Kalie was my biggest concern, I was so worried she would cry and be sad, but according to her teacher she was talking, and participating in class and music. So it seems all is good with the decision to have them separate.