Patriotic trio

The 4th of July, aka Independence Day, always seems to bring out a sense of all things Americana: fireworks, food from the grill, lake/beach, our favorite national colors - red, white and blue, watermelon, and of course, the stars and stripes. It's a time to reflect on our great nation and enjoy summer. Americans are proud. And we like to show it!

Last July 4th we were basking in the glow of the beach. We were loving being "arrogantly shabby" at Pawley's Island, SC. My family has been vacationing at Pawley's since my dad was young (or maybe even longer..??) and it's one of my very favorite family traditions. There are so many wonderfully fun memories that I equate with Pawley's and I consider it my happy place. Truth be told, if my memory serves me, we had pretty bad beach weather last year. There was lots of rain and clouds for quite a bit of the week. Not only that but I just happened to be 20 weeks pregnant....with triplets. I couldn't move fast (or much) and it was difficult to get in and out of the beach chairs. I was worried about going out in the ocean when I would get waist deep and the waves would hit the big ole baby bump. Still, despite all of this, we had a great time and made more family memories. When it comes down to it, I think I might choose to be at Pawley's Island over just about anywhere. Ahh, all the reminiscing that is going on in my head right now. When I think back to that time last year, I had no indication that I would end up in the hospital a few weeks after this and deliver my sweet babies about 7 weeks later.

July 4th, 2013

Waiting on the annual 4th of July Parade!
 

Two Five (counting the fetuses LOL) proud Americans on the beach!

This year we stayed home and had MaSha come down from Virginia to spend the weekend with us. Once again we had several more "firsts" with the babies.

On Thursday the 3rd we attended a Red, White and Blue neighborhood party. All the kids in the neighborhood were invited to dress in their patriotic colors, have a little bike/wagon/stroller parade and then feast on some firecracker popsicles. It was fun to go out there and meet more of the neighbors. We also had a reason to take out our triple stroller! It was a hand-me-down from a friend of a friend. How awesome is that?!?!?! Anyway, I digress. Back to the neighborhood party. I'm ashamed to admit that we've lived in our current house for 3 years and know very few of the neighbors. Are you in the same camp with me that thinks it's wayyyyyyyyyy easier to meet people when you have a child/children with you? You have an automatic icebreaker and topic of conversation to talk about the kid(s). Here are a few pictures of the neighborhood party!

Our little family

MaSha with the boys

My beautiful, patriotic triplet babies

Neighborhood kids with popsicles

I'm a proud mama!

On Friday the 4th, we took advantage of what we assumed would be a lot of holiday sales and took the babies up to the outlet mall about 45 minutes away. Hello, what's more American than shopping?!?! Haha! This was one of our first really public outings and I've heard horror stories from other triplet mamas about rude comments or stupid questions. I wasn't sure what to expect. We also interrupted naptime to some degree...so it was a total guess as to how this outing would go. I thought we'd be fighting the crowds at the outlets, but when we pulled into the parking lot, I was pleasantly surprised at how empty it was. I guess all the normal people went to the beach/lake/pool to spend the 4th of July! We pulled in, unloaded the babies into two strollers (a double and a single) and found a bench to do a bottle feeding.  After the feeding, we started shopping! MaSha and I took the strollers and separated from Thomas so he could find some ways to spend his birthday money. For MaSha and myself, it was a bit of a challenge to try to hold doors for each other while trying to get both strollers into each store. We went through several baby stores and just walked around the outlets before meeting back up with Thomas. Stokes, Ryan and William were patient and quiet and good and just wanted to look around and take in all the sights and sounds. I think it worked in our favor that it wasn't very crowded there but we did get several surprised reactions, murmurs of "there are THREE of them" and "wow, triplets!" and even a few questions. I'm glad to say that we got ZERO rude comments. Well done, fellow shoppers! Please note that the boys are wearing their red, white and blue and we have little American flags on their strollers. Holiday festive attire for the three Peerys in a pod!

Feeding the boys when we first got there...

The babies and me

 

 

Thomas and the babies

 

 

Outlet shopping consumed a big chunk of the afternoon but the rest of the afternoon we spent hanging out with the babies, swinging in the hammock and spending some time on the deck.

 

William and Stokes in exersaucers having fun

Happy Ryan on his playmat

MaSha with William and Esso

William, Stokes and Ryan on the hammock

Don't you love the serious look?!?!?

Peery family picture!

Da-da with William

Goofing around

Stokes trying to feed himself and his Da-da

Me feeding the boys

MaSha and William having a heart to heart

That evening after we got the boys in bed, Thomas, MaSha and I had an all-American 4th of July dinner that included burgers, potato salad, baked beans and brussel sprouts. I admit that the brussel sprouts are a little unconventional, but we had them and needed to make them before they went bad! Then I had a surprise patriotic dessert for us!

 

Is it weird that I feel the need to take pictures of food and include it on the blog? :)

Thomas, General and MaSha

red, white and blue dessert - ha! ;)

 

 

After dinner, Thomas pulled out a surprise for us....some sparklers! We didn't have any "real" firecrackers, but had to have some sort of fireworks for the 4th!

 

 

On Saturday, we had another fun-filled day. We took the triplets to the downtown Farmer's Market. There were quite a few people there but we had 2 strollers and walked single file due to the crowds so most people didn't notice (or care?) that we had triplets and we were pretty much incognito. We did, however, meet some 11 year old girl triplets that were cute as can be! We had a fun little conversation with them. I love the Farmer's Market and MaSha had never been so Thomas and I were glad to get to show it to her.

 

Pushing strollers into the Market

Beautiful flowers

Fresh produce

South Carolina peaches

Thomas and his boys

They wanted to stop and listen to the bluegrass band for a minute!

MaSha with William and me with Stokes

Stokes and me

MaSha, William, Stokes and me

As we were moseying through downtown, I happened upon this gem. Just in case you were wondering...

GO TIGERS!!!!

Later that afternoon, we took the boys to the pool and swam for a little while. Sunday we decided to go to church and take the boys to the nursery for the first time. I called a few days ahead to give them a heads up about all the babies that would make an appearance in the nursery and to get the details, since I've never used the church nursery before. The ladies there were so sweet and took great care of our boys! We gave them Thomas's cell # so they could get in touch with us during the service if they really needed to and we both checked the phone several times. Luckily, they didn't need us and everything went smoothly. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of our pool or church adventures but using the nursery gave Thomas and me some confidence that we could go to church by ourselves and take the boys to the nursery. We typically wait until we have some willing family members in town before venturing to church with all 3 babies, but using the nursery makes it totally do-able. And now that the boys are older, not quite so immuno-compromised (is that a word??) and out of flu season, we feel good about it!

Although we weren't at the beach for the 4th this year, you can probably tell by my rants and tons of pictures, we had such a fun July 4th weekend. I hope you and your family had a great time as well. 

THERE AIN'T NO DOUBT,

I LOVE THIS LAND.

GOD BLESS THE USA!

Love, 

A proud, patriotic, American triplet Mama