Travel prep

When I have to travel for work, it never fails that something will go awry or there will be a special "thing" that week at school.

Here's what it looks like when it's Dr. Suess week at school while I'm gone. Of course, Stokes and William's class has a different theme each day than Ryan's class, which makes it more confusing. But I try to help Thomas out as much as I can before I leave. Here are the outfits laid out with a post-it note for direction!

That time I traveled for work
and it was Dr. Suess week at preschool

Tee-ball begins

We let the boys try soccer last fall and decided to try another sport this spring and signed them up for tee-ball. We hope that they can try out and experience lots of sports so that they can make their own decisions about which one(s) they like best and where they excel. We accidentally missed the first practice of this new tee-ball spring season. Yes, that happened. The coach emailed everyone but we didn't see the email (it only went to one of us) and didn't realize there was a practice at all until one of our friends on the team texted me asking if we were coming. By the time I saw the text, the practice was already halfway over. Oops. The good news is that we made it to the second practice and there are several more before the season starts with a game on March 10.

Getting into the baseball world is interesting. There are some kids and families that play year-round and are very good and very competitive. We are, of course, totally unprepared and just going to have fun and try to learn a little about the sport. The boys are definitely the youngest guys on their team...and the smallest. Pretty much everyone else is 6 (the group is 4-6 year olds) and I think every kid on the team has played before. They definitely know what they're doing, so our guys will have lots of opportunity to learn from them! It turns out that the coach is a guy I went to high school with and we happen to be on the same team with our friends, The Atwoods, so that will make this season a lot more fun!

Here's to trying out tee-ball! "Take me out to the ball game...."

William with Brady Atwood

Ready to catch a pop fly

Batting time

Swinggggg

Dada providing some coaching advice

Ryan hung out with Mama during practice

Team meeting

Valentine's Day 2018

This year's Valentine's Day was one of my most favorites! It was just such a great day all around and filled with so much love in our home.*

The day started off with a special VDay breakast - heart shaped pancakes (totally free style so they were "interesting" hearts) and candlelight. I love a candlelit breakfast and got the idea from a coworker of mine that did this with her family every single morning. Like every one - school days, weekends, holidays - all of them. I envy her on that!

We got them dressed and had them all matching in their adorable, super soft Loggerhead Apparel shirts and shot a few quick pictures. Didn't have time to get the perfect picture. That's my life.

Here are several....

Then we took the boys to school where they had a good day and exchanged Valentine's with their classmates.

That evening we had a delicious steak dinner that Thomas grilled us from The New York Butcher Shoppe (a fave!) and had a glow stick dance party. We turned off the lights, activated the glow sticks, turned on music and danced. It was so fun! The boys loved it and it made my night. I think I smell a tradition coming on. We even took the glow sticks up to the bath and turned off the bathroom lights to have a glow bath - so cool and so fun!

Homemade chocolate covered strawberries

Here's a little video capturing my sweet boys and their cute voices and funny laughs. I will treasure this video always. 

Here's last year's Valentine's Day post, which contains links of previous year's posts as well.

*I'm not even going to go there with the school shooting. I can't. It breaks my heart. 

Random fun

These didn't each need a separate blog post, so I'm going to combine several fun events into one post. The beginning of February created opportunities for good times for us - time with friends, dressing up and play dates.

On the third of Feb., we had a play date with some of our couple best friends (parents) and the boys's future wives, Caroline and Ava Lane. These kids had a great time playing together and they all get along. The adults could relax and let the kids play together in the playroom so that we could have some adult conversation with relatively few interruptions. What a win-win! I love doing life with these families.

By the way, did you know that getting triplets to look and smile for a picture is very, very difficult? Yes, I know that I've mentioned it at least 100 times on this blog. What's even harder? Getting FIVE kids to all look and smile. LOL

Ava Lane, Stokes, Ryan, Caroline, William

#compoundkids (long story!)

Ryan had real life cowboys from the PBR (Professional Bull Riding) visit his school while they were in town for a show. Due to the special visit, it was "dress like a cowboy day" at his school and we happily obliged. I think we had like 2 days notice so I was really glad that we already had stuff on hand that he could wear!

My handsome cowboy

Ryan with his best buddy, Rhett

Ryan and Rhett with the cowboys!

There are some twins at the boys's school - Marcos and Mateo (the boys call him Matato...like potato LOL!!!) - that are so adorable and we just love them. One day they were leaving at the same time that we were leaving from school and they hopped right in the car with us. These boys all had a little impromptu car play date and they were so cute and having so much fun, we just went with it for a while. They were climbing all over the place - to the front, to the back, getting buckled and unbuckled in multiple car seats - having a ball! Mateo actually kept saying that they were going to close the doors and that Carrie (their nanny) and I couldn't come in. Hilarious. They told me that I needed to take pictures of them playing. It actually took a little bribery to get them out when it was really time to leave! Haha! Note: the car was parked and keys were in my possession during this play time. No children or minivans were harmed in the making of this fun. ;)

Good times with friends is always the great choice for ways to spend your time. 

Chuck E. Cheese

The boys got to experience Chuck E. Cheese for the first time at the end of January. They were invited to their friend Davis's birthday party there and let me tell you, it was a HIT. I was having deja vu being there and was remembering when it was Showbiz Pizza when I was young and there were motorized furry characters on stage that did a little performance and played instruments (actually quite creepy when I am thinking back)! Anyway, the place has been updated and was a great time for all the kids. They loved using their cards to "pay" for games and rides. I think my big kid (Thomas) had fun, too! We appreciated Davis inviting the boys to his party!

showing them how to spray water on the target

Race cars!

Ryan raced, too

Go Ry!

This is Stokes's girlfriend, Emerson. She's so cute!

Birthday time!

Hoops

Such a fun game/ride

Ryan loved it!

Stokes was a natural on the horse

giddyup

Ryan on another race car

Another SNOW!

We got snow twice this winter! See my other post about December's snowfall here. This time, however, the boys had their snow bibs, snow gloves and their warm winter jacket! So very prepared. Ryan was a little under the weather and stayed inside, but Stokes and William had a (snow)ball of a time! Unfortunately, I was traveling for work (again! I think I missed it last year, too...) but got some fun pictures from Thomas!

 

Nap time

How cute is this? We're pretty much past the nap stage during weekends now, with the exception of Stokie, who will sometimes put himself down for a nap if he's tired. These 3 guys were just snoozing away. I loved it!

I almost forgot...

This is out of order, because I forgot to post about it, but remembered as I was scrolling through pictures on my phone the other day. William and I went to a Clemson basketball game in between Christmas and New Year's! We were able to use the Owings' tickets because they went to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, and they gave me 4 so I invited Brooke and Bennett to come with us. Craig, Bo and Baker came as well, but sat in other seats. We had a good time and William loved watching the Tigers play basketball! I think Stokes and Ryan would like it too so maybe once Thomas gets over his Clemson basketball boycott, we can go as a family to a game (next season!). 

He's a big fan

In awe...

Great seats, courtesy of the Owings!

Brooke with Bennett and William

Tigers won!