The Patch

Last Sunday was Greg's birthday, and we started our celebration by making him cook pancakes for all of us.  Later, we made him drive us all to the pumpkin patch.  Because we're nice like that.

The girls were all over the pumpkin patch this year.  They just kind of took off.

E finds her pumpkin

Of course, it was only the lure of pushing the "dragon" that got them out of the fields.

Papa, J, and R

R

J

E

For all of their trekking through the pumpkin patch, they weren't particularly interested in actually finding a pumpkin.  I kept trying to point some nice ones out, but they just humored me and kept trouncing around.  Eventually, we ended up with pumpkins.  

After that, we did the mini corn maze.  We had done the mini one last year and I swear it took us a good 30-40 minutes.  I'm not sure if it was smaller this year or what, but we were done in about 10 minutes.  I'm still not sure I'm ready to take them out into one of the bigger mazes - what would I do if they freaked out in the middle of it? - but we may have outgrown the mini version.  Emma kept wanting to run ahead, out of sight, and I don't know if I could handle that in the bigger maze, either.

We visited the animals again this year, too, and with the sheer terror that animals have been inciting lately, I thought we were surely in for a quick trip.  But they were a lot more curious than they have been lately.  There were other kids there, too, feeding the animals and I'm not sure if that's what intrigued them, but I still think we're a ways away from the girls actually petting or feeding the animals.

R

Emma kept refusing to smile

One of my favorite pictures of all time

The closest I got to getting a picture of her smiling

Oh, and there were no screaming scary monkeys at the farm.  I guess it has that going for it, too.

Overheard

(Where we're at with counting...  We're trying to get them to point at things as they are counting, otherwise they just start spouting off numbers.  But they still tend to forget which ones they've already counted.)

Julie: (counting the flowers on the fabric print of her owl) one, two, three, four, six, eleven!

Greg: I think you missed some numbers.  Let's count them.  (pointing to them)  One, two, three, four...  What comes next?

Julie: (pointing to the next flower) That one!

Triplet takeover

On Saturday morning, we met up with some other triplet families for a trip to a farm.  It's where we'd picked apples about a month ago, but hadn't explored the whole farm.

We were, of course, the last ones there, so we missed the first hayride.  But while we were waiting, we wandered over to the play area.  I wasn't sure what the girls were going to think of the bouncy things, but I should have known better.  The girls have actually been asking about bouncing a lot lately, but we're trying to save that for a winter activity.  I'll let the video and pictures speak for themselves.

We did manage to get on the next hayride, and the girls seem to like those now.  I didn't get any pictures or video, but suffice it to say that there was a forced singing of "Old MacDonald."  After that, we bounced some more, and played out in the sun.  They got a little closer to some barnyard animals.  We had a pick-uh-nick.

It'a good thing we wore our cowgirl boots.

They also eventually warmed up to (I'm trying to figure out how to best describe this) some "tunnels" suspended about a foot off the ground.

I'll spare you the 3 minute video, but the 3 of them went in the tunnel in a different order than they came out.  

Random notes from the week

Everything now is a "baby," "mommy," or "daddy." Pumpkins, animals, blankets, trips over the rumble strips, you get the idea.

The girls love meatloaf. And green beans. And Oreos. If I try to give them animal crackers instead: "no, I want da uddah cookies."

We went out for "bar-buh-cute" for dinner this week. They fell in love with "hush push" (hush puppies).

Emma has started stuttering in the last week or so. 90% of the time, it's when she is starting a sentence with the word "I." That pattern makes me a little less concerned about the sudden onset.

Emma still drools a lot. I think she just gets so caught up in what she's doing that she doesn't think about it. It's not enough to require a bib, but there's often a trail down her chin. And after she eats those Oreos, she leaks them for another half hour afterwards.

I've just started noticing an interest (mostly Julie and Becca) in playing with Little People. Last night, the Little People ( they were only playing with the girl Little People) were on the bus, going home, or to school, or waiting in line for the bus.

They spend a lot of time playing with baby dolls or stuffed animals, sometimes spanking them or putting them in time out, but mostly putting blankets on them and putting them to sleep.

Boo in the Zoo

For those of you that were concerned that we'd fallen off the face of the earth, we appreciate your concern.  Really, we've been trying to spend as much time enjoying the great fall weather as possible.  We've been getting lots of family time in this fall, and got to spend the last week with Greg's parents.  Add that on top of a lot of bad bedtimes, and you've got a whole lot of nothing, blog wise.

On Thursday night, I let the girls try on their cupcake costumes.  Oh, they loved them!  They were more than just a little upset when we wouldn't let them sleep in them.  And I was more than a little relieved that the 2T-3T hats actually fit their heads.

So they were all sorts of excited to wear their costumes to the zoo on Friday night.  When we got there, there was a huge line.  I think we waited about 30 minutes to get in.  The girls were well behaved, mostly because I think they were a tad overwhelmed with all of the costumes.  

E getting out of the van and getting her cupcake on

Becca's a little skeptical

clinging to Grandma while waiting in line (R, E, J)

They understood the whole "candy" concept, but we got about halfway through before they got the whole opening-the-bag-to-get-the-candy thing.  

Becca's loot

Look at my little cupcakes!  <3

The closest we get to a family picture.  Sigh.

Of course we had to pay the bear a visit.  I was forced to use the flash.  I wish I had more confidence with it.

All of us.

The farm, with minimal acts of animal terrorism

Yes, the farm.  Even though we have established that they're terrified of most things that move.  But it was our moms of multiples fall party, and it was such a perfectly gorgeous fall day.  And I knew there'd be a hayride, and we've established that hayrides can be ok.

We checked out the baby pumpkins.

And played on the wagon.

We went on the hayride and E and J insisted on holding daddy's hand.

And, lo and behold, they were about 6 crates like this around with bunny rabbits in them.  Do you see how close they are?  I couldn't believe it.  They didn't want to touch or feed the bunnies, but they were definitely interested in looking at them and telling me who was sleeping and who was awake.  They had some other animals, but we kept our distance.  Trying not to scar them for life here.

It was a pretty small place, which was perfect for us.  In lieu of a corn maze out back, they had a little maze set up with this orange mesh.  The girls LOVED it.  Loved running around, following the path, seeing each other.  And Greg and I loved letting them run free over a large area with only one entrance and exit.

What's going on in this picture?  Well, Becca's pulling the hay out of the bale.  Julie looks like she's about to stab that pumpkin with a piece of hay.  And Emma is seeing just how far she can move that pumpkin toward the edge before it falls off.  And yet what's the first thing I exclaimed when I saw this picture?  "Look at how long Becca's legs are!"

Emma has been asking to sit on Greg's "head" all the time lately.

A family pic.  Or, as close as we get.  I'll spare you the one where Greg's hand is on Becca's head, trying to turn it back towards the camera.

Headed through the orchard one more time to check out the baby pumpkins.

Another trip to the park

We took another trip to the park after work last week.  We've just been having perfect fall weather lately.

Plus, I finally got the instagram upgrade on my phone, and there are lots of new filters to play with.