I almost made her feel like a boy.

When I was pregnant, I worried a lot about logistics - finding carseats that would fit in the car, getting three infants in to daycare, how many swings we needed.  Something that I never considered the logistics of, though?  Dress shorts.

My kids are obsessed with dresses.  I would estimate that they are currently wearing something other than a dress maybe once a week.  They are also getting tall, particularly Rebecca.  (She's actually the tallest one in her class right now.)  And those 4T dresses are like long shirts on her.  They insist on wearing the dresses to school, where I know they're climbing on the playground, sitting cross legged in a circle, and probably just lifting their dresses altogether at some point.

They still make "bike shorts" for girls to wear under dresses, but these cartwheel shorts from The Children's Place are just about perfect.

Apparently we were in a cartwheel shorts crisis last week, because I had to wash them all twice to make it through the week.  So, in the little free time that I actually get, I went to the mall armed with my 20% off coupon to get some more cartwheel shorts.

And then have ONE in the right size on the racks.  And they're black.  We do have a couple pairs of black already, but I was really looking for the white or light pink.  A lady goes to the back to see if they have anymore.

She came back with one pair in white.

And I about laughed in her face.

One pair.  That's not even worth standing in line for.  Can you imagine the fights that would start?

I think I've given up on the mall.  The internet is the only place for bulk shopping.

So, 13 pairs of shorts later, we're still running out routinely.

The other day, Becca pulled out a dress and we didn't have any dress shorts.  (There were some in the washing machine, but realistically the chance of them making it to the dryer by morning was 50/50.)  I told her to pick out something else.  She refused, but said she'd wear regular shorts underneath.  Fine.

This would be a fine place to add that Becca has been caught (multiple times) lying about whether she is wearing shorts.  We have to check now.

So I'm in the shower, and she comes in and says, "Mommy, these shorts make me feel like a boy."

Sigh.

I sent there to the dryer to get some real dress shorts out, and everything was right with the world again.

Fashion

Oh, Emma.  Such a trendsetter.

Father's Day

We did all take a nap on Saturday afternoon, and did some more exploring on Saturday afternoon.  We went to a park.  Played at the playground.

But what were they most impressed with?  The giant postal facility on the edge of the park.  There was a huge ramp from the road down a giant hill.  We seriously stood and watched mail trucks for longer than we spent at the playground.

We went out for pizza for dinner, got some ice cream, and went back to play in the hotel pool for a while.  The girls loved playing in the pool.  I had packed some water toys, including these mermaid dolls, and we spent a good chunk of time tossing them back and forth and splashing each other.  Becca was the only one who wasn't too crazy about the pool.  She finally would get in and sit on the top step, but that was about it.  Emma wanted to be pushing her feet off the wall with me.  And Julie fell in love with floating on her back.

On Sunday morning, we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel.  Becca was up early, and demanding breakfast, so we let Daddy, Julie, and Emma sleep in.  I look at this first picture of Julie, and I can totally see that "I just woke up" face - I think her eyes are a little puffy still.  And when I look at this one, for some reason, I see a teenager that I've just roused from bed at noon.

They love the hotel breakfast buffet.  It was pretty awesome.  And Emma?  Just might like this dress.  You might see her in it in just about every other post.  It is adorable on her, but I finally figured out (since this trip) what it is that she likes so much:  it is long.  And princesses?  They have long dresses.

We went for a walk down by the river.  Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Becca and Julie.  Julie almost looks like she has pony tails, but I assure you that's just going-to-bed-with-wet-hair-from-the-pool combined with no-hair-brushing hair.

It was hot, and we'd run out of things to do, so we decided to head back home,  with a stop downtown for some lunch and to play in the spray fountain.  They installed this fountain a few years ago now, when they did a lot of the work along the river.  I can't believe that we hadn't ever been there yet, because the girls had a blast!

Should I add here that we still haven't given Greg his Father's Day cards?  I've gotten so bad about that lately.

Spoiled

The girls spent last week at home with grandma and grandpa all week, and I think there were about in heaven.  At bed time, Emma would ask "do I have to go to school this day?"  We finally learned that "this day" translates to "tomorrow."  And when we told her "no," she'd get a big grin on her face.

The girls spent a lot of time outside this week.  My parents got more accomplished this week than Greg and I have managed to get done in the last three years.  But more on that later.

Lots of bubble blowing (using the ice cream bubbles from Aunt Toria).  And I think she ended up pouring most of the bubbles out on the ground.  You can see how she's hold the cone part.  Later she told me she needed more water in it.

Emma coloring with chalk, or playing Twister.  I'm not sure which.

Becca coloring a chalk rainbow on the driveway.

And yes, the girls are in a dress phase.  They wore dresses pretty much all week.  I think my mom has washed some of them two or three times.  And yes, I need to start weeding out the ones that are too short.  Because teaching them to be a little more lady-like in their dresses just isn't going to happen.

The bikes came out this week, too.  My parents said there was one day where they were riding them down the back yard.  Our back yard has a slight hill, away from the house.  Nothing as steep as the hill Emma rode down when she nearly landed in the lake.  But dad said they'd get going pretty good, and he'd have to remind them, particularly Emma, to slow down as they got to the bottom.

This one

Almost skipped dinner last week because she wanted to read her new books.

She loves, loves, loves to "read" (recite) books.  Just like her mom did.  :)

And yes.  That's her tutu under her dress.  And yes, they're Halloween socks.  Why fight it?  I think she looks awesome.

A little 'venture

Greg had to go clothes shopping last week.  Seriously, it had gotten bad.  I've been telling him he needed to go for the last 6 months or so.  Shirt elbows have been ripping left and right, and he was down to the point where, if it was cold, we could barely keep up with the laundry fast enough.

Anyhow, after I fed them, we went to the craft store.  Actually, we went to Party City first to get some Valentine's day things, and some art supplies the nanny had requested.  I let them pick out some things for their birthday - some cups, plates, napkins.  Mickey and Minnie, of course.

Then the craft store.  Did I mention that Julie and Emma insisted on wearing their tutus?  And that Julie's purple sweater, jeans, and orange tutu were accented by her bright blue panda bear rain boots?

They studied the Pez display intently.  Oh, every kind of Pez you can imagine.  Luckily I saw the display before they did, and grabbed three before they saw me.

What were they?  Well, Minnie of course.

December Daily: Dec 4, 5

Dec 4 was Christmas tree today.  We went out to lunch, and then decided to get a tree from a local tree lot.  Fraser Fir don't grow down here, so we don't get to cut down our own.  We're limited to pre-cut trees.  We've tried Lowe's and Costco in the past, and so we tried something different this time.  The girls were initially most excited by the inflatable Santa in a hot air balloon.  They were only mildly interested in the trees.  After they saw Santa, they were mostly interested in running around between the trees and picking up the scraps of rope on the ground.

collecting string scraps 

oh Christmas tree

String?  Definitely more interesting than trees.

Dec 5 was busy, busy, busy.  We started out with an 8am dentist appointment for the girls.  Note to self: don't schedule anything for 8am on Monday morning.  We've been totally spoiled by the nanny, and have completely lost sight of how long it takes to get 3 toddlers out the door in the morning.  As we were getting out of the car, Emma offered up, "Julie go first."  Once we were inside, Becca started offering up Julie to go first, too.  But Julie pulled out her "oh yeah?  Then I'll poop in my pants." card.  While I took her to get changed, apparently Emma volunteered to go first.  They all did great, and got good reports.  Quite brave.

Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the waiting room.  Really, though, I wanted a picture of the outfit: coat, sunhat, and those rain boots.

Emma after her cleaning.  She kept saying, "I did great!"  And then, when her sisters were getting their cleanings, she would say, "Becca do great!"  "Julie do great!"

A little skeptical...

This is to remind the girls how much their daddy loves them, wearing their hats while they were getting their  teeth looked at.  This is the way they do the cleaning and the way the dentist checks their teeth, too - they sit in one of our laps, and lay backwards to put their head in the dentist/hygienists' lap.  This is Julie getting her teeth cleaned.  Check out those boots.

A crazy day at work after the dentist (more on that some other time), and then Greg and I went to see Garrison Keillor.  He had no idea we were going until lunch time on Sunday.  I wanted it to be a surprise, and partly a Christmas gift, too.  :)  I think he liked it.  We got to go downtown for dinner at perhaps my favorite Thai restaurant ever, and ate too much food.  Then we went to see Garrison, and laughed for almost 1.5 hrs straight.  Good times.  We went to see him a few years ago (well, a lot of years ago, because it was pre-ladies), about the same time of year, and I've been wanting to see him (or PHC) again ever since.  No pictures, but I saved the ticket stubs for my album.

December Daily: Dec 1, 2, 3

I'm attempting a December Daily album again this year, but it's really a matter of documenting now and actually putting the album together in stages.  So, here it goes.

Dec 1 is actually kind of a bummer; the girls were asleep when we left the house in the morning (which really never happens), and were asleep when I got home because of class.   It was just ... weird.  No photo for that day, because I didn't want the first photo in my album to be of a boring class.  Instead, I got some hot chocolate at Starbucks on my way to class, and I'm planning to to use the cup or sleeve.

Dec 2 was another work day, but we went out for "mac and cheese a roni" for dinner at Panera after work.  The girls wore winter coats, their pink summer sun hats, and their new teal panda bear rain boots.  After dinner, we went over to Barnes and Noble to try to catch story time and play with the trains.  But apparently, since the last time we went to Barnes and Noble, they've turned it in to a Nook and kid's toy store.  Story time had already started, and the girls weren't interested.  And, to top it off, the train table was gone.  We tried to look around a bit, but the girls wanted to take things out of packages, etc, so we decided to leave.  We headed for the car, but the girls threw a fit at the door...  They were terrified of the horse drawn carriage that was taking people for rides around the parking lot.  Emma insisted on being carried, and wanted to go straight to the car.  I managed to drag Becca and Julie up to see the giant Christmas tree and we spied Santa sitting in front of it.  We didn't get too close, but they didn't freak out.  We went back home and looked at Christmas lights.  Oh, how they love Christmas lights!

Becca's cheese mustache.  If you look carefully, you can see the pink sun hat peeking out of Greg's pocket.

Dec 3 was Saturday.  We ate an early dinner and went downtown for the big annual Christmas parade.  Despite getting there late, we managed to get a decent spot.  The girls insisted on staying on the sidewalk (we've taught them well!) although people were spilled out into the street.  I kept worrying someone was going to come and stand right in front of us.  The girls were a little hesitant at first, but they LOVED the parade.  When we got there, they kept saying, "I want candy!"  I tried to explain that this parade didn't have candy (it's much bigger than our town one), but to my surprise, Target had a "float" this year, and they handed out candy canes.  Which they insisted on unwrapping on the spot.  Emma and Julie gobbled theirs up, but Becca was so distracted by the parade that she just periodically licked the end of it, until she got so distracted she dropped it on the ground.  But the girls were dancing to the music, jumping up and down - - particularly Emma.  I'm afraid they're going to expect a parade every weekend.  On the way back to the car, Becca told me, "I had fun at the parade!"

Finishing cookies from a rushed dinner before the parade started.

Emma's "cheese" face.  I've got to come up with something else for them to say.  But she was all excited, and put her arms out around her sisters all on her own.

Becca loving the parade 

Becca is more interested in the parade than the candy cane. 

Emma crunching.

When we got home, we made hot chocolate.  The first time they had hot chocolate was almost a year ago, when we got all that snow in January.  And they wanted no part of it.  But on Saturday, they were all over it.  Emma kept telling me that hot chocolate is her favorite, and it's the best in the world.

E

Is Julie back there somewhere?

Ah, she is!

R, all in

I love this picture of Emma.  Finally, not a "cheese" smile.  And love the chocolate all the way down her chin.

Grocery Shopping with the Ladies

We start out with two in the cart.  Actually, someone has to volunteer to walk and "help with groceries" before I'll get them out of their car seats. 

We can't go out without our accessories, which in this case included sunglasses, pink cowboy boots, bling "medals" from the Little Gym (x2).

Then, after the deli (where they get all hyped up on turkey and cheese samples), everyone had to get out and help with groceries.  They walked along the whole back of the store saying, "walkin', walkin', walkin'."

This?  This is how we roll.

Skirts

Last weekend, I took the girls to Costco with me. (I'm getting better at this. The worst part is definitely getting into and out of the car, especially now that it's so hot.)

They talked me in to these skirts.

Ok, I insisted on the skirts. But they picked out the colors. Julie chose the light pink, Becca chose yellow, and Emma chose the pink/orange/yellow.

And then they insisted on wearing them as soon as we got home.