Weekend Fun

A few more photos from the weekend...

Snack break

Baby Connor and his cousins

I'm alive...

...but it took a while to recover. Those weekend benders are not nearly as easy to recover from as they used to be! We had a FANTASTIC time in NOLA. It was as much fun as we expected, and then some. I would love to post a photo or two but none are really "postable" (sorry Mom). The city was as dirty as I expected it would be - both figuratively and actually. We started partying at noon on the day we arrived and stopped about halfway home on Sunday at the airport. The photos are telling but will stay under lock and key for quite some time (forever). This is the advantage of digital photos these days - you can destroy the evidence before it actually gets put in print! We enjoyed some awesome cajun food, too many of Pat O's famous Hurricanes (thank you Patrick), the Famous Door, Lucky's Dogs, Handgrenades, a typical NOLA palm reading, a muffelatta sandwich, Fat Tuesdays & Cafe Du Monde's beignet. What happened in New Orleans, stayed in New Orleans.

In other news, the kids did great while we were gone and COLE IS OFFICIALLY WALKING now. It's been a long time coming but he's on two feet more than 4 now. FINALLY. They had a blast with the grandparents and we were so lucky to have been able to leave them for a long weekend.

On the heels of the crazy weekend, it was wonderful to have a nice long weekend again this weekend. We had lots of fun but at a low key, much slower pace. The weather was flawless and we all got to do a few of our favorite things. The kids played their hearts out outdoors, Daddy got in a few rounds of golf, Mommy got some reading time outside in the sun, we spent time with friends and spent time as a family. Doesn't get much better than that.

We spent Saturday with one of my best college girlfriends and her twin girls. They are about 10 months older than my kids and they all had a blast together. Here they are in the boys car.

And it's always fun feeding 4 toddlers at a table where they aren't strapped in....

Here are a few recent pictures of the kids...they are getting into everything and talking a mile a minute. The fun never stops.

I promise to get back to blogging. Life has been extra crazy lately due to lots of outside things going on so hopefully all will get back to normal here soon. We're off on vacation to OBX in about 3 weeks and we can't wait!

The Big Easy!

Roughly 24 hours from now, we will be in the Big Easy, sipping drinks, enjoying the 85 degree+ weather, acting like college kids, with 5 other couples. We're headed to NOLA for a 3 day bender to celebrate our friend Jim's 40th Birthday. Wish us luck. Not only has it been a few years since C & I were away together without kids, but it's been an even longer while since we've gone away for the sole purpose of drinking and partying as hard as we possibly can for 48 hours. I'm certain I'll swear off anything alcoholic for quite some time after this - but we'll enjoy it while it lasts!

The adventures of the almost 40 crowd as we head down South to take a load off and forget about our "adult" lives at home. Could be ugly. This is the description I saw recently while reading about NOLA to find out what we should try to do while we are there:

One thing you should remember to do before coming to New Orleans: forget everything you know. Or at least most of it. Forget the tips and bits of advice that helped mold you into a responsible and productive member of society. Forget how to behave in public. Forget about not putting things off till tomorrow. Forget restraint and modesty. Forget your sense of direction. And your sense of time. This is New Orleans - those things don't apply here.

Off we go - what happens in New Orleans, stays in New Orleans!

Happy Mothers Day!

Cole's version...(with a little prompting)

I hope all of you had a wonderful Mothers Day. Mine was the best one yet and much more than I could ask for. C & the boys really stepped up and made it a wonderful day for me.

Hope that everyone else enjoyed their days as well...you all certainly deserved it!

Circus gone wrong....

Well, we took the kids to their first real circus yesterday afternoon - what a weird adventure. We went to the Cole Bros Circus (how ironic) under a big tent in the parking lot of a local mall.


Tickets were cheap so thought it would be an inexpensive fun thing to do. I was half right. Considering that we had about 3 inches of rain the day/night before, it was a bit muddy, to say the least. Nonetheless, much to my husbands dismay, we went to check it out. As we walked in, we had to pick up our tickets at will call. I should have known what was ahead when the guy at the ticket booth was waving 2 (yes, only two) sets of will call tickets with names on them - one was ours, and one someone elses. Chuck looked at me with a weird look and we kept walking.

I have a terrible scary childhood memory of the circus so I was a little reluctant to begin with. As we walked it, that same creepy feeling I always had, was still there. The tent was fairly dark and there was only one light in the corner that was shining on whichever end of the tent had something going on in it. We were a little late so when we got there we had missed the elephant show but walked in during one of the clown skits. Doesn't it make you wonder who those clowns are in real life? They must do some serious mind altering "activities" to do what they do, day in and day out. We were up so close (because there were probably only about 40 people there) that we could see their worn, ripped costumes.

Shortly after the clown skit, they set up for the trapeeze company (this entailed about 20 non-american people running around like crazy people trying to get things in place). They did about 15 minutes worth of trapeezing; 4 out of 5 tricks they missed and fell into the nets. Rolando was the star trapeeze artist - I think he's destined to hang up his tights and find another profession. Oh well, I give them credit for trying - especially with the shabby equipment they were using.

On to the next act, which was a dog and pony show - literally. The dog trainer was totally wacked out on drugs and had this bag lady looking costume on. Her dogs were so mangely looking and decked out in costumes. Poor animals. I couldn't even take photos because it was so bad. Here's a picture of the emcee for the night - I guess you would call her the hostess?

Next on were the girls in leotards that hang by their hair. They got things set up and started to connect themselves to their hanging apparatus.

As this was happening and they were starting to rise, I look over to the other end of the tent and there are about 20 guys on a line, pulling with all of their might, on the other end of a pulley system. I then realize that they are pulling up these performers on the pulleys. Nothing like good old fashioned manpower to make things work. I've never seen such a thing - It was then that I realized that we are at the low budget circus and my creepy factor was well warranted.


After about 45 minutes, and just as the kids started to lose interest and get fidgety, it was over. We then saw the "end of circus parade", including the shabby looking elephants & camels which we missed in the beginning. Is it normal to have camels at a circus?

After we walked out, we promised not to do that again. And C made me promise never to give our kids a ride on a circus elephant - anywhere.

After this experience, it's worth it to pay more for the Ringling Bros circus. The good thing is, the kids didn't know the difference. By the time we got home, they were still in good spirits.

A new place

Way back when, when I started this blog, life was different. I was newly pregnant, for the 4th time, and scared to death that something would happen to my babies. Again. And sure enough, it did. We lost one. I almost feel that deep down, I knew something was going to go awry, but wasn't really sure what.

I am still reminded daily (by all kinds of things) of my Calvin that lived just long enough for J&C to have a chance. Yep, I miss him. And not a day goes by that I don't think of him. When the clock shows 11:11, he's there. When I glance up at the 3 monkeys on the shelf in the kids room, he's there. When a butterfly crosses my path, he's there. When I hear certain songs on the radio, he's there. When I have a bad day, he's there. In the spring, when my baby lily pops out of the ground, he's there. When Mothers Day comes around, he's there. When I see other triplets, he's there. When his brothers are kissing each other goodnight, he's there. But only in spirit.

This time of year has always been my favorite time of the year with all of the green grass, trees, flowers and smells. It reminds me of him. It was this time of year when we were in the throws of early pregnancy and our lives were impacted by the three tiny beating hearts inside of my belly. I will be forever reminded of him when spring time comes. It's engrained in my being.

When I look back on the boys birth day, it's almost surreal. I remember it vividly; yet foggy. I have visions of many different things on that particular day - and in reality, it's probably only a fraction of everything that actually happened during that 12 hour period between when we learned that Cal had passed and when I was able to see the babies for the first time that night. When I look back at the pictures we have, it's only those images that I have vivid memory of. Is that because I see them periodically, and really all of the "real" memory from that day has been washed away? I wish I had a video tape of it all so I could go back and re-watch it so that I remembered those moments that I have somehow misplaced. My memory of holding Calvin is vivid - but it seems as though I only held him for a minute or two. When I know in fact, that it was much longer than that.

When I logged on yesterday evening to a fellow bloggers site, I was comforted immediately by her most recent undertaking - to bring together babylost mamas. For any of you who have met the misfortune (if you can call it that) of losing a child, you need to check out this new place. It's full of comfort, truth and amazing women. It's a wonderful place to go to read, post or just "be".

I've been struggling for a bit with where I actually am in my grief process. As life bounces along day to day, grief takes a back seat. I push it aside because it's not at the top of the list, for the moment. When Calvin pops into my mind, I try to make good sense of it like "he must be with me right now while I am doing such & such". I never figure that maybe I'm thinking of him because I miss him so much and am still trying to process the fact that he really isn't here any more. And I never really got a chance to know him on the outside. I only knew him on the inside, as he grew and filled me and his brothers with selfless love. I'm different because of him - in ways I can't explain.

20 months and counting!

The boys 20 month birthday was a few days ago but I held off on posting until after their ped check up today. Here are the latest stats:


JD's weighing in at 24 pounds and 32.5" long - he's in the 50% for height and 20% for weight. Cole is weighing in at a lean and mean 20.7 pounds and 30.5" long - he's moved into the 8% for height but slipped back a bit in his weight. We need to feed him more wheaties! Both are doing really well - no concerns. We're so blessed that they are doing as well as they are, considering how rough of a start that they had. Dr. G was pleased, and so are we. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, we've come such a long way. And the best part, they can have peanut butter now!

After last week's bout with the crud, they seem to be back to their old fun selves and up to their usual tricks. Their words have exploded the last few weeks - they are repeating everything (yes, including JD's personal favorite swear word - SH*T, which he uses in the proper context every time). And they copy off of each other with EVERYTHING. Monkey see, monkey do is their motto. They follow each other around and copy cat all day long. If one gets in trouble for something, the other one does the same thing to earn their share of trouble. It's totally comical.

I have also included a couple of video's from last night - bath time is far from dry at our house...



Cole was the last one in the tub tonight and enjoying being solo & not getting mauled...



JD's latest favorite thing to do is clean up messes (wonder where he gets that?). He especially loves anything that has a long handle - like the swiffer, rakes etc. This video shows him with his little rake obsessing over cleaning up the patio. Listen carefully and you can hear him saying "mess" repeatedly.




A few snaps from this morning...