My Lifeline

Very early in my pregnancy, before I even knew we were having triplets, I joined a group of other women on a message board who were all due in September and October of 2007. The bulk of us were pregnant with our first and we were from all over the country. We posted daily with each other to complain about pregnancy ailments, odd cravings and how often we were using the bathroom. As time has passed (we've now all been posting together for 3 years!) the group size dwindled a bit; what once was a group of 25-30 women is now down to about 15.

These women have been my lifeline. During the early months, when I was always stuck at home, it was nice to have adults to "talk" to. We've rejoiced as a group when one person bought her first home, and when another met and married a wonderful man, and most recently when three new babies were born into the group. We've mourned as a group when pregnancies were miscarried. We've prayed for each other when someone has a concern or health issue. How funny and how cool at the same time that so many of my greatest friends could be scattered all across the country and that I'd never met them in person.

A few months ago we started talking about doing a big get together. Another woman in the group lives in the Kansas City area too, and with KC being in the center of the country and relatively cheap to fly into we decided it was the perfect location! Late last week 6 women descended on Kansas City for 4 days of fun. One flew in from Washington DC and two from California. One drove from Michigan, one from North Dakota and one from Texas. Oh, and did I mention everyone brought their 2 and a half year old? We had 8 moms and 10 kids... only one of which was a girl!

We played outside when it was warm...

Which wore my children out...

We headed downtown another day for some fun at a free fairy tale exhibit and lunch at the Crayola Cafe (which was the closest we got to a group picture unfortunately)

Friends were made and popsicles were eaten

Then the snow came and it royally messed stuff up. How does it go from 65 and sunny one day to snowing 4 hours later?! Due to the crazy road out to the lake house the out of towners were staying at, it was decided Saturday morning that they should find a hotel.

This is as close to a group shot of the kids as we could get.... 3 of the kids were already headed home, unfortunately!

All in all it was an awesome but tiring weekend. And a little tip to those of you thinking of getting together with other moms you've met online: do it without kids! Crabbiness, bedtime, missed naps, hungry 2 year olds, etc definitely put a damper on the adult's fun. Don't get me wrong, it was great to see the kids all playing together but they will definitely not be invited next time!