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!

Trains, Trains and More Trains

Sunday afternoon we all loaded into 3 cars and headed to downtown Kansas City. The goal? See a bunch of trains and then have dinner delivered by one.

The kids (big and little alike!) had a ball looking at the massive train set displayed in Union Station.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kiddos also all thoroughly enjoyed walking through The Link (an enclosed, above the street sidewalk system that connects several buildings in Kansas City).

 

We then took the kiddos to Crown Center for some fine dining. Ah, that line just makes me giggle... what we ate was anything but "fine". To be fair though, you don't go to Fritz's for the food - you go because a train delivers your food!

See that train at the top of the picture? It rides around a track in the restaurant delivering food! In the above picture the train is just dropping our box of food off. The food was then lowered to the table on a tray. Nifty, huh? The kids love it. They also love the conductor hats!

 

 

 

After dinner we bundled up and headed outside to take in the Mayor's Christmas Tree and the fountains!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that, my friends, is how we ended our Chaotic Christmas! It was a ball and I wish it could have lasted longer! To close out my few days of excessive picture posts, I'd like to leave you with just one more shot. My family, all together again for the first time in several years!

Birthday Fun

Jackson, Tyler & Chase's birthday party isn't until this coming weekend, but Nick and I wanted to do something fun with the boys on their actual birthday too. We had coupons for free kids meals at Bob Evans (courtesy of the Kids Birthday Club which you can sign your kids up for here) so that's where we headed.

The boys thoroughly enjoyed their chicken strip and smiley face fries meal and of course their chocolate milk.

Tyler - don't be deceived by the "C" shirt - he just likes wearing it because it has a kitty on it

 

Jackson

 

Chase

 

  

Then for dessert we ordered the boys a smiley faced sundae to share!

 

  

When we got home we let the boys open the little gifts we bought them. The biggest hit? A $6 kitty Nick picked up at Target on his way home that night. The kitty was so popular we ended up stopping at Target on the way home from the boys' 2 year appointment on Friday to snag the last two kitties there.

  

 

  

Everyone wanted a chance to hold the kitty so that I could take a picture of it. We got extreme close-ups as you can see!

 
 

  

This astounded us and cracked us up at the same time... We swear we never taught the boys to "feed" any of their animals, and yet Jackson plopped himself down on the floor, grabbed a plastic milk bottle (from their new bowling set) and proceeded to "feed" the kitty. He even had sound effects!

 
 

For those that are curious as to the pant-less appearance of our boys, yes we do clothe them. When we got home from the restaurant we rushed them all into the bathrooms and stripped them down. By the time we were done in there it was so close to bed time we didn't bother wrestling the pants back on them.

Oh and a kitty wasn't the only thing Nick brought home Thursday night! He also brought me flowers in honor of the boys' 2nd birthday and for the 6 weeks of potty training "fun" I've been through. What a sweetie :)

If you don't check in again all week (even though I know you want to), be sure to stop by on Thursday and Friday! I'll have two awesome prizes to give away!