Dinner on the Counter

The kids have recently become fascinated with helping me in the kitchen. No matter what I am doing, they want to be involved. They have figured out how to push the dining room chairs over to the counter and stand up on the chairs so that they can see at eye level. Rather than trying to fight them away, I've decided to embrace my little "helpers" and let them assist me in making many meals. We've baked muffins, cupcakes, chopped veggies & fruits, etc.

A couple of weeks ago, the kids were all playing in the family room. So, I decided to sneak away and start chopping up some stuff for their dinner. Everything was pretty much already made so all I had to do was cut it up into smaller pieces. Well, Alana saw me sneak away (which she always does) and followed me into the kitchen. The other 2 continued to play in the other room, so I picked her up and let her sit on the counter next to where I was chopping. She saw the green beans and wanted some. So, I gave her some to eat and a few seconds later Alexa comes walking in the kitchen and wants up on the counter. She gets picked up and placed next to Alana and begins to eat the green beans. A few seconds later, she hollers "Joe Joe" and pats the counter next to her to imply that he should sit next to her on the counter. So, Josiah comes running in the kitchen and, of course, wants to sit on the counter. So, he gets picked up and put on the counter next to Alexa and he begins to eat the green beans. Next thing I know, all the green beans are gone. So, I give them each a bowl with some chicken in it. They eat all the chicken and want to know what's next. I end up feeding them their entire dinner while they are all sitting on the counter. It was quite funny! By the time Eric got home from work, all 3 kids were still sitting on the counter finishing up their last course of fruit. He says, "Why are they sitting on the counter eating?" I reminded him that when you have triplets you learn to "go with the flow" in that when something is working...you don't change it! Needless to say, they enjoyed their counter-top meal and it sure was a lot less to clean up!

Merry Maids

The girls are fascinated by cleaning. They obviously have some of their mama in them because they LOVE to clean! Ok, I should fully admit that it's not the actual cleaning that I love, but rather the "clean" that I love! Anyway, I guess the girls have seen me clean enough that they know what to do. They love to invade the wipes container and go to town! The other day they decided to clean the windows on the doors from my bedroom that go to our backyard. I better enjoy it now before they start charging! :)

Josiah likes to join in momentarily but quickly throws the towel/wipe on the floor and says "done"! If you notice on the first picture (the only one that Joe is in) that he has already lost interest and his rag is already on the ground. So, I guess 2 out of 3 isn't bad!

Little Climbers

So, our children are definitely little climbers. They will try to climb anything that looks remotely climbable...yes, even the refrigerator! They also like to hang on things (which I guess is the first step of climbing something). The other day they were hanging from the handles of the fridge and so we actually lifted them up and put them on the handles. No, they did not actually climb all the way up by themselves! I am sure that will happen soon enough! We just thought it'd be fun to see their reaction...and as you can see they thought it was pretty fun!

I can pull my own pants up!

All the kids have recently shown more & more of a desire to do things on their own. Recently, Josiah has become very excited about his new skill of being able to pull his own pants up all by himself. He is quite proud...can't you tell!

Fourth of July

This year we took advantage of our local town's Fourth of July celebration. Who knew it, but Orinda does a super parade and festival all within a few minutes of our house. So, we put the kids in the car and drove down the street. A pretty lame thing to do, considering we had to park closer to our house than to the actual park. So, we decided to put the kids in the wagon since we had tons of stuff to carry and it was a fair distance to walk. Well, the kids couldn't have been happier! They thought the parade and festival was the coolest thing ever (not to mention the wagon ride)! I think they like to "people watch" as much as their parents do! :)

After my own heart

Alana is so much like me in so many ways...it's comical! If you know me, you know that I am very orderly, organized & methodical in my thinking. Well, Alana has taken on some of those characteristics. One way we witnessed it was while she was finishing up her lunch the other day, she organized her grapes into a row...and also got very excited about it, I might add!

The Snack Step

We've recently started "snack time" in the afternoon after the kids wake up from their nap. Since the weather has been so nice, we pretty much always eat our snack outside in the backyard (I am also quite anal about crumbs & sticky fingers inside the house). We have a little step in the backyard that the kids love to sit on. So, it has officially been designated the "snack step". And the kids know to bring their water and snack to the step. They don't, however, stay on the step for long, but at least it's a good starting point!

Who is Stinky?

If you can imagine, one of the biggest questions around our house on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis is... "Who is Stinky?" The kids have obviously been watching my investigative skills, because the other day after I asked, "Who is stinky?" the girls immediately got to work helping me solve the mystery. Is was hilarious!

Hugs & Kisses

This video was taken a couple of months ago, but it is pretty cute. It's one that Eric took at our old house & I just happened to stumble across it this evening. It was shortly after the kids learned to give hugs and kisses and they were quite happy to practice their new skills on each other.

World Cup

Even though we aren't super big soccer fans, we decided that since the entire world was watching we should at least join in the fun. We dressed the kids up in their Team Jardine t-shirts and actually had the TV on with them in the room (quite a rarity). The interesting part is that even though the kids never watch TV, they seem to know to point the remote controls at the TV. They are quite fascinated with the whole idea!

Walmart Entertainment

We took the kids to Walmart recently and found some unexpected entertainment. They were getting restless in the cart & so we decided to let them out to roam around a bit. There happened to be a bunch of car seats on display all at floor level. So, the kids were ecstatic to play Chinese fire drill and each take turns in a different car seat. Unfortunately, almost all the pictures I took came out quite blurry...which goes to show you how fast they were moving! :) Needless to say, we made a quick getaway from the store before things got too out of control!