1. Playdates.
My kids love having friends over to play. We are an instant play group and have tons of toys and dress up clothes, so if you haven't already or haven't lately, bring your kids over.
We especially like it when our friends bring over their bounce house! I never thought I would say this but I love this thing. Our friends let us borrow it for a week and the kids jumped for over two hours a day while we kicked back on the porch. It literally takes a minute to inflate and you are in business. We had great naps those days too.
2. Dinner club.
For over a year now, I've been part of a dinner club with three friends who are also neighbors.
We all bought matching pyrex casserole dishes (the ones with the plastic lids) and each cook once every two weeks for all four families for dinner. In return you get three meals back. So for example, I cooked last Wednesday and now will get diner delivered tonight (Monday) and Wednesday, then next Monday, and then on Wednesday it will be my turn to cook again.
It is a big timesaver and nice not to have to worry about what's for dinner and cleaning up after cooking a couple times a week.
I am loving this program. They send you a box each month filled with activities and arts and crafts designed for children 3 to 5, plus a curriculum guide for the parent and lots of posters to support the theme and letters/colors/shapes of the month.
I discovered this jewel from Michelle, a fellow triplet mommy plus one (16 months younger just like Holden), blogger &
Internet friend. Her kids are about a year and a half older, so I check in on
her blog regularly to see what our life is going to be like. She has tried lots of home preschool programs and gracious shared her experience and wrote
reviews .
I finally got around to ordering and we just started at the beginning of this month. The theme for the first two weeks was Wild Weather.
Instead of having a structured time for all the activities I do two or three in the morning after breakfast and then intersperse the other activities through out the day. There is so much stuff included, it is awesome. We typically have left over things to do for the weekend.
Each day at breakfast I bring out a little box that they decorated, inside has an answer to the question of the day. We sing the song...
'It's time for the learning box,
It's time for the learning box,
Let's gather round and all sit down,
It's time for the learning box'
Then we discuss the question of the day. Since the theme was weather it was something like 'What can you do on a snowy day?'.
The kids get excited thinking of answers and we have some semblance of a real conversation. The kit includes the question to put in the box, but to make it a little more fun I will make a snowman or something related to the answer and put it in the box. After our discussion, the kids take turns opening it up and seeing what is inside.
Then we look at the calendar and sing the date song, then we look at our weather cards and outside and mark whatever kind of day we were having (sunny day, rainy day etc.) on our weather graph.
At the end of our weather weeks we learned about rainbows and how they appear in the sky when the sunlight is 'bent' off of raindrops.
The food fun activity was making jello in all the colors of the rainbow together. Then the kids put a scoop of each color in a clear plastic cup and topped it with cool whip. Other days we made sunny fruit (an orange slice in the middle surrounded by a pineapple ring cut in eight pieces to make the sun rays), orange umbrellas (half of an orange slice with a pretzel stick for the umbrella post) and pigs in a blanket (the kids made their own dinner by wrapping the sliced hot dogs in their 'blankets' of crescent rolls and then we baked them). The kids always eat better when it is something they helped make.
One of the field trip ideas this month is to take them to the weather station and meet the meteorologist.
Next theme...silly stories. We are having so much fun.
Cuddling with Dad.
Or each other after bathtime.
Proud lacers.
Serious decorators.
GG is in town and she is usally whipping up something delicious in the kitchen.
Horray for Strawberry Cake!
3. The learning box preschool.
The guest of honor, 5 1/2 week old, 13 lb Hudson, snoozed the whole party.
Marin was especially fond of the rasberries.
The mom with her new son Hudson, younger brother to Hunter (Holden's best friend) and Aara who expecting her second boy - and will be going back to performing with ballet Austin again after this one. 
Hudson's mom, grandma and aunt.
It was a nice afternoon with friends.
And at the end of the party my crew was released from upstairs and consumed an entire fruit plate as their reward for playing somewhat quietly for a couple hours with Carmen.
Lily is becoming quite a little artist. She has been surprising us with her detailed drawings. Here is her rocket ship, media chalk. She enjoys drawing people and her pictures often include the six of us and her extended family, GG, Grandpa, Grammy, Papa and Carmen. Yesterday she drew a detailed face with glasses. Lily also likes to draw maps especially with roads and rivers. The letter 'L' finds it's way in abundance to most of her art.
In times of crisis, like what is happening in Haiti right now, it can feel difficult to celebrate. But it is also times like these when it clear how important it is to appreciate, honor and celebrate what we have at this moment.
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