For funsies, here are pictures from this day (or thereabouts) for the past few years…

August 9, 2012:

Camp play!

August 10, 2011:

The boys modeling their Tiny TOMs for school. Too bad they only lasted about a month before they were ripped to shreds. Yeesh.

August 8, 2010:

Linus sneaking a chip. They can still wear these bathing suits, but they’re not that long anymore!

August 7, 2009:

I don’t have this picture marked, but I know it’s Oliver. Love.

August 10, 2008:

Miles is PISSED.

August 11, 2007:

I was about 17 weeks pregnant. Painting the nursery a color I agonized over.

There’s a small pond behind my mom and Larry’s house that’s stocked with fish. The boys love it when Larry takes them fishing, and this weekend, they each caught a fish! Legit! Dinner was good that night! (Only kidding – of course we threw them back.)

Linus says “HI FISHY!”

Oliver doesn’t want to get too close.

Miles says, “Go back to your Mommy, fishy!”

I really need to work on my post titles, eh? I am not so good at coming up with original ones. Anyway. We had a really fun weekend at Grandee and Larry’s house. I took lots of pictures. As usual.

Linus was excited about doing a project.

My mom’s backyard is a good place for taking photos. Glass of wine in one hand, camera in the other, relaxing on the patio while the boys paint.

Our plan for Saturday was to go to the Baton Rouge Zoo. I hadn’t been since I was a kid, probably 30 years ago. I just remember concrete and hot. Fortunately, they seem to have updated it somewhat in the intervening years, and I was pleasantly surprised. Our usual zoo is the Audubon Zoo, which is huge and great and usually crowded, and the BR zoo was a lot smaller, very shady, and not packed with people. The train is also a lot better there.

Oh wait, but before the zoo, I took my car to be vacuumed out. It was…disgusting. No other way to put it.
Before:

After!

So, the zoo. The smartest thing we did was rent two double strollers for the boys (and our bags.) They haven’t ridden in anything for well over a year, but there’s no way they would have lasted as long as they did if they’d been walking. Plus, my mom and I would race them, and the boys loved that.

This one’s for George. Pooping tiger!

Triplets!

Oliver was super-excited to be on the train.

We all were. Woo! Train!

That’s a real swamp right there. Yes indeed. This is Louisiana.

After the zoo, we hit Wal-mart, where we got the coveted triple cart!

And then it was back to my mom’s for dinner. And back home on Sunday. No exciting pictures there, sorry. This morning I started a fitness boot camp with a friend, so my arms aren’t cooperating fully. So I should probably stop typing now.

Want to share a post about your multiples? Do it here!

Yet another busy and fun weekend for us. It started Saturday with a trip to Lowe’s for a free workshop for the kids. It was really fun, and I think George had fun bonding with his boys over hammers and nails.

The boys were quite proud of their projects, two of which went to Granny and Grandee for Mother’s Day, complete with pictures in the “flowers” and plants in the planter.

Later, we went to a birthday party for a friend’s triplets, where there was an inflatable water slide. Linus and Miles went on it once, and Oliver got to the top but refused to slide down. Ah well.

I got to sleep in on Sunday (you know, until 7:15) and then I took myself to see The Artist. After the movie, we all went to have Mother’s Day dinner at PF Chang’s with Granny & Grandpa and Grandee & Larry. After the obligatory picture with my boys (why do I look heavier in this picture than the one last year, when I weigh at least 30 pounds less? Boo.)…

…we got gelato and the boys made a mess.

Miles looks like Daddy!

I also spent some time on Sunday re-editing the video from when the boys were born. There’s a little bit before, so I can remember just how gigantic my belly was, and then the c-section (not too gory, I promise), and then when Daddy first saw the boys, and then when I first held them. Awww, sweet!

And today is George’s birthday. Happy birthday, old man!

Yesterday was my birthday. I love birthdays. Some people don’t get all excited about birthdays, don’t make a big deal about them, but I am not one of those people. I don’t think one day is enough, frankly, but what can you do?

The day held so much potential even without it being the 37th anniversary of my birth. Some giant college football game was being held right by my office, so we were being let off a bit early. And a friend had her c-section scheduled for that day.

The celebration started on Saturday, when I got a new bag from my in-laws, which they gave me when we dropped the boys off. George took me to dinner at an Indian restaurant (yum), and then we went to the pub to watch the Saints win. (I’m not a football fan, but I don’t mind watching playoff games when our team is doing well.)

I got to sleep in on Sunday, and that afternoon, George and I went to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I love going to movies. Love. After the movie, we picked up the boys and went home.

Monday was my actual birthday! Woo! I opened a card I got from Kiki, and brought the boys to school. When I got there, I checked my phone and learned that my friend’s baby was a girl! So my prediction was wrong…I thought for sure it was going to be a boy! I left work at noon and met my friend Teresa at a restaurant for lunch. We had a delicious meal, topped off by cheesecake and a champagne cocktail (and a birthday song by inebriated LSU fans at the next table.)

Next, the two of us picked up a birthday cake for me and the baby and brought it to the hospital, where we spent some time with the family. I love snuggling (not-so) tiny newborns! (Baby Fran, at 8 lbs, 6 oz, was exactly twice the size of Miles. Hard to imagine.)

After our visit, we went back to the grocery store so I could get a little cake to bring home (we left the other one at the hospital) I picked up the boys from school, and had pizza for dinner. I am very pleased to say that the boys ATE their pizza. Even with a tiny bit of sauce on it! And then they sang happy birthday to me.

I also got a package from my sister. Hmm. These shoes make me 6’3″. Hmm.

Once they were in bed, my friend Terry and I left to go see New Year’s Eve (told you I love movies!) while the rest of the city watched the football game. We were entertained by the movie, and when it was over, she checked her texts and saw that my alma mater had not done very well. As I mentioned before, I don’t really care about football, so I wasn’t too upset.

That was my birthday. Not too shabby, eh?

This was definitely the most fun Christmas we’ve ever had with the boys. And I learned my lesson from last year. Last year I kind of went crazy and probably bought every toy that said “ages 3 and up” for them (which is pretty much every toy on Earth) but this year, I was much more careful with my gift-giving approach. (In my head, I would compare this to war – carpet bombing with toys last year, but precision bombing this year.)

Linus was feeling so much better on Friday, which meant they were able to spend the night at Granny and Grandpa’s. Thank goodness, I really needed a break! Plus, I still had a ton to do before the holiday. I spent the evening making Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon rolls, which were not too hard to do, but maybe next time I’d cut back on the butter and sugar. They were a tad rich for me, and that’s saying a lot. The recipe made six and a half pans of rolls, so five of those got gifted to friends and family.

{Of course, after all that, the boys wouldn’t even eat them on Christmas morning. Argh.}

I got up bright and early Saturday morning to pick up the boys because it was snow day at City Park! They’ve been talking about it ever since last year, so I thought they’d be excited to play in the snow, but the reality was a bit too cold, wet, and slippery for them. Ah well, it was still fun while it lasted.

They had more fun jumping, playing on the railroad tracks and laughing at the naked statues.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at home, then we went to our friends’ house for Christmas Eve dinner. Stephanie made the most incredible cioppino so even though the boys had a massive freak-out upon arriving at their house (they had fallen asleep on the way over) we had a great time. It didn’t hurt that I had an eggnog daiquiri when I got there and hot chocolate with bailey’s before we left.

The boys were up until ten thirty that night, which was insane. Their usual bedtime is closer to 7:30, so they fell right asleep and didn’t wake up the next morning until almost NINE! Now I know I need to keep them up super late if I want to sleep in on weekends. Ha.

So I was up at 7:30 on Christmas morning, waiting on my children with my coffee and a roaring fire.

(on the TV)

I’m happy to say that the gifts they got were very well-received, except for the Hexbug Nano that scared the bejeezus out of Miles.

They got LeapPads, one Thomas train, and a bunch of tracks. Not too much, but they loved everything. They might be a little too into the Leappads, but at least they’re learning tools. Uh, yeah, that’s what I’ll tell myself.

And the fighting over the Thomas trains tells me they really love them.

Later, we went to George’s uncle’s house for Christmas dinner, where the boys got more loot (and so did George and I. I got a great set of Land’s End tote bags for the gym, overnight trips, etc.)

Oh yeah, I forgot to brag about what a great job George did for me. 😀 I got a new Kindle to replace the one I dropped a few weeks ago, a cool sciency cookbook, and the remote shutter release I wanted for my camera.

And that wasn’t all! Kristina got me a set of beautiful All-Clad measuring cups and spoons (I drool over hers whenever I’m at her house), some fun magnets, and a Parks & Recreation book. 🙂

Hope everyone else had a fantastic holiday as well!

Four years old. That sounds so old! Definitely not babies. Not toddlers. Four year olds. Wow.

(And, can you believe this was us 4 years ago today? Man, I looked awful, but the boys were cute, even with IVs stuck in various parts of their bodies. And the other two moms are now good friends.)

Saturday was their party. It was robot-themed, so Kristina (who flew in to help) and I made a robot cake and robot cake pops. Much easier than last year’s masses of cupcakes and Sesame Street-themed cake pops.

If kids weren’t crowded around the cake table, trying to swipe a cake pop, they were gathered around the cardboard rocket ship to color on it. This was a huge hit. Woo!

(or inside it)

Each boy got his own Happy Birthday song, but we had to pretend to blow out candles. It was very windy.

So the party was a success. I wish it had been a tiny bit cooler, and I wish I’d gotten more pictures of kids with the robots at the “photo station” but the wind was a problem.

The next day (Sunday) was their actual birthday, so more celebrating was in order! We started with a breakfast at IHOP, which went fine until they came out with ice cream sundaes while singing. It was a bit loud, and Linus ended up in tears. Ha!

After lunch, we headed to the park so the boys could ride the scooters that Grandee and Larry gave them.

And we even got a rare family picture out of it! Okay, well, at least George and I are smiling.

Later, we put together the Hot Wheels Wall Tracks that we gave them, and there was much cursing.

And finally, before bedtime, I wanted to actually let them blow out a candle, so Kristina and I put up a few balloons and sang three more times.
Miles:

Linus:

Oliver:

Happy birthday to my sweet boys!

It was such a beautiful weekend – the weather is cooling off a bit (not enough, though…how am I going to get Christmas card pictures when it’s still 80 degrees? I have long-sleeved shirts and sweaters for the boys. Argh!) so we spent a lot of time outside. Even George, also known as Mr Sunshine. (Not really.)

We went to a birthday party on Saturday in our neighborhood. There was a petting zoo set up, but the boys wanted nothing to do with the animals. I don’t know why they’re so scared of animals. Maybe because we did such a good job instilling a fear of Stinky into them? (Rightly so – she can be mean! But she’s actually quite gentle with the boys. But still. Better safe than sorry.) Anyway, all of the animals were small and tame. There were even pony rides, but again…no. Not happening.

Lil’ Sebastian! (for you Parks & Rec fans)

Fortunately, it was at a park, so there was plenty for them to do. Like fight over some old ride-on toys. And crash into each other.

Best party banner EVER.

Tiny goats are SCARY!

Seriously, this goat was three weeks old. TERRIFYING!

I was really excited about Sunday’s plans. We are lucky to live close to the ferry that crosses the Mississippi River and takes you right to the base of Canal Street, where you can catch a streetcar all the way to City Park. Considering how obsessed the boys are with trains (and how much they love the picture I painted for them last week), I figured they’d have a blast on the streetcar.

On the ferry:

On the streetcar:

I brought a picnic lunch to eat at the park, but I didn’t think the transportation issue all the way through. Turns out the streetcar lets you off at the front of the very very large park. It’s not too bad for adults, but getting three year olds to cross a gigantic lawn to the playground was a challenge. I just told them to RUN!

George and I decided we’d rather have burgers than the Nutella sandwiches I packed, so we let the boys eat all of those while we had a hot meal. Yum. The boys played on the playground for a bit, then we kind of wandered around the park a little while we waited for the next streetcar.

We reversed our journey and stopped at the pub on the way home so I could guzzle a beer while the boys giggled at Uncle Mark’s fart jokes.

And that’s about it! Exhausting, but fun weekend.