Halloween Fun...

We had three Halloween parties today at schoolthen went trick or treating. Nicole was a fairy (one of Tinkerbell's fairy friends)-Amanda was a pink flying unicorn-Nate was Davy Crockett-They all had a fabulous day and of course got lots of candy!

There won't be any weight loss going on in this house for a while!

We walked across Washington today...

Through a corn maze! We had to find 12 different locations in Washington while walking through paths marked with highway numbers in a corn maze. This was their version of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which we learned was nicknamed "Galloping Gertie" years ago just before it collapsed into the water. We went with the Brownies and each of us were in charge of four kids. Nate got to join us for this outing and he was thrilled! He was a little disappointed to find out that he was the only boy - even the siblings were all girls! He had a very difficult time letting the girls lead the way but he definitely tried to give up his control of the situation. They played games, went through the corn maze, and picked out pumpkins.

Ice Skating Fun...

It was another busy day today! Nate had a mystery dinner to go to for a friend's birthday party and I went to Skate America with Linda. I dropped Nate off at 5:30pm, and then headed off with Mom to watch the ice skating! It was a wonderful show and we really enjoyed it.

A Few of Our Favorite Activities...

Okay, so I know I already posted tonight. I was looking through my pictures tonight and discovered a few I hadn't had time to share. Nate loves playing the bass guitar and the teacher says he's really good at it already!: Amanda MUST wear this to bed every night to get a good night's sleep:

Did I say that she is my Princess? Both Nicole and Amanda are enjoying their Brownie meetings:

Nate had a wonderful birthday at Traxx Racing in Mukilteo: And he enjoyed the corn maze with this friends:

And in Cub Scouts, he picked apples and made applesauce, and baked cake inside of oranges:

And of course, sold almost $500 in popcorn! It's been a busy month! Now you see a little of what keeps us busy every day of the week. We have orchestra on Monday, Brownies on Tuesdays, Cub Scouts on Wednesdays and the occasional Sunday, and Thursdays are reserved for finishing homework and studying for Friday spelling tests! Now I'm off to bed to get rested for tomorrow's roller coaster:)

Favorite parts of me...

Today I worked with Amanda's class to illustrate a poem each child wrote about themselves and what "The Best Part of Me is...". We read through the poems together, then we talked about what they thought would be a good way to picture their favorite part. See if you can tell what Amanda's favorite part was:

The kids did such a wonderful job with their poems! I can't wait to see the book all put together and published. I'll finish up the pictures tomorrow so the teacher can start to compile everything.

And the verdict is...

Today was the kids first visit to the orthodontist. What an experience! The whole practice is geared towards kids with lots of yummy treats and wonderful activities for them to keep busy. They took lots of pictures and xrays of the kids' teeth and then the verdict came in: two of the three kids need work done already! Not surprisingly, Nicole doesn't need anything yet because she doesn't have her permanent teeth yet. She's still got all but two of her baby teeth and they don't look like they are going anywhere soon.

Amanda needs two baby teeth removed to make room for her permanent teeth, and then she'll need partial braces on both top and bottom front teeth. Nate needs an appliance installed that will be a precursor to braces. It's to help him remember to stop sucking his thumb, and pull the teeth back in to where they should be.

All in all, it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, at least in the short term. I'm really glad that the visit is over and we can start working on making our kids teeth perfect!

Nate's first experience with popcorn sales...

Nate and I spent all weekend visiting our neighbors and calling friends to increase popcorn sales for our Cub Scout pack. It was an experience walking through our hilly neighborhood and climbing many many staircases. Nate was able to almost fill an entire sheet and he's so proud of himself! He made over $400 in sales in the last two days, including one Internet order from his cousin Stephenie! Thanks everyone for helping to make the popcorn sales a success for him! He's positively beaming tonight and should sleep very sound dreaming about popcorn!

What a great night!

We had a great time at the Celine Dion concert tonight in Tacoma. We had floor seats right next to where she walked through to get to the stage. I could have reached out and touched her if I wasn't so starstruck that I felt like I was frozen in place! She is incredibly tiny, both in stature and in body structure. She was wearing stilleto heels and you still couldn't see her over most of the people that were there. Her voice is so powerful that it's difficult to believe that it comes from such a tiny person. We were also about 10 feet away from the stage, so when she came over to our side it was like she was singing straight to us. Her opener (Gordie Brown) was awesome too! He made parodies out of various songs and was so funny!

This was definitely the best concert I've ever seen! We had a wonderful time...

Crazy, crazy week!

This week has just flown by! The kids have had a Cub Scout den meeting, orchestra, Brownies, a Cub Scout pack meeting, Art class, half a day out of school on Wednesday, and many other activities all week. I've been preparing for our fun night at the Celine Dion concert on Saturday. Dad and Mary are coming over to take care of the kids along with Taylor, Mary's granddaughter who also happens to be a friend of our kids. They are all so excited! I've had to get the house clean for company and run all the miscellaneous errands that come with the job of "Domestic Engineer" as Jeremy puts it:)

School Pictures, Finally!

We finally got our school pictures back. Although I still think I take better pictures of my own kids, these are okay. Just wanted to share them with everyone else...

The girls are gone this weekend on a surprise trip to the beach! They are having a wonderful time. Nate and I went to a book signing (the person who wrote "Because of Winn Dixie") yesterday with some of his friends from school,

and then had a playdate with two of his friends yesterday afternoon. We took him out to dinner with us and did a little shopping this evening, and tomorrow he has a Cub Scout meeting. It's an exciting weekend for him too! We love just being able to spend quality time with one of the kids and I think they enjoy it too!

A fun and busy weekend...

Where do I begin??? John and I packed up all three kids and sent them in various directions. Nate went to Grandma and Geri's house and the girls spent the night with a friend. I delivered all of the suitcases on Thursday night. After I drove them to school on Friday, John and I left for Bellingham for our romantic weekend at a really nice hotel on the water. We took the scenic route to Bellingham and went to John's Grandma's old house in Bow. Then we went for a mini-hike down to the beach and took a few pictures. We really enjoyed our little vacation away from the kids!

We came back on Saturday afternoon and picked all three kids up. On Sunday, we had Nate's birthday party at Traxx Racing. He and six of his closest friends drove go-karts around the track for two hours. They all had a blast! While Nate was enjoying his party, Grandma and Geri were treating the girls to a movie "Beverly Hills Chihuahua". They really enjoyed it!

Last day of the Aspergers Conference...

Today was another informative day at the conference about Aspergers Syndrome and other Autism Spectrum Disorder problems. It was a little discouraging today because I learned more about the difficulties that Nate will face as he moves into middle school and high school. He is really ahead in his reading abilities, math skills, and science and other subjects. What he is lacking is complex language skills and his ability to make inferences on what is really going on in a book and in social situations. He also has issues with writing, but they made it clear that he isn't lacking in writing skills, but in his thinking about writing skills. They gave me all sorts of tools to use to help him become a more versatile writer and improve his social thinking skills. Now I just have to make the time to put those tools in place and start using them.

When I was pregnant with the triplets, I was terrified that I would have three special needs children and wouldn't be able to handle it. What has really hit me today is that the child that has special needs in our family wasn't even part of the triplet pregnancy. It makes me really understand how blessed we are that the girls are completely healthy and developing at a normal pace. All three of our children bring their own special qualities to our family, and I feel so lucky to be their mom!

My day with adults...

I attended a seminar about Social Thinking today. I was pleasantly surprised to find 13 members of the Mukilteo Elementary staff there, including Nate's teacher and principal! I think it's awesome that they are so interested in helping their kids become even more successful in school. I also met a dad there that I know from a mutual friend. We had a great time getting to know each other a little better and talking about our kids. We found out that we both lived in Alaska at the same time. How weird is that? Mom really saved me this morning because she put the kids on the bus for me. That's not an easy task! I really appreciate the help!

Nate and the rest of his Cub Scout den went to Cranium tonight for a playtest session. Have I ever talked about Cranium? We have been members of the Cranium playtest group for a couple of years now. The kids get to go down to Seattle, sit in a little room, and play new Cranium games for an hour and a half. All they have to do is discuss what they liked and didn't like about the new game and they get to pick a game out to take home. It's great for them because they are treated like their opinions are really valued. They have to sign a contract and everything with a promise not to talk about the game with their friends at school. John had to take them because I was at the conference. This is the first time I wasn't the one to take them so it will be interesting to see how John and the kids liked it.

Tomorrow is another conference day and then John and I are leaving for our romantic weekend. I've got lots to do to get ready for that so I'd better get to it!