Grandpa's Birthday

NanaLin and GrandPa were nice enough to come help H watch LEM for two nights so I could stay down at the beach and clean up more efficiently (oh ok, and maybe, visit with friends a little longer!).
Luckily for us, their trip coincided with Grandpa's birthday week so we got to celebrate his day with a coconut cream pie. Happy Birthday, Grandpa. We love you.

Impromptu Retical

My dad sent me a video of the girls he took when he and NanaLin were watching the children. They are trying to have a ballet recital like Avery gave us when she was here visiting.

Seff

This precious creature is three months older than LEM. He was the first child born into our Atlanta friends family. I got some neat series of photos while we were at the beach. My series of Setheroni were among my favorites.




He caught his water bottle on his fishing pole and drug it around for a while.
Here he is playing boats with his bread. So cute.




We miss you Setheroni and can't wait to be with you again.

Eating for 18

We always eat well. Some of my favorite meals have been shrimp Athenea (shrimp, rice, kalamata olives, tomatoes, garlic, etc.), Appilachiacola oysters on the grill, ancho pepper and espresso rubbed filet mignon. Like I said, we always eat very well. A good number of us love to cook and are pretty decent at it. One of us (Newt) is an immensely talented chef. She is pure genius.
While we still ate well this year, we didn't eat as well as we normally do. Roast chicken and hamburgers were our main meals. Still, the company is what makes the meal as that was as savory as ever.

A La Playa

Every year, for the last seven years, we get together on the coast for a week with our Atlanta friends. We all lived in Atlanta for several years and built strong friendships. Now none of us live in Atlanta; we are scattered throughout three time zones. This is our seventh year to get together. A feat we are all proud of.
Another thing that we are proud of is that in three years (three years and one month to be exact) we have had eight children. Of course, H and I did more than our part to up the numbers. Eight children from five pregnancies in three years. I was worried we wouldn't all even be able to have a meal together this year, but each of the three nights we were all together the adults all sat down for a meal.







Lots of playing and reading and baby-loving went on. We loved getting to know our two new members--a four-month-old and an almost-three-month-old. Also this was our first year with Whit's girls as they were just about to arrive during last year's beach week. We look forward to next year, glad to be together again.

Sayings

Here are our recent sayings that I love:

Lu: Elliott has the choate mah roll (remote control).

lem: look there's the pledge of allegiance to the flag
some times they add of the united states of america.

E: "You not get a lollipop!" He says it whenever he gets mad at someone, even H and me. Lollipop withdrawl is the worst injury he thinks can be inflicted.

Lu" "We're in hind the mom." (We're behind mom.)

E: After hiding some candy: "Guys, you'll never forget it."

E: Friderday for Friday.

Mazie: "I want to tell Bee it's forty-to-clock," to me. Then she ran in the bedroom to wake H up saying, "Bee! It's forty-to-clock!"

Three Year Check Up

This week we took the three to see their pediatrician. She was very pleased with their language skills. They did fine counting. They are growing. The mamas got all their questions answered. It was a good appointment.

Below are their stats. The only real difference, percentage-wise, is Mazie's weight. She's always been below the chart; now she is at 10%. Yay Mazie! We are so proud of you, and your brother and sister.

Elliott
Height: 38 3/4" 75%
Weight: 36.6# 75%

Lucia
Height: 37" 50%
Weight: 30.2# 50%

Mazie
34 3/4" 10%
25# 10%

Strike Up the Band

Having three children at one time killed any sponteneity that H and I had. We must plan for just about everything now. However, this weekend we were crazy-spontaneous. We woke up Saturday morning and by noon the girls were at Nana's and Elliott, H, and I were headed to Auburn.
Elliott had a great time at the game. At first he played with his Hot Wheels car but then he figured out where to look to see the game. His told us his favorite things were: "the football, the flags, and the drums."
We are going to try to take all of us to a game before the end of the season. War Eagle!

The Bean Counters

We got this activity from Cousin Avery and Uncle Jon. Jelly Bean counting. I give each child a Dixie cup and I put jelly bellies in the middle. We do different counting methods. We'll count together. I'll make them count to a certain number by themselves. Sometimes I'll tell them if they can put seven beans in their cup then they can eat them.
Counting objects is not a skill that comes easily at this age. We just always try and if they need my help, I'll do it with them. Counting aloud is easier for them than counting objects. Still, I think it is good to expose them to skills just beyond their reach, as long as we don't frustrate or overwhelm them.
We count pretty well to 20. When we are counting objects we definitely stay under ten. Avery can count to about 400, I think. (Last time I heard, which was several months ago, she could count to 40.) Out of our three, I'd say Elliott is the strongest counter, but they all do just fine. So, we'll keep plugging along with our counting beans.

Camera Phone Dump

I am doing a phone camera dump. I suspect this is how it will go for a while. Above is a picture of Mazie, ready and waiting to go to the eye doctor. She has on her money that H recently bought the children, her Minnie Mouse sunglasses, and her Sunday best. The girl wants to get on the road.

We eat a lot of Nillas in our house, specifically Mini Nillas. One of our favorite things to happen is to get twins--two Nillas stuck together. Occasionally someone might get triplets. Imagine Mazie's delight when she reached in to the box and pulled out sextuplets.

I took the girls out for a fun day. We went and got their hair cut. We played at the park.
We ate lunch.
We went to a bakery and got cupcakes.
We went back to the park.
We went to a health food store that had shopping carts just for them. We had a wonderful day together. Elliott enjoyed spending most of his day with Nana and Papa.

Lucia plays a lot at night before she finally gives in to sleep. She does all sorts of things. Her favorite activities are singing, leading school for her animals, and putting her animals to bed as seen below.
A lady near where we live makes this Halloween spider. She did it last year too. It has been a source of great glee and entertainment for two autumns now. The three always want to drive by the "fider." This year they talk a lot about whose window, or side of the car, the spider will be on. The good thing is, we have to drive by the spider, turn around, and then come back home. So, everyone gets a turn to have the fider on their side.


Mazie and I went to the eye doctor for checkups and both got good reports. She and I spent a little time in the big city, going to lunch with our friend Aunt Whit and doing a little shopping. We had a lovely day together. He she is captivated by candy.
She was enthralled with the babies.
Mazie picked out her Halloween costume: a flying horse.
Here is Mazie waiting for her lunch.
Lucia still loves her puzzles. She got the puzzle of the United States for her birthday.


When I take them to the park in town, Mazie will climb to the top of the ginormous slide but then doesn't want to go down the slide. Elliott has only made it halfway up the steps.