A Visit From Kaitlyn and Ann

Bridget went to school today and was very excited when she burst through the door at the end of the day. "Mama, Mama, I got a surprise for you. Close your eyes!" So I did, and she gave me a cute bag with a nice Thanksgiving poem inside that they made at school. She also showed me her beautiful pasta necklace. 

"Where's Kaitlyn?!?!" She was beginning to get so upset because we had told her that after school today, Kaitlyn was going to come over. She was upset that she wasn't already at our house. So she called Aunt Tina to find out when Kaitlyn would be coming over. She did a really good job talking to Tina on the phone. And she was very glad to hear that Tina, Kaitlyn and Ann were putting on their coats and leaving for our house right then.

When they arrived, Aunt Tina had a Thanksgiving project for the girls to work on. They were going to make cookie turkeys out of Oreos, Whoppers and Candy Corn. I think the girls ate more candy than they used to make the turkeys.  Ann also enjoyed eating Oreos and watching everyone make turkeys. 

Of course all three girls had plenty of time to play with the Weebles castle and with toys in Bridget's room. Must have worn Bridget out, because she took a nap at school and was exhausted before we even finished dinner. 

Pizza Party at Grandma's

Bridget spent Saturday night at Grandma Kathie's house. Sounds like she had lots of fun. They went to the mall, and Grandma bought her a little Dumbo doll from the Disney store. (Bridget will tell you, "Grandma Kaffie buyed me a Dumbo doll from the Disney Store at the mall.") Then they went to see the "2" movie. That's what Bridget calls Madagascar 2. Which makes sense, because she sees the signs and advertisements for the movie everywhere, and she can't read, but she does recognize numbers. Bridget said that she enjoyed the movie. I know they read lots of books at Grandma's house too. I guess she had difficulty sleeping, and she only ended up sleeping from midnight to 4 am. 

Shawn picked her up around noon today, and she fell asleep in the car just blocks from Grandma's house. She slept the whole way home, then slept for another 30-45 minutes at our house, then the three of us headed back to Burbank to visit Grandma Joan. She slept all the way there too. So that was good, because she was in good spirits when we got there. Tina's family and Sandy's family were also there. Bridget had lots of fun playing with her cousins. Kaitlyn and Bridget did lots of pretend play. They were running from a monster (Morgan), eating  pretend food, capturing cars and playing lots of imaginative games. Morgan and her baby mullet, basically ran around the house chasing after the two bigger girls. Ann, still a bit sick, just hung out with mom, dad, or anyone who would play quietly with her. 

Of course, we never visit Grandma Joan without ordering pizza, so when dinner rolled around, we had our usual Phil's Pizza Party. Seriously, this is the best pizza in all of Chicagoland. I highly recommend trying a cheese & sausage Phil's pizza. While waiting for our pizza, we got the girls to sit down and eat. By the time they were done, the pizza was ready, so we cleared out the girls and it was the adult's turn to eat at the table. Overall, it was a very nice visit. 

Shortly after dinner, the house cleared out. Shawn, Bridget and I stayed a bit longer because Grandma Joan sewed up three things for us. When we left, we took the long way home in hopes that Bridget would fall asleep again, but that didn't happen. She was very chatty the whole way home. However, she was in bed by 8 pm, and didn't wake up until after 8 am Monday. 

A Kid-Free Day & Night

Ok, so we don't get a lot of kid-free days and nights, and I'm positive we won't be having kid-free nights once the triplets arrive, so I guess we should enjoy it.  Shawn drove Bridget to Tina's house at 8:45 am this morning. Dave, Kaitlyn and Bridget were going to a Halloween party event thing through the Bolingbrook park district. I'm sure they all had a blast. 

I really didn't do much throughout the morning and early afternoon. I watched the Today show for awhile. I took a shower. I did all things computer related. I took an hour and a half nap. I ate lunch. During this same time period, Shawn and Dad installed the laminate flooring in Bridget's new room. 

After lunch, I drove up to Plainfield High School for a visit. I've been meaning to visit for quite some time now, and I figured I'd be pressing my luck if I waited much longer. I got to school about a half hour before school was dismissed in order to get a decent parking spot before the busses blocked everything. That also gave me a half hour to waddle my way up to the second floor Math office. It was so nice seeing co-workers again! Even people that I don't usually talk to on a regular basis, stopped to say hi and see how I was doing. It's really a great place to work! I miss it a lot. So I talked to two hall monitors, a secretary, the copy clerk (all the most important people in a school setting) and all the Math teachers. I ran into 3 former students as well.  Again, it was very nice catching up with friends and just being in a school setting. I miss the students, I miss the familiar smell of the hallways (I'm not saying its a nice smell!), I miss living life according to bells and I miss doing math daily.

When I got back home, Shawn and Dad were still working on the flooring. They should be done by 6 pm. There were a few snags along the way, but they got through it, and the floor looks really nice. 

Don't know what we're going to do with the rest of our kid-free evening, but I'd like to go to dinner and a movie. Or dinner and a trip to the grocery store. Shawn wants to finish the baseboards so that they can be installed tomorrow. My oh my how life has changed. Before kids, we would have spent a day like today probably driving hours just to go to some mall we've never been to. Then we'd spend the rest of the day exploring whatever seemed interesting in whatever town we ended up in. Now, we get a "day off" and we're wanting to go grocery shopping or get house work done. 

Will update more later.

So we went to dinner at Max & Erma's because I had a coupon. They have a really good pretzel bread appetizer, so we ordered that along with our drinks. When the waitress came back, the gave me my drink and Shawn a beer. Shawn was like, "I ordered the same as her." the waitress thought he said, "I'll have the Sam (Adams)." No big deal, the waitress came back with the right drink quickly. Next comes our meal. Poor Shawn...he ordered fish and chips and his fish was WAY overdone. It looked gross! When the waitress came by and asked if he wanted another order or anything else, Shawn refused. He was full off of the appetizer and his fries. A few minutes later, the manager comes by to appologize, and she took Shawn's meal and the appetizer off of our bill. I felt bad for Shawn, he worked hard all day and he didn't even end up with a good dinner. Anyway, since so much money was taken off of our bill, I couldn't even use the coupon. 

After dinner, we headed to Dominick's to do a little grocery shopping. It was nice because it was rainy, it was Friday night, and NO ONE was in the store. So we made it home safely after the store. We watched a bit of tv and headed off to bed. 

A Visit From Auntie Tina, Kaitlyn and Ann

This morning Bridget finished decorating her pumpkins, FINALLY! I must say, she did a great job on them. I guess I scared Bridget by telling her that I had to do the gluing because I was using a hot glue gun. Next thing I knew, she was crying and telling me to stop using the glue on the pumpkin. I don't know why it freaked her out, but it did. She then was quite happy gluing on the googly eyes herself and painting on a small red smile. 

For the other pumpkins Bridget used glitter, feathers, buttons, and paint pens to decorate the already painted pumpkins. She really seemed to enjoy herself, and she was so focused on the job that nothing would pull her attention away. When there was only one pumpkin left, Bridget suggested that I write all of our names on it. What a great idea. So I began writing "Mom, Dad..." Bridget butted in, "Don't forget the trip-a-lets!" of course not, I wouldn't forget them! "Bridget and the Triplets" then in the little space that was left, Bridget suggested I write "Boo!" So that was it...all pumpkins have been adequately decorated for Halloween. 

Next, I wasn't feeling so great. I actually felt like I had a stomach ache, and I never get stomach aches, so I asked Shawn if he could keep an eye on Bridget while I took a half hour nap. Before I went to lay down, I let Bridget watch "Leap's Letter Factory" a 35 minute video all about the alphabet. I told Shawn that when the video was done, come wake me up. 

Well, I guess Bridget watched the video then got showered and dressed by Shawn and it was almost noon by this time. Auntie Tina, Kaitlyn, and Ann were due to arrive any minute now. So I rushed in a shower, Shawn fed Bridget, and by the time we both finished our tasks, the doorbell rang.

It was Ann's nap time, so she took a nap in Bridget's room while Kaitlyn and Bridget played in the basement. Me and Tina supervised and talked. Eventually, the girls ended up painting paper plate pumpkins and turkeys. They turned out really cute! (The pumpkins are red and purple, but the turkeys are brown.) They still wanted to paint some more, so we broke out the roll of paper, and each girl painted their own scene. Even those were cute. Kaitlyn painted a sort of rainbow, and Bridget painted what looked like the scrubbing bubbles icon but I guess it was supposed to be a face. 

After those pictures were complete, we all got cleaned up and the girls danced to the music playing on the television. Even though Kaitlyn and Bridget are only 11 months apart, you can really tell the difference in skills and abilities. Both girls could listen to the music and follow what was being said, like "head, shoulders, knees and toes" but Kaitlyn is far better at touching all body parts in time to the music. Bridget's lucky if she touches her head and toes. Also during "If You're Happy and You Know It" the song says wiggle your ears. Bridget usually just ignores this. Kaitlyn, who never heard this version of the song before, looked at her mom with such an inquisitive look on her face as if to say, "how the heck am I supposed to wiggle my ears?" Tina said, "Wiggle your ears, Kaitlyn." And she did. She just put her hands behind her ears and flopped her ears back and forth. Very cute!

After awhile, Ann woke up, so we all moved upstairs for snack time and more playing. I think Ann ate most of the apple that I cut up for the girls. She can really eat! Kaitlyn loved being "cooker chef" at the play kitchen. She made Tina, Shawn and I all bowls of vegetable stew. Bridget was nearing her breaking point, because she didn't have a nap, and most of what she did was just naughty. At one point, Ann was trying to climb down from the sofa and she kicked Bridget on accident. Bridget turned towards Ann and was about to hit her until both Tina and I told her she needed to stop. Ugh! Why won't the girl just take a nap? She's so much nicer when she does!

The visit was over at about 5:15 and the rest of the night included dinner, a brief play session and then bedtime. 

Photos of today:

Painting Pumpkins

Play Date With Kaitlyn

Video from today: