Wordful Wednesday and The Future Class of 2023

Another milestone has come and gone in our house. The girls graduated from preschool last Friday. It was an exciting day for them and a little hard to believe for their mama. The last two years have flown by. They started out going to preschool two days a week for the first year and a half, but started going five days a week this past December. They have shown so much growth in the last six months. They learned so many school readiness skills that I couldn't have taught them at home and thoroughly enjoyed all of the classroom activities that they were exposed to. Paying for preschool has been a tremendous sacrifice, but has been worth every penny.

I had to search through the picture archives to find the 1st day of preschool pictures that I had taken. The girls still have the "baby look" in their little faces! They were newly potty-trained and experienced quite a few potty accidents when they first started going to preschool. I also vividly remember having to chase the girls out of the preschool building because they would all bolt in different directions on the way to the car. FUN TIMES! I don't miss that part of the preschool experience. They quickly learned to hold hands and stay right next to me on the way to the car.

My 3 year-old "Penguins" with their first teacher, Tami. She is such a loving person who really cared for the girls and helped them adjust to their new school routine.

The girls on the first day of their 2nd year in preschool. They were now in the 4 year-old "Dolphin" class and loved to remind me how they were too old to be in the "Penguin" class now.

Their graduation ceremony was very cute. They sang quite a few of their favorite songs and braved the unseasonably windy June weather. Their teachers set up carnival games for them to play after the ceremony.

The girls with Teacher Mary and Teacher Stefanie. The woman in red was a representative from our local Congressman's office who helped hand out the diplomas for the kids.

My happy graduates!
From L to R:
Alyssa, Riley, and Makena

Daddy with his girls!


The girls with Teacher Diana. She has helped in the girls classes both years and has a true talent for working with kids. She has the patience of a saint!


The girls with Teacher Stefanie. She has made this second year of preschool tons of fun for the girls. We will be seeing Stefanie again in July when the girls return for swimming lessons with her.

We are looking forward to relaxing over the summer and spending lots of time with our friends. It's time for our summertime playdates!

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Biker Chicks vs. Cowgirls

Spring preschool pictures are in and I couldn't be happier with my biker cowgirls! I was impressed at the huge smiles the photographer captured. Steve loved that the girls wore some Harley gear to represent his love of motorcycles. I think the cowgirl outfits are my fave!

From L to R

Alyssa, Riley, Makena

Hosted by Cecilyand Mamarazzi

Wordful Wednesday and BUGS

It's bug week at preschool and apparently the girls have NO problems letting the creepy bugs (including cockroaches) crawl all over them. I had the heebie-jeebies just trying to take their pictures because I was scared the bugs were going to leap onto me and attach themselves to my face.

I get grossed out just looking at the pictures. Do you SEE the size of those cockroaches?

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All About Mom

The girls brought home the CUTEST mother's day gifts from preschool. You know, the fill-in-the-blank questionnaires that melt your heart with the sweet and silly answers that they come up with. I thought I would share with you what the girls wrote all about me.
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My mom’s name is Casey. She is 43 (GASP-not yet!) years old and weighs 100 lbs (not since I was 12). Her hair is brown and her eyes are brown. She cooks rice the best, and she loves to eat ice cream (you got that right sister). I think her favorite color is purple and brown (these are her favorite colors). She doesn’t like fish (you got that right sister) very much. She likes to watch basketball (ummmm not so much) on T.V. My mom spends a lot of time eating (she must have read my previous post). I’ll bet my mom would like to have a big, big, big bike (she totally wants a big,big,big bike).

Happy Mother’s Day! Love, Makena

Makena's portrait of me (She was quick to point out that she scribbled over my face. I'm totally feelin' the love!)
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My mom’s name is Casey. She is 40 (GASP-not yet!) years old and weighs 100 lbs (not since I was 12). Her hair is black and her eyes are brown. She cooks pizza the best, and she loves to eat granola (Score...I eat granola cereal for breakfast every morning). I think her favorite color is pink (this is her favorite color). She doesn’t like peaches (I LOVE peaches) very much. She likes to watch football with Dad (ummmm not so much) on T.V. My mom spends a lot of time running (Like for exercise or running after the 3 of you?). I’ll bet my mom would like to have a doll (Can this doll do laundry and mop the floor?).

Happy Mother’s Day! Love, Alyssa

Alyssa's portrait of me...a small version and larger version complete with beeeauutiful eyelashes. I asked her if the red dots all over my forehead were my freckles and she said "No those are boo-boos" a.k.a. ZITS. Apparently she notices when I have those acne breakouts like a 16 year-old teenager. Gotta love that one!

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My mom’s name is Casey. She is 42 (GASP-not yet!) years old and weighs 130 lbs. Her hair is brown and her eyes are brown. She cooks fried rice (I’ve never cooked fried rice in my life) the best, and she loves to eat apples. I think her favorite color is pink. She doesn’t like peas (Bingo…Peas are disgusting!) very much. She likes to watch Dora (with my eyes closed) on T.V. My mom spends a lot of time cooking dinner (You got that right sister). I’ll bet my mom would like to have flowers.

Happy Mother’s Day! Love, Riley

Riley's portrait of a monkey me. I sure do look an awful lot like one of her favorite characters from Dora.

One thing is for sure, I am one LUCKY mama to be blessed with my sweet girls.

Wishing all of you mamas out there a Wonderful Mother's Day!

They had fun....I promise!

Ahhhh the memories we will have of the girls before their preschool valentine's party are priceless aren't they?

This first picture kills me. I bust a gut laughing every time I look at it. Alyssa can't even stand up straight for me......with the "HURRY UP MOTHER" look on her face and Riley is in tears. Thanks for trying to carry the group with the cheesy smile Makena!

Take 2....still not impressed. Oh well, I tried. There's always St. Patrick's Day.

Hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day!

Wordful Wednesday

We are sick and tired of being sick around here. Mommy included. The germs seem to really like me this year.

Lissy and I made a trip to the doctor this afternoon because she was running a fever at preschool and was complaining that her ear hurt. One of the best things about the girls getting older is that they can actually tell me what hurts and the doctor visit takes about 2 minutes....just enough time to check the ear and write a prescription for antibiotics.

On the way home after picking her sisters up from preschool, Lissy officially won the award for best barfer, upchucker, puker aim while sitting in her carseat and needing to empty her stomach. Good thing I had a spare plastic bag from Safeway in the car that she was able to use while her sisters stared at her in horror. Nothing like hearing screams of "Ewwwwwww" from the cheerleaders sitting next to you. And this was all happening while I was driving and unable to safely pull over to the side of the road. Good times.

Keeping my fingers crossed for a restful night of sleep.

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Photostory Friday and What's in a Name

I always look forward to picking up the girls from preschool and looking at their crafts and "school work" they have accomplished for the day. With all of the holiday projects that came home, the inside of my car looks like a bottle of glitter threw up all over it because the more glitter the better in the girl's eyes.

I have been thrilled to see the girls beginning to write some of their letters and learning how to write their names. Alyssa and Riley practice writing regularly.....Makena not so much. She hasn't shown as much interest but I'm hopeful she'll turn the corner soon.

It has also made me realize why some parents choose simple names like Amy, Sam or Pat for their children. Much easier to learn how to write!

I know when Steve and I were picking out names, I always tried to come up with the possible nicknames that the rotten kids at school would come up with if we made the wrong choice.


Today, I realized that I never gave much thought to what the girl's names would spell if they were written backwards. A-S-S-Y-L-A (ALYSSA) helped us out by showing us what her name spells. I got a good laugh on the drive home. Don't I feel like an ass.

Hosted by Cecily and Michelle

To Nap Or Not To Nap

At almost 4 1/2 years old, my girls are still fabulous nappers. It's genetic. At almost 35 years old, I am a fabulous napper too! However, over the Christmas holiday it became more and more apparent that if the girls took their afternoon nap, their 8:00 bedtime stretched into a 9:30 bedtime. This worked perfectly fine for us when we didn't have any alarm clocks waking us up in the morning.

Now that work and preschool are back in the mix, we've begun a painful new routine on Sundays which involves NO NAP so that the girls go right to sleep at bedtime and are fairly bright-eyed when I wake them up for preschool on Monday morning. There really is no "routine" to our Sundays other than think of every possible way to keep the girls happily occupied and not clawing each others eyes out so that everyone survives and mommy doesn't start drinking at noon just to maintain a little sanity.

Bedtime for the girls is at 7:00 on Sunday.

Since today is a holiday...it is our Sunday. The girls are happily occupied watching their Tinkerbell movie as I type. Next up is a game of Candyland (insert maniacal laughter here). Playing a game of Candyland with three 4-year olds can be about as fun as poking your own eye out with a pencil. I'll try my best not to fall asleep sitting up as we play because I missed my nap today too.

Only three hours until bedtime. But who's counting?

V.I.P

The girls are V.I.Ps this week at school so mommy had homework this weekend getting their picture posterboards ready to take to preschool this morning. It's always a challenge to let the 4 year-olds make some decisions in the creative process while maintaining enough control so that it doesn't turn into chaos! Let's just say that Alyssa is going to be very organized in life. She is my mini-me! Ummm her sisters, not so much. Makena would have trampled all over everyone's posterboard if I had turned my back for 30 seconds.

So the V.I.Ps get special privileges for the week that include wearing a special vest (oooooh), being line leader (aaaahhhhh) and helping with special jobs. When I was talking to them about being "assistant snack helper" Riley was quick to point out that she couldn't play if she had to help set up for snacktime. Alyssa on the other hand, would be the FIRST one in line for that job each and every day. Can you tell who will be earning the most allowance when she gets older for helping mommy clean?

It's been fun watching my peeps get the "star treatment" this week!

Photostory Friday-Show and Tell

The girls have recently started going to preschool five days a week (used to be two) and they are loving it. The mornings have been a little rough this week because they have to wake up earlier than they are used to and they'd rather stay in bed and sleep. Hmmmm....why doesn't that happen on Saturday and Sunday? But, we've been getting them to bed a bit earlier to try and balance things out.

Tomorrow will be their first Friday at school and their first "Show and Tell." So after dinner tonight, I asked the girls what they wanted to bring to show their friends.

Riley chose her baby lamb that plays "Jesus Loves Me"

Alyssa chose her current favorite book "The Night before Halloween" (yep, the girl is still dreaming about candy).

Makena wants to scare show all her friends her IGUANA! I introduced you to Makena's fave pet back in January. Everytime I stub my toe on that thing I curse under my breath and threaten to throw it out.

Wish I could be a fly on the wall tomorrow and watch all the boys flock to Makena like she's the coolest chick they've ever seen!




Hosted by Cecily

Wordful Wednesday-Pumpkin Patch

The girls had their first fieldtrip recently and I got to come along. It's always fun to see the girls in their preschool environment, but when I'm there they can't quite figure out how to act. Do we listen to the teacher like we normally do (think angelic behavior)? Or do we whine and fuss and pretend we can't walk and fall on the ground (think drive mommy crazy)? Overall it was 95 % angelic behavior so we all left in one piece.

The girl's highlight of the trip was riding a school bus to the fieldtrip. Personally, I could have lived with the fond memories I had of catching the bus at 6:45 in the morning as a Freshman in high school. Riding three to a seat and belting out Paul Revere at the top of your lungs with the other Freshman dorks kinda sticks with you. But this time we belted out Wheels on the Bus, so that is a memory I'll never forget.

Anyway, the pumpkin patch was a huge hit, as expected, and we will be going back at least one more time as a family before the Halloween season is over.

Makena

Alyssa


Riley


The trio


They cornered a goat....and a trip to a petting zoo wouldn't be complete without me yelling at them not to pick up the "little black balls" (a.k.a goat poop).

"Mommy, are you gonna leave us here?





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Photostory Friday and Another Milestone

The girls finished their first year of preschool this week which meant saying goodbye to Teacher Tami. Having good teachers take care of my girls means so much to me and Teacher Tami was awesome. She was so caring, calm, and FULL of patience!! She certainly helped to instill a love of school in the girls this year.

The girls had a "Water Day" at school to help close out the year. The gigantic slip-n-slide was a HUGE hit!

The day isn't complete without a triplet dogpile!

Makena and Ayssa staring down the big slide!! You can do it girls!

My three ducks all in a row!

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