The Birthday Triplet Times

Our friends, the Birthday Triplets, have some very exciting news.  In fact - the news is, they've got a new newsletter and are offering a free subscription to all of their fans!  If you haven't heard of these three fabulous sisters, read our review of The Birthday Triplets: Granny Rose's Amazing Magical Day here!

The newsletter is available by email quarterly, and includes feature stories, games, fan photos and more!  It's the perfect little something for all the lovely girls in your life to look forward to receiving.  Fans of the book on facebook can also receive a free personalized birthday card - since we know these girls love birthdays!

Sign up at their website - http://www.thebirthdaytriplets.com and click on "Free Newspaper and Cards."
Visit them on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheBirthdayTriplets

We can't wait to get our next issue!

Lessons in Parenting: Choosing Chores for Toddlers

It's hard to believe how much my kids have grown up, even in the few short months since they've turned two.  One of the coolest things about this age is how they love to be "helpers."  Julie's the first to let me know with "oh no - spill" and ask for a "tow" (rhymes with cow) to clean it up.  I'm so impressed with Brayden's abilities to follow two step directions, and put things away when asked.

So when I came across Dr. G's blog post about kids and chores, I thought it was time to think more about the ways my kids could help in a more structured way.  Head over to Dr. G's blog and hear all about the three major benefits for bringing chores into your kids' routine - and download her free, age appropriate chore chart for your little ones!

For our kids, we're starting small.  Our first chore routines include:

• Dumping our plates into the garbage after meals
• Using towels to help clean up our spills
• Helping to sweep when we play with rice and other sensory materials
• Wiping the table after making messes with paint
• Cleaning up our piles of toys when we're finished playing (still working on this)
• "Feeding our pets" (with treats) every day

Of course, they take some prompting, but here's hoping with a little encouragement and consistency, we'll be well on our way to reaping the rewards of family chores.

Speaking of Doctor G, she's the the official spokesperson for the Parenting Expo in Pittsburgh happening this weekend.  If you haven't gotten your tickets yet, head over to our event post and get your promo code for a last minute discount!  Don't delay though - the discount ends at 5 p.m. on March 5th!

Here's Doctor G., talking more about the event!  Come see her live this weekend, and hang out with us at this super fun filled event!

St. Patrick's Day Toddler Play Date

Last year, we celebrated St. Patrick's Day with a Toddler Play Date with a bunch of our favorite friends.  While we may have missed the opportunity to post last year, it's so nice to catch up and share all of our activity ideas with you this year as the season of green has again rolled around.

We always try to keep things short and sweet, so we had some free play time, music, craft and snack.  I had a story ready and waiting - but the kids seemed a little too busy this time!  Our kids were all around 12-18 month toddlers for this play date but I think they'd even still enjoy most of the activities.  

We started with a sensory bin filled with lots of green things - blocks, shapes from our shape sorter, balls, glitter shamrocks and gold coins from the craft store.  We also included shamrock shaped Mardi Gras beads which the kids loved finding.  To make our sensory bin nice and green, we filled it with green split peas which were absolutely perfect!

While we played, we put on some good uptempo Irish music to keep things lively.  If you don't have any already, iheartradio offers a free Shamrock Radio station that would work very well!

We worked on our St. Patrick's Day craft, which was really simple to bring together.  We started with a piece of blue paper and cut a wide U shape from the center.  Folding the paper lightly in half makes this very easy.  We cut a matching sized piece of contact paper, peeled the backing, and applied it to the paper - leaving the adhesive "sticky" through the rainbow shaped window. 

We had cups of tissue paper squares in all of the colors.  Some kids needed some assistance, but for the most part, everyone had a good handle on this simple St. Patty's Day project.

Even a year later, our finished product still hangs on the white board in our kitchen.  This would also look great in front of a window giving a sun-catcher effect!

We finished our play date off with the traditional snack of leprechauns - Lucky Charms.  We're not one for formalities.  We pretty much pour it on the table and let them graze for the marshmallows. 

   

And while our kids were pretty played out, we had a great little story picked out to finish out the event.  Perfect for toddlers just learning their numbers, this festive book will have them counting along!

What other ideas for St. Patrick's Day play dates have you used in the past?  We'd love to hear from you!

Weekend Update

Just a little update from our little family.  We had such a nice weekend, I thought I'd share!

We started out with the babies much delayed Bubble Guppies Birthday party.  Having Christmas birthdays is such a tough thing and I haven't quite settled on the best way to navigate this.  A week earlier is Dan's birthday, so that makes an early party tough.  We've considered celebrating summer "half birthdays" but that doesn't sit right either.  It's tough for them to have to share a birthday - and then it be right on top of the holiday.  But despite, we thought we'd celebrate this year in February once all the other business and seasonal flu had cleared and we could focus our attention on throwing a fun party.  We'll be doing a whole post about our party details, but here's a sneak preview!

Saturday gave us a nice opportunity to enjoy Phipps Conservatory during their "We Love Our Members" free event for members of reciprocating museums.  While it was quite a bit crowded, it was an awesome day to spend indoors - while still allowing the beautiful sun and blue skies to shine down on us.  Look out for a post about our trip for an upcoming Field Trip Friday post!

Coming home from the conservatory, we decided to pull ourselves together and try to make it to church for the six o'clock service.  While Dan and I have been visiting this church for about a month and am loving almost everything about it, this was the very first time we'd be bringing the kids.  It is HUGE, and while it means we haven't had the opportunity to develop many personal relationships with other members, it means that there are fantastic children's programs, and lots of opportunities for fellowship and learning.  So I was terribly anxious - how would they react?  They've never been in anyone else's care other than family and a few specially chosen babysitters.  I prayed the whole way there that they'd handle it well.

At this point in my life, I should really have learned to stop "worrying" so much and trust that He always takes care of our needs.  Too many times I panic and become consumed by anxiety - only for God to come through and remind me that my worrying was all for nothing.  Saturday was no different.  We checked the kids in with their kiosks and headed to the 2-year-old room.  They opened the half door - and off my kids ran.  Straight to the train table, without looking back.  What an awesome blessing to avoid tears of separation.  We kept watching, but their numbers never came across the screens to alert us that they needed us.  They'd had their first successful church experience, and seemed to have really enjoyed it!  What a great experience and we're looking forward to many more.

So to end our update, I'll leave you with a few "Julie-isms."  Her words are just pouring out and we couldn't be happier.  I can't even list all the ones she uses, since she pop ups every day with new ones!  Here's a few things that have made me smile lately.

• Julie got a new princess dress - with "uh-punul" (Rapunzel) on it.  She is so stinking adorable in this dress, which Brayden likes to bring me to put on his sister.  I loved seeing the look in Dan's eyes when he came home from work and saw her wearing it (over her sleeper) for the first time.  She really looks like a little girl and no longer our baby.
• I just can't get enough of her little phrases - like "ah-hoo" which I believe is her word for "woo-hoo."  Whenever she's having a great time or riding her Rody Horse, she'll say "ah-hoo ah-hoo" and you know she's having a great time.  Interestingly - this is also the word she uses when pretending to sneeze.
• Finally, this little doll is loving to pretend to go to sleep - pulling the covers to her shoulders and "snoring." I just have to smile as I have distinct memories of doing the same as a kid.  I love seeing her discover and grow into this incredible little girl.

A St. Patricks Throw Back Thursday

St. Patrick's Day is coming and we're looking for new photography ideas for the babies.  We thought we'd celebrate this "throw back thursday" with a St. Patrick's Day picture from two years ago.  At three months old, we were inspired by the When My Baby Dreams photos and thought we'd snap our own version of our Irish babes.

Boy have they grown in two years!  I still see glimpses of the sweet babies they once were.  Happy Throw Back Thursday and St. Patrick's Day!