Month of July and the Triplet's Birthday

Grandma and Grandpa MacPherson came to Michigan for the month of July.  They stayed in a Residence Inn nearby that had a swimming pool.  The kiddos all loved the pool, so we were there almost every night to go swimming.  Morgan, Gracie, and Joshua even enjoyed a few sleep overs while they were here.  They loved having the one on one time with Grandma and Grandpa.  Here are some pictures of the the kiddos at the pool with Ryan. With their life jackets they were fearless.

Gracie, Jaxen and Joshua wanted their birthday party at Chuck E Cheese this year, so that's what we did.  We invited family and friends to come and celebrate.  The kids all loved eating pizza, playing the games and then getting prizes at the very end.  They also loved all the birthday gifts they received, especially the bubbles.

Gardening Makeover

I decided to give our Garden a makeover.  After 10 years in our house, and after three years of not having time to take care of a garden, we decided to make it family friendly and nice looking.  With the help of my Sister-in-law, we started the project while Ryan was  away for business.  Here is the beginnings of the Garden.  Lori did a great job cutting the wood and putting it together.

Here is a picture of the garden boxes after getting all the dirt inside and rearranging some plants and pulling weeds.

Here is the final product.  All the seeds and plants are planted.  Now hopefully we will see a nice little crop and little hands won't pull them out of the ground.  I think they turned out rather nice, if I do say so myself.  Great Job Lori!!!! and Thanks for the help.  I couldn't have done it without her.

Potty Training 101

Our summer started out with potty training Rachel. I was not looking forward to it, but when your daughter walks up to you and says, "Look Mom, I changed my own diaper."  You know it's time to start.  Here is a picture of her standing by her sticker chart after her first successful potty.  It is definitely a lot fuller now. 

Here is a picture of her waiting to go potty.  She usually wants to be alone and to look at a book or magazine.  She is her father's daughter after all.

Here is a little potty humor.  The kids decided to become human toilets and pretend that they are all potty training again.  Enjoy.

What do you get with 9 rolls of paper towel and 4 kids?

A Fun Mess!!!

Joshua was away at school, so I did a little laundry, helped the kids pick up toys, got them all dressed, hair combed and teeth brushed, made beds, vacuumed, then went to get myself ready for the day.  To keep them busy, I put on Kung Fu Panda and went upstairs.  I took my time knowing there was nothing to get to until this afternoon when the kiddos had their end of year class parties.  After about 45 minutes, Jaxen came up and wanted to ride bikes.  I told him to clean up his mess downstairs and we would go outside.  Off he went.  Gracie then came up and said she too wanted to ride bikes but there was a mess downstairs.  I told her to pick it up and we would go outside.  Off she went.  5 minutes later, Gracie came back up and said it was too hard to pick up and she was tired, so I called Morgan upstairs to tell her to help.  She came up and firmly said that there was too much paper to pick up.  My mommy alarms were triggered, and I went downstairs to see what was up.  Here is what I found:

I fun pile of paper towel to jump in and throw around.  Trying not to yell or laugh, I had to admit it did look like fun, but they all needed to pick it up.  Three garbage bags later, the mess was cleaned up and we were able to go outside and ride bikes.  I know this is a test, but the Lord sure does have more faith in me than I do in myself.  I'm still trying to figure out why they all came in three years.  It really is testing my patience and endurance levels, but you gotta love them anyway.

Preschool Graduation Again!

It's that time of year again.  School is officially out for us and summer begins.  For Morgan this means graduating from Preschool and preparing for Kindergarten next fall.  For Mommy this means finding constructive activities to do all summer, while waiting for school to start in the fall.  Here are some pictures from Morgan's special night.  (Some of them are not so great.  I think our camera that is five years old, is on it's last leg.)

Grandma comes to visit!

Grandma came to visit this year during Tulip Time.  We had a great time.  We went to a parade,  ate cotton candy and carnival food,  saw the Dutch Dancers perform, saw a performance of music and medleys,  helped at Jaxen's school, visited Deana's Playhouse, watched "How to Train a Dragon", went on a field trip with Joshua and visited the dentist.  We had fun showing Grandma our school and what keeps us busy each day.  I think she went home tired, but happy.  We hope this becomes an annual event.  Next year the kids want to take her to the craft fair and fireworks as well.  Here are some pictures from the parade we went to.

Just us Girls!

When I was in grad school in Kalamazoo, we had the opportunity to attend a few broadway shows at Miller Auditorium at half price.  I miss that particular benefit of being a student. One of the shows was Beauty and the Beast.  We liked it so much we took our friends daughters the next night and one of them said later:  "That was the best movie I have ever seen."  Well, Beauty and the Beast came to Grand Rapids this month, so I took Morgan and Gracie.  Our good friend Sherri came a long to help.  We started out with lunch and then off to the show.  Some parts were a little scary for Gracie, and it was a little long to sit the whole time, but they did fairly well.  Luckily we went to the afternoon show, so there were a lot of little girls moving around and enjoying the show.  Their favorite part was the end when the Beast turns into the Prince and Belle is dressed in her princess outfit.  It was fun sharing it with them, but next time I might wait until they are a little older, so they can truly appreciate it.  I myself loved seeing it again.