My Family Monday: Everyday Life with Triplets

  We spent much of this week preparing for Christmas, and honestly, now that I look back, I'm not sure what all we did.  On Monday we visited the kids' grandparents and great grandparents in the Temple area and on Saturday, Santa came and visited our neighborhood in out community park.  The kids were terrified of Santa, but we did get these pictures of me holding them and standing beside Santa.  They did love playing with their friends at the park, though.
  Just to let everyone know, I won't be pasting in awhile.  We are going to visit my sister and her family for Christmas and so I'm going to prepare and get ready for our trip. I will start posting again the day after Christmas, so Merry Christmas to all!

Silly Saturday: Work of Art

  The kids have been really into coloring lately, especially Charli Kate.  Earlier this week, I was cleaning up after breakfast and I heard Charli Kate in the living room saying, "cuyar" (color), so I went into to see what she was coloring.  This is what I found:

Teaching Triplets Tuesday: Christmas

  This week we continued our Christmas lessons, starting the day with Prayer, Calendar Time, and Weather.  We also added an advent calendar to this time; for us we use a Mickey Mouse one. We started with one video this week to go along with the second week of advent, which focuses on the journey to Bethlehem.
Video:

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Activities:
1.   Candy Cane Chandelier:  The kids and I hung candy canes on our chandelier

2.   Book Page Christmas Trees:  This was a really fun craft!  The kids had a lot of involvement; tearing out book pages, playing with the cut pieces, and moving the paper cones down the rod (think of the color stacking ring toy).  For instructions, click HERE.

4.  Advent:  We are lighting an advent wreath and reading a devotion during breakfast.  I'm also trying to teach them the meaning of advent; preparing, awaiting, and anticipating the birth of Jesus.  I have a small, child proof manager scene that I used to play with as a child.  Each week we will add a character and build the manger and on Christmas Eve we will add the baby Jesus.  This week we added Joseph to our manger HERE is the advent devotional that we are using.  We read the entire devotional on the first day that we light the candle and throughout the week we read the accompanying scriptures.  Each morning we talk about the meaning of advent and we pray "Come Baby Jesus".

My Family Monday: Everyday Lifewith Triplets

  The highlight of this week was a short trip to San Francisco.  Jenya's work sent him to San Jose for new hire training on Tuesday this last week and on Friday, the rest of the staff and their spouses met up in San Francisco for an amazing holiday bash!  On Saturday, we had a brunch buffet with Jenya's work and then we were free to walk around SF and visit the Muir Woods.  That night we relaxed in the hotels jacuzzi and went to bed at 7pm (well, I guess that's not as bad as it sounds.  It was 9pm our time).  The next day we headed back home.
  So what did the kids do while we were away?  They were spoiled by their Babushka, Diedashka, Uncle, Pavel, Aunt Lizzy, and Ronnie.  A huge special thanks to all who took care of our little ones while we were away.  Without them, we wouldn't have had our much needed break!

Wordless Wednesday: Last Christmas

Teaching Triplets Tuesday: Christmas

  As I mentioned last week, we are taking a break from our usual lessons to learn about Christmas.  We continued Prayer, Calendar Time, and Weather and we focused mainly on activities this week.  For next weeks post, we'll include songs and videos.

Activities:
1.   Hanging Stockings:  I let the kids help me hang the stockings and decorate the fireplace.  They mainly played with the plastic ornaments, but had a great time.

2.   Christmas Trees:  For Christmas trees this year, we're doing something a little different; instead of having the traditional tall Christmas tree, we went and purchased five small potted tree.  I placed them all on a niche above our couch and covered them with lights.  Each family member has their own tree to decorate and when Christmas is over, we'll plant them in the yard.

3.   Christmas Ornaments:  We will be making our own Christmas tree ornaments.  This week we made cinnamon ornaments by combining 1 cup apple sauce and 1 cup cinnamon and then adjusting to find the right constancy.  We rolled out the dough and used mini cookie cutters to shape our ornaments (don't forget to make a hole to hang the decoration).  We allowed them to dry in a 200 degree oven for about two hours, turning often.  I then applied a layer of glue and the kids went crazy sprinkling them with glitter.

4.  Outdoor Decorations:  I also let the kids help with the outdoor decorations.  They mainly just played, both with the decorations and with other things outside.

5.  Advent:  We are lighting an advent wreath and reading a devotion (starting on Sunday) during breakfast.  I'm also trying to teach them the meaning of advent; preparing, awaiting, and anticipating the birth of Jesus.  I have a small, child proof manager scene that I used to play with as a child.  Each week we will add a character and build the manager and on Christmas Eve we will add the baby Jesus.  On Sunday we started out with the stable.  HERE is the advent devotional that we are using.  We read the entire devotional on the first day that we light the candle and throughout the week we read the accompanying scriptures.  each morning we talk about the meaning of advent and we pray "Come Baby Jesus".  Each morning I also remind them that we've prepare the stable for baby Jesus.  While we're preparing our house for Christmas, I also remind them that we are preparing for Baby Jesus' birthday.

 

My Family Monday: Everyday Life with Triplets

  What a busy week!  We spent a lot of last week preparing for Christmas, but in between holiday crafts we did have quite a few things going on.  On Tuesday, the kids and I headed across the street for a Pampered Chefs party.  It was really nice; the hostess provided childcare and so the kids played while I had a break.
  Thursday, the kids had a well check.  They seem to be doing great!  They are starting to catch up on their sizes.  The girls are still under for their weights, but they are all right at average for their heights.  Adrik is right were he needs to be and a bit above average for height, so we have tall thin children; imagine that (said sarcastically).
  On Saturday, we headed out to Georgetown's Christmas Stroll.  We went pretty early, so we didn't get to see Santa (he came in the parade) and the parade didn't start until noon, but we did see this really neat town of Bethlehem that was set up.  They had activities for the kids, a live manager scene complete with live animals, and we even saw one of the kids' NICU nurses.  It was a lot of fun!  Unfortunately, I didn't get very good pictures; here's what I did get:

Silly Saturday: Here, Kitty Kitty Cat

Lately both the girls have been crawling around saying, "Meow."  Charli Kate especially love playing kitty cat.