April and May Recap

  So I'm sure you've noticed, I haven't posted in awhile.  Life has become BU-SY here in the Stepanov household, so here is a quick photo recap of the last few months.

1) The Triplets' Birthday Bash

2)   Jenya's Birthday: (my mom took the kids and we went to a Spurs game and spent the night at a San Antonio B&B)

3)  South Padre Island Sand Crab 10K Nighttime Beach Run:  (I participated in a 10k in Padre.  I shaved two minutes off my previous 10K time, but only placed 4th.  I stayed at a B&B in Harlingen)

3)  Vela/Pence Wedding:  That's right!  I did my first wedding since becoming a mother.

4)   And that lead me to the decision  to REALLY go back into the wedding planning business and developed my new company, The Fairytale Effect.  Please visit my new website, www.thefairytaleeffect.com or click on my new logo below!

5)  Finishing up a grueling semester of managerial accounting and preparing for Jenya's last semester and graduation!

So that's what we've been doing (not to mention our trip up to Denton last week....more to come later)

Easter 2013

Now that the birthday party is over (a birthday post coming soon), I have some time to get caught up on the blog.  This year we had a really fun Easter!  On Saturday, we went to an Easter egg hunt.  Our church had an outreach program for a low income apartment complex and we attended the Easter egg hunt that they held at the apartment complex.  The kids did pretty good, except Adrik had a little bit of a melt down before we started hunting the eggs.  We had to wait in line for awhile, and he didn't do very well with the waiting, but he was able to get four eggs.  The girls did a bit better, with a few more eggs.  After the hunt we munched on hot dogs and chips.

On Sunday, we attended the early service at church and then headed up to Temple to have lunch with Memaw and Papaw, and GeeGee and PopPop.  What a fun weekend!

Birthday Gift Ideas

I've had a lot of people asking what to get the kids for their birthday, so I decided to write a little post about what they are interested in and give some ideas.  I just have to add that Jenya would be livid with me if I didn't say that they need money for college.  With that said, here are some other ideas:

1) Books:  We love books and we don't have many.  Interactive books are great, but the kids love ANY book.  Here are a few ideas

2) Arts and Crafts Supplies:  We love doing arts and crafts, so we could never have enough craft paper, constructions paper, finger paints, crayons (washable, .please....they color on the walls), and other supplies.  Here are a couple of kits that have lots of projects:

3) Clothes:  Adrik especially needs clothes.  He is in 2T.  The girls are in better shape then Adrik, but could use some PJ's.  They wear 24 months, but will be in 2T soon.

4)  They love Bubble Guppies, Mickey Mouse, Elmo, and animals.

Hope this helps with ideas!

Shaving Cream

The kids have had a stomach bug this week, so we've been stick at home.  Here's what we did yesterday to keep our minds off feeling bad:

The Monkey

Juice Plus and the Doctors

This week I've been working a lot on my Juice Plus business.  So far I've decided to take this business in two different directions.  First, I want to bring it into my running by wearing a shirt designed for people to come up to me and ask questions.  For example, there are a lot of negative health complications that are associated with endurance sports.  A lot of those complications have been proven to mend by taking Juice Plus.  My plan is to list these conditions and state something, "Ask me how I conquer these challenges."  The next way that I plan to market my business is by participating in trade show booths.  I am not going to accost my friends and, but with that said, I really think that Juice Plus is a great product and if you are interested  please talk to me about it and I would be happy to give you more information.  Here's what the Doctors have to say about it:

My Two Year Olds

 

Oooohhhhhh, Charli Kate

 

Save the Date

In between taking care of the triplets, housework, and school I've been planning the kids birthday party.  Save the date: Saturday April 6th from 10am until 1pm.  We will have the party at our house, 4616 Woodstock Drive, Georgetown, TX 78633.  It will be Bubble Guppies themed with fishing for goldfish crackers station for snacks, pizza for lunch, an M&M cake and ice cream for dessert, and a bounce house and pony rides for entertainment.  It should be a great time!

Introducing New Mini-Posts: UTPB

Sorry I haven't updated in so long.  Bad news; I haven't had time to post....Good news; I've completed my first exam for the semester.  Since I'm still adjusting to the roll of student/mother of triplets, there are a few kinks I'm working on.  One thing I've decided to do is mini-posts; quick paragraphs to keep my friends and family updated (think Facebook meets blog).  Here's my first one:
I learned on Monday that I've been officially accepted into UT Permian Basin!  I am now a Falcon and to celebrate, I bought a UTPB sweatshirt!

Teaching Triplets: The Letter D

I have to admit, for the last couple of weeks, we've been doing less of our lessons on account to the beautiful weather.  And that's okay with me.  It's all about having fun with my kids and spending time with them.  Although I teach them, they are only two and I understand the importance of good old fashioned play time. When Tali looks up at me with big pleading eyes and say, "ou-sigh?" (aka outside) who am I to say no.  The lessons are planned, but we hardly ever do everything on the list.  Here is what we had planned for the letter d:


- Morning Prayer: Lord I give you today.  All I think, do, and say.  All my work and all my play.  This I give to you today. Amen

-Calendar Time and Weather: We sing two songs for calendar time, which you can find HERE.  We then discuss the weather for that day'

-YouTube.com Video Lessons:  This week, we continued learning the letters of the alphabet, so most of our work revolves around the letter C.  We watch four videos:

'ABC' by KidsTV123

'Phonics Song 2' by KidsTV123

'The Letter D Song' by KidsTV123

'Dee Doodley Do' by Storybots

- Bible Lesson:  

Joseph and His Brothers

-Puppet Time:  

Paper Bag Dog Puppets

-Crafts:  

Dog sticker book (we made a little booklet and the kids stuck dog stickers in their books)

-Music Appreciation:   

Pop Culture: Glee (the kids were in the mood to move, so we had fun with an upbeat selection of THESE videos)

- Russian Lessons:  We received our 'Dino Lingo' and started on half of DVD 1.   This lesson focuses on counting to ten:

Odin- One

Dva- Two

Tri- Three

Chetyry- Four

Pyat- Five

Shest- Six

Sem- Seven

Vosem- Eight

Deviat- Nine

Desiat- Ten

- Nature Study/Games:  Dirt

-For games we had:

Trampoline Dodge Ball (we softly threw small plastic balls at each other while on the trampoline)
Dirt Dig:

This is one that we didn't get to...This is not one of my kids, but I pulled it off the blog where i got the idea

Wordless

Teaching Triplets: The Letter C

- Morning Prayer: Lord I give you today.  All I think, do, and say.  All my work and all my play.  This I give to you today. Amen

-Calendar Time and Weather: We sing two songs for calendar time, which you can find HERE.  We then discuss the weather for that day'

-YouTube.com Video Lessons:  This week, we continued learning the letters of the alphabet, so most of our work revolves around the letter C.  We watch four videos:

'ABC' by KidsTV123

'Phonics Song 2' by KidsTV123

'The Letter C Song' by KidsTV123

'Crazy for C' by Storybots

- Bible Lesson:  

Noah's Ark

-Puppet Time:  

Sock Puppet Caterpillars

-Crafts:  

-Music Appreciation:  

Dvorak

- Russian Lessons:  This week we just did the same as last week.  We ended up ordering the Dino Lingo lessons and we started these this week.

'Russian Alphabet Song'

'Dino Lingo'

- Nature Study/Games: Clouds

-For games we had:

Everyday Life With Triplets

  This week has started to even out after the hectic beginning of school and we've fallen back into a comfortable routine.  I've successfully added my studies into my busy schedule.  At first, I tried to allocate the evenings after chores were completed for study time, but that only lasted one night.  Being a morning person, I began to fall asleep and was unable to focus.  Now I study before the kids wake-up from 5am until 6:30am.  They kids have been great at letting me get this done.  Lately, they've been waking up early, but they are content to talk in bed until I'm ready to get them.
  The accounting class has been an illuminating experience.  I always figured that when it was time for me to go back to school, I would take evening classes and Jenya would watch the kids while I was away.  With this class, I realized how difficult that would be for me.  I get up early in the morning, watch the kids all day, and do all my housework.  By the end of the night my brain is mush.  With this knowledge, I decided to look for an online university.  I didn't want one like University of Phoenix, but I wanted a brick and mortar, accredited  school that offered a business degree 100% online.  This would allow me to do my classwork early in the morning.  With that in mind and after a bit of research, I decided to apply to the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. They have one of the best online programs in the nation and the second best program in the state of Texas.  They are a part of the UT school system and they offer 7 week courses, so I will graduate before what I was expecting. Even more, UTPB is less expensive then Texas State, so we'll save money.  All around, its a better option for me.
  The only other notable event happened on Saturday.  Jenya and I went to a MOPs and Pops bowling get together.  Every once in awhile, MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers) will have an event inviting the fathers of preschoolers as well, so that we can further get to know each other and get know our other halves.  It was a lot fun!  Of course, I was a horrible bowler, as always, with the lowest score of everyone.  Jenya was so intimidating with lugging around his large bowling bag filled with his own bowling balls and shoes.  Jenya used to be in a bowling league, but with school, he hadn't been able to participate lately.  He was a bit rusty, but I was kind of glad.  I didn't want him crushing all of my friends the first time he met them.  He graciously even lost. :)
  You've probably noticed that I've been posting less.  With everything going on, I haven't had much time to devote to my blog, so I've decided to post at least three times a week; Everyday Life with Triplets, Teaching Triplets, and Wordless.  If I have time, I will try to add more posts, but I think this should be sufficient.  You may have also noticed, I haven't been posting as much pictures and no videos. I'm having problems with my phone uploading onto my computer.  Once we fix these issues these features will be back.  Thankfully, I have access to Galina's photos still!

Wordless Wednesday: Fun With Babushka