Another Easter Egg Hunt

We had another egg hunt at church on Saturday, this time it was with the Lincoln Area Families With Multiples club. Another lady and I organized it and set up, so I was at church pretty much all morning. Brian and Ellen came with the kids later and we were able to have a nice morning with a fun egg hunt and crafts. Thanks to Curt who took all the action shots while I was helping with organization and watching the kids. The kids had a great time, and definitely have the idea of putting eggs into their basket. Will was a maniac stuffing them in as fast as he could find them. Grace walked around a lot, looking for only orange. By the time I found her and convinced her to get other colors, she already had 6 orange ones. Xander did a great job by himself. After the egg hunt was some crafts and they emptied their eggs, trying to eat the candy. We also took a group picture, which was a little chaotic. There were around 55 kids, 4 sets of triplets (us included), the rest were twins and siblings, and most of them under 6. Trying to get that many kids to sit still was hard.

The pictues are:

1. Grace holding her bear and treat sack. They got the bears if they found an egg that had a slip of paper in it marked "bear." We came home with three large stuffed bears, which we didn't really need!

2 & 3. Will and Xander doing crafts at a table.

4. A shot with their eggs when their hunting was done.

5, 6 & 7. Action shots during the hunt.

8. The chaotic group picture of all the multiples.

Our attitudes are better this week, glad to report. We had a pleasant weekend and not too bad of a week. Xander is a little sick, small fever, coughing and runny nose. Hopefully it won't be too bad and won't last too long. We got out quite a lot last week, playing at the museum, mall and storytime. They spent a good chunk of time at Grandma Pam's house on Friday and were there again on Sunday for dinner.

They are talking so much lately and we think everything they say the funny! The most notable change in their speech is that they are starting to describe and qualify things now. Instead of a ball, it's a "green ball" or "Xander's ball", or even more dreaded "my ball." (Everything is "mine" now. I wish they hadn't learned it, but probably had to sooner or later.) Instead of shoes, they're "new shoes" (Grace loves all her new spring clothes and shoes, by the way. What a girl!) Finally everyone knows all their colors, letters are going well. Their new favorite book is Dr. Seuss' ABC and the potty books are still popular. All the books have names now, too. They're "ABC Book" or "potty book" or "moonlight book" (O Little Town of Bethlehem, with working stars that twinkle).

So, that's about all the news for now. We are going to Omaha on Saturday to the zoo, so I will have lots of pictures and news to report next week. Thanks for checking up on us!

Easter at the Niebuhrs

After Easter bunny presents, we got dressed and went to church on Easter morning. They were not so good during church, Brian ended up being out with Xander while he threw a gigantic fit during almost all of church (I was occupied with my choir). So, it was not such a good morning.

After a so-so afternoon nap, we went to Dale and Ellen's for dinner and an egg hunt. They also were the ones responsible for the big trucks and wagon. They had played with those big trucks at their children's museum class and loved them! So, Ellen went ahead and bought them. They all do like the trucks, but none of us could have predicted how much they would love that stupid wagon and boy have they fought over it! I have to threaten them to get them to share. A timer has only sort of worked, Xander cries everytime it's not his turn. Will likes it, but is equally happy to play with a truck. We may have to invest in another wagon. They also had an egg hunt (three middle pictures are action shots of it). They were able to find most of the eggs with a little help. Mostly they just all wanted to push the wagon around. Dinner was yummy and dessert was yummier. We were all exhausted when we got home and they slept well that night. The top three pictures are of them in their cute Easter outfits, coordinating but not matching this year. No family picture this year, they were in a bad mood and it was hard enough to get them all to stand still for those pictures (no smiles, either). I decided not to push them into a family picture, I was tired of their whining and crying and bad attitudes. Two year olds are certainly a challenge! Hopefully I'll have "good, happy attitude" news to post next week. Hope everyone had a pleasant Easter.

The Easter Bunny came!

The Easter bunny made a visit to the Niebuhr household on Saturday night (and he went a little overboard). But, they did get some fun and useful things that have been very popular thus far. Among the clothes and shoes, they got books (even a couple of books about going potty, something we need to start talking about), balls, small toys like sidewalk chalk, matchbox cars and plastic animals, and some candy. Lucky them! The balls were color coded as you can see from the first picture, it reduces fighting. And, there are plenty cars and animals to go around. They love the little cars. They've been carrying them around everywhere. I didn't know those would be quite so popular. They also got some trucks, clothes, candy and other small things from my parents, who were out of town and couldn't be here on Easter. I've been rationing out the candy in small bits here and there, but boy do they love it. They'd eat jelly beans all day if I let them. Not a chance! Happy Easter from the Niebuhrs!

Egg Hunt at church

The triplets went to their first Easter Egg hunt on Saturday morning at church. It was very well planned and executed by the church members and I think the kids really enjoyed it. They started by reading them a pop-up book of the Easter story. Then, the smallest kids, 2, 3 and 4 year olds were separated from the big kids, so they didn't get trampled in the pursuit of eggs. And as you can see, they had an egg carton that they could fill up. Once it was full, you were done getting eggs. Grace decided she wanted to get only orange eggs, and took a while finding those. She eventually picked up some of other colors, though. Will opened all his eggs as he picked them up, so it took him a while. And Xander is just generally slow, so it took him a while, too. We were some of the the last ones done. I sacrified helping them hold their cartons and gather eggs to get some pictures, so Judy (someone who works with Ellen in the church office) is the one helping Will in the second picture from the top. Brian helped Xander and Grace was OK by herself most of the time, although another man did help her a little bit. The pictures are chronological through the morning. Top picture is before the hunt began, next three are during the hunt, next three are after with their cartons full. I tried to get them all three to smile together at the end, but Will had other plans. More about Easter later!

Running Naked

Sorry for the late update this week. It was my turn to be sick this week, I've had stomach flu for the last two days, and I thought they were only supposed to be 24 hr things. This one was not. It's 48 hours later and I'm still not feeling 100% better. I'm hoping for a good night's sleep tonight and I'm desperately hoping none of the kids get it. Brian has a touch of it, too, but not enough to keep him from work. Thursday, I was so sick and tired that Ellen had mercy on me and took the kids to church with her for a couple of hours and gave them lunch so I could rest. Then, thank God they took a good nap that afternoon! It really, really has to be spring soon!

The kids have slight runny noses and the boys have needed some albuterol here and there for chest congestion and coughing, but nothing serious. No fevers and sleep has not been interrupted.

Everyone is doing well. There is no real big news to report. We are just enjoying our mostly healthy days. It is so pleasant around here when they're not sick! I don't feel like leaving the country at the end of the day anymore! We've been here and there this week, lots of outside time on the nice days, with the usual outings to the library, church and grandparent's houses. No museum this week, although we may go play there next week. I have noticed in the couple times we've played outside or at the park lately that they are much more daring and free. They walk away from me more, go wherever they want and just generally aren't afraid of doing anything anymore. I also find myself not worrying about where they are EVERY second, because they can handle themselves better. (I don't cringe everytime I see them try to navigate a set of stairs.)

Will thinks it's fun to drive his car to the top of the driveway, give himself a push and go down really fast. The first time I though he would let himself go into the street, but he didn't, he stopped at the sidewalk before I said something to him. All the rest of the times, he either drove himself into the grass (which is funny) or stopped himself at the sidewalk. It's nice that he knows what he should do and I don't have to really worry about it.

Xander has come out of his shell a little lately. He's been talking to people at church that he would have shied away from before. He's even ventured into other rooms and offices on his own, which is hugely surprising. Although, I say he's becoming less shy and I came home from the hair salon this afternoon with my hair straightened and cut shorter and he didn't recognize me and took him about 15 minutes to figure out it was me and come over to me. I guess I know what he thinks of my straightened hair.

Grace has been funny lately. She has been miss bubbly personality, and on the flip side, miss ornery. She has been doing funny things, saying funny things and being happy and silly. And then a couple minutes later, do things to her brothers to make them mad, or do something I had just told her not to do. She is very conversational and talks back and forth using phrases like "OK" "there you go" and "here it is". She's also a know-it-all. If you ask one of the boys a question, she'll answer quickly and loudly before they have a chance to. She's been very huggy and kissy lately and enjoys poking eyes and climbing all over you.

Brian took these pictures of them before their bath tonight. They like running around the house with no clothes on. It took us a good 10 minutes to get them corraled and into the bathtub. You can see how tall they are getting when they don't have clothes on. The boys are very nearly needing 3T sizes in all their clothes and Grace is finally starting to fill out her 24 month/2T things, FINALLY! The bottom picture is Xander and Grace laying on the couch and "foot fighting". Kara and I used to do that all the time. They enjoyed themselves.

I will post some pictures on Saturday next week after our Easter Egg hunt at church, their first ever Easter egg hunt. I think it will be a nice time, providing the weather is decent. Thanks for looking and talk to you soon.

The best part of the day

The best part of the day is when daddy comes home from work. He will run, jump, tickle, give horsey rides, wrestle and rough house until bedtime and they just eat it up! He really gets them going and they love the little funny games he does with them. Sometimes they do dances or play games like "Teddy Bear" or "Ring around the Rosy", but most of the time, they do what you see in the pictures, lay on the floor, attack daddy and get tickled in retaliation. Go daddy!

Well, so far so good on the health front. The pink eye has not returned again. Although, whenever we see any matter in someone's eye we freak out and lament that we just can't take anymore pink eye! So far, all false alarms, although Xander had some runny matter in his eye right before bed, so we'll see what happens when he wakes up tomorrow morning. No other major illnesses, though. Will has a slight cold that is setting off his asthma a little, so we've resumed albuterol treatments and he has a terribly runny nose and is drooling like a fountain. But, no fever and he's not really sick, so this one should pass quickly. The other are fine and Brian and I are fine, too. So, because everyone's healthy, we've been out and about a lot. The museum Thursday and Friday of last week (our last museum class is this Thursday). They spent Friday night and some of Saturday at the Niebuhr's, we also went to the park on Saturday because the weather was GORGEOUS! Boy, did that ever give us spring fever. Sunday was church and errands, Monday more errands and to the Hoefs' house. Tuesday, storytime, and Wednesday will be a playgroup and lunch at church.

On Saturday when we were playing outside, Grace got onto a tricycle and proceeded to start pedaling. She got one or two times around before her feet fell off the pedals, but with more outside time and practice, I think she'll start pedaling and be going up and down the block in no time. We were so surprised! Tonight, while reading Will Dr. Seuss' ABC book, I informally tested him on the letters, and he knew all but about 6 of them. Pretty darn good, we think. He and Xander are finally getting the colors. They will get them receptively by pointing to the ones you ask for, and they're averaging a little better than half right expressively. Xander has been showing off his counting skills to people at church and they were impressed. Not much else to report, things are just rolling along these days, looking forward to nice weather and spring activities. Hope you all are healthy and we'll catch up with you more next week.

Last week's pictures

Here are the pictures from last week I should have posted earlier. Sorry for the delay. They are...

Top three: Their best smiles! You can see from Grace's picture that I finally got all her hair in two pigtails. It's pretty cute, makes her look so grown up.

Bottom: Xander pushed his high chair toward the door, why? we don't know.