Dinosaur Museum in Milford

 The kids with Ruby (Emalea's youngest daughter). She just jumped in the picture, she's not shy!

 Several multiple families.  1 set of triplets, 3 sets of twins, 3 singletons.

 Will messing around (actually, I told him to do that).

 Examining the life-sized dino models.

 Feeling the sharp teeth!

 A real T-Rex skeleton!

 Almost all the multiple families that were there. 2 triplets, 6 sets of twins, 3 singletons. There were more that aren't in the picture. All in all, about 9 families came.

A good photo!

Did you know there was a dinosaur museum in Milford? Neither did I, until our social coordinator for the multiples club planned a spring break outing there. Since we didn't have anything else to do, we just went. Admittedly, it was a little expensive (my friend Jess went with us and with the group discount I still spent $36 to get us all in) and it's not huge, but it is nice. There are some dinosaur bones, skeletons, etc. but mostly there are life-size models of smaller dinosaurs and busts of the bigger ones. They have a life-sized, life-like head of a T-Rex right at adult eye level, it is a little creepy! There were lots of things to look at and read. The best part (according to the kids) was the mirror maze. It's really hard and you have to go slow to keep from running into the mirrors, which by the way, are smudge proof, so there is no way to see hand-prints and know that it's a mirror, not a walk-way. They must have run through that maze a dozen times, they loved it! We ended up staying for about an hour and a half, then we drove back into town to eat lunch and play at McDonald's. Three kids collapsed when we got home! A good way to spend a spring break morning!

A trip to the (kind of lame) circus

The kids before the show started. We were in the second row!

 Brian took the day off (a Thursday) so he could go with us.

 The lions and tigers right in front of us in the cage.

 The balancing man, he stacked 11 chairs and stood on them.

 The best part of the show. A dancing elephant! He really did dance, too. Funny!

In front of the capitol, walking back to the parking garage. They are obsessed with the capitol, always looking for it when we're driving around town.

So, you can tell from my title that Brian and I thought the circus was a little lame. The acts weren't that great, the singing and dancing was terrible, the ring-master was a grumpy old lady, but the kids really liked it. (Now I know why my parents never took us to the circus, even though I begged and begged.) The only redeeming quality was that the tickets were free to the multiples group from the Shriners. Otherwise, I don't think we would have ever taken the kids. Of course, they had tons of light-up toys that were expensive (none less than $5!) and we didn't get any for the kids, and heard about if (from Will) for the entire time we were there. We did get them a funnel cake, which they loved (What's not to love?!? Fried dough and sugar!) and that appeased the other two, but Will really complained. It also was a long show, it was a 12:30 matinee and we didn't get home until almost 3:30. So, they took a quick nap, but it was a long afternoon. A good memory for them, I hope!

Kindergarten checkup

The kids had their kindergarten check up last Tuesday. It was a marathon, as usual. Each kid had an exam with the doctor, urine test, blood draw, hearing test, vision test, weight and height and 4 shots (chicken pox, polio, MMR and DTaP)! We were there for almost 2 hours. All in all, we have healthy kids, here are some specifics.

Will was 42 lbs (54th percentile) and 42" tall (also 54th percentile). His eyes/ears are fine and we're happy with how his asthma is under control. His blood and urine tests were fine, except that his cholesterol came back a little high (more on that issue later).

Xander was 46 lbs (77th percentile) and 45" tall (85th percentile). He was also normal on everything else, all his tests came back normal. I happened to mention that he is pretty stubborn and Dr. Swisher noted that on his form "behavior problem in child, stubborn and resistant". I hope the school doesn't see that and label him, expecting a little terror. He's really only like that at home, he'll be fine at school. (He won't even talk at school!)

Grace was  a whopping 36 lbs (19th percentile) and 43" (53rd percentile). Everything else on her was also fine, except her cholesterol came back high at 175. They like for kids to be 100 - 169. The doctor only sent a note about it with some pamphlets about healthy eating and exercise (which kind of offended me, since our kids do eat extremely healthy and that little girl never stops bouncing around!). They said they'd test again in a few years. However, some people we've talked to about it have urged me to be a little more worried about it. I am probably going to call the dr. this week and we may go in and talk about it more. The one thing that is concerning is that they did the test without her fasting. Adults will never have a cholesterol test without fasting, so we wonder why they didn't make the kids fast. All in all, the cause of the high cholesterol is most likely family history (Hoefs family genetics strike again!) and we will probably follow up on it this week. I'll keep you posted.  Will's cholesterol is borderline high at 164, so I'll need to talk to the doctor about that, too.

All the kids were good as gold at their appointment. They did everything as the dr. and nurse asked (although Xander was a little wierded out about peeing in a cup!) they were even super brave for their shots! Until we got to the blood draw.......Grace had a major melt-down. We (me and the phlebotomist) ended up holding her down and forcing her hand up to do the finger prick. She screamed like she was dying! It ended our almost perfectly behaved dr. appointment!

In other Grace news, she started feeling yucky Saturday night and by Sunday was fully sick. As Sunday went on, her eyes got water, red and goopy. You guessed it, pink eye! We got her some drops Sunday afternoon and after we spent 10 minutes talking her into taking them, she is on the mend. (And as you already know, she's not the best patient when she's scared about what's happening to her). However, no school for her tomorrow, which means she'll miss the field trip to the fire station.

So, that's about all our news for now. We have a fun week planned with the fire station and we're going to the Shrine Circus on Thursday. I'll post pictures of those this week!

A trio of "Lightly Row"

Thursday, after dance and swimming, the kids were messing around on the piano and started to all play the same song at the same time. I ran and got the video camera and had them do it again. Here is that video. The song is "Lightly Row". They've been playing it for a while with the RH and can also do it with LH. Xander wasn't concentrating much at the beginning and they got off a little in the middle, but all in all, a pretty good performance. Enjoy!

Sick!

This has been the scene in our house this week. Sick kids, all three! Xander got the first cold on Saturday or Sunday. Runny, stuffy nose, coughing, fever, etc! He didn't go to school on Monday. Grace came home from preschool Monday feeling yucky and Will also started getting bacd on Monday night. Unfortunately, Will's asthma is acting up, pretty badly. We've gotten the nebulizer out for albuterol treatments. Grace and Xander had fevers on Monday and Tuesday morning. They all went to school on Wednesday morning, even though Will probably shouldn't have. The problem was, the kids had a field trip that I was supposed drive toand I didn't have anyone to keep Will if he didn't go. So, it was either all go, or all no go. I chose go! So, we went and it was fine. Xander and Grace are fine now, except for Xander's lingering cough. The main problem now, is Will's coughing! Let's hope this is short-lived with no steroids!

In other news, we have started the kindergarten registration process! I got the paperwork in the mail earlier this week and have started filling out the 5 (yes, 5!) forms that need to be sent in, along with immunization records, social security cards, and birth certificates. They have their 5 year check-up/kindergarten physical next week at the pediatrician, an eye dr. appt at the end of March and regular dentist appts in April (can you believe you're supposed to see 3 doctors just to go to kindergarten? Apparently you can write a letter of objection and you don't have to, but we are going to anyway.) I go in on March 17th or 18th to hand in paperwork and the kids visit the classroom for 45 minutes in April. They also will go to an open house the day before school starts to see their teacher and their room. I've been in touch with the principal and have asked to have them split into different rooms for next year. I think it's time they started having their own experiences and be more independent. (Although, I do think we're making progress in that area. More on that later). I am prepared for trying to keep track of three different sets of homework, three schedules, etc. (we'd have to that anyway, if the kids were different ages). I am excited for them to have different stories to tell at night, have different experiences, and meet different kids. Bring it on, Kindergarten!!

We are really hoping spring is coming soon! We've been suffering from major cabin fever. We go outside whenever we can, and those couple nice days we had 2 weeks ago, we spent every waking minute outside. But, since it's alternating between snow/cold and nice, we have no consistent plan to get outside. The kids ask regularly when it will be spring. "Soon!" I always answer. Not soon enough!

We're not sure if it's cabin fever related or not, but we've had some naughty behavior lately. Xander has been the main culprit. That boy is stubborn! On top of the stubbornness is sneakiness and a willingess to constantly push his boundaries. The combination of those three has made for some challenging behaviors. He has been ignoring us, terrorizing his siblings and defying us at every change he gets. Needless to say, he has not gotten a "special prize" from the star chart in some time! This morning, I broke up a fight (an actual, hitting/screaming/rolling on the floor) fight between Will and Grace. I don't even know what the disagreement was, but they both did a stint in time out. I can only hope that when the weather is nicer and we have more activities (soccer, playing outside, etc.) to keep us busy, this won't be such an issue. Well, that's about all for now. Here's hoping for nicer weather this week!!!!