This morning

Hunter found my dinner bag of goldfish on the couch from last night.

My kids ate goldfish for breakfast. (sigh)

It took me way too long to wake up.

I watched Hunter "clean up" dribbles of milk on the floor by swiping his foot across it. (ooops, I may have done that before, but only with my swiffer/mop socks)

The cat wanted in... And out... And then kept repeating this sequence.

It is fabulously cloudy.

Our other Halloween costume is in Raleigh. (sigh of relief)

I'm still not awake and haven't managed to make my monkey muffins.

We are missing not talking to our daddy.

We are watching Up, like every other morning. (making sure we fast forward past the old man hitting the worker with his cane)

The patio door is wide open and it feels great.

Outside toys are slowly coming inside. (Grrrr)

My babies look even sweeter than the did when I kissed them goodnight.

I realized I have no "to-do" list for the day!!

I finally woke up and emerged from my comfy Cardinals blanket on the couch.

Art Appreciation Day

They appreciated a new, squishy experience and I appreciated the super easy clean up... especially when I ran upstairs to get the girls up from their nap and Hunter grabbed a paint brush and my Diet Coke and left them on my white(not so white) rug.

 It's hard to keep his attention for a project, but he did pretty well with this one.

Baby Picasso's.

 Em was not appreciating it AS much as the others, but I made sure she looked the part with paint on her face.

 Riley's balloon exploded.

If you're not feeling as brave crazy on a dragging day, just put the finger paint in a baggie and tape to a window or big door with a window. We did this earlier in the week and it seemed to be a big hit for both age groups. Hunter liked using something to move the paint around like a pen or marker, but the girls just squished and slapped it.

Mini monkey muffins

These are the famous Pioneer Woman's Monkey Muffins, but I just turned them mini for my 3 little mini's running around and oh how they love these!!

You can literally do this while the kids are still coming to life on the couch and they don't even beg for food while it's cooking. We have that problem a lot in the mornings. I can never feed them fast enough once they are awake, but these are so easy I don't even mind the clean up afterwards.

Here's the recipe, now just make them in a mini muffin/cupcake pan if you are making them for your mini's... or for yourself, because they are perfect bite size for us hungry dieting mommy's.

{Of course Ree's recipe has her homemade dough, but I just buy a can of regular biscuits and it is just the same.. well, I can't say that for sure, I've never had her make these for me.}

Ree's pictures look so much more detailed and delicious but here is how they should look in a mini muffin tin after baking. The three little sections in each muffin just break apart so no frantic cutting for the smaller babies needing easier bites. These are pre Eagle Brand and OH MY that makes the difference. Although these are good without, I try to pick up a can of Eagle Brand when I know I am making these.

Hope this was helpful to anyone in a food idea slump for your little ones!

Weekly wrap up: Poplar Grove Halloween Festival

I am slacking and feeling a little sluggish this week so it might show in this blog, I apologize.

This was our 2nd year to visit the Poplar Grove Plantation for their annual Halloween festival and we enjoyed it very much. The hayride didn't get as many smiles and thrills as I thought it would, but I think everyone was still trying to wake up from the drive down. The girls are only interested in the open spaces that they are allowed to just take off in... always in different directions too. Last year Jake and Hunter entertained themselves with all the inflatables but this year Hunter was more interested in the pony rides. Patches got a lot of our money that day. This picture of H on Patches may have influenced his Pop's and Grammy to get some horses along with the baby goats they've promised the kids with their upcoming move. A couple hours at the festival was good enough for the kids and we had plenty of time to catch the OSU/Texas game on TV at home.

H also had his cardiologist appointment in Wilmington this week. Because of Kawasaki's there could be damage to the heart, but since we caught everything in time there was no damage done in the hospital and after the EKG that he had on this day it showed everything as normal. No more visits to the cardiologist and no more aspirin!! I think we are more excited about the aspirin than anything else... crushing, dissolving, and getting him to drink it was getting very old. He has seen his Pedi several times since being discharged and he has done great, but the cardiologist was in the same hospital he was admitted to and I think he could tell. His mood changed and he turned in to quite the tantrum thrower... I can't really blame him though.

I guess I need to come up with a few other posts in between the weekly wrap up's because they are all I seem to post lately.

H started his speech therapy this week, which is super exciting and even more so because he loves his therapist. After weeks of testing and evaluating, he qualified for the program and we are starting once a week until he turns three. Hunter did everything so quick as a baby... sat up, crawled, walked, and even showed signs of talking early, but then his words went away and now is non existent. Not only will we be working on speech but his following direction, transitioning, and attention. After answering some of her questions she had for me in the beginning I realized how much of an enabler I was/am to his growth in the communication world. I literally do everything for him. I never ask him to go get things or have him follow any kind of direction. But, we have started asking "more" of him and he actually loves it! We cannot wait to see what comes of therapy.

Here is a little activity I saw/came up with for his attention and focusing. I then had him try to sort/seperate two colors. All you need is play doh, raw spaghetti and fruit loops.

Weekly wrap up: create

The simplicity of a t shirt turned super hero cape.

It's nothing special and all three were whipped together after breakfast one morning, but they LOVED them. I couldn't believe they actually left them on for so long. Riley actually threw a fit when I removed hers for nap time.

I did see incredible tutorials on Pinterest for much cuter ones that will be attempted for a super hero party that I see in the near future. 

Finding little things here and there to mix in to our daily routine makes for happy babies.

And in the spirit of Halloween I had to attempt these cute little guys. 

Of course, Jake and I ended up eating them since the kids are going through a picky stage {grrr}.

{Jake said they looked more like the Taliban than mummies}

And of course we had to make use of all the glow sticks Mimi sent the kids in their Halloween basket and since playing in the dark laundry room is only fun for so long, in to the bath tub they go.

On to a new week with new things to create!

Take your kids to work day

Actually, it was just a family cookout but let's pretend just this once because lets face it, they'll most likely never get to go with him to his real work. Do they still do "take your daughter/child to work day"? I don't even think it was a legitimate excused absence, but that was probably one of my most favorite days in school. Any ways, back to our pretend day that we invented for the Marine Corps.

The whole day was actually Jane Wayne day. It is where the wives get to go do all the "fun" things their husbands do. Now, I have a confession... I will be the first to admit it... I suck at this Marine wife super duper hard core lifestyle. I will never understand or even try to learn ALL the acronyms. Almost everything is an acronym and if its not then they just change the name completely. I know a few, by accident but compared to the other wives I look like a fool. And, I'm perfectly fine with that. As long as my husband knows how to not die and I am taking care of our babies and keeping our family happy and together then we are doing great. I am a little jealous I didn't get to shoot some big guns though.
{correct sentence would be: fire some weapons.}

When we first showed up, H only noticed the bouncy castles and slides, but after several attempts at that and taking his shoes on and off one too many times, he noticed all the big guns and trucks.

  

{That's my little girl on the top of a big truck, mixed emotions}

We had so much fun though. Getting out of the house and letting them run in any direction without limitation was a dream come true, especially for Riley.  And I think Jake was excited to see Hunter interested in all the cool boy things. The kids had such a hard time finding their daddy though once they noticed everyone else had on the same pants and big brown boots. Emma kept walking up to every guy, sitting on his boots, looking up, then looking at me to say nope, wrong daddy.

Weekly wrap up: fun overload

 And you know what that means... 

...picture overload...

...like a ridiculous amount of pictures.

{forgive me}

Jake gets all the credit for an incredible fun filled weekend.

With all the hard work his unit has been putting in lately, they were finally given a long weekend, so Friday we headed out to N. Topsail Island for our last attempt at the beach for the summer. 

It was a beautiful sight. The tide was up and the waves were crashing in as we watched from under the pier. H was stuck to my thigh refusing to look at the water, R was tightly holding on to my side just in case I tried to put her down and daddy headed to the water with E. My babies are just not beach babes, but at least we tried... maybe next year.

When all else fails, head to the nearest park.

And enjoy the local seafood.

Saturday was a well planned out day as well. We would carry on as usual, then after naps we would head out to the NC Seafood festival in Morehead City. But before naps a magical package arrived for Hunter. 

He was in heaven. And since big brother was pretending to be Buzz, the girls definitely needed to join in on the fun. 

Not sure what Riley ended up being, but she was enjoying sticking all the craft balls in her mouth.

Emma got Hunter's Yoda costume from last year, but with an added bow for a girly touch.

I love watching my kids interact with each other more and more every day. I love that they are so close in age, not only with the girls being best friends, but H being right along there with them. Teaching them, making them laugh, loving them and protecting them. 

{I'm lucky if he doesn't accidentally hit them with a toy or knock them down right now}

Of course, I forgot the camera for the seafood festival but it was not exactly what we thought it would be. 

It was a crowded, smokey, fair looking event. All of which we are not fans of. 

We lost, then found one of Riley's Tom's in a mass crowd of people arguing with protestors.

Tried to win H a real fishy and failed, but later he won an inflatable sword that he popped 3seconds later. Managed to get some seafood though, and then headed to... if you guessed park, then you are starting to get it. An open area where Riley can "runaway" from us, Hunter can climb, swing and slide and Emma can scream with excitement was all we needed to know they enjoyed our well planned trip.

Sunday was a chilly, beautiful fall day where we unfortunately missed church because if 3 colds, but we did manage to go to our favorite pumpkin patch for the 3rd year in a row.

Daddy did great this weekend and spoiled us with fun and excitement.

{it's amazing what fall weather can do to a person}

A perfect ending to a wonderful week can only be completed with ice cream cones. 

A first for two baby girls and a rare treat for a messy toddler.

Thank you daddy, we love you!