A few pictures from our week.
Whenever I talk about errands, they confuse it with seeing Erin--one of their cousins they love. The first time I used this term, there were some tears after our errands were done and we were driving down the street to our house. Elizabeth said she wanted to see Erin!
Man at Target: "Are they identical?"
Me: "Nope."
Man: "Someone told me there is no such thing as identical triplets, but they sure look alike."
hmmmm...
They wanted pictures of their barbies on their backs.
A few action shots of dressing up...I must pick this up a few (hundred) times a week.
Just toss it over your shoulder, Kate.
The kids think it is fun to spot wash the floor after dinner!
Cleaning the chairs
They might grow up like their mama!
Erin sent the kids all colored pictures of Dora (they love!) and school pictures. After opening them, the conversation went something like this:
"I got two Erins. Anna, you only have one." Elizabeth (she got two pics of Erin)
"Why did you get two?" Anna
"Because, because, she is really beautiful." Elizabeth
"I am going to put her under my bed." Kate
Their new thing is to put the pictures under their bed (along with their other treasures). Anna also has a picture of Sarah under her bead and Kate has a picture of Claire. Elizabeth keeps Amy's picture under her bed too.
No pictures of the Jackie-boy. But, he has been busy at school. He is in the accelerated reader program now which they let him start early. At St. Joseph, AR usually starts in third grade. He comes home with a book, he reads it twice before he takes it back to school and takes a test (5 questions). Then, the teacher sends home another book. His reading has come a long way. He reads very well, and we are working on the comprehension part. He also started First in Math, a computer game for grade school children. At St. Joes, the kids start in first grade (third quarter), but he was allowed to start a year early. They added him to the first grade roster and gave him a password in January. He doesn't LOVE to play the games, and 15 minutes a day is all he usually does. He is ranked second in his class (of first graders) by the number of sticker he has earned.
Jack has a few new favorite things: Presidents, states (maps) and Monopoly. He has a President flip chart from Grandmom from Christmas and that thing has been everywhere! He loves to read about the Presidents and will often be spouting off facts that I don't even know (Who is on the $10 bill?). He leaned over to me in church a few weeks ago and told me that if President Lincoln was alive today he would be over 200 years old. President Lincoln is his favorite. One Saturday morning, John overheard him talking to his sisters and it went something like this: "Girls, you have only been alive for one president. I have had two. If Mitt Romney had won, then you would have had two, but he didn't."
Maps have always been a favorite of his and I am constantly printing off maps. Recently he got interested in England and we printed a map of Big Ben. He colored and wrote down a few facts about the clock. He is bringing it in for show-n-tell tomorrow. He also loves the game Destination USA. It is a board game he got from Christmas. He can look at a map of the USA and put the correct named chipon the correct state. He also has enjoyed playing Stack the States on the Ipad and knows quite a bit about states. The state flag questions always get him, however.
Monopoly. Oh, I do not like this game. Never did as a child! But, in the last two weeks, I have played it a handful of times and John too. Jack is pretty good. He can calculate change (i.e. property cost $280 and he puts $500 in the bank, he knows how much change he gets). He also knows things like five $20 bills equals $100. He is a huge fan of the $500 bill. He is constantly trying to change his money in to get a $500 bill. He also loves to put houses and hotels on any chance he gets. I was amazed to watch him the first time. He has won probably as much as he has lost. He is not a big fan of losing and there has been some tears. John told him he had to shake his hand and tell him good job when John won and Jack was not happy about doing that either!
New things with the girls:
They are all spelling their first names. Elizabeth can spell her last name, the other two are close. They are all doing very well printing their names. Anna and Elizabeth love to color and I think they color pretty well. Jack never colored so I think their coloring is way better than his was at this age. Kate is like Jack, doesn't like to color as much. All three were tested for their speech and they are all within normal range for their ages. They play really well at times, and at other times, they fight like sisters! They love dress up (obviously), pedicures and manicures, doll babies, barbies, magnetic paper dolls, play food, picnics and dancing. They like to watch Dora, Angelina Ballerina and Sofia the First. We started playing some basic board games with them (patience is a virtue!) and they LOVE to play anything their age level. Cootie, Candy Land, Gone Fishing (Aunt Sarah's game that Jack loved as well at their age), Toy Story memory (Anna was really good at this!) and Hi Ho Cherry O. Now, when we are downstairs in the basement where the games are, they think they can play any game and pull out ones like Career and Life. All in good time, girls.
The girls love Ms. Misty at the library story time and we make it there every week. They love to "read" books and also love to have books read to them. Kate, especially, will bring me a book all the time. We can hear them singing the wiggle song and Bye-Bye song frequently from the story time during the week. They also like to sing church hymns. Speaking of church, we are finally at a point where we are thinking all of our hard work is paying off. The kids can make it though mass NOT in the cry room and are learning to be quiet. They still move around a lot (well, not Jack, but the girls). And, like I said, we can hear them repeating prayers and songs. They love to "watch" Father during mass. I am glad we stuck with it taking them every Sunday instead of splitting up, even if it was a ton of work and we got about 0% out of mass ourselves. Jack follows along in his mass book and says the prayers (very loudly--John and I will catch each other's eye sometimes and smile). He also recently asked Fr. O'Conner why he chose to always end the mass with one of the closing prayers, instead of the alternative. He then showed Fr. O'Conner the part in the book he was talking about. Father told Jack he likes to use the same one so it doesn't confuse people with the new responses. The following week, however, he told Jack he was going to use the other prayer. He also told Jack he liked to see a well-loved prayer book (we have taped this book together numerous times).
The girls still love their dance class once a week. Their first recital is in May. It should be cute to see them preform.
