Thursday, March 21, 2013

'The future belongs to us'

The kids had their school, "Celebration of Learning" tonight.  They sang beautiful songs and Noah had several speaking parts (in front of ~600 people!). 
For the grand finale the entire school sang "The future belongs to us" while baby pictures of the kids flashed on the screen.  Seeing my sweet tiny triplets on the screen while my beautiful/handsome big kids sang away was priceless (and tear worthy). 


Oh, they are getting so big....so fast. 

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Words

I got a vintage typewriter yesterday.  It turns out you can still get ribbons (yes, I called it ink at first) for them!  Ever since we plugged it in (it is electric!) it has been a constant joy in our house.  It coincided nicely with the poetry unit the kids are doing in school.  They have me wonder struck each night with their amazing poetry.  They even challenged me to create something today...which I did.  I wondered if the constant 'rat a tat tatting' would grate on my nerves in a house that is already at max volume at times.  But what I found is that as soon as the typing begins...I smile.  It is such a wonderful sound.  Lately I have been thinking a lot about what happens around our kitchen table.  It is something I hope to write more about in the future, but for this week the sight of kids typing poetry on a 1960/1970's typewriter is making my heart full. 





Note:  Our correction is still a little rough, pardon the typos and white out!  Give us a break, there is not DELETE!!!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Guardians of Childhood

For Sunday night movie night last night we watched, “Rise of the Guardians”. This movie came out around Christmas time and is based on a series of novels by William Joyce. Admittedly the movie does not deal at all with the ‘real’ meaning of Christmas and Easter, if you can get past that it had an amazing message for me as a mom. In the movie Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth fairy, Sandman, and Jack Frost are all appointed to be ‘Guardians of Childhood’. Each of them has at their center something that protects childhood. Santa has wonder, the Easter Bunny has hope, the Tooth fairy keeps all the baby teeth because in each one precious childhood memories are stored for when they are needed, Sandman has lovely dreams, and Jack Frost has fun (he does after all bring snow days!) Each of them takes an oath,


“That we, one and all will watch over the children of the world. To guide them safely and surely from the ways of harm. To keep happy their hearts, brave their souls, and rosy their cheeks. To guard with our lives their hopes, their wishes and their dreams. For they are all that we have, all that we are and all that we will ever be.”

I loved this movie.

Although as parents we have so many ‘jobs’ I believe one of the most important is to be the guardian of our kids’ childhood. I want to have at my core as a mom wonder (my word for the year!), hope, and fun. I want to make memories with my kids that can be stored and recalled on a day happy thoughts are needed (and yes, I do keep their baby teeth!). What would this look like in my daily life? What small changes could I make keeping this in mind? I want to keep happy their hearts, brave their souls, and rosy their cheeks. For they truly are all that we have, all that we are and all that we will ever be.






Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Happy 9th birthday!

Today our miracles turned 9.  I'm not sure where the 9 years have gone.  I'd be lying if I didn't say that this feels big....9 feels like 'big kids' even pre-teen.  But today we celebrated our miracles.  9 years ago they began their lives oh so tiny.  Looking back could we have ever dared to dream how they would grow?  How they would laugh?  How they would love?  I always tell people that I knew those tiny little angels would be fine, but I also could never have imagined how amazing they would be.  Nor could I have ever dreamed how much I would love them.  Tonight as I sit in a quiet house, I cannot do much except say 'Thank you'.  From the depth of my soul I am thankful.

 We started our day of celebration with breakfast at Deboer.  All of the grandparents met us before school!  Is there a better way to start the day than a candle in a donut!?
Tom and I went to school to share a birthday lunch with the kids in the cafeteria!  So fun to join them with their friends!  After lunch we peeked in on their class, can you spot the 3 birthday hats!?  (they were so excited that their teacher had purchased 2 more!)

Tonight after art class we shared our third meal of the day together.  Even though poor Tom left the beautiful steaks he purchased for dinner at Meijer....in Grand Haven...our cheese soup and chocolate cake (from scratch) was amazing! 






What a beautiful day filled with love and laughter.  We are blessed. 

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Birthday Sunday!

We are in the midst of a birthday marathon!  Today we visited DeVos Children's Hospital to drop off the birthday gifts the kids received to be donated from their party.  Today we even got to go up to the new NICU.  It was not the same place the kids were born, but still a potent reminder of where our miracles began. 





After the hospital visit, we started our second annual 'shopping day'.  We took the kids to 4-5 'mystery' locations to pick out a gift.  Today we visited 1. an antique store (max $5 to find a treasure)  2.  Schulers Books  3.  late lunch at 'On the Border'  4.  Clothes shopping  5.  Toys R Us

We are now at home enjoying a little 'super bowl party' (aka lots of junky snacks!) 

Such a blessed time, why not celebrate for 4 days straight! 

Post Birthday Party Party

After the party the grandparents came over for snacks, another cupcake and some presents!  And lots of hugs!





9th birthday party!

For the 3rd year in a row we celebrated the kids birthday at Hope College with their class.  This year we did "Super Science" the kids and their classmates (and the grandparents!) enjoyed 2 hours of chemistry experiments including 'Flubber' and Liquid Nitrogen!!  It was amazing!