Return to the Back Patio

One little baby sister cutie, ready for a day at school. And the other little big sister cute, still in her jammies with bed head, since she didn’t have school today.

Had to stop by for some loves from the trippies once we got to school.

Back at home, Emerson helped me go through our bottle collection, and get it ready to be donated, by taking off all the name tag stickers and bagging everything up. She also found all the old name-tag rubber bands we used on her baby bottles, but didn’t want to give those away. She also got super excited when she found the ones that said “Emmie” instead of “Emerson.” She was like, “OH! These have my nickname on them!”

And while she was working on that for me,I was making tiny little cinnamon roll waffles. It was a cute idea (that I saw on a video), and it was good, but definitely not worth babysitting so many tiny waffles, instead of just baking all of them at once in the oven. But Emmie thought it was great, so that made it worth it. She also ate three of them, so clearly she loved them.

After our late breakfast, we spent over an hour outside playing and reading and drawing and bike-riding in the perfect 70-degree weather. After a while, Emmie wanted to play on her Kindle, but wasn’t ready to go back inside, so she just sat right in front of my legs on the ground, playing her little games. (Please make sure to notice the empty phone case she carried around with her, like it was her real phone. Oh also, she’s wearing all the old bottle-name-bands as bracelets and anklets.)

This poor neglected puzzle has been sitting on the puzzle table since February, and we haven’t touched it since probably March or April. It was 1,000 of the tiniest pieces ever, and it was just too much for me. So we finally put it back in the box, and we might have to tackle that a few years down the road, when Emmie becomes a puzzle master 😉

Instead, we did one of her cutesy little 100-piece puzzles, that we completed very quickly, and were very proud of ourselves for finishing 😉

But then we started on a bigger, more challenging 500-piece puzzle, and watched “My Neighbor Totoro,” after we ate some lunch together.

We had to go out and run some errands together, to Walmart and Dollar Tree and Goodwill (one store for donations, and a second store for the used bookstore), and then we stopped to get some bubble tea together for our afternoon treat.I got a little flustered and ordered the wrong flavor for myself, but it was still pretty good. Emmie loved her strawberry one though.

We timed our daycare pickups to match up with Aunt Meggie, so we could pick up all the crazy girls together. It’s always chaos, but it’s always fun. We let each of the triplets try a sip of the strawberry bubble tea, and I wish I would have taken pictures of how wide each of their eyes got when the boba reached their mouths. It was so cute and funny.

This was all the girls showing off the octopus stamps that the trippies’ teacher gave all 5 of them when I first got there, before Aunt Meggie was there yet.

We got home earlier than usual today since I was off work, so I made Nana’s famous cheesy chicken and rice casserole. While the casserole bakes, I washed up some dishes, and the girls watched tv and had a snack. This thing comes out perfect literally every single time, and is so delicious. Plus, we always have leftovers. It’s also cheap and easy and quick to throw together and only five ingredients. Let me know if you want the recipe.

During our lunch break today, Jeff actually came home to eat with us. And while home, he helped get our back patio table cleaned off and set back up again. (It had been hidden away in the bushes, upside down, for hurricane prep a month ago, and never unearthed it until today.) So then tonight we finally got to eat outside on the back patio again, for the first time in 4 or 5 months, since it’s starting to cool down a little bit now.

Nana came over for a little bit to hang out and bring some dresses and jamies she had gotten for the girls’ on super clearance recently. She helped me hang up all the new clothes, and then took the girls outside to play while I cleaned the kitchen, and Jeff emptied the trash and recycling. Then she helped us get them both in jammies and take potty breaks, before she headed home and we started bedtime.

Both girls wanted extra cuddle time with Daddy tonight for bedtime, so I let him take care of getting them to sleep, while I got started on this blog post. They both fell asleep pretty easily, all cuddled up and warm next to Daddy, and then we carried them both to their beds. I’m tired now after all of our activities today, and ready to put my feet up and just watch some tv before my own bedtime.