Grow and learn... grow and learn...

Last week, one of our boys clearly let us know, in the best way he knew how, that we needed to make some changes. Chris and I stayed up until the wee hours that night talking through how we can be better, do better, organize our busy lives better, for our kids. There's no manual per se, for this parenting thing.... and definitely not this triplets plus one thing. We're just doing the best we can.

The good news is that Chris and I have been able to tweak our schedules, shift priorities, and re-organize things to hopefully meet the need that has presented itself. We are trying to provide more predictability, more one on one "special time" with the kids and family time, amongst other tweaks.

Although we've dabbled in doing family activities with all the boys outside the home, this past weekend we really went for it!

The third baby is on my back :-)

We got up bright and early with the boys and went to our favorite breakfast spot. It'd been ages since we'd been there and until last week, we'd never really considered taking all the boys. You know what? It was wonderful. They loved it. Colin got strawberry pancakes, Chris and I chugged coffee and the babies flirted with everyone in sight.

Colin, Carter (behind the plant) and Chris

We cruised around the zoo in our sweet ride, which was also a fantastic time. 

There were many, "We'll remember this" moments. Like when one of the chimpanzees walked across his space and came right up to the glass where my boys were hanging out, like he was curious about them. A triplet, chimp stare down ensued. 

Of course we couldn't get the camera going fast enough, but here are some taken just after the close encounter. Still pretty cool:

We picnicked just outside the zoo. As I sat feeding the babies on a blanket while watching Colin and Chris play, the city skyline surrounding us all, I thought to myself, this is the life.

And, this beats hanging out in the basement.

Everett, our resident walker

We played for hours at the Purple Monkey Playroom, even pushing the babies nap later... living on the edge!

They were obsessed with pushing each other around in this cart. Couldn't get enough!

Sure, there were some mishaps in our weekend adventures- Finn split his lip and then Everett split his lip (both of which had never happened until last weekend and then happened within an hour of each other). I forgot the milk sippy cups at home when we went to the zoo (I feel like I always do this!) and Colin's pancakes, carefully placed in a to go carrier after breakfast, flipped onto the floor- momentarily devastating to a 3 year old.

But we got through it all. We improvised. We were together as a family, making memories and giving our kids what they really want from us, quality time.