Triple-Threat Party Planning

With Thanksgiving right around the corner means it meant time for Craig’s annual birthday festivities. This year it wasn’t just any birthday, but the big 4-0! The girls and I had fun creating a plan for this milestone, and at this age they are game for anything, throwing out such big ideas. This was the first time I let them advise a separate gift from each kiddo, catered to theirs desires of what he might enjoy. After going through oh so many suggestions, we landed on a few well thought out and realistic innovations, and the crafts and shopping began.

Harper spent some time working on a beautiful heart box at Color Me Mine, painting it several layers of blue because that’s what dad likes. She also decorated her presents after they were wrapped, and added a secondary box full of treasures for him to open. The present stuffing took an entire evening to decide upon, with much thought and conversation!

Emerie shoved miscellaneous candy into her box, specific candy that she knew Craig eats. That in itself is sweetly thought out, literally. She also perfected a porcelain picture frame at Color Me Mine last month, with “princess” written across the front, and we printed a picture of her and Craig to slide inside it, much to her excitement! She insisted he would like the princess wording, and was adamant no other painting option was going to beat it.

Reagan declined a painting project, and after some Amazon browsing based on her search suggestions, an elephant mug that holds your tea bag was chosen, and an elephant yarn measuring thing. She also manufactured a custom cardboard elephant zoo enclosure (wow that’s a mouthful) and over the several days she created it, were yelling commands at Craig to don’t look at it!!!

In particular genius, I gifted Craig a quiet night at a hotel, a night to relax as he welcome the next decade of life. He also spent two nights in Juneau on a work trip, giving me more time to complete all the prep work. What that really meant was three full nights to prepare the surprise birthday party and presents, without the required sneakiness, and it worked like a charm. Everyone helped gift wrap and a lifetime amount of tape was used. They filled out questionnaires all about the birthday boy. It was particularly fun to ask them some random questions, and see their real opinions of Dad, which were all different! We hand drew posters for his party, filled with elephants, yarn balls, kid handwriting and colorful, sparkling glue. I’m pretty sure everything was sticky by the time they were done, and the elephants really cute! The party decorations were also underway, with a lot of paper strips littering my house, becoming long daisy chains. The balloon bouquet was designed at the party store, which was a HUGE deal for them to explore apparently, and we left with a few more goodies and whines that the balloons weren’t ready for a few more days.

The big day featured three wildly excited girls racing to finish decorations, tape up adorable childhood photos, and guard the surprise party secret like tiny double agents. Meanwhile I almost blew the whole thing at least five times; I don’t realize how many random thoughts I share with that boy, until I have to actively NOT share them (haha!). With a Charlie’s cake and all the party food stashed away, we whipped together the homemade elephant cake I’d started the night before, and the girls assembled a very serious breakfast-in-bed tray, complete with strict instructions that presents must be opened from a reclined position.

I think the cake turned out pretty well- what do you think?? Reagan perfected the sprinkle distribution on the face and helped with the eyes, while Emerie and Harper ran in and out and randomly sprinkled as I iced it. And it even survived the car ride there!

In the end, I got Craig all the way to the venue—and about ten feet from a room packed with people and treats—before he finally caught on, thanks to the giant “Halfway to 80” sign on the door. The “my car won’t turn over” excuse and a perfectly timed truck-shopping trip with Keegan kept the whole ruse intact. The night was a win all around: happy surprise, great food, and kids running wild for two straight hours while we enjoyed cake and company

We opted not to attend the Eugene Ballet Nutcracker over Thanksgiving this year. The girls were in grumpy, fighting moods for a good part of the holiday weekend, and we decided not to reward the arguing and will find another show in December to enjoy together. Instead we built my decade old Lego set together, the girls made a gazillion crafts out of all the cardboard and paper we own, we did how-to-draw YouTube videos (which are a new hit in this house and turn out really cute!), and watched a few new movies in between hours of playtime.

For some reason everyone just discovered the recycle bin, that lives in the hall closet and is emptied consistently the past seven years. Now all the contents are utter treasures; treasures that litter my house and can NOT be thrown away, no matter how creative. For example, Emerie created a phone between her bunk and Reagan’s, citing it’s too hard to talk to each other (as if!), and it made it a week taped up there. Many fairy play houses, mini forts, and other paper creations are now bonded together with miles of tape and everywhere; and when returned to the recycle bin? Out they appear again, with three disgruntled girls who demand to create more projects.

Not too much more to update. Harper and Reagan tested out their gymnastics teacher one night with a full switch, and got away with it! They dressed as each other and claimed to be each other, and when tried for a second time during dance later that week, those more seasoned teachers didn’t fall for it. Pretty funny to see this, and at some point we have to get more glasses so everyone can be Emerie, who didn’t want to participate on this round.

I wrap up this lovely life post with a funny story, and the second time, the school notified me that one of my tiny humans licked a frozen pole at recess. If you guess Emerie (both times), then you would be correct. When asked how it happened, she legitimately told me she tripped and caught her tongue on the frozen pole, and she stuck to that story. So funny. A few days later Harper took a cousin toy to the face and was sporting a nice goose egg….needless to say it’s been exciting!

As we ease into the 100+ Christmas activities planned for the next two weeks, I will leave you with these amazing Christmas card photos, soon to be mailed out to everyone to enjoy.

❤

Nov 20

Forever Fall(ing)

It’s no secret that fall is my favorite time of year. It’s also no secret that fall can either be really nice or really crummy in Alaska, and goes by really fast. In fact, now that snow is on the ground, I feel a little bad I haven’t finished writing our fall update, and that it’s been so long since I posted something…I will try to highlight in order of events.

It’s always a weird time when fall evenings turn dark and cold, but the barren ground isn’t yet reflecting that cold, white stuff to lighten things up. We managed to get in one evening fire pit, with smores and sparklers, before winter joined us. Bonus points for the neighbors and their dry kindling for the fire! The girls ran around the yard with sparklers, devoured marshmallows, and then insisted it was too cold outside to continue to participate.

I take a million outdoor adventure photos every year. It is getting easy to be out and about and not concerned with wildlife taking on a kid whose run off- the girls take great direction out in nature and are getting better at being aware. This is the first year we explored the lower side of Flat Top by myself, and we return unscathed! It probably also helps that we aren’t the quietest bunch…so those pesky moose and bears don’t want a triplet sandwich 🙂

As per the usual, we made multiple trips to the you-pick farm this year, and even made it to the fall festival. Did we eat our body weight in picked zucchini in October? You bet we did! The snow peas were less plentiful this year, but that didn’t stop Reagan from digging through piles of plants to find some, and then eating them for a few days. All three also “adopted” the large zucchini and gave them faces, named them, and they participated in family events and playtime for the next week.

The girls attended their first football game, to watch Juneau Douglas play West Anchorage. It was pouring down rain, and while that didn’t impress the girls (or the parents); they did make it through the whole thing and held up their custom made signs and screamed Go Chatum! They spent the entire night prior carefully making those signs and coming up with custom cheers. Go Chatum, he’s our man, if he can’t do it, no one can! It was also fun to listen to them ask Jaren football questions at the game, and insist they wanted to see Chatum score a goal, even after discussion about touchdowns.

Our annual photoshoot in the woods for mom went incredibly easy this year compared to years past. The girls humored me, climbed on trees and did ring around the rosie full of giggles, and then played in the stream for a while before we returned home. Boy, they are getting big!

Pumpkin carving was quite a process this year, mostly due to the number of purchased pumpkins sitting in our house. We had small ones, medium ones, and massive, very-hard-to-cut-threw extra large ones. One small set was decorated at the NICU reunion earlier in the month, and all the others were carved with the girls, who chose their own facial expressions and helped a little with the knives this year. Oh and that remind me… Grandma Sue also taught the girls to pronounce all works that start with “kn” like k-now, so the girls are continuing to point that out consistently!

Fall break from school prompted a short visit from Grandma Sue, and with that lots of baking and crafts. Doesn’t that potato dough look delicious? The girls excel at helping cook these days, and it isn’t all with licked fingers and utter flour explosions anymore! Not going to lie, I do somewhat miss those days now, but not the post activity clean up.

Trunk or Treat at the girls’ school was a must! It was cold and windy but not frosted as some years prior. A quick hello and trek around to some of their teachers and friends was done in record time. For this event, we had an Elsa and Ana from Frozen, and a “wedding girl” and oh, two cold parents!! Did I mention this was after TWO birthday parties earlier in the day? Yep.

Halloween was a hit this year. With numerous outfit changes, I can’t even recall what everyone was for each event but for the actual day Harper was a pink mermaid, Emerie Elsa in blue (no coat!), and Reagan was Chloe Charming from Rise of Red. While Reagan stayed the same for school that day, Harper was a bride with pink heels and Emerie was Glinda from Wicked, in purple! We finally had a year with temperatures in the 40s and no snow, which prompted strong rebukes to wearing coats, but acceptance of gloves. We made it farther than ever before in the neighborhood, and Emerie’s headache prompted Craig to get the four wheeler for a fun ride the rest of the way. Tyler and Papa Cliff joined us again this year -the girls even let Tyler be Tyler this year and not a full fledged princess- and we also did a few houses after meeting up with their teacher. Tons of candy and a fun night!

I’ll wrap this overdue life story with our official fall photos, which hit on a gorgeous fall day, and half the valley was in the same spot with the same idea. The girls did more than humor the photographer, they giggle, held hands and hugged without much instruction, and look so very grown up this year. I am certain they will have to do fall photos for me every year well into adulthood, because they turn out so great.

And now onto winter things…and Thanksgiving, and Christmas. So many things to do!

❤

Aug 08

Stars, Stripes and Shells

And just like that, the entire month of July is in the books! It went by so quickly and involved a lot of family fun, even meeting extended family on Craig’s side that I’ve never met before. Two weekend trips out of town, more lost teeth than I can count at this point, more outfit changes than ever before, and lot’s of hustle and bustle as we transition toward back to school.

Before the parade and on the way down to Sterling we stopped at our favorite ice cream spot and wandered next door to a random carousel, which the girls rode at least ten times in a row. The owner was a good sport and let them switch up to their hearts’ content and ride all the different Alaskan animals while the adults perused the beautiful wood carvings.

Another magical fourth of July weekend is in the books. Last year we explored the wonders of the holiday in Juneau, a first for me and the girls, and a double parade followed by hanging out on the beach on Douglas Island. This year we left town again and headed south in the car, to experience the City of Kenai parade. It was a beautifully sunny day and the girls rocked their stars and stripe dresses, star face glitter, and light up hats throughout the event. Oh and the adults also rocked the star glitter, and the kid-sized cow girl hat accidentally kept me from a decent sunburn on my face.

I should also mention my judgy children called me out for smashing a dragonfly (to death) when it landed on my leg and I smashed it with my foot, thinking it was a mosquito. For the following few days I was dubbed a “dragonfly killer”, and that was before I nailed a mongoose on the highway on the way home… The children determined my mild swerve at 70mph was to intentionally hit him instead of avoid, and did just that. Ah to be a parent.

We spent a few nights staying with Cousin Brian a little farther south, and even made a quick pit stop in Homer to hang out on the beach, say hi to friends and eat some bbq, and collect shells that would become painted jewelry in the following days. The girls favorite part of the first weekend in Ninilchik? Brian’s movie projector that played cartoons on the ceiling, and probably picking wildflowers. The projector was quite the hit with all three and something different than normal television.

Our second Ninilchik weekend and mini family reunion was another nice time away, this time the girls and I sleeping in Tyler’s RV while other family stayed in cabins. Craig opted to catch food poisoning (opted hehe) and stayed home at the last minute; but Sue and I weren’t going to miss out on the fun with Papa Lon up here!

One hilarious moment of the weekend was watching Cousin Brian show the girls where he collects fresh water from a spring across the highway and lugs it back home for use. The girls were rather enthralled with the concept water comes out of the ground (rather a pipe in the ground) and it was pretty funny to watch their reaction to something so Alaskan.

We had a lot of fun meeting more extended family and enjoying an evening barbecue in the hot summer sun, with a tote of new Barbie’s to entertain the girls while the adults caught up. The girls ran around the yard with their new toys, played Barbie dress up with just about every adult in the place, cooked smores on the grill with Lon, and overall enjoyed a fun visit and some fantastic weather.

We couldn’t end such a fun weekend without a quick stop at our favorite lake on the way back; all three girls finally walking out into the water and not complaining it was too cold. They made a few new friends, tried to capture (note I didn’t say catch!) tiny fish and happily enjoyed a quick jaunt around the lake in the boat. Unlike past years, this year had screams of faster! instead of carefully holding on.

The rest of Papa Lon and Grandma Sue’s visit was full of yummy dinners, fun crafts (like Lon drilling holes in ton of seashells so jewelry could be made!), celebrating Grandma Sue’s birthday with a homemade cake, customized birthday cards and a pie shaped, smelly candle- and helping her blow out all those candles- and of course I can’t forget to mention the girls watching hunting shows with Lon, filled with commentary and questions.

In other unrelated news, we have officially lost all the front baby teeth for all three, with Emerie finishing the milestone and convincing that last, lazy front tooth to depart for a future adventure with the tooth fairy. Her sisters accelerated this by knocking it before it was really ready, and then her absent minded wiggling, just like the other side. The prior day Harper evicted her top right (canine?), which frees up some of the space for those front two teeth to continue filling out. And Reagan, who was the first to lose a front tooth as a toddler and her other top front a little more naturally, excitedly pointed out that the hole she’s boasted in her mouth for years finally has a tooth poking through, after much speculation this year that it didn’t want to arrive. I also continue to find it amusing how all three closely mimic the same tooth order, with only a few outside that.

A great deal of discussion centered around the tooth fairy these few weeks, and all were in agreement she should be trapped and captured (like the movie), so many schemes were devised. Prior discussions last year centered around hiding lost teeth from her completely, which 180’d into using them as a trapping method to catch her. A decorative birdcage was purchased, recolored, and strategically placed in the bedroom. But that elusive tooth fairy managed to evade capture, and even leave little notes behind, scolding their attempts to get her. She always had a bit of a panic, spreading fairy dust all around the cage, but managing to escape, to the girls’ delight. I know we will miss these entertaining, magic related stories and creativity in the future; meaning Craig and I continue to embellish the fun while they still believe in it.

I’ve greatly slacked on writing things down this summer, due to the usual busy-ness and just not in the mood to do it. We wrapped up July with other miscellaneous stops like our favorite farm out in the valley and their summer festival, horse shows, birthday parties, and watching jets land at the airport. Reagan getting lost in the corn maze at the festival; Craig eventually tracked her down with some effort. While Sue picked her body weight in rhubarb, we ventured over to the strawberry fields where I supervised (and didn’t touch!) and the girls picked a container each. Emerie left that field with a face bull of strawberries, in addition to the box she carted around. The horse show captured everyone’s attention for a fun afternoon and good excuse to rock their cowgirl boots, and we enjoyed a day trip to Seward with Auntie Janelle and Paris, even in the constant rain. After the standard stop at a very tourist filled Sealife Center, we embraced the rain and let the girls run while along the beach. It might have taken as long to dry them off as they played, and was a great day.

As we wrap up summer and get back to a more normalized school schedule, my goofy girls continue to switch with each other during the day, and who is who depends on the day! Harper and Reagan keep wearing each other’s colors, demanding adults refer to them by the other sister’s name, and in addition to how funny that is, it’s also hard to purposefully call them the wrong name! Harper also attempted to pull one over on Grandma Sue by rocking Emerie’s glasses and smiling without showing teeth. It always amazes me how swapping glasses between them really makes them look like Emerie!

Nightly neighborhood bike rides have also become the new normal. Emerie is incredibly close to removing training wheels and did great practicing and overcoming her fear of it at the park last weekend. Harper and Reagan did a great job cheering her on, with lots of words of encouragement. On pavement she is still sporting the training wheels, but that doesn’t hold her up on speeding around. She especially hates going uphill (or putting in the muscle to move uphill), and with that Craig has a newly discovered superpower, which is pushing a kid up a hill on a bike, while riding is own bike. All three think it’s hilarious when he chases them around the neighborhood on his in-line skates instead of the bike, and he’s convinced them to pull him. It’s pretty funny to watch.

I’ll save our four wheeler adventures for another day, since fall time is my favorite season to get out and about in them. The track by our house has one loop that isn’t too scary for the girls to navigate solo, and it’s been quite the excitement to get over there and speed around. Only minimal blood and crashes, and a lot of mini-speed demons emerging, not to mention the big smiles and giggles you can hear from so far away.

Anyway, getting this blog is getting posted since it’s way out of date, and we are jumping back into the back-to-school to-do list before next week. Happy August!

❤

Apr 24

Just Hop Till You Drop

Another Easter for the books, in a year without any snow. I’m guessing this year or next is probably my last hurrah in the magical era where all three girls still believe a giant bunny trespasses into our yard, throws random (but common in our household) candy around like confetti, and casually hides eggs like it’s his part-time job. So I’m milking it for all it’s worth—full commitment to the eggs and customized easter bunny notes, the whole production. If the girls have discovered my secret stash this year, they are either humoring me or they haven’t noticed. Either way, they continue to prove they CAN clean up quickly and without complaint…but only for covertly placed plastic eggs. Shocker.

All dressed up to see the *creepy Easter bunny*

Our in-and-out mission to see the bunny at Cabela’s took a grand total of five minutes- tops! No line, all three kids hopped onto the bench like seasoned professionals, and they even smiled for the first photo. Honestly, it was suspiciously easy compared to the chaos of previous years. Of course, the magic didn’t last long. They immediately tried to peek under the bunny’s head and declared that’s not a real bunny. So, I guess that particular secret is officially out of the basket (basket- get it?? I crack myself up….eggs crack… I’ll stop now…). We also discussed how the real Easter bunny is in high demand with a busy schedule, meaning no time to sit and pose in a store, so we meet the hired help, kind of like Santa Claus. That excuse seems to be reasonably accepted for now; unsure if it will be by next year!

Harper drew a custom letter for the bunny visit and hung it on her bed, as visible as possible for easy spotting. I enjoy seeing what ideas they write on the love notes, and the cute freehand pictures along with it. Emerie also spent some time on a note, but declared the bunny would find it where ever she left it. That sneaky bunny left one egg by each kiddo’s bedside… but Reagan intercepted Harper’s and stashed it under her own pillow, much to Harper’s dramatic dismay she was left out. Meanwhile, Emerie was the first one up and displeased she didn’t get an egg and Reagan had TWO. The irony? Emerie could have easily slipped on her own egg down her stairs and still didn’t even notice it. Yep.

Once I finally found the empty, plastic eggs in our house (freaked a bit when I couldn’t find them the day before!), I stuffed them with a variety of small candy and then figured some minor torture was in order, and stuffed a few with carrots and a few with raw broccoli. The look on their faces from the lack of candy? Absolutely priceless. Craig egged the backyard after bedtime and Grandma Anne and I finished up the baskets, which included new sunglasses, a couple cute outfits in their colors, a mini Lego set of their favorite princess, a “peep” egg to grow in water, and of course the beloved chocolate bunny. The goal of less sugar and more fun went a little easier this year than some in the past, and everyone built their Lego sets first thing.

The egg hunt itself went pretty quickly and with great excitement like past years. They started out sharing the pink, purple, and blues with the kid specific to that color until realizing they don’t have to share. Very kind on their part, and some of the fancier ones were still traded even after my protests- no complaints here. The few eggs on the bird feeder were met with laughs and once knocked over, landed in Reagan’s hood. Seeing opportunity, Emerie snagged one and ran. Sisters…

We survived the wild, sugar filled children by visiting the zoo for a little exercise. Warmer temps and the occasional sunshine peeking out meant no complaints of being cold, and everyone enjoyed the playground and running from exhibit to exhibit. The howling of the wolves brought other zoo visitors over to observe, with four kiddos howling at the two wolves, who were only a few feet away on the other side of the fence. Pretty funny.

Easter dinner was laid back, everyone munched on their chocolate bunnies, ran around chaotically, read books with Grandma Anne, and stayed up late since Monday was another day off from school. We also (mostly) jokingly tormented Emerie all weekend about her outrageously loose front tooth-not the one she wanted to lose to join her sisters’ gap-toothed club, but the one just to the left of her recently departed front tooth. It hung on defiantly, with no root, no purpose, no business still being there—but it stayed a few days until gravity finally finished the job. The tool fairy also dropped the ball on swapping the tooth out for some moolah (oops!). Emerie pointed this out first thing in the morning, and then retracted her irritation after seeing rain outside, commenting that it’s okay, fairies can’t fly in the rain so she’s running late. What a problem solver…and that late fairy added a dividend to that tooth swap that made for one happy, little girl!

❤

Mar 30

3x the Cake, Chaos & Celebration

What a week! The beginning of March, for the past six years, has been all about birthday festivities: planning our biggest party of the year, coming up with spring break activities, creating customized cakes in triplicate plus school cupcakes, and squeezing in the much-anticipated daddy-daughter dance. And just to keep things interesting, this year we also added a surgery, a few dental fillings and tooth extraction, a weekend trip, and you know, that four letter word called work- right in the thick of legislative session. I think it’s safe to say the parents (and probably Grandma Sue too!) have officially earned their own spring break; when exactly does that happen and who wants to watch the kids?!

Much discussion occurred in January and February about this year’s birthday theme—because obviously, picking the right one is serious business. I figured My Little Pony would be the winner this year but the girls had other plans. In a unanimous vote (rare!), they landed on a zoo theme featuring three completely unrelated animals: Harper chose a arctic seal, Emerie a turtle, and Reagan her beloved panda. Naturally, the party colors remained the standard pink, purple, and teal theme of our lives, because I didn’t actually give them an option otherwise (Reagan asked for red pandas and that was vetoed- I don’t have red stuff!).

After tossing around ideas with Sue (aka my creative partner-in-cake…so funny!), we came up with a plan for each kiddo’s cake. Then came the chocolate molds—50+ of them over the course of a few evenings. They are time intensive but actually pretty fun to change up each year, and the girls love seeing the results. The arctic seals nearly did me in- I kept accidentally decapitating them with the one 3D mold ordered from Etsy. But after a few trial runs; I think they turned out passable. The turtles were a breeze and popped right out with cute shell patterns, and the mini pandas were fun to crank out in teal. I even brought my “a” game and managed to make a few in black and white, making Reagan so excited and adding more flare.

Our toothless Harper smiling with her “harper seals” in pink and white, sun bathing on a bed of sparkling water (because edible glitter is awesome), surrounded by rocks, green brush, and snow covered ground. In food terms, it’s like melted blue Jolly Ranchers turned into a sticky candy, water body, topped with a mix of white and rock-looking sprinkles, and some plastic bushes to boost up the three dimensional look. I think it came out pretty well!

Emerie’s face in that picture says it all. She wanted her cake a bit busier, more like an undersea party than a quiet reef. So, along with the handmade chocolate turtles were sprinkles of mermaid treasure to share the glory. In addition to colorful shells, more turtle friends, and an abundance of foliage, her cake included a mermaid backdrop to set the scene, complete with light green icing for the ocean floor and dreamy lakes in blended shades of blue and green.

Reagan’s panda habitat ended up looking the most like a real zoo out of the three cakes. It featured a chocolate bamboo enclosure, framed with plastic bamboo leaves, and a whole bunch of rambunctious pandas- some edible, some just along for the ride- all relaxing on a mountain of light green icing, with little leaves popping up from the “ground.” And don’t forget, lots of edible glitter to make the whole thing sparkle.

Aside from the cakes was a lot of other cooking and crafting creativity for the actual party that weekend. The good ‘ole internet allowed me to find really cute seal balloons, and the pandas/turtles were easier to find after that. Same for the party bags, which were fun to figure out distributing equal goodies for each kiddo, and having a harder time finding seal themed anything. ChatGPT and I also got in some quality bonding time, helping me design custom stickers in each girl’s favorite color and animal, and photoshopping seven candles because the program would NOT do it. That turned into a surprisingly fun exercise in trial-and-error (loooooots of it!) until I finally landed on just the right look. It was totally worth the effort. I think they turned out super cute and the girls were so excited for extras, and to help decorate the party plates with them.

As far as the party goes, we invited a lot of people to celebrate, but weren’t sure who would show up, and ended up with WAY more than expected. The party was in a big, indoor space, which was filled with about 40 kids in total. If you didn’t know, that is a lot of kids…

Each animal was well represented at the party, and Sue and I spent plenty of time crafting customized creations—like kiwi and grape turtles (complete with tiny eyeballs!) and Rice Krispy shaped of all three, each with little noses and smiles. As usual, Sue’s veggie pizza was a hit, as were Craig’s fancy cupcakes, all frosted with a triple swirl of pink, purple and teal and topped with matching chocolate animals. It really is a team effort to put these events on, and breaks my heart to think we only have a few more until the girls will be grown and probably less excited for all the extravagance.

The party itself was packed with animal-themed activities. We had props for silly iPad photos (and yes, there were many to go through after), temporary tattoos (seal tattoos are surprisingly hard to find, by the way, but do exist!), scratch art animal face masks, and even a zoo-themed game inspired by Craig. But the real hit? The open space and soft mats for climbing, where the kids ran wild and just had a blast being kids.

But you know what I found most impressive about the afternoon? The pro level of effort put into the gifts. Not only did almost everything have custom, hand drawn cards for each kid individually (handwritten kid cards are simply the greatest at this age, giving and receiving!), they were also incredibly thoughtful and catered to the likes of each kiddo. Wrapping paper and gift bags were a total explosion of pink, purple, and teal, so on-brand for our continued life trend. It was such a joy to watch the girls’ excitement. This was also the first year everything didn’t come in threes, which feels like a big milestone to me and a sign they’re growing up and moving out of the little kid phase (sob!!). We also have a very generous group of friends!

Favorite gifts for this year? I always like to write this down because I instantly can’t remember for all three. The girls unanimously loved the glittery gold H, E, and R letters, the star dresses in their colors from Aunt Jenny, and surprise dolls. One friend grabbed everyone another stuffy in their animal of choice; i.e. a stuffed grey seal that was open with squeals by Harper, another small panda who now has Reagan insisting she is a mother of a set of quadruplets (I love that she even knows what that means), and tiny turtles that now snuggle in bed with Emerie. This is also the last year for some of the dress up dresses, which they will size out of after size 8 (sob!!) so we splurged and bought them one last fancy outfit from the local toy store. We also upgraded their bedroom comforters and replaced the matching princess ones originally purchased when we installed the triplet bunk bed, which feels like ages ago. The theme for those? Well you guessed it, pink and white seals for Harper, I couldn’t find any purple turtle comforters so a purple Elsa set for Emerie, and a teal panda family for Reagan. I love the new look in their room!

Amidst all the excitement of the week was also the very anticipated Daddy-Daughter Dance, now a staple tradition in our household. The girls ask about it all year long. We went all out: nails done, hair curled with the curling iron for the first time, and eye shadow and liner picked by each of them. Then came the strappy, white heels, tights, and lacy dresses in their colors. The event anticipation was full of excitement, and while Craig reported they were a bit chaotic and wild at the actual event (less magical for him, maybe), they absolutely loved their special night with Dad. It’s one of those sweet memories they can look back on as they get older—and the photos are just plain adorable and no snow and sunshine was a nice, unusual touch for this time of year. Sue and I also snuck away from all the party planning for a kid-free sushi date, which was pretty fantastic, too.

Surviving a week(s) as a party planner for the triplets feels like juggling three dozen cupcakes while riding on a roller coaster coated in a thick layer of glitter, with miscellaneous events in between the stops for preparations, real work hours, and everyday chores. By the end, one needs a serious break from the never ending glitter and abundant child inspired noise, and need some very strong caffeine or a long nap… but hey, the stress is worth the effort to deliver a fun month that the girls will remember happily as they get older. But thank heavens it’s done for another year and my tiny babies are now seven!

❤

The Douglets

Triplets in Alaska

growing up