Better (reeaallly….) late than never, embarking on the next year of triplets, from age seven and into age eight!! I constantly seem to write that I can’t recall where the time went, and everyday the three of them grow up a little more, becoming a little more independent, and grow into little ladies. Just like the last seven birthdays…go big or go home. Here’s an overview of what my littles were up to over the past year of age seven…I should probably post it before they turn nine! 🙂

This year’s theme began with a Studio Gibly theme, but once that appeared a little more difficult to achieve than we expected, we transitioned into all things magical and fairy related. The love of the supernatural world, of magic, is something we work so hard to embrace and protect, since it won’t be long before the believe fades away. Even since I originally wrote this, they are asking more questions on the realness of things that “magic” controls now.

Birthday number eight landed on the same night as this year’s Daddy Daughter Dance, much to the girls’ delight. Because their school always has a fundraiser auction the same night, that also meant no school transitioned to a day of preparing for the fancy dance, but also do all the birthday things with family visiting in town. We opened some of the presents from Craig and myself, including new panda, turtle and seal dresses, new Lego sets, and some horse related toys. This way the girls played with their newfound treasures while we prepared for the birthday party the following day.

This year I went all out on dresses for the dance- with the girls in larger sizes this year, we can exaggerate a little more like a mini prom, and I found three unique dresses instead of matching in their colors like prior years. Harper’s flowy pink dress contained lots of layers and ruffles; Reagan had a darker blue with ruffles and mesh down to the floor; and Emerie’s first try of a purple galaxy dress was tight so we traded it in for a black and white one with a train. It turned out so beautiful with black heels! All three were personally tortured by their mother’s demand of tights…which were bejeweled and likely to never be worn again. But they survived.

After hair was curled (x3) and Daddy’s nail salon and face masks complete, Grandma Sue applied the makeup and everyone got dressed. Emerie was a huge fan of red lipstick this year…oh so much red lipstick. The real highlight of the night was the lovely pink suits that Craig and Cousin Tyler rocked at the event- surprisingly both look great in a light shade of pink! I can’t report that my trio fully behaved at the event, but they sure did have a lot of fun and instantly started talking about next year. Tyler humoring them was also really fun, as they have some pretty amazing cousins who will do the girly things with them, something they will always be able to treasure.

Age seven had some of the usual milestones, and I did a really terrible job writing things down and writing blogs to track all the things. Here are a few of the ones I do recall, that project us forward into age eight! A few other fun ones to mention as well, all three finally experienced the northern lights, getting to see not only the normal green, but also the less than common pink and purple, during one particularly amazing light show last fall. All three greatly advanced on reading and comprehension and are discovering a love of reading that we experienced at that age. They went to their first official school dance, learned to bike without training wheels, gained confidence driving their four wheelers and going up and down small hills, discovered new arts and crafts (soo much clay, gems and drawings!), and enjoyed another year exploring the Kenai Peninsula with their parents, Grandma Sue, and other visiting family.

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I will wrap up this section with one of my favorite things about age seven; the girls still believe in magic- in Santa, in fairies, tooth or otherwise! They still love to create beautiful things, such as a fairy house in the middle of the woods in Palmer, delicious cookies on a plate for Santa, having a birthday theme that creates a magical craft, or to set a trap to catch that pesky tooth fairy on an overnight visit. I see many other kids their age or even younger that lost this belief, and I hope we can hold on to it at least another year and see what joy it brings.

This year’s birthday party was intentionally and significantly smaller than last year’s extravaganza, since 30+ kids running around was A LOT. With that in mind, Craig reserved a craft space and we kept the guest list as short as possible. The fairy theme was selected after much discussion about doing something Studio Gibli related (like Ponyo), or K-Pop Demon Hunters, and we decided fairies had the most flexibility. Over the prior month much supplies was ordered, including a lot of fairies, sequins and glitter, and about anything to contribute to creative houses.

I have to say, the group of about 15 kids did FANTASTIC. It wasn’t chaos and they all spent time perfecting their visions; in fact all the different ideas were very creative. Needless to say, I was pretty impressed at the outcome. The girls floated around to their friends and worked on their houses, one parent manned the hot glue gun and helped each kiddo glue things down, and the creative juices flowed. Cupcakes this year consisted of both vanilla and chocolate depending on triplet preference, and all three helped me decorate them and then drown them in edible glitter. Can’t have fairy themes without edible glitter!!

All About the Girls – Age Seven

Funny enough, a lot of these are very similar to what I wrote when they were five and six.

Harper Anne

This past year Harper maintains her girly girl status, and is consistently found dressed to the hills in elaborate dresses, shoes and accessories. She is our headband girl (just like I was) and wears them more frequently than either sister. This girl can rock oversized, four inch adult heels like she is walking barefoot and it’s impressive. Harper also enjoys drawing tutorials and her art continues to advance, and creates clay creatures all by herself!

Height/Weight: 78 pounds/ 53″ tall

Favorite Activities: How-to painting and drawing tutorials, dressing up and wearing high heels, dance class and playing with her doll (Babela), and riding her bike as much as possible.

Favorite Movie/Music/Show: Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella are still favorites, but any princess movies is enjoyed. For shows, the Croods, Sofia the First, and Bluey. Her favorite song is Golden from K-Pop Demon Hunters, the Wellerman song by Kids Bop that she refers to as the watermelon song, and of course the one played on repeat, Bad Boy by Cascada.

Favorite Books: Barbie books, Glitter and Glow (Genies), and anything Sleeping Beauty.

Favorite Princess/Character: By far her favorite remains Sleeping Beauty (Aurora). She likes all things Barbies, or seals of any kind and her collection continues to grow. Can’t forget her doll Babela and K-Pop Demon Hunters Mira, who just happens to have long, pink hair!

Favorite Color: pink

Favorite Food: French fries remain a main choice, including McDonalds and Sonic. She always wants to eat at Benihanna for their fried rice (with egg- she claims that’s important) and fancy ice cream. Harper continues to sneak candy and definitely has the biggest sweet tooth of the three. Other favorites include bowls of watermelon, juicy apples at night, and dip ‘n dots. A recent dinner favorite is carnitas and potatoes with BBQ sauce.

Favorite Animal: Stuffed seals are still the winner for her, although many other animals make the cut for bedtime snuggles. She has seals of every color and loves visiting them Seward each year. She also loves koala bears.

When Harper grows up, she wants to be: a Mom and a ballerina. If she had to pick between the two, Mom wins out because she doesn’t want to work all the time.” Ha!

Unique Personality Trait: Harper likes to watch and observe and then jump into the action, but also displays daring moments and climbs a forty foot tree by herself because she wanted to. She is definitely an instigator, but not always with the follow through. She also prefers to let others figure something out or get something for her, so there might be some leadership qualities in there to watch out for as she grows older.

Major Dislikes: Doing chores and cleaning up is always a challenge and a fight, as well as convincing her to brush her teeth so no cavities appear. It is an everyday battle! She also seems to be trending toward more motion sickness than her sisters and gets overheated in the car, requesting fresh or cooler air on drives.

Of the Three, She is the Most: Girly! Dressing up in fancy clothes and shoes, makeup, and accessorizing occurs daily. She isn’t afraid to get down and dirty outside, but she doesn’t mind doing that in a stylish outfit either. On the flip side, of the three she goes to the doctor the least, and now notices this. She often asks when she can go and a little sister competition arises.

Something she says she is really good at: painting and Legos and cursive writing. Her princess drawings are really great and she spends a lot of time on them. She’s also great at bowling! Reagan says Harper is good at finding high heels and dressing up. She is also good at listening. Craig would say she is the best at foot rubs; much to her dismay.

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? She answered where Grandma Anne lives and the water park, or going to build snow forts outside.

What is your favorite subject at school?: gym class and playing games. And least favorite?: writing because it tires out her hands.

Who are your best friends?: Sage, Harper M, Emerie, and Reagan. Also Miss Tawni.

Favorite Quotes: Mom, guess what?! I love you the mostest. This is one of my very favorite quotes that I hear from her every few days, always with a big smile on her face. The other day she also noted that Grandma Sue is so bossy; she’s always bossing me around. I asked her if she liked all the things Sue does with her and she agreed to that, but still maintained the bossiness is there!! She also always answers ice cream anytime you ask her what she wants for dinner.

Emerie Faye

Age seven was a year of discovery for reading, something Emerie continues to enjoy and advance on. She is definitely the bookworm of the three, and often found curled up with a book in various locations around the house or yard. Emerie is great playing solo and enjoys her time by herself, and especially spending time at home. When on the four wheeler, she becomes quite the sassy speed demon, constantly sticking her tongue out at you as she whizzes by.

Height/Weight: 73 pounds/ 53″ tall – This is the first time she is solidly in the middle for weight and not the smallest of the three. She finally caught up!

Favorite Activities: Emerie enjoys spending time at home with family, sledding, making tea parties and fashion shows, and using all the scotch tape. She also likes helping parents cook or pack lunches, building Lego sets, reading books and sitting on the floor, figuring out a puzzle, or playing a board game. Her tiny things collection grows daily and you should see the things found in her coat pockets (or out of the dryer!). She enjoys doing everything in a fancy, dress up outfit, going swimming with Craig, and funny enough, she loves to brush her teeth and will randomly do it throughout the day.

Favorite Movie/Music/Show: Favorite songs include Let It Go, Troublemaker, I Don’t Wanna Wait by David Goetta. While Emerie still loves her Frozen movies and music, requests are much fewer than in the past. She continues to read all the Elsa related books, and hum the music when she plays. Other current favorites were the Swan Princess and various old Barbie movies from the 90s, and lastly, she loves the song Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne, and Fat by Weird Al, which is absolutely hilarious and amazing, and a result from when I went to his concert up here last year.

Favorite Books: anything Frozen related, and really just books in general. She loves to read, and you’ll find her curled up in a chair, reading through a book, pretty frequently and at bedtime.

Favorite Princess/Character: No change from the past three years- Elsa (Frozen) is still leading the charge in her heart. She also continues to have turtle stuffies everywhere, and lots of little fairies litter the floor, just waiting for more playtime. She also loves the K-Pop Demon Hunter Rumi…who of course is purple!

Favorite Color: No surprise here…it’s still PURPLE!!

Favorite Food: She claims chicken nuggets, taquitos, ice cream, and strawberries straight from the packaging. A recent dinner favorite is carnitas and potatoes with BBQ sauce.

Favorite Animal: She still loves turtles and has a bunch of them, and took an interest in platypuses from her recent school project.

When Emerie grows up, she wants to be: a gymnastics teacher because she likes doing it, but still needs more work on it to get the handstand right. Does she want to keep taking gymnastics so she gets better and can teach it? No….

Unique Personality Trait: She is stubborn to the core, and this can serve her well when she is on a mission for something, and sometimes be an obstacle. She is our snuggler and loves to sleep in her own bed with her stuffies. Emerie is also a homebody and completely self sufficient entertaining herself.

Major Dislikes: anything that eats turtles, and tomatoes…barf! She continues to tell people she is allergic to them, but really it’s just hatred. She dislikes when her sisters talk over her or disruptions while she’s reading or doing homework. She doesn’t appear to like group instruction classes (or maybe she just doesn’t like obeying in them…) or being outside if she doesn’t have to (although this dramatically improved by the end of the winter!). It is also a constant battle on wearing her glasses and keeping track of them, and patching her eye.

Of the Three, She is the Most: Outspoken and direct. She is always announcing we are triplets to random people in public places and making friends everywhere. She will also dig her heels in and stick to an opinion, and there’s no swaying her mind. She can also be very compassionate and considerate; always thinking of others and wanting to be helpful.

Something she says she is really good at: at gymnastics, painting, and cooking with parents. Harper says Emerie is good at burping and it makes them laugh. Reagan says Emerie is good at making tea parties and when you are upset she will bring you a stuffy.

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Kenai to see the twins, the warm beach in Florida, or to see the water park in Cincinnati and wear swimsuits all day.

What is your favorite subject at school? singing in Music Class. And least favorite?: Going outside for recess and especially getting dressed for it, and “her husband” not being in her class.

Who are your best friends?: Luke, Brian and Abigail. Really everyone in her class.

Favorite Quotes: I did nothing! This is also one of my favorites, because any time it is uttered, I know with confidence it indeed means the opposite…

Favorite Thing About Turning Eight: having a birthday party that people can come to. Most importantly, that Luke is coming. (and he did!)

Reagan Jean

Reagan’s artistic skills continued to advance over the past year, as well as her creative play. She is constantly coming up with fun ideas for crafts or outfits, writing a story or composing a song and then practicing it before performing. She is the social butterfly of the three now, and enjoys talking to her friends on the phone. She is also a great helper at cleaning up or random requests from parents, and the first to learn how to put her hair in a ponytail and tie her shoes.

Height/Weight: 67 pounds/ 53″ tall

Favorite Activities: Reagan enjoys art, painting pictures and drawing videos, and sledding, climbing trees, riding her bike, and playing Moms and Dads or with the back neighbor kiddo. She discovered how to take pictures with my phone and requests to do that quite frequently. She also enjoys ice skating and continues to ask for lessons.

Favorite Movie/Music/Show: Lately it is Ponyo and Howell’s Moving Castle, and various Barbie movies. For favorite song is What It Sounds Like from K-Pop Demon Hunters, Never Let Me Go by Cascada and she’s recently discovered techno music.

Favorite Books: Pupunzel and other princess story books, anything talking about pandas, and her first small chapter books, the Dragon girl series.

Favorite Princess/Character: After seven years on Team Jasmine, her love is diminished and she now claims to love Snow White and that original movie, because she is kind and pretty. And the K-Pop Demon Hunters Zoey, who is teal.

Favorite Color: You guess it…TEAL. This should not be confused with blue or green; it is teal and she will remind you they are different.

Favorite Food: She always requests macaroni and cheese and loves blackberries, apples, cantaloupe, and cucumbers, and of course ice cream. The love for cotton candy, and sometimes lemon, ice cream is real…

Favorite Animal: Pandas are still the front runner, but she also claims to like hedgehogs now. She doesn’t snuggle or cart her pandas around as much as past years and that shows how much she’s growing up (cry!), but her bed tells a different story; it is covered in all shapes and sizes of panda.

When Reagan grows up, she wants to be: An artist and a mom; she wants to do both!

Unique Personality Trait: She is our storyteller, just like her Grandma Sue. Listening to her explain the synopsis of a movie is simply amazing and detailed. She is also our helper and often requests to help make dinner, or put something away for us; it’s very sweet. She is very much the mom of the group and probably the most bossy.

Major Dislikes: Peanut butter, chicken nuggets and tomatoes. She’s a little quirky about her socks or shoes not fitting perfectly on her feet and the most aware of clothing that irritates her. She is not a fan of heights.

Of the Three, She is the Most: bossy like her Grandma Sue, especially during games and pretend play. She has great ideas, but her sisters don’t always agree with the direction and the fighting begins. She is also the most detail oriented of the three on anything she is doing, whether that is cleaning the living room, coloring a picture, or telling a story; she takes the time and is definitely our perfectionist.

Something she says she is really good at: at doing art and making things. She is also great at making ponytails in her hair, doing braids, and tying her shoes! Harper says Reagan is good at painting and drawings.

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? She wants to know what Hawaii is like and see the beach, and go to the “red house” down in Soldotna and see Becky!

What is your favorite subject at school? She says math, because it’s fun, and the chance to study animals and learn about them. And least favorite?: She doesn’t like doing PE inside, but it’s okay outside.

Who are your best friends?: her panda club, with Abigail and Addison and the neighbor kiddo.

Favorite Quotes: Mom, I love you more than you know. She says this so frequently to both Craig and me.

Favorite Thing About Turning Eight: Making the fairy houses for their birthday was the best, and doing that with her friends.

Seven Year Old FAQs

What are the biggest differences between the three? What are their similarities this year? All three continue to enjoy much of the same things, like princesses, fancy outfits and striking poses, playing outside, swinging and playing pretend. Everyone still loves magic and fairies and the beautiful side of life is still believable! All three also insist on evening snuggles with Mom. It is harder than you’d think to navigate those demands, and we have to rotate between who sits with and snuggles. Emerie continues to enjoy her solo time and is often found reading in her room or listening to a Tonie. Harper found a new joy in art projects and perfecting her drawings and outlining them in permanent marker. Reagan’s creativity on creating games and playtime for her sisters continues to grow. You’ll find her creating a salon for her sisters (and parents), writing a play to act out, or posting signs all over the walls.

What is the biggest personality difference? As I wrote last year, all three are growing into strong, independent little girls. If I have to choose a difference, Emerie is the homebody and would rather be doing something at home than every going anywhere. Reagan has a little more diva in her attitude now than in the past. Harper remains the “chillest” of the three and the constant negotiator during sister arguments. She often walks away and plays by herself to avoid it.

What do they all constantly fight about? A year later and all three constantly fight over the contentious who-gets-to-be-in-the-middle for a picture. This usually results in three photos, so everyone can rotate and have a turn…and a better selection to choose from! They really don’t fight over toys very much anymore, and the fights relate more to interrupting ongoing play with a different sister, or when one jumps in and takes over and they can’t agree on direction. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the other things they argue about, such as who has to sit in the third row of the car, who gets to choose the movie or the song playing, and nighttime routine antics when one kid wants silence, one wants an audio book, and one wants music. Tough choices indeed.

Who is now the best sleeper? Who is the worst? I believe we have finally made it. It’s been more than a month since a kid slept in my bed, and it truly is bittersweet. As far as falling asleep at night, Harper remains the winner; she loves the comfort of her bed and always has. Emerie seems to enjoy reading books or listening to stories to fall asleep, or the exact opposite and total silence. Reagan struggles the most with falling asleep, and is up and coming to me three to five times every bedtime, for one reason or another or for a philosophical debate on random ideas. Once asleep, they all do pretty well staying in bed other than the occasional ear infection or bad dream; it only took us EIGHT years to get here.

Who is Team Mom and who is Team Dad? This remains consistent since the toddler years, Emerie remains fully committed to Team Dad, although I do get occasional love and requests for evening snuggles. On the other hand, Reagan still commits to Team Mom and is essentially my shadow. Harper continues to noncommittally decide each day, and enjoys spending time with both of us doing different things, and snuggling with Mom at night.

What was my favorite memory of age seven? This past year was harder on me mentally than some of the more exhausting younger years, but I managed to work through it myself and have hopefully made it to the other end. With that in mind, I think watching them grow up so quickly is taking an internal toll on me, and something most moms face through the years. I really enjoy the extensive craft time and just sitting in the living room through the winter, painting by numbers together, beaded crafts and perler beads, and relaxing together. The girls also enjoy board and card games now, and while every gets riled up, it’s fun to be able to do it.

Here’s to age eight! I’m just proud I finished writing this before they turned nine 🙂