The past month and a half since school start means long, busy days and lots of outdoor activities as we wrap up the summer and ease toward the cooler, winter months. End of August equals many late nights for Craig to finish budget deadlines, and early September wraps up the federal grant season for me and starts the next program budget round; all this on top of school and life activities and house projects. Let’s see how much of the past six weeks I can remember, since I didn’t write down nearly as much as I should have!

We ended August with a fun trip to the fair- the girls were pumped to go and wander around, get customized face paint, eat all the food (especially the dip ‘n dots!) and ride a bunch of rides. This year we managed to not immediately drop them on the ground! Somehow we timed the trip perfectly with the weather; the whole day was cloudy but no rain or wind like the prior week. Since early morning lines were short, the girls convinced the kind ladies to do customized creations. Emerie asked for a combination of her two favorite things, an “Elsa themed turtle,” which translates into a blue, “frosted” turtle and sparkles. Harper wanted a “rainbow seal,” which is quite specific and her own creative idea, and the lady laughed and looked up a seal to mimic. It turned out really cute! Reagan went all out and wanted a full panda face, but in rainbow colors. She walked around with black lips and eye shadow the rest of the visit; by the end of the day it morphed into more of an angry, tired panda.

The visit also re-established that I have two thrill seekers, but certainly not three. To be clear, Reagan might not love the thrill of going fast, but she sure is brave. After the first (kid-sized) roller coaster ride, Emerie was laughing and smiling and Harper had her hands in the air excitedly, while Reagan had a death grip on the handle and a look of desperate survival- definitely not enjoying the moment- but she did go a second time with her sisters even though she was scared. We clearly gave her the choice, stating she did not have to if she didn’t want to, and she simply asked to sit in between her sisters to make it less scary and went up and did it. She didn’t appear to enjoy it the second time either, but she did it and that says a lot!

Several trips to Pyrah’s you-pick farm this summer meant lots of veggies to eat and fun to be had. The small zip line, used by climbing up the side of an old pick up truck, was quite the hit. The girls and cousins probably went down it 20 times each, and did a good job taking turns with other kids. More notably (and hilarious) was the girls’ response to some of the fresh veggies growing out of the ground. At one point Craig and Emerie were cutting fresh broccoli and Emerie was sitting in the dirt, eating the plant like you would an apple. Maybe the added flavor a dirt made it taste more authentic? Not my cup of tea…. Reagan helped me and Aunt Jenny pick two rounds of bulging snap peas and was more than happy to not only carry the bucket, but continue to “taste test” as many of them as possible. All three also insisted on running around with their fans- i.e. a rhubarb stalk with the biggest leaf possible on the end- and running around the farm yelling hello your majesty! and I am the queen!

This year’s trick-or-treat in the heat was a fun event with cousins and we managed to avoid any rain. The epitome of laziness, we didn’t go searching for any new costumes, but allowed everyone to choose a dress-up dress to sport for the night. Harper opted for her pink sequin “Aurora” dress, the hit birthday present from Grandma Sue this year, requested her hair be down and to have a dash of pink eye shadow. Emerie also wanted her hair down and insisted on the Ariel dress and corresponding Ursula necklace and purple eye shadow. Reagan asked to be Jasmine with her outfit coordination to the tee; matching headband and bubble braid, gold ballet flats, and sparkly teal eye shadow. This year’s walk was far less whiny than last years, probably because they are better at walking longer distances now, and they were more than happy waiting in line and going up to the front doors without parental participation.

The routine change into school hours started off a little rough for me personally, with tired monsters at pickup and throughout the evenings, but I believe we made it through and now it’s going better. If I plan some kind of activity or craft to do right when we get home, that seems to help with the earlier transition from school to home each night. My attempts to keep them off screen time in the afternoons is definitely raising my blood pressure, but also resulting in great sister play time (in between the fighting). Taking them to the park, which we’ve done on several sunny days this month, is not necessarily an enjoyable activity after a full school day; in fact, they get all worked up and act crazy and rude to others; and corralling them back to the car by myself usually results in some yelling, timeout threats and a lot of frustration.

One major steps in the “big kid” transition is drop off and pick up each day. Everyone is much more comfortable hopping out of the car in the drop off line, grabbing their coats and backpacks, and after fifty hugs and kisses, marching inside to their classroom. They have a password each week, a specific word of the week if you will, that they must repeat to come in. They are also so proud to switch their names on the board to show they have arrived for the day and if it’s a hot lunch day. We are also seeing great improvement on letters and what words start with what. Craig and I receive constant questions on what things start with, or the brain teasers when you have to come up with 700+ words that start with the letter “h” off the top of your head. After only several weeks, I can already see writing improvement from all three on worksheets and requests how to spell words has increased by 1000%.

Some nights, the non crazy attitude evenings, we will do letter or math flashcards at bed time. All three enjoy competing to see who can answer first, which often gets everyone riled up and yelling, but also shows they are retaining the information. The basic math- you know, 2+2 and 5+9 type numbers- result in a moment of silence while they count it out on fingers, and then extreme yelling when solved. Eventually everyone gets mad and overly competitive and we rotate who answers. Whew!

Grandma Anne came up for a fall visit for two weeks and all three enjoyed sitting upstairs on the guest bed and reading books, making chocolate chip cookies, and her trip’s sewing project- curtains for their bunk bed, with snowflake fabric and pink, purple and teal ribbons tied to the frame so they can easily make a fort or open it up when not playing. Not only is this just something fun for the cool bedroom setup, but Craig and I are hoping this will reduce the destruction we see almost everyday and have to clean up every night to go to sleep. We also probably need to purge some stuffed animals!

In mid-September after school activities started and we signed up for two clubs. While the school is definitely still working out the school day to after school activity transition and we’ve had several days all three never made it to the club, the girls are absolutely enjoying both Book Club and Puzzle Club when they go. Each week a different book theme is shared during Book Club, and from what I can tell, they all greatly enjoy trying out new puzzles. We opted to wait and do intramural sports club next session and I’m hoping that will peak their interest at some point for good physical activity in the winter. Speaking of winter activities, all three are in the same dance class this time around and while we questioned how well that would go (as opposed to splitting them up), so far so good. It helps we know a couple others in the class so the moms get to hang out while the tiny humans learn ballet and tap. At the beginning Harper was not on board sharing her favorite teacher or “her” hobby, but she’s come around with friends in the classroom and so far the fighting isn’t too bad.

Amazingly, we didn’t catch the first back to school bug until several weeks into the year. Lucky for us, everyone was back to normal after a few days and somehow Emerie managed to miss the first one altogether. The girls now all have a terrible sounding, throat cough, but with no other symptoms; all appearing fine otherwise. Let’s hope that cough doesn’t stick around the whole winter because the judgmental “covid glares” definitely still exist when out in the public, even when we know they aren’t contagious. And I managed to contract bronchitis (from them or my September conferences, who knows) that as of today, still can’t manage to kick. Craig incredibly picks up the slack when I’m down for the count and it’s a lot to do on top of full time work. Fingers cross this is my worst one of the winter and we make it through the colds months without going down again!

Much to her joy and delight, Reagan now has a couple weeks of speech practice under her belt. The pediatrician suggested she be evaluated after her five year checkup; she lost her tooth before she learned to form most words and the expansive vocabulary she shares now, so we can’t confirm if the slight lisp relates to the tooth or how her tongue forms the words. The evaluation session was a bit of a shit-show on my part, the school messed up and didn’t take Harper and Emerie to puzzle club after class and wouldn’t go for me, so I arrived late like a hot mess of mom, with all three in tow. It might surprise you to know, but I really don’t like to be THAT mom out in public and in general Craig and I have greatly improved over the years to not be a total hot mess in public. Not an easy task with three, I tell you! Thankfully the staff there were kind and provided coloring and toys for the other two while Reagan was assessed. It went so much better than imaginable with all three there at once! Now Reagan, of course, is thrilled to go to something solo, and after three sessions bright and early before the school day, she is excited to see Miss Mari and do an activity, which was painting last week while they talked. They are practicing word completion and enunciating the end of some words (I can’t remember what sounds exactly). She leaves the session happy, not realizing it’s actually physical therapy!

While pronunciation might be a little more of a battle than the expansive vocabulary we hear day to day, it is fun to hear other random phrases they randomly pick up at school or off shows. A main one right now is sister, can I have a moment of your time? which is often said to one another during playtime. Marriage proposals back and forth, or the more negative I’m not going to marry you might be the top phrase each day and still cracks me up. Multiple pet names are also chosen at random toward each other and include baby, honey, my love, darling, husband – not wife though, they can’t get behind this word- sister, and the usual nick names. Thank goodness they haven’t picked up the silly names Craig and I use on each other… 🙂

I will end this long and random update on the fact it’s finally fall time and the beautiful leaves are out, according to the girls. In fact they’ve mostly fallen since I started writing this blog last month, and temperatures continue to dip as snow creeps down the mountains. The girls still fight wearing coats during the day (at home), but are starting to get the picture it’s not warm outside anymore. My favorite pumpkin dresses that were big last year still fit, so we did a second annual and impromptu photo session in the woods after school one day. I revel in the fact their baby faces are nearly gone and smiles are much more grown up than I’m ready to process; otherwise we had some cute ones and a lot of candy bribery. My little girls are really becoming little ladies, and we are almost through the first quarter of our kindergarten journey….already!

❤