Festival of Lights

Every year the Cincinnati Zoo does their Festival of Lights -- it is beautiful. Literally thousands of lights and holiday items decorate the zoo. We decided to go on the night before Thanksgiving -- good weather, members-only specials, and a reason to get out of the house!

The boys particularly loved the rhino nutcracker at the entrance.



We also got to see Santa light up the Christmas tree we had been stalking for the past month during our daytime visits to the zoo!

We got to meet "Hoots" the Great-Horned Owl. The boys were all ready with their "two fingers" to touch the owl like we do in zoo class, but there was no touching allowed this night.

Noel loved seeing the penguin and the walrus characters, while Hayden and Tanner were not as thrilled to meet them.



Of course, having a gingerbread man cookie made it seem much less cold and dark out!

Advent Conspiracy

Be sure to turn up your volume so you can hear the videos!

Once again, our family will be participating in the Advent Conspiracy. We encourage you to do the same. Here is this year's video to explain more ...

Here was last year's Advent Conpiracy video to give you some background on the challenge and mission.

Ballooninaria!

Every fall, a park by our house does a Ballooninaria around this huge mirrored lake.

So, you are asking, "What the heck is a Ballooninaria?!"

It's like doing luminaries except with hot air balloons.

Are you still like, "Huh?!"

See, twelve different hot air balloons are inflated around the lake area.

Then we wait for it to get dark out as all the little children get grumpy from having to wait so long as they huddle together for warmth in the cold. (Check out the cutie-patootie next to Tanner -- it's our good friend's daughter, Josie.)
But then, all the balloons flame up at the same time -- and to quote Tanner, it is "really cool"!
So, the once grumpy children are then filled with amore, and they snuggle with each other and bask in the glow of the balloons!

Date Day!

I have said this over and over again, but I think one of the hardest thing about having triplets is making sure each boy gets enough one-on-one time with us.

Since the boys are older now and I think they are starting to really show signs that they want more Mommy or Daddy time, we are starting to take the boys out more on "dates".

Today, Noel went with Neena to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's Lollipop Concert. He had a great time! Since my Mom is friends with some people in the orchestra, Noel got to go on stage after the show and stand on the conductor's podium and see some of the concert props up close and personal.


Dan took Tanner to the Cincinnati Museum Center and then to Eden Park to look at the views of the city. This was heaven for Tanner as the Museum Center has button to press all over it! It was all he talked about that evening -- "Mommy! I pressed the buttons at the museum!".

Dan was without his camera, so sorry, no pictures to post for you all.

I took Hayden to a new place we haven't been to yet called EnterTRAINment Junction. If you didn't figure it out, it is a place for kids to play and learn about trains. Hayden loved it.








The best part was that they have a annual pass that is FREE for kids under the age of 3 -- I got one for each boy while Hayden and I were there. And even though they turn three in only two weeks, the pass is still good for a year! YEAH for free!! It's is kinda pricey for adults, but I figure since the boys are free, if I can find a coupon for us adults, we are set for a fun adventure some cold or rainy day next year!

Our next date day is set for January -- Neena is taking Hayden to a different Lollipop Concert. I'm not sure what we will do with Tanner and Noel, but I know it will be just as fun and special as today was!

No Animals Were Hurt in the Posting of This Blog

We have had some ROCKIN' weather this November. It was so good, that we took the boys to the zoo in mid-November just for a morning adventure.

We got to see the big Christmas tree going up for Festival of Lights (stay tuned for a blog post with pics from that upcoming adventure).

We played "worker bee" in the Insect House.

We made friends with the lions!

We took a train ride around the zoo!


Annnnnnnd .... then Hayden accosted a goat.

Or two ...

Or three ...

Hey! The kid loves goats!

Get it?

Goats. Kid?

Geez ... I crack myself up! I'm so glad I have this blog so I can share my corny humor with all of the one or two people who read this blog!

Look into my eyes!

When I tell people that I'm taking the boys to the eye doctor, they look at me like I'm crazy. It's a good thing I'm used to getting that look from people.

I know most kids don't go to an eye doctor until they start Kindergarten or their parents suspect a problem, but it's different for preemies. There are increased risks of eye problems with preemies due to their eyes not being able to be fully developed before delivery to the oxygen being used to help them breath when the are first born so early.

The boys had their first eye exam before the even left the NICU. Luckily, our boys did not require more than a nasal cannula of room air, and subsequently their eye exams have always been great!
We started out with eye exams every 2 weeks, then every 2 months, and now we see the eye doctor once a year. It's still fairly tramatic since they have to have their eyes dialated (we call it getting "magic raindrops" in their eyes), but this year they got to help participate in the eye exam by naming colors, pictures, letters, etc.
The doctor found no problems again with this eye exam. Woo HOO! That's great news! Dan and I have always joked that we want the boys to have my vision and Dan's teeth. (His eye sight is not great and my teeth were jacked up as a kid.)

I'm happy to end this goodnews post with a picture of Mommy and Noel doing our cheesy "CHEESE!" for the camera! Bye, eye doctor! We'll see you next year!

Turkey Day Cookie

We are very blessed and lucky to have an exceptional Nanny who takes care of our boys during the day while Dan and I work.

Today it was rainy and yucky out -- plus were were expecting a visit from our Help Me Grow people -- so a special Thanksgiving day activity was enjoyed by the boys with the help of our Nanny.

The boys made turkey cookies!


It was a simple recipe I had seen in the coupons insert of Sundays paper -- I picked up the ingredients Monday, and when I came home Tuesday afternoon, the boys had made special treats for all of us!

Noel helped make sure all the cookies were carefully put on the baking sheet!

Then they got down to decorating ...

Noel was very precise in his placement of the "feathers" and his turkey turned out very cute!



Tanner actually participated -- which is great since he normally just doesn't have time for tasks that don't involved buttons. He'd never admit it, but I think he really enjoyed creating his turkey!

Hayden obviously got Dan's awesome "baking cookie" genes -- he rocked it, and even made the turkey have a smiley face on his second attempt after the unfortunate blob face cookie incident!

This is November??

So ... it's 72 degrees outside today. And it's November 7th.

Seriously? I'm LOVIN' it!!

We took the boys to a park by our house that has a huge pond that gets tons of the migrating ducks and geese. We had a great time feeding the birds, and playing on the playground.






It's hard to beleive we will be shoveling snow in only a couple weeks.