Birds, Preschool, and Cookie Sues

Time flies when I am busy. Saturday, we went on a famliy outing to the zoo with some friends and had a great time. I think all four of my kids loved the bird cage. We spend a dollar on a popsicle stick rolled in bird seed and it's the best money spent for entertaining kids. Rather than tell you ALL about it, here are some of the pictures of the kids enjoying the birds. Jon was tricky, he'd feed with one hand and use his other hand to try to grab the bird. Happily, all the birdies survived my flock.

Today Will started preschool. He went last year, too, but this is the last year before big kid school so it felt a little weird to me. He's growing up too fast. I convinced him to pose for some first day pictures, but he told me they didn't count if he wasn't at school yet. So I took the camera to school and he asked his teacher (his idea) if she would be in a picture with him. Yes, I scrapbook, but I didn't want to embarrass my Will by doting too much at school. I let him set the pace and he wanted the pictures. It is so much easier than fighting him for a smile anyway.

After we dropped Will off, the little ones and I hit the mall. We always end up there before the stores open. Many senior citizens are walking at that time and my triplets can so easily light up the faces -- it is one of the few times I am okay with all the attention on them. I planned on getting all three of them tennis shoes since the summer shoes are getting small. Since Penney's had a sale on the character shoes, I was glad that I would have a chance to get three different pairs.

Today, we had an adventure -- I tried shoes on all three at the same time. They were climbing over and under the chairs, and I think Ben even tried on a black dress shoe in a Men's 12. When it got a little crowded with other people, things started bugging me. I don't like feeling out of control, but when I was cornered by the kids and the wagon and so many customers I had to leave just for the air (and no lurkers). Many people with multiples get them all the same things, but I like a little bit of individuality . . . not that it counts when mom picks out the shoes.

I asked Maddie if she liked the blue (Tinkerbell) or the pink (Disney princesses) and she took both of them in her hands, studied them for a minute, then handed me back the blue one while she hugged the pink. Luckily they had the princess shoes in her size. Strangely enough, all three kids measured to get the same sizes of shoes. As for the boys, I asked for the Spiderman, Sesame Street, Cars, and Thomas shoes so I could try them on both of them and pick the one that fit the best. Silly Mama! How could I forget who their favorite would be? Unfortunately, the store only had one pair of "CookieCookieCookie!" in the right size so each of the boys wandered around wearing one Sesame Street shoe shouting "Cookie Yay!" while I tried the other characters on the non-Cookie Monster foot. They each fought me when I took Cookie Monster off. In the end, we left the mall with one pair of Princess shoes and one pair of Sesame Street. I looked in half a dozen other stores trying to find another pair of "Cookie-Sues" (as they started calling them) but no one had any. I went to Kohl's later with all four kids and we found a different set of Spiderman that fit well and maybe Ben will like (he loves dressing up as Spiderman). When we were walking through Kohl's all the kids wanted to hold something. Somehow Jon ended up with the left Spiderman shoe, Maddie had the right one, and each time I looked at Ben he had the shoebox on his head like a hat. We got lots of smiles, though, and no one got hurt.

If you ever see Ben and Jon each wearing a Cookie and a Spidey shoe, just smile and tell them how handsome they are -- that was Mama's way of making peace in the morning. I think next time Allen may have to help me shoe shop, this process gets funnier every time, but I am always too busy to take pictures.

Will really enjoyed his first day of school. I think this year will be good for him, but I am quickly becoming an uncool mom. I picked him up a little early so I could get the little ones home before they fell asleep AND so I wouldn't have to drive 15 miles then turn around and come right back. I will need to figure out how to stretch out the time before the little kids' naps so Will gets his outside playtime at school. We'll see how Thursday goes.