Lots of "firsts"

Hi!  Where do I begin?  I feel like so much has been going on!  August flew by and now the girls are getting ready for the their first REAL day of 3K!!!!  Last week, they had their first "meet and greet" day where I went with them and they could drop off their school supplies, meet the teacher, and play in the room so they would get comfortable with it.  Then this Wednesday, I get to drop them off!  I can't believe they are old enough for SCHOOL!!!  But since it's just Monday and Wednesday mornings from 8:20 - 11:20, I'm actually pretty excited!  And so are they!!!! It'll be so nice to have a break and I know they are going to love it!  But when they go all day every day in a couple years, I don't know WHAT I will do!  I can't even FATHOM what that will be like to have a totally quiet house and to have everyone gone at once.  Crazy.  I don't want to think about that yet.  

ANYWAY  - so here are some pics of the girls all ready for their "meet and greet" day at school.  I was making sure they had everything in their backpacks and I noticed Hailey snuck a Barbie in hers.  So I told her she can't take her Barbie to school and she said "But Mom...it's for Show & Share."  She knows more about preschool than I do!!  It's so cute how excited they are! Their friend Isabelle came with us that day so I had a full van load!  (Addy, Emily, Isabelle, Hailey - all yelling "I LOVE SCHOOL!"

 And THEN, a couple days ago, our neighbors called us to tell us that one of them learned how to ride their bike with no training wheels!  So we all went down to watch and cheer.  It was so cute.  Well when we came home, my girls wanted to learn how to do it too!  So holy cow, I took off the training wheels of one of their old bikes and started running behind them all, taking turns holding them up while running.  My back was going out, I was sweating like crazy in the heat, and they didn't want to stop!  That's one thing I never thought of with having triplets - but training 3 girls how to ride a bike w/ no training wheels while Ryan was at work was a crazy idea!  I was tired! :)  But anyway, Addy turned out to be the most determined and got it in 2 days! She's so cute and so proud of herself.  I was actually pretty proud too.  If any neighbors saw me, the minute she got it and went by herself I started jumping up and down and screaming.  I couldn't believe my little girl could do that. :)  Here's the proof :)

 And THEN, we had promised the girls that we would camp sometime this summer.... So...last minute, on Friday, we decided to camp with some friends in our backyard! :)  Both of us have never set up our tents before so it was an adventure and pretty funny.  It was a HOT and sticky night...but we survived.  Only to say we probably won't do it again in a while.  The girls were not good at going to sleep in the tent.  They were so excited at first...but then Em said "mom, can we just go inside?"  And they were all worried about their sleeping bags touching each other or getting wrinkled.  Oh man.  Their Dad was no better.  He would say "Oh I think I'll go get us some water...".and then just happen to sit in the AC for a while and watch the end of the Brewers game.  Ry Ry Ry.  We have lots to practice before we go for real camping with my Colorado Camping family. :) Then at 5 in the morning the tent was blowing like crazy and then all of the sudden there was  a torrential down pour and lightning and everything so we rushed all the kids inside.  Our friends ended up in our family room floor...and we ended up in our super soft amazing beds. :)  Then we all woke up at 7:30, watched cartoons together and had a french toast breakfast inside - not your typical camping experience at all but it was still fun and we definitely made some memories. :) (AHE)

 (EAH)

 Cartoon time - everyone was pretty sleepy.  The girls were up so late!

Then a couple weeks ago, one of the girls' babysitters and one of my high school small group girls (did I mention that I'm getting back involved with youth group again?)  I'm so excited..I'll be leading a group of junior girls in small group and they're a riot and the whole thing has been very cool - just how I totally felt God leading me to these girls and everything.  I can't wait to see what God is going to teach us all this year.  Anyway, here we are at one of their houses picking raspberries.  The girls LOVED it!  Addy ate every raspberry as she picked them.  Hailey saved her whole bucket and then dumped the WHOLE thing on top of her ice cream and ate it ALL.  And then Emily was going to bring hers home and save them...but then when she thought about how she might have to share them, she quick ate the WHOLE bucket on the short ride home in the car.  So fun!  

And here we have Green Bay Packers Aaron Rodgers, Charles Woodson, and Tramon Williams.  I love how Aaron Rodgers is sporting high heels and some jewelry. :) We're pretty excited for football season over here. :)  Grandma Kathy got these "faces" at training camp one day.  She had a riot ordering Culvers with these by her face.  :) 

And THEN, a couple weekends ago, 3 of my friends and I spent the night in Madison, then hit the outlets in Johnson Creek on Saturday and then Saturday afternoon, we ran the Dirty Girl race!  It's a 5K race with lots of military like obstacles.  We had so much fun!!! (Andrea, Heidi, Desirae, me)