Family

Baseball Birthday Bash

October 15, 2019 by Gindi Leave a Comment

Last week, I wrote about the momentous decade mark. But I’d ask your indulgence while I scrapbook some big things that happened to celebrate.

Today I’m going to share a little about their 10th baseball birthday bash we held shortly before their birthday and tomorrow I’ll share about little bit’s 10th milestone.

We hadn’t had a BIG all boys and all girls theme birthday party since the trio turned five. We had their third grade friends out to jump at one of those trampoline places last year, an easy and low key party. But otherwise, we hadn’t been hosting big parties. In my mind, the big ones are 5, 10, 16, and 21. Those deserve a BIG BASH!

Well, we brainstormed for weeks and weeks. We thought about a catered pool party but the neighborhood pool won’t let you have more than 50. I know that sounds like a lot, but we are in a small private school with 30 kids in the entire grade. So you either have a couple friends for a sleep over or you invite everyone. And once you’ve got their parents, well, you’re pushing 100. (That’s without family or neighbors!)

We went back and forth until we were all attending a Sugarland Skeeters Game. Just south of Houston, there is a minor league baseball team in Sugarland called the Skeeters, and their home field is this really amazing Constellation Field. It’s never crowded, has easy parking, and in addition to the ballgame, they have splash pads and a playground and plenty of space to run.

That was the ticket! Quite literally. And all three kids were excited about the idea. (You can imagine finding a spot three very different kids agree on is tricky.)

Constellation Field has a fun area called Picnic Plaza where you can watch the game, move around, have a full buffet lunch and non-alcoholic drinks, and it’s adjacent to the areas the kids play. The only hiccup was the cost. How to keep costs down?

We’d wanted to invite whole families but we’d quickly get well over any sort of budget that was an option. So my lovely friend, who’s an etiquette master, helped me come up with the language for the invitation:

In the description below, it said: No all-star travels without their agent, so tickets are provided for each child and a parent. You can add tickets to our “dugout” for other parents and siblings. If you’d like additional tickets for your team, the Vincent box office is open via PayPal for $X a ticket.

This enabled me to stay *somewhat* in a party budget while also letting whole families come if they wanted. I was just talking to a girlfriend of mine who was struggling with what to do when parents asked to bring siblings. Children’s parties are often space-constrained or too expensive to allow additional children at a birthday party, so be honest in your response explaining your limitations.

Bray loves baseball and we all enjoy the Skeeters game because they’re so much more accessible, and affordable, than going to an Astros game downtown. (As much as we love our Astros! Go ‘stros!) All the kids played and this gave us space to spread out and enjoy our friends.

We tried a wonderful new bakery in town, World Catering Bakery, who came recommended for being able to make a cake out of cupcakes. We needed eight dozen. What I didn’t count on was: (1) the boxes were SO huge they would not fit in my refrigerator the night before the party, and (2) it was A THOUSAND degrees in Houston on September 22nd (well, 95, but same), so we had to eat the cupcakes early so they didn’t all melt immediately.

Decorating was fairly easy. We got packs of Big League Chew and put a thank you baseball sticker on the back for take home gifts. We also had baseball hacky sacks and key chains and bubblegum dispensers scattered around on the tables where we were sitting for kids to take back with them, but primarily to mark the tables for our party.

The biggest obstacle was the heat and the prep. We had to sneak in before gates opened at 1 pm (for the 2 pm game), grab the area where we were going to set up, show our photographer around, and be ready when everyone arrived. It was SO hot! We had an hour before the game for the kids to play on the field, to eat lunch, and to serve cupcakes. Then the trio needed to get down to the pitcher’s mound to throw out the first pitch(es) (definitely a highlight of the day).

But of course, shortly after the game started, it began to RAIN! Houston – ugh! So we had a rain delay. And the kids got wet. Most of the adults stayed moderately dry under the canopy.

What happens though once the kids are slightly wet? They say to themselves, why not get MORE wet! There was a small pool inside picnic plaza. I had not brought suits or towels or told any other parents to bring suits and towels because we were there for a BASEBALL GAME!

Well, the kids had other ideas. Eventually, nearly all of them were jumping in. And laughing hysterically. So the parents just threw up their hands and laughed along with them, because if you can’t beat ’em…

The game started back when the rain passed and two of the three agreed to follow the event planner to the dugout so the stadium could sing happy birthday to them. It was so funny because there was another boy celebrating, so on the big screen were Baby A, Baby C and a random kid. Our group was all looking around for little bit – who was still in the pool. I don’t know why I plan!

In the end, we left before the game ended because a second rain hit(!), resulting in a significant one hour rain delay. However, a few hardy souls lasted until that round when we all ran for it in the deluge (along with gifts and party supplies – we trashed the cupcakes).

The kids pronounced it the best birthday ever, and I smiled gleefully all the way home because I don’t have to plan another big birthday party for SIX YEARS! Hoorah!

A Decade of Triplets

October 2, 2019 by Gindi Leave a Comment

I’m a little late in writing this post. Maybe because it felt so momentous and I didn’t feel I had momentous words.

How can I sum up in one little post the past decade and the years leading up to this miraculous decade?

How could I capture the full decade of my yearning to be married with kids but staying stubbornly single despite my searching?

How do I write about the years of dating between meeting Bray (nearly 16 years ago) and the time we looked at each other on that church alter saying I do?

How is it possible to share the deepest soul agony we both had in hearing we couldn’t have kids and those years of trying with only failure to show?

Then.

The moment that sparked this decade’s long adventure.

The moment there were two lines. And I took another test, two more lines. Then another test, PREGNANT. (I wouldn’t know the irony of three tests at the time.)

Then Bray walking into our bedroom, where I’d stayed in bed for a week in hope of improving our chances, and him opening a little package. Inside, a tiny onesie that said My other car seat is on daddy’s tractor. I can still see his face. This disbelieving hope of a final yes.

A nearly 33 week pregnancy, the last six weeks spent in bed, the last two in the hospital. The decision to take them early to preserve my health when the preeclampsia took hold. The month in the NICU with three little people and several big scares all while I tried to heal from the emergency C-section. Taking each one home individually, first the eldest, then the baby, while my heart broke at leaving little bit behind an extra week to recover from an infection. All came home on monitors and we had the chaos of weeks that followed, another emergency NICU stay, the holidays, my return to work right after the night nanny left. It’s all a blur. I don’t know who rolled over first. Or who sat up first. I know the eldest climbed out of his bed the first but that wasn’t for another year plus.

The first year, Bray and I clinging to each other as we worked and parented and did absolutely nothing else because there was no space for anything except for these little people. They took over. They grew. They improved. They smiled. The gurgled. They sat up in little Bumbo seats and had triplet pow-wows.

The second year, Bray and I tried to figure out how to do “us” in the middle of the hard and exhausting work. We fought and fell apart and fell back together. That happened at least three separate times in this decade. Where we didn’t know how we’d get back to each other and we always did. God always worked a way for us to get back to each other.

And these people. Oh we loved them so much then and we love them so much more now.

They are so very beautiful. Their hands that will still hold ours. Their foreheads we get to kiss after ‘bednight’ prayers. Their hair that smells like chlorine or sweat or shampoo depending on when we hug them close. Their eyes that stare into ours – welling with tears when hurt descends and sparkling with laughter when we dance or cook or exchange jokes.

That first beautiful boy who came out. Our Baby A. With his big hands and feet and head, like a Labrador puppy. Oh he is so persistent. He works at anything he wants. He wants to be the very best. He can suffer crushing disappointment or sadness or self-chastising when he isn’t, but he just keeps working. That eldest – confident, except when he’s not; bold, except when he’s worried; tenacious and athletic and competitive and loving and utterly kissable and challenging and fascinating and outgoing and passionate and smart and the first one to completely capture my heart.

Then the lone baby girl. Baby B. She was squished right in the middle of the boys but held her own, kicking them in the head on our ultrasound to make herself known, and still doing it today. She is the most introverted, needing time and self-reflection. She struggles knowing what a bright and gifted young woman she is becoming, but she remains fierce and loyal and committed and active and kind and generous and adventurous and observant and thrill-seeking and thinking and lovely inside and out. In her early years, I said she was my cat and the boys were my dogs because she just needed someone to feed her and change her and then she was just fine, thank you very much. But her independence and desire for peace, while still strong, has abated enough so she loves and cuddles and develops deep friendships.

Ah, and last, but most certainly not least, came Baby C. He was the smallest all throughout the pregnancy. Our doctor even asked us to consider “reducing” our crew when we found out we were pregnant with three. What a loss the world would have without this bright Baby C. His lungs were a little underdeveloped at birth which has caused him to struggle some with asthma but you would never know by the way he plays and works. He will have his heart broken because he will give it away. He is bright and hard-working and diligent and empathetic and curious and loving and observant and also athletic and committed and sensitive.

We did not make them who they are. God did. We get the honor of getting to know them better than everyone else, what an extraordinary gift to know them best, and of raising them to be generous and curious and grateful and seekers of truth and justice.

We have failed often in this decade. We will fail in the decade to come. But they know we love them more than words can say. They know we will always show up, no matter what. And they know the five of us are in this thing together, for better or worse, and we will carry each other through the hard and cheer each other through the joy.

One decade as a family of five. It seems more than I can even take in. I am ever so grateful for every single day.

Click

September 9, 2019 by Gindi Leave a Comment

As the kids began to read, they all wanted to read mysteries. One of our favorite early mystery series was Cam Jansen. Cam is her nickname, short for camera, because she has a photographic memory. You can imagine how handy that comes in while sleuthing.

When chaos would strike, Cam would close her eyes and say, CLICK. It imprinted a detailed memory of the location and characters in her mind and she always returned to that CLICK when solving the mystery.

This weekend, I found myself whispering, CLICK.

Another year has passed. I’m in that quiet, head-down phase after 40 and before 50. Lots happening, life busy, so much good and so much exhaustion.

But this weekend, I savored the sweet season it is. Not weather season mind you, it’s brutally hot down here on the Texas Gulf Coast, but life season.

Friday night, I gathered at a neighbor’s house with some girl mommas and their girls. We laughed and commiserated and girls swam and performed dances for us. One momma commented, they won’t do that much longer, want us watching. CLICK.

Saturday morning, we strolled around the farmer’s market and the kids had overprices frozen drinks and we selected meats and produce and pasta. We laughed and then drove over to Lowe’s. The kids brought home two turtles from the farm, Big T and Shelly, and the boys wanted to purchase pebbles and mulch and chicken wire for the habitat they’re building in our backyard. A series of ponds and rivers all dug with their own hands in the heat. But the end result of a large outdoor turtle area left them beaming with pride. CLICK.

We watched the LSU – UT game (geaux Tigers!), first alone, and then with neighbors, and the kids jumped around and little bit went to bed early because she’d had enough after half time. I found her curled up asleep in my bed after the game. CLICK.

Sunday morning, we went to church. Our pew was all kids and me. We had parents of fourth grade friends in front of us and in back of us and the friends on our pew. Sitting between the boys, they each laid their head on one of my shoulders during the sermon and I soaked it in. Is this the last time they are comfortable laying their head on my shoulder during a service with their friends around, I wondered? CLICK.

There were birthday parties and play dates and wine with fellow moms while the kids played in the backyard. There was an escaped turtle and ensuing search (Shelly is still on the loose, say your prayers). There were chicken enchiladas and rides in the pool on the new bull inflatable. (The one that has Stanley puppy barking like a mad man.)

CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.

I don’t have the world’s best memory. So I spent a lot of effort focusing on how good all this is. How overwhelmingly grateful I am for every minute of it. I may not have Cam Jansen’s photographic memory, but these moments are emblazoned on my heart.

On The First Day of Fourth Grade

August 21, 2019 by Gindi Leave a Comment

Happy First Day of Fourth Grade!

We had a good summer this 2019.

It ended today. Not by way of weather, of course. We Houstonians like to send you off to school when it’s still triple digits outside.

But in the way of lazy mornings and unpredictable schedules. That ended today. For the first time since you’ve been in school, I was actually sad to see it go. I love a good schedule so summer’s have typically thrown me for a loop, but this was a good break for us all.

We spent time together at the farm. We celebrated the Fourth of July with a bang, literally. I snuck in another mommy and me trip with little bit. And we tried to knock out our Summer of Fun list with laser tag and bowling and escape rooms and more.

So today, you entered the fourth grade. You were all so excited, which makes my momma heart overflow, even though the baby had been dreadfully ill since Saturday.

You have two incredible teachers. We’re entering our fourth year in a school we know and love housed right in our church home and nestled in our neighborhood. This looks utterly different from my own fourth grade. I was going into my fourth new school, in a new area, after having moved to a new state. I was so shy and nervous and didn’t have many friends and our family didn’t have much money.

Normally, I don’t even think about where I was at your age, but it hit me today. This is probably why it’s so important to me that you be gracious and friendly with the “new kids.” Be everyone’s friend. You have five new kids joining your grade this year, in a fairly small school, so it’s important to make them feel like they belong and have people to eat with and laugh with and hang with at recess. It’s why I try to have everyone over to swim before school. Thanks for humoring me and for being sweet inclusive kiddos.

You are each learning at such different rates and growing in different areas. Do not compare yourselves to each other. This will serve you well in life as you grow older. Once you’ve mastered not comparing yourself to your siblings, maybe you can avoid comparing yourselves to friends or students or co-workers. You are an individual and God made you who you are. You are not supposed to do things like others – you are supposed to do things like you.

Fourth grade is a big year. I’ll try to say this without crying on the keyboard, but you only have one more year after this before becoming middle schoolers with lots of different teachers and more intense homework and sports. This is a great year to grow good habits. Do your homework. Don’t procrastinate. Then you can be truthful with those at school and never have to come up with excuses.

Have fun! You are each so much fun. We laugh so much. From spelling crazy words in Scrabble to tripping over the box in the laser tag room to careening down roller coasters. The world is SO MUCH FUN. I know it can be scary. And overwhelming. And of course there’s bad and hard things. But you know what? You are nine years old so you just GO HAVE FUN!

Know this one thing more than any other: Daddy and I love you so much it we can’t even put it into words. We want so much for you. We will always be your people no matter what happens. So when you have an incredible day and win and award or have a blast with a friend, we CANNOT wait to hear all about it. But when you fail or struggle or have a big fight or get terribly embarrassed, we CANNOT wait to hear all about that too.

While we are sad when it happens, we are your people. We are your team. We are here to pick you up and help you dust off and keep moving forward. And would you please be each other’s team too? Don’t ever side with a friend over your sibling. You are their person when you are at school or on a team or in a tough spot. Back them up. And we’ll back you up.

Go be curious. Learn a lot. Love everyone. Forgive mistakes. We believe in each one of you and thank God every day that He trusted us with you three.

The School Lunch Saga

August 14, 2019 by Gindi 1 Comment

We are burned out.

And we don’t start school until next week.

I couldn’t help but confront it as I saw all those precious smiling back-to-school faces staring at me on this morning’s Facebook feed.

Adorable children from pre-K to high school who all have one thing in common. They need to eat lunch.

Sigh.

Well we got BURNED out. Our rule is they take lunch from home every day except one when they can order. They usually look at the school lunch menu and pick the day they want to order (we strongly encourage them to select the same day). Breakfast for lunch is always a kid favorite.

But other than that, school lunches were looking pretty dreary. We have minimal time. So it’s not going to look pretty folks. Bray and I both work and the kids all play sports and homework is ever increasing. We just want it to be moderately healthy and filling.

The eldest was universally selecting hot dogs. I got the lovely kosher 100% beef ones, but STILL. There has to be a limit. Little bit nearly always defaulted to peanut butter or salami. (Never together.) And the baby was more adventuresome but the repertoire was typically a sandwich, or pigs in a blanket, with a fruit and veggies or chips.

So I am determined to do better this year. The trio begins fourth grade next week which means this weekend is school lunch (and dinner) prep weekend. Get ready Sam’s, here I come.

I created a two page school lunch choices printable to pass out to the kids. They will be able to select their options for the four days they pack a lunch. Most of the choices I can prep the night before which will be a huge help because usually Bray is stuck lunch prepping in the morning before school.

You can’t tell from the screen shot, but I’ve got a school border around the page and little spaces for them to select what they want and turn in their “order.” (Email me if you want a copy for yourself.) I am setting rules. Basically, work together kiddos because I’m not buying nine different fruits this week. I’ve still got a budget. But otherwise, go nuts (literally if you want to).

Plus, they are allowed to add things to the list they want to try that I missed.

What do you pack that I’ve left off the list? And what are some great parenting hacks on packing school lunches? Because I’m determined it’s going to go better this year!

I found ideas from so many great resources on Pinterest and the interwebs, including from Real House Moms, The Kitchn, Savvy Honey, Happiness is Homeade, The Creative Bite, and Modern Honey.

What clever idea have we all missed? Share it so we can copycat you. Lunch-packing moms unite!