Look Who's Three!

We are!  Jude and Elie turned 3 on March 6th and it was a much anticipated event.  We had cake. We had hats. We had a little party at the Y with all their favorite grown-up friends.  (Let's face it.  These kids don't have friends their age.)

Because there was not one thing these kids wanted other than strawberries and blueberries, it was easy to make them happy.  Vivi gave them a bucket and bubbles and I made photo books for each of them.  My little narcissists loved them.  (We'll just keep the fact that I couldn't tell who was who in some of the baby pictures our little secret.) 

Of course, you can't turn three and NOT have something fancy to wear.  So Aunt Katie came to the rescue by sending these new swim suits.

Mother Nature also celebrated our survival of three years with three kids by sending some beautiful weather our way. So we made like The Brady Bunch and "fixed" our bikes.

Hard work isn't really Jude's thing and this is how I found her.  She said, "Mama, I just basking in the sun."

We capped off a week of celebration by taking the whole family to see Sesame Street Live!  This is what Jude thought of it:

And this is what Elie thought of it:

And this is what Mama thought of it:

My lengthy blog absence isn't entirely due to birthdays, however.  I've been busy working on a quilt block exchange with my friend Wife Mother Expletive which has been tons of fun.  I've been so inspired by it that I've made two quilt tops in the last two months.  The first is Elie's quilt:

Hey, what can I say?  The girl loves pink.  (Don't let it burn your eyes.)  When I asked Jude what color she wanted for her quilt, she said "all of them" and this is what I came up with:

We'll see if I ever finish them entirely but a girl has to have goals, right?

Speaking of goals, Vivi is finally swimming without a pool noodle.  (Thanks Lisa and Laurel!)  I am very slowly getting into shape.  Mark has put me on a training program to increase my speed (which is generously called slow) and distance and I'm seeing some progress.  Jude and Elie are now officially potty-trained (Did you hear that hallelujah chorus???) which was not easy given that a certain someone likes to dress like this:

So, all in all, life is good and I am back on the blogging bandwagon.  What have you been up to?