The Jones Girls

I drove up to the preschool and we were all excited!!   The girls had their new first day of school outfits on and they all looked so adorable.   

We walked into Mrs. Darling’s classroom.  What a wonderful name for their teacher…Darling!!    She is truly darling and the girls and I really love her.    The girls ran right to the toys and began playing with the other girls.   There is only one boy in the class, Samuel, and he was out sick yesterday so the class was all girls yesterday.

The triplets will go Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9am – 12pm.  While they girls were in preschool yesterday, I ran home and sorted through and organized their toys.  I donated 3 boxes of old toys that they have outgrown and we have more space for new toys.   Tomorrow I will do a deep house clean and that will be nice!

I stayed for a few minutes to observe and the triplets didn’t miss me at all.  I shuffled out and watched through the window.  They were playing nicely and enjoying themselves.     I was so happy that they were so happy!!

Each parent revolves bringing snacks for the classroom.   I have 3 times this months since I have three girls!!  I thought themed snacks for my girls would be fun for the classroom.   It will give the teacher an opportunity to play on the them with the snack them.    I will make cheese sandwiches in the shape of fish (using a cookie cutter) and also bring fishie crackers for Amanda’s snack day.   For Miranda’s snack day I will be doing apple shaped cheese sandwiches with slices of apples.  For Maryssa’s snack day I will bring in flower shaped sandwiches and also raisins so that they can decorate their flower sandwiches. 

Cliff and I went to pick up the girls after school.   At the end of the school day, the teacher puts their school work out for the parents to pick up.   There is a pretty wrapped box with their name and decorated stickers all over to identity each child’s school work.  It was so cute to see 3 of the wrapped boxes for my girls. 

The girls also get their own little cubbies to hold their little “quiet time” blanket and some extra clothes in case they need to change.   They get quiet time and a book is ready to them while they lay down and relax for 10 minutes.     Miranda and Amanda wouldn’t lay down and ran around the classroom.   The teacher asst. had to round them up and sit next to them to remind them that it was quiet time and they needed to lay down.    This is going to take a little adjustment for the girls.  They haven’t done naps or quiet time in a year.

I really like this preschool.  It is a private preschool at a Presbyterian Church and the girls will go to chapel every.  They will be educated in a Christian background.    Cliff and I are really happy about that.

Last night I dressed the girls in matching Christmas pajamas that I had purchased from JCPenney’s in November during their Door Buster Sale.   They all looked so cute.

Unfortunately, Amanda and Savannah got sick in the middle of the night.  They had a stomach bug.  So I had to change their cute Christmas pajamas.  Maryssa was sick a couple of nights ago and was throwing up through the night.  They must have caught it from her.   Anyway, the girls are fine now so all is good!1

Last night Cliff put together the triplets Mermaid Tricycles.  They have a cute bubble and music machine.    The girls went crazy for them this morning.  These were supposed to be the triplets birthday present back in August, but Cliff was in Arkansas working for 6 weeks and was not here during their Birthday party to put them together, so I just hung onto them for Christmas.

The triplets got digital cameras by Discovery Kids.  I had scored big time on these cameras at Bed Bath & Beyond.   The cameras were on sale for $30 and I had coupons and saved $30 so I spent $60 for all 3 cameras…woo hoo!!  I also got Savannah a real video camera and got it cheap for $25.

Savannah got a neat VTech Pocket handheld video game package.     It is a little advanced for her but she will grow into it.

All of girls got Leap Frog Learn To Read Books.  

They had a great Christmas.

Dad and Fran came this afternoon.   We went for a nice walk.   They enjoyed interacting with the girls.    I made  a nice lunch – homemade tomato & rice soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

We had a nice dinner together.  I baked chicken.     We watched the movie Julie and Julia tonight.

One of the most beautiful and festive things to go do during Christmas time is go to Disneyland. 

I took the girls to Disneyland this afternoon.   It was a little chilly and we were all bundled up warm sweaters and it felt like something out of Norman Rockwell.

We started off at California Adventure and we saw Mickey Mouse Club House Live!  Afterwards we had some lunch that I had brought with us and then we ventured over to see Crush which is an interactive Nemo show.  Then we saw the Pixar Parade and the girls went crazy over all of their favorite cartoon characters such as Nemo, Buzz Light Year and Woody, etc.  

We left California Adventure and went into Disneyland Park.   We saw the beautiful Christmas Parade.  It was so beautiful!!      We all ate marshmallows and drank Hot Chocolate that I had brought with us.    It was lovely.  We took a stroll through the crowds and saw the beautifully decorated It’s a Small World.   It was a 2+ hour wait so we decided not to go on the ride.  We had something else more important to see!!  We will go back and see it after Christmas when the crowds are shorter.

After the parade, we went back to California Adventure, bought some Gingerbread Cookies and enjoyed them with hot chocolate and sat down to watch the Electric Light Parade.    This is the most magical parade ever!!     They don’t have this parade often, only during limited engagements so we were delighted to watch it.

It was so crowded that day that I parked on the very last lane of the uppermost level of the parking structure.  We had arrived at about 1:00pm.   Shortly after we arrived, they said Disneyland was sold out and the parking lot was full.  They were not accepting anymore patrons. We got there just in time.    Thankfully when we got on the tram it wasn’t too busy because pretty much everyone was already in the park.     Even though it was a little crowded at Disneyland park, California Adventure was only half as crowded so I am glad we spent a lot of our time there. 

This day really got all of us excited for Christmas!!  Yippee!!

Today was the girls Christmas Holiday Ballet Recital.   They wore their pretty Christmas dresses that I got for them for our Family Holiday Portraits.   They all looked so pretty.

I baked and decorated 4 dozen Christmas cupcakes.  I also brought dip with crackers and a tin of different flavored popcorns.  When we arrived in the auditorium, I was so surprised to see so many people. The ballet teacher mentioned there would be about 48 people…I would say there was about 150 people!!  There were 5 tables full of all kinds of food and lots of hungry people since it was noon lunch time.     There was not enough food to feed everyone.

Anyway, the recital was beautiful.    Miranda didn’t listen to the teacher and wandered off…the little stinker.  This is exactly why I have her in ballet lessons…to listen to instructions from a teach!!   Savannah did really well and Maryssa and Amanda followed the dance pretty well too.

I am so proud of my little princesses!!

Today the triplets and I wanted to get a preview of their preschool @ La Habra Hills Preschool.   They invited us to join their Christmas party today.   

I dressed the girls in Grandma’s (my mom) Christmas dresses and added cute velvet black pants.  It was another new and pretty look that the girls enjoyed from Grandma’s presents!!

I brought some homemade baked banana nut bread and Chocolate Chip Bars for the Preschool teachers to enjoy..

We spent the morning at the school getting acquainted with the preschool curriculum, the playground, the classroom, the teacher and the kids.    They had Christmas tree cutouts and the kids got to paint the trees on art easels and also cut out Christmas bows and color Christmas pages.  It was so much fun!

The triplets really enjoyed themselves and I think they are going to be very happy at this preschool.  They will go for a few hours a week.

Grandma (my mom) got the girls the CUTEST Christmas dresses for Christmas.  I dressed the girls up in their dresses from Grandma and they looked beautiful!! 

I had purchased Potato Heads for the triplets and Hungry Hippo Game for Savannah for presents that Santa would give them at the party. 

We drove down to Tustin – to my friend Mary Stechman’s house, who is a member of my Multiple Moms Club.  She hosted this year’s Children’s Christmas party at her house. 

Santa was out on the patio meeting and greeting all of the children.   Each of my girls sat on Santa’s lap and Santa gave them their wrapped present.   Then each girl told Santa what they wanted…each of them wanted a Reindeer!!  LOL!!

Mary has a chicken coupe in her backyard and she has 4 beautiful chickens.  I have never seen such a clean chicken coupe!!   The girls LOVED seeing and watching the chickens.

There was all sorts of yummy Christmas cookies, hot cocoa and gourmet coffees for all of us.

Mary’s house had a really neat Safari themed bathroom and my girls were just enthralled with it.    It was quite the bathroom!!

We stayed a few hours and really had a wonderful time playing with all of the kids (many sets of twins, we had the only triplets there) and I enjoyed chatting with the moms.

Today I took the girls to get Christmas Holiday portraits done.   Our appointment was at 3:00pm at JCPenney’s Photography studio.    It took me over 2 hours to get the girls ready…hair up in pin curls and dressed in their beautiful Christmas dresses with tights and new dressy shoes.

I made this appointment almost 2 weeks ago and the photographers have called me twice this week to verify we wanted the Christmas Holiday background and to confirm our appointment.    I reserved an hour appointment for photography.

We arrive and the photographer said she wasn’t ready for us.   She did not have the background put together yet and could I please turn their TV on and play a Disney movie for the girls while she sets up the studio.    So I did that.  She asked if I could come help her put the background together.  She had no idea how it was supposed to be put together.   So I helped as best as I could.   In the meantime, my girls have been intently watching the Disney movie for over 20 minutes.

We finished doing the background and then I had to get the girls unglued from the TV.  That was difficult.  Of course they didn’t want to go get pictures now because I interrupted them watching their Disney movie. 

Needless to say, the girls didn’t cooperate with the photo shoot.  It went horrible.   Not one good shot!!   Everyone was crying and protesting.  I was frustrated.  The photographer didn’t know what to do, so she pulled out a baby rattle to try to appease them.  Ummm, a baby rattle?   Give me  a break!!   She didn’t know how to position the girls and asked me to give her some ideas.   I was not impressed and very annoyed.

I cut the photo shoot short and told her this was going really bad.  We didn’t get one good shot.    I packed up the girls and headed out.  The photographer took me to the register and offered me a free photo sheet and appologized saying that she wasn’t ready for us.   I told her I was frustrated because it took me over 2 hours to get the girls ready and now I would have to reschedule and do it all over again.    I asked to speak to her manager.  Then the bomb drop…she said she was the manager!!    My mouth hung open in disbelief.    Not good at all.

When I got home, I called the manager at JCPenney’s and she had the district manager of photography call me.  I spoke to Nicole Medina and she apologized for the whole experience.  She said the photographer was very good and had 3 years experience being a photographer for JCPenney’s and that she became manager of photography for our JCPenney’s just a couple of weeks ago.    She offered me a few free photo sheets.

I had to reschedule our photo shoot for this Saturday.  We will also do a family portrait also.   Hopefully it will go much better than today…