I'll apologize ahead of time for the lack of quality in these pictures. The iphone takes good pictures, but they're not the best, but what do you expect from a phone.

At Uncle Sid's house, there are a bunch of frogs. They come up on the back porch in the evening to eat all the bugs. The frogs are small and didn't seem to make a whole lot of noise. Uncle Sid caught one and brought it in the house so the kids could see it. Of course Megan was skittish and Maggie and Mason giggled, but Morgan, she was right there. She needed to hold this frog and kept asking for it. I just prayed she didn't try to eat it. Check out how happy Morgan is...

Maggie was a little nervous at first and every time the frog jumped. But as long as the frog sat still, she was good.

Mason was much more willing to capture and hold the frog.

Mason's first day of school

Mason's first day of school was this morning. He started first grade today. FIRST GRADE! Where has my baby gone? He's so big now. :( But lucky for me he still likes to snuggle with me and he's not embarrassed to give me kisses. But I know that time is coming too.

Matt, the girls and I all took Mason to school this morning. Mason got to show Dad his desk (last year he sat at a table, this year he has his own desk) and his new text books: Math and Science.

This is his new teacher, Ms. Lara. She is super sweet and very friendly. We were out of town for Back to School night, but I was able to arrange to meet her yesterday. Mason told her the names of all his sisters, and she remembered them today. So sweet. I love it when people make you feel like you're important and they pay attention to what you say. Of all the students Ms. Lara has, and all the people she met on Back to School night and all the names she has to try to remember, she remembered Mason's and Maggie's. That is important to me. It makes me feel special. Kudos to you Ms. Lara, you jut earned your star in my book! :)

I am looking forward to this year and excited to see what new things Mason will learn. I think he's pretty excited too. I'll report back after school this afternoon with what Mason had to say.

Morgan's crib tent

Morgan, first thing in the morning. She has some serious bed hair going on.

Megan's crib tent

I have had a bunch of people ask me about the crib tents; what are they, what do they look like, what are they used for. So here goes:

I was not familiar with crib tents for anything except keeping cats out of the crib. It turns out, that's not all they're used for. Crib tents are wonderful tools for keeping your kids IN the crib. It is a mesh tent that is placed in the crib and the crib mattress is placed inside the tent. The tent is secured to the actual crib to prevent any injuries. Once the child is in the tent, and the tent is zipped up (zipper is on the outside), she cannot get out, nor can she throw out any of her things: binkies, blankets, pillows, lovies, etc. (Not that you are supposed to have any of that stuff in a child's crib to begin with. But hey, I don't always follow the rules.)

Crib tents are a huge topic amongst the multiples community and the only reason I can think of why is just the simple fact that there are multiple children going through the same milestones at the same time and frankly, we as parents cannot do everything at the same time. (We don't really have super human powers.)

So, Megan was jumping in her crib. So much so that she was just about bouncing herself out. Matt and I were concerned enough for her safety, that we decided to convert her crib to a toddler bed, (removed both sides and the top half of both ends of her crib.) Now she could get in and out as she pleased and there was no serious fall threat. (We also put a baby gate in her doorway to prevent her from leaving her bedroom in the middle of the night.) However, Megan was not comfortable with this arrangement. She was up and down, up and down, in and out of her bed.

She slept on the floor, she cried, she even took Morgan's blanket out of her crib and threw it over the baby gate outside of the room. Not a good thing. After several attempts to get Megan to sleep in her toddler bed, we opted to put her in a pack 'n play until we could order the crib tent. We chose to order both babies one so that Megan wouldn't feel like she was being punished by being in the tent and not Morgan. And the plus side is that both babies can now stay in their cribs longer without risking climbing, jumping or falling out.

Both babies took to the crib tents very well and have been sleeping in them just fine.

The McMillan Clan meet St. Francis

Some good friends of ours, Kiai and Laura, just received a very special shipment they had been waiting for. A statue of St. Francis that had been living in Kiai's mom's front yard. Kiai's mom was moving and said the statue needed to stay in the family. (The statue has a very interesting and funny story behind how it came to the family and whenever Kiai gets around to sharing that story publicly, I'll link to it, but for now you'll just have to use your imagination.) Anyway, St. Francis is pretty big and heavy so we had to go visit him.



I think Matt was the most excited of all to see St. Francis.




Maggie was a little hesitant to have her picture taken. She wasn't sure whether or not the statue was alive.








Megan was blowing a whistle and didn't seem to care one way or another.







(Morgan wasn't interested at all, Mason wasn't having his picture taken and me, well, I was behind the camera.)

Mailbox Walk

The kids and I like walking to our mailbox, which is about a quarter mile there and back. If I push the babies in the stroller and the big kids either walk or ride bikes, we can make it to the mailbox and back in about 20 minutes. Yesterday however, the babies wanted to ride their bikes too. I figured it was a nice day, little breeze, we can handle it, right? NOT!

This picture was taken after 20 minutes into the walk. That's my van in the background, parked in our driveway. That means we've walked...ONE house. Not to the mailbox and back. (Remember that I can push babies in the stroller to and from the mailbox in 20 minutes.) Yes, folks, we got NEXT DOOR in 20 minutes riding bikes. Guess the girls need a lot more practice. Maybe Daddy can make us a bike path around the perimeter or our back yard. Then I can watch the bike riding practice from the shaded porch while sipping something cool, keep the kids all contained within our back yard and not have to worry about someone riding into the street. Just an idea. Hint hint to Matt. :)

By the way, we did end up getting the mail, after turning around and getting the stroller. :)

Not safe

I asked the big kids what they thought of this. Mason piped up saying
he taught her how to climb up there and Maggie said she helps Megan
get down. My comment, "This is not safe. Do not teach the babies how
to do things like this." Then all the kids just laughed. What to...
What to do?