Kids are getting schooled.

Well ladies and gentlemen the triplets are in school. I promise I didn't cry when I dropped them off. Not even a little though now I find my self at a loss. I miss the chaos of the daily routine. It's now the third day and the silence is deafening. I do get to clean the house and get chores done that normally the children would not allow, like moving things out of a room to mop the floor. I don't have to keep them from trashing the place. A room will stay clean until the kids get home. It's almost like I get some progress in the cleaning.

Cooper has declared that he hates homework when he could be playing or eating as the case may be, Bobby does it begrudgingly but Iris loves it. It's like Iris has been practicing homework since she first met hand with crayon. The kids love their teacher and have expressed that they would rather buy lunch than bring it from home. They are also fiercely independent as compared to the other children. There are still other kids crying for their parents in the class and my kids are all like "what's their problem?"
We were blessed to have the kids in school for the past two years in one form or another and they love to go do new things. The only thing is that they tend to be much different with out each other in social situations. Bobby lights up since he is center of attention, Cooper tends to be the sports guy and gets real inquisitive where as Iris drifts towards being more introverted. The funny thing is that together they are so confident and work so well together it's crazy. They hit the playground and start up the games, tag, hide and go seek, duck duck goose to name a few.

What as a single child I never understood was sibling rivalry and conflict. I get it now. The teacher made  a big mistake putting all the trips together in one table. I think that lasted about 30 minutes. The boys will just laugh and distract each other as only best friends can do and in a second it will  go to a ground and pound fight. Thankfully Iris tends to be above it all. So far I believe this is going to be an amazing year for the Cory's and thank you for reading.

The last week of summer.

The kids know it's coming, the dreaded school days. This being the last week of summer we have quite a lot to do. This week we have a meeting with their new teacher, they have a dentist appointment on Thursday, and today they are going to spend time with Nonnie while I get to have the last lunch with my wife of the summer. The kids already got their new haircuts and we have all their new school clothes washed and ready. We picked up all their school supplies and get those Monday. The children are very excited to begin a real school year. They have been attending school in one form or another since they were three and this will be the time in which they are in school for the majority of the day. They are well versed in the rules of the classroom and hopefully they will adjust to a structure of a school day as compared to every moment is a teachable moment style of Dad. The triplets will all be in the same class at the same school, which was more difficult to arrange than you may think. All in all 2014 has been a great year for the Cory house. Many changes have taken place on all fronts. I can't wait to see how the school year goes.

School is coming.

My kiddos are about to start school for reals. I mean they have been in some sort of school for partial days since they were three oddly enough. But now the big one is coming. Kindergarten! and they will be there from 8 till 3. My lord what is going to happen to me. I have projects and work to do to be sure but that much quiet? all at once?  For once my house might get totally clean. I could take a shower WITH THE DOOR CLOSED! Lets not even talk about other bathroom quiet time. I won't have to spend half my day breaking up fights and tending boo boos. I won't have to fix lunch for three people who can't agree on the same thing. I will be able to go shopping with out bribery to get through it. I could take a stroll in  a book store, I could go for a run, I could do anything. Although I envision my first week or so I may be a little lonely.

Ok I get it, we're broke.

When I was a kid I had no idea the amount of money it takes to just have a kid in the house. Not to mention three. I mean food alone will hurt your bank account in ways you can't dream of unless you have the loving burden of progeny. When I moved out of my parents house they started living like they were rich and in my youth I couldn't understand that all that surplus money came simply from the fact that I had moved out. We now I get it, and it was never more apparent to me than when talking about going to the circus recently.

For the five of us to go to the circus in moderate priced seats. $300. that is bare bones assuming that we can just teleport there to cover the $10 parking fee. Lets not mention we would have to get treats and toys for the kids which can easily skyrocket it up to several hundred dollars and all this would most likely happen before we ever got seated. Ten minutes into the show a child would need to pee which would trigger the triplet psychic peeing chain and yadda yadda yadda.

I would rather have a nice day at the park with ice cream maybe catch a movie go to a nice dinner and spend a third of that total cost.

The summer grounding of '14

So the kids normally behave very well to the point I think that we're blessed but this past week the children have developed hell spawn abilities and wield them with impunity, or so they thought.

I have the kids clean their play room every day and I have them start about an hour before Mom gets home. During normal times I may have to ask twice maybe three times before they would get the job done, that said, I never have to sit in the room to make them finish. Now don't get me wrong there have been some yelling matches over the play room before resulting in the removal of toys and privileges, just not to the extent of Tuesday.

Long story short, after two and half hours of back and forth and many forms of attempts to create motivation, the children have become grounded! They have lost all TV privileges and their favorite toys, no longer allowed to have their wubbies at bed time and on the day of the incident they were sent to bed without dinner.

Now kids being the selfish self absorbed little creatures that they are have no idea the difficulty this poses the SAHD. TV in it's deprecating way provides a service to parents the world over especially when the temps are as high in the afternoon as they get in Texas. So in order to teach the kids responsibility and correct behavior I have in turn punished my self.

Not enough summer camps!

Time is the fire in which we burn.

The kids love the Summer Fun camp it seems to be circus themed and their first day they made clown masks. I can tell you that the teacher seems a little standoffish since the kids told her that I make scary clowns and monsters in my work shop. The kids have been having a great summer so far. We have been all over Dallas, been to the beach, been to a couple of movies, and in some of the best restaurants that Dallas has to offer. Swimming at Nonnie's and Poppie's and going to Denton for lunches and ice-cream with Grandpa and Mimi. The kids get the whole playing in the water sprinkler in the yard thing now with the added water gun crazies. The kids are having fun running in and out of Daddy's workshop and trying on different masks. The worst thing about the summer is that my children look like they have the pox from all the mosquito bites from playing in the yard.

Things to do in the summer.

When the kids are not kept busy with camp or other such things it falls on me to be the entertainer of the trips. Now don't get me wrong the kids are more than capable of amusing themselves, however that normally results in a trashed house and squabbles twixt them. So I as the stay at home Dad must finds ways to pass the time. Thank the heavens for Studio Movie Grill in one example. SMG has a summer movie series in which they show children's movies from the past couple of years at 11am for two dollars per person. Now they more than make their money back in food and drink costs. But it's hard to beat a movie on the big screen in AC with a wait staff as a good way to kill two hours in the day. We go to the park, we go to the Zoo, we hit the museums. Sometimes we just go get ice cream.
And thankfully now the kids are getting old enough to help out around the house so there is that.