They're 4!

When the kids were born, they changed everything, including the way we celebrate Christmas Eve. This year, we changed the way we celebrate their birthday. For the first time, they did not sit in their quad table at home. Instead, they sat around the dining room table at Abuelito and Abuelita's house in TEXAS!

On the big day, Abuelita prepared an eclectic lunch menu composed of each kid's special requests, which the kids did not even touch. They were too excited about the cake! Familiar with our tradition, Abuelita had ordered cupcakes in each kid's special color:

After eating their fill of cake (or, to be more accurate, frosting), the kids were more than ready to attack the mountain of presents from Mommy and Daddy, the abuelitos, and Tio Johnny and Tia Holly:

The kids got a lot of great stuff, but for me the best gift was having my entire family together on December 24 for the first time since the kids were born:

The kids' birthday was already a whole week ago, but it feels like the party never stopped. We've been having a blast here at Abuelito and Abuelita's house ... it's gonna be hard to leave!

I spy

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. And with my camera-phobic kids, sometimes that means hiding with the camera if I want to catch them doing something cute. It's how I got video of them running on the couch when they were about 18 months old and then having a dance party a month later, it's how I managed to record a peekaboo giggle-fest between the girls close to their second birthday ... and it's how I was able to capture them playing "Ring Around the Rosie" today:



The best part? How Lucy asks Isaac to marry her at the end. The worst part? That I stopped filming just before Jude told Dahlia he would marry her. The funniest part? Gotta be Jude's choice of footwear!

Thinking of thanks

Last year on Thanksgiving I recorded what the kids said they were thankful for on that particular day. This year I continued the tradition by jotting down what they expressed thankfulness for on our way to Grandma and Grandpa T's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Here is what they said:

Isaac

Chick-Fil-A, White Castle (can you see a theme here?), and school

Lucia

Our kitty cat (of whom she is, incidentally, terrified), us, clothes, a house, and Christmas

Jude

My birthday (he's been talking about it all year!), my house, my church, and my teachers

Dahlia

Grandma and Grandpa, Bisabuelo, and Jesus (okay, I must be doing something right)

As for me, I am thankful for God's faithfulness and for the ways in which he has revealed himself to me so powerfully this year. I am also thankful for a husband who, despite having to work long hours, still finds time to balance the checkbook, maintain the house, and support me in any way he can. I am thankful for our church, which has enabled our family to grow in so many ways this year; for our parents, whose assistance has often kept us afloat since the kids came along; and for good friends who continue to give of themselves to help us clothe, teach, entertain, and love our kiddos.

And, yes, I am thankful for the little rascals themselves:

Posing outside Grandma and Grandpa T's house on Thanksgiving Day

 
(Even if they do continue to give me fits when I'm trying to get a good group shot!)

Being almost 4

Sometimes I forget how little you are,
That you haven't seen everything,
That, to you, the world is still new.
And then I do something ordinary,
Like blow bubbles with my chewing gum,
Something totally ordinary that,
Through you, becomes extraordinary.
And I'm reminded of the wonder,
The sheer wonder of being almost 4.

Sentenced

Seven months ago, Isaac shocked us by teaching himself to write words on his magnadoodle. Today, 6 weeks shy of his 4th birthday, he surprised us again by writing his very first sentence:

"It's my waffle"

Yeah, he got a little creative with the spelling of "waffle," but look closely: He knew to put an apostrophe in "it's"! That's my boy!

His brother also surprised me today, with a sentence of a different sort. See, on Monday I decided to start reading My ABC Bible Verses to the kids. But since they didn't seem too interested in the first entry, I kind of forgot about it for a few days. This morning at breakfast I had them repeat Monday's key verse with me a few times and figured that was that.

But that was not that: As I was serving lunch, Jude looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and confidently recited, "A soft answer turns away wrath." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Just like that, he'd memorized Proverbs 15:1! That's my boy!!

Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of serving a life sentence as mom to these two incredibly precious boys!

Our first Halloween!

Okay, so it wasn't technically our first Halloween, but it sure felt like it. First jack o' lanterns? Check. First Halloween costumes? Check. First time trick-or-treating? Check!

We kicked off the season with our first trip to a pumpkin patch, where we went on our first hayride and got to pick out our very own gourds:

Then, as Halloween approached, we gathered around the kitchen table for our very first pumpkin-carving session:

The girls loved touching pumpkin guts for the first time:

But the boys were content to just watch:

And direct Mommy and Daddy:

"Mommy, take out the mouth!"

When we asked the kids what they wanted their first jack o' lanterns to look like, Isaac said he wanted a happy face, Jude a scary face, Dahlia a rude face, and Lucy? Well, Lucy wanted a happy face with eyebrows ... and hair ... and bangs. HA!

The finished results looked pretty good in the daytime:

Left to right: Lucy, Jude, Isaac, and Dahlia's jack o' lanterns

But our jack o' lanterns really came alive at night!

When the big day finally arrived, the kids couldn't wait to put on their first Halloween costumes. The girls asked to be "ballerinas in long dresses":

Dahlia and Lucy in ballerina costumes

And, thanks to Benny the Bull in Dora's Costume Party, the boys wanted to be slices of pizza:

Isaac and Jude in pizza costumes (sewn by Abuelita!)

Halloween night was frigid, but nothing could have kept these kids from going trick-or-treating around the neighborhood for the first time!

And they're off!

All four of them had a ball ringing doorbells and picking out candy, and I think they had just about mastered the "trick or treat" and "thank you" routine by the time we finished our route. Many thanks to all of our neighbors who helped make our kids' "first" Halloween a great experience:

They had so much fun that they are already talking about what they will dress up as next year, on their "second" Halloween!

A truly GREAT-grandma

My abuelita was 30 years old when she delivered my dad (her firstborn), and my dad was 30 years old when I (her first grandchild) was born. I promised her once that I would have a child before I turned 30 so that she would not have to wait until she was 90 to be a great-grandmother, but that turned out to be a promise I couldn't keep. By the time the quads were born, I was 32—and their Bisabuela was already gone. Today, on the 5th anniversary of her death, I remember her here with a tribute I wrote on the day of her funeral:

Her Faith Is Now Sight 

They're burying my abuelita today. I won't be there, but fortunately my dad was able to fly out soon after we got the news on Thursday. Although in Peru it is customary to bury a person the day after she passes away, the family chose to delay my abuelita's funeral long enough for my dad, her firstborn, to arrive. I am glad he will be there.

It will be strange to visit Peru next week with my abuelita gone. The family revolved around her. And despite the fact that thousands of miles separated us from her, she was a strong presence even in my nuclear family. I am certain that her steadfast Christian example shaped the way my dad treats my mom, as well as the way my parents raised me and my brother. Every single time I talked with my abuelita, she told me how much she loved me and that she was praying for me.

She and my abuelito, both of whom devoted their lives to the ministry, made a lot of sacrifices to provide for their family of nine. My dad remembers how his mother's hands used to bleed from doing housework. And she was always trying to find a way to make things last a little longer. When she could still see, she would tear plastic bags into strips and then crochet them into rugs. I didn't appreciate the beauty of these recycled treasures until I was older, so I got rid of most of them years ago. But I still have a lovely purse that she crocheted for me out of clear plastic bags, and I cherish it.

My abuelita was the family historian. She loved to talk and, if you let her, she could go on for hours, usually telling stories about people long dead. She had such a soft voice that I sometimes could not even hear what she was saying, but she did not seem to mind. She just wanted to reminisce. I was the first grandchild and I was born on my dad's birthday, so that day was like a national holiday for my abuelita. She would send us beautiful birthday cards decorated with traditional Peruvian scenes, and inside she would write: "¡Viva el 3 de setiembre!" For a while, she would even kill two turkeys on our birthday, and the family in Peru would feast in our honor.

My abuelita could also be quite cheeky. In Peru, we would say that she had a chispa, a spark. She retained it even when she was so sick that she could barely speak. In fact, when we thought she was near death on our last visit, I mentioned to her that I was growing my hair to donate it, and she immediately said, "Te regalo mis trenzas" ("I will my braids to you"). We all just had to laugh through our tears. I am sure that next week I will hear many more stories about all the funny things my abuelita did and said during her long and blessed life.

Everyone who knew my abuelita will miss her terribly. But even as I mourn, I am reminded that this is also a time to rejoice. Her pain and suffering are over, and she is finally home.

My abuelita in 1946, at age 30 (left), and in 2004, at age 88 (right)

Cycle of sickies

Remember how we used to "lock down" for RSV season so that our premature babies wouldn't run the risk of getting sick? Yeah, I'm kinda wishing for those days right about now!

Just since school started, we've dealt with colds, vomiting, impetigo, more colds, more vomiting, four simultaneous cases of strep throat, and—as if that weren't enough—last week Lucy was hospitalized for pneumonia!

Thankfully, she had to stay only a little more than 24 hours, as she was not exactly a pleasant patient (despite her sparkly dress and unicorn sticker):

With our first trip to the hospital since the NICU behind us, I was hoping for a little break from illness. But not long after the kids got to school today, I got a call from the nurse, saying that Dahlia had a temperature of 101.7. At my mom's urging, I took Dahlia straight from school to the doctor. Diagnosis: strep!

Here we go again ...

The best medicine

El nombre de Isaac significa risa y no llanto. 

The name Isaac means laughter, not weeping.

That's what my abuelito told me when I called him almost two years ago, crying because we'd learned that Isaac's failure to start talking pointed to more than just a speech delay. In fact, our state's early intervention program had determined him to also be delayed in the areas of social skills, fine motor skills, and sensory integration. He'd qualified for speech, developmental, and occupational therapy, and we had no idea whether these interventions would even help.

The entire next year was hard. It was hard not knowing what exactly was going on with Isaac, and it was hard to see his siblings' development progress by leaps and bounds while he (and we) struggled on a daily basis. Even as I was thankful for an otherwise healthy child, I mourned what I considered the loss of everything I didn't even know I had envisioned for him.

But even in the midst of my doubts, God has been faithful. He's led us to some wonderful therapists and teachers, we've gotten a few answers, and today—after a lot of hard work, a lot of tears, and a lot of prayer—we have so much hope. Especially since Isaac began to read, we have seen significant progress in both his communication and his social skills, and his sensory issues have greatly improved, as well. So much so, in fact, that this semester he was able to join his siblings in the integrated classroom at the developmental preschool that they all attend!

Naturally, we will continue to watch Isaac's development in the years to come, and we are anxious to do whatever we can to help him catch up to his siblings. There are hard days in which I despair of this ever happening, but—more and more—these are balanced out by so many great moments in which Isaac thrills me with all the new things that he says and does. It's taken me a while, but I now realize that my abuelito was right: This boy was meant to bring me joy!



Thank you, Lord, for the healing balm of Isaac's giggles!

Picture, picture

Yesterday Ted and I accompanied the kids on a school field trip to a local farm. We had an amazing time as a family, and I took lots and lots of pictures—a grand total of 207 in the space of 3 hours, to be exact!

My faves? These two, which I think say so much about what I want my life to look like:

Mostly happy!

And what my life actually feels like most of the time:

Frazzled mommy, disgruntled kiddos!

Ah, 3-year-old quadruplets. Hard to live with 'em ... wouldn't want to live without 'em!

Turn your day around

Once upon a time, before the kids experienced the wonders of the school bus, they were car riders. Back then, more often than not, we'd scarf down our lunch, comb our hair, go potty, put on our shoes, and rush out the door in a frenzy to get to school on time ... only to get there early. While we waited in the van for the teachers to open the gates, claustrophobia would set in, and with it would come lots of whining, random crying, and plenty of shoving as impatient little bodies jockeyed for space.

At some point, to distract everyone from the misery of our close quarters, I began to sing "This Is the Day That the Lord Has Made." Almost immediately, I noticed that everyone's attitude changed! Singing praise proved so effective at turning around a bad day that I made it a daily before-school routine, and soon all four kids were joining me in singing both the English and the Spanish versions.

We got out of the habit of singing our song over the summer, but last week we started up again while waiting for the school bus to arrive. Surprisingly, everyone remembers the words, and, as you can see, Isaac is especially happy to be singing our special song again:



Now, be honest: Your day just got a little bit better, too, didn't it?

This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

(Psalm 118:24)

Color me happy

One of the keys to raising multiples is organization. And one of the keys to my organization is color-coding. At first the system was meant to help different caregivers remember which pacifier or sleepsack or sippy cup (or whatever) belonged to whom. But, as the kids have grown, having an assigned color has made it easy for each of them to readily identify his or her own backpack, toothbrush, washcloth, MunchieMug, and so much more. The kids enjoy having a sense of ownership over something (a feeling that's hard to come by when you're a quadruplet!), and I love how color-coding eliminates the need to argue over whose stuff is whose: If it's [insert color], it's gotta belong to [insert kid]!

One of the downsides to the kids getting older, though, is that some things just don't come in multiple colors anymore. I was recently lamenting this fact on Facebook when a fellow quad mom gave me a great tip: Just use different colors of electrical tape to label identical items—genius!

As a direct result of that conversation, I'm now the proud owner of four rolls of plastic tape, perfect for color-coding mock Crocs (the kids all wear different shoe sizes):

And Radio Flyer tricycles (adjusted for each rider's height):

Now I don't have to sort out which pink shoes belong to which girl, or which red trike belongs to which boy. The kids just grab their colors and go. What a time saver!

Something I know I won't have to label with my fancy new tape, though, are the kids' preschool folders. This year I tipped off their new teacher to our color-coding system before school started, and she gave each kid a take-home folder in "their" color (or as close to it as possible). The kids are tickled pink—way to score bonus points, Miss M!

Bus-y bodies

Today I put four 3-year-olds on the school bus for the first time. Everyone was excited to wait for the bus:

 But not everyone was thrilled to actually be on the bus:

Nevertheless, I was delighted to wave goodbye to the bus:

And, a few hours of restorative silence later, felt just as happy to see everyone's smiling faces as they got off the bus:

As Isaac said tonight when we prayed before dinner: "Thank you, Jesus, for the school bus!"

No-pressure potty training

Hear ye, hear ye: I have discovered the secret to stress-free potty-training!

I know what you may be thinking, but no: This method does not require you to set aside a magic number of days in which to train your child. Nor does it involve forcing liquids or making your kid go bottomless. And as for elaborate sticker charts or reward systems? Absolutely not necessary.

No, to potty train without stress, I've discovered that you need just two things: A healthy kid and time.

Of course, it took me until after my third time around the potty-training block to realize this. Before that:

• Lucy easily mastered going #1 in the potty within 3 days just before their 2nd birthday in December 2010, but she refused to go #2 in the potty—waiting every day to poop in her pull-up at nap time—until their 3rd birthday (she even announced a few weeks ahead of time that this was when she would start doing it, the little stinker). 
• Jude, who got off to a great start in March 2011 (a couple of months after the kids turned 2), also knew exactly what he was doing but was irresponsible enough (with #1 and #2) for so long that we kept him in pull-ups until just after their 3rd birthday. 
• Dahlia was not ready when we tried to train her at the same time as Lucy, but when we made another attempt with her in May 2011 (when the kids were almost 2.5 years old), she proved that she was more than ready by mastering #1 and #2 in the potty within 3 days.

Based on these experiences, I'd decided to not even think about training Isaac for the foreseeable future—with his communication delays and sensory issues, I honestly couldn't imagine the day when he would be ready to train. People had assured me that he would see his siblings using the potty and want to do the same, but it just wasn't happening.

I did realize, however, that I had one advantage: I knew that Isaac liked to hide in the hallway when he needed to poop. So a couple of months ago I got brave and—contrary to conventional wisdom, which says that kids learn to go #1 in the potty before they learn to go #2 in the potty—I started putting him on the potty whenever I'd catch him hiding. He didn't like it at first, but I casually persisted. And my vigilance worked: Once he had his first success with pooping in the potty, he never looked back. I couldn't believe it had been that easy!

Finally! Four potties crowding the bathroom floor.

Scared to push my luck, I pushed all thoughts of pee-training him to the back of my mind. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that he was keeping his pull-up dry for hours at a time. So I decided to take things to the next level and started putting him on the potty every time I found him dry. At first he had no idea what I expected him to do, but when he finally had a success, it was like a light bulb went off in his head! Over the weekend, he even demonstrated that he can stay dry all day! And although he hasn't been completely accident-free since then, I now know that he knows exactly what he's doing when it comes to going potty. At age 3.5 ... not too shabby!

So there you have it, folks. The secret is simple: Wait until your kid shows undeniable physical signs of being ready, and then put him on the potty, calmly and consistently, until he realizes what he's supposed to do. No stress, no mess! Now that's my kind of potty training.

Wedding day!

Today Ted and I celebrate 12 years of marriage. The past 4 years have been a lot more interesting than the first 8 were, but we haven't had much time to reflect on that. For the past few days, our minds have been consumed by a much more recent wedding: Tia Glenda and Tio Bill finally tied the knot yesterday!

Arriving at the reception

The kids were supposed to be the ring bearers and flower girls, but things didn't quite go as planned. While waiting to get our pictures taken, Isaac realized that we'd put mousse in his hair and freaked out. He did not recover in time to walk down the aisle (hours later!), but Jude saved the day by marching to the front of the church by himself, carrying both his Bible and Isaac's ring pillow. (Witnesses tell me that he walked right up the platform toward his Abuelito, who was officiating the ceremony. After a bridesmaid delivered him to his daddy, he loudly declared, "I did it! But I walked too fast.") The girls, who were right behind Jude, got off to a good start, but when Dahlia ran out of petals halfway to the altar, it was her turn to freak out, and both girls turned back, crying.

With a 25% success rate, it feels like it was a whole lot of effort for very little return. But I am consoled by the fact that, by the time Glenda and Bill celebrate their 12th anniversary, all they'll care about is how adorable the kids looked in their wedding attire:

We love you, Tia Glenda and Tio Bill! Thanks for making us a part of your day!

"Vintage" clothes

As you probably know by now, I'm a sucker for comparison photos. So this weekend, when Lucy and Dahlia found the muumuus that Tia Glenda brought them from Hawaii a couple of years ago, I just had to grab my camera. Here is the original picture I posted of the girls modeling their then-new outfits:

And here they are in the same outfits (matching bloomers now serving as shorts), almost exactly two years later:

The girls also still love to wear the dresses that Bisabuelo brought them from Peru nearly three years ago:

Last year they wore them as long shirts over khaki shorts; today they wore them as decidedly shorter shirts with the very same shorts (apparently Lucy and Dahlia are getting taller but not any bigger around!):

Very soon my beautiful daughters will grow out of these not-quite-vintage clothes. When they do, you can bet that I will carefully put away these special outfits in the hopes of someday seeing my granddaughters grow up in them!

Inhibition can wait

Dance like no one's watching? When you're 3 years old, there is no other way to dance:



Who cares if your moves are a little more Benes than Jagger? When you're 3 years old, inhibition can wait!

If only I could figure out how to bottle her utter lack of self-consciousness ... I know I'll be longing for this age of innocence soon enough!

Stoplights and marbles

There's a new sheriff in town:

Our refrigerator chart

Here's how it works: Every morning, the kids all start out on green (happy face). Throughout the day, bad behavior such as talking back or not listening can get you moved to yellow (worried face). You have two chances to make a better choice before you land on yellow, but some infractions (such as hitting) will land you directly on red (sad face). You can get back on green by being obedient, kind, helpful, or otherwise having a better attitude.

If you are on green at the end of the day, you get to put a marble in a jar; landing on red at any time, however, means that you must take a marble out of the jar. When the jar is filled, you get a big prize! Right now the kids are working toward a trip to a cafe (something that they've been begging to do after seeing one on TV) and they are almost there:

Our marble jar 
(full for the purpose of demonstration)

Lucy, Jude, and Dahlia are highly motivated by this system because it's what their teacher used in preschool last semester and they understand what the stakes are. Since Isaac was in a different classroom, however, he is still learning just what this green/yellow/red business means. He does get a kick out of putting a marble in the jar, though—so much so that, even though we have not yet formally tried to potty train him, he now goes #2 exclusively in the potty just for the chance to "putta narble inna jar":

So proud of himself!

And I think that, alone, makes our stoplight system a resounding success!

Copycat artist

Check out what I found on Isaac's magnadoodle today:

Magnadoodle art by Isaac, 3.5 years old

Don't recognize it? Maybe this will jog your memory:

Believe it or not, Isaac copied the logo from his memory. And here I thought Dahlia was going to be the artist in the family!

Ball boy

Jude loves to play ball. And we're not just talking catch. The kid likes to dunk:

And kick:

And swing:



As you can see, he's even got built-in cheerleaders!

Now if only he could learn to refrain from hogging the ball ... the rest of the squad likes to play once in a while, too!

Good neighbors

This morning I took the kids to a splash park for the first time. Whenever we do something new, I have concerns about whether I can keep everyone safe and in line, but today I wasn't too worried. After all, a friend had invited us to meet her there (so I knew I would have a pair of back-up eyes and hands), and she had assured me that it was entirely fenced-in, with only one opening (so I knew I wouldn't have to monitor multiple points of exit).

And everything did go fine ...

Fun at the splash park!

 ... until we decided to have lunch. At that point, the girls followed me to a nearby picnic table to get dried off while my friend made sandwiches. Isaac was not far behind. I saw that Jude was still playing in the water, so I decided to let him have fun while I got the other kids settled. The next thing I knew, a lady was tapping me on the shoulder, saying, "The kid who is wearing exactly what he [points to Isaac] is wearing is outside the fence!"

Sure enough, I looked up to see that, during the short amount of time that I was drying off the other kids, Jude had exited the park, walked along the fence (next to the parking lot!), and ended up in the grass near the playground, on the opposite side of the splash park from the picnic tables. He was standing there all alone, looking very small and helpless. Supremely embarrassed and more than a little bit horrified, I thanked the woman, left the other kids with my friend, and ran to retrieve my boy.

Safe and sound!

Turns out Jude realized that none of us were in the sprinklers anymore, and—even though we were just a few steps away at the picnic table—he thought we'd gone back to the car and went looking for us. The woman who alerted me to his escape was at the park with seven kids of her own to keep track of, just happened to notice during a head count that one of mine was outside the perimeter of the park, and cared enough to let me know right away. Now that's what I'd call a good neighbor!

Incidentally, our literal neighbors have been pretty good to us this summer, too. Already we've enjoyed one's playroom and bouncy house, another's hand-me-down clothes, another's sprinkler and water table, and yet another's amazing trampoline:



Thank you, God, for good neighbors!

We all scream for "ice cream"

A few days ago, the same show that gave the kids the idea to make a pie inspired them to start asking if we could go to an ice cream shop. Not one to ever turn down a chance to eat ice cream, Mommy said YES!

We waited until Saturday so that Daddy could go with us. And don't tell the kids, but we didn't actually go to an ice cream shop—we went to a frozen yogurt shop. The kids loved watching Daddy operate the self-serve soft-serve machines:

We got two big bowls of frozen yogurt to share: one with chocolate and vanilla, and the other with passion fruit and pineapple. At Jude's request, both were topped with a generous helping of maraschino cherries. We sat down to eat our treat in the fun orange and white chairs—one for each kid!

Dahlia, Lucy, and Jude loved their "ice cream," but Isaac was not a fan:

He much preferred reading the sign: "Orange! Weaf! Yogurt!"

The frozen yogurt was good, but I think next time we'll try a frozen custard place (that's Mommy's favorite kind of ice cream). And who knows—by then Mommy and Daddy might even be brave enough to try ordering CONES!

Our first pie!

A couple of days ago the kids saw a pie on television and asked if we could make one. Amazingly, we had all of the ingredients on hand to make a pumpkin pie, so Mommy said YES!

The next morning, the kids watched Mommy unroll some refrigerated pie dough and helped press it into the pie plate. A little while later, while our pre-baked pie shell cooled, everyone gathered around the kitchen island to make the filling. First Mommy read the directions on the can of pumpkin puree, and then we all got a chance to smell the spices. Lucy didn't like the cinnamon, but Jude thought it smelled like "yummy smoothies!"

Smelling the cinnamon

After everyone got a whiff or two, Mommy measured the dry ingredients and let everyone help to mix them all up. Then it was time to beat the eggs! Obliterating the yolks was Isaac's favorite part:

Beating the eggs

After everyone had a turn with the eggs, Mommy added the pumpkin puree, and we took turns stirring our little hearts out:

Mixing in the pumpkin puree

By the time Mommy needed to add the evaporated milk, though, we were done waiting for turns!

Too many cooks in the kitchen?

When the filling was ready, Mommy poured it into the pie shell and stuck it in the oven to bake while we napped. A couple of hours later, we woke up and—ta-da!

Admiring our pie!

Everyone was excited to eat the pie, but reviews were mixed. Jude loved it:

Dahlia tried it, but immediately spit it into her hand:

And Isaac and Lucy played it safe by eating only the whipped topping:

Oh, well! I guess that just means more pie for Mommy and Daddy, right? Can't complain about that!


* Thanks to Play At Home Mom for inspiring me to try making pie with my 3-year-olds!