What I Dislike About Summer

I love summer. I am not a cold weather girl. After growing up in the midwest, I've logged enough blizzards to last a lifetime. I like the fact that where I now live we can have a huge snow storm one day and 60 degree weather the next in the winter. I could do without the blistering summer heat, but I can deal with it. Warm weather means my daughters and I can get out and run ourselves ragged.
So now you're wondering... what's up with my title if I like summer? Easy... summer means virtually every night is bath night. It's a hard enough task with four... now couple that with the fact that Hubby's new work schedule has him working nights and I'm sooooo over bath night.
When my daughters were in the NICU, the nurses stressed that a nightly bath isn't necessary for babies. Really, it's best not to do a daily bath if you want to avoid dry skin. I had a rigid every other night bath schedule in place, which worked great until my daughters started preschool. I couldn't stand the thought of them going to bed without a bath after playing outside and being around other germy kids. So bath night became every night that they had school the next day. Every other night I washed their hair. Now it's summer. I think I can count exactly two non-bath nights since school has been out. We've been to the pool nearly every day, or we've played in the back yard, or we've gone to the park, or we ran through the fountains at a cool water park (yes, that's my girls in the picture). They're covered in sunscreen and chlorine. Skipping baths really isn't an option.
Still, I'll gladly bathe them every night if it means we're having fun and not buried in snow!

Happy Quadruplet Day!!!!

Did you know today is a national holiday? OK, so maybe it's not celebrated nationally, but today my family celebrated Quadruplet Day. Hubby and I have been so busy with "stuff" lately (housework, yard work, work in general), that we needed a day just for our girls.
I had promised the girls that we would go to the pool today, so of course we woke up and it was overcast and breezy. Change of plans. They were given the option of visiting a new park or going to the zoo. In the end, the park won. This park was, in a word, AWESOME. It had mountains made of rubber throughout the park and the girls had a blast climbing them. Plus, it was fun just to explore a new play area. The park also has fountains shooting out from the sidewalk. We weren't in bathing suits and, again, it was a tad breezy, so we went and looked at the fountains and got our feet wet, but that's it. I promised to return on a warmer day so we can run through the water.
The girls were a little disappointed that we didn't pack a picnic lunch. But I made up for that when I told them we were going to McDonald's for lunch. (Thank you Grandma and Grandpa P. for the gift cards). Each of the girls got to pick what she wanted.... Happy Meals with Shrek toys, of course. When they opened the boxes, three girls had Donkey. One had Rumplestiltskin (I think that's who it was). The cashier was happy to trade the troll for a fourth Donkey and help us eliminate arguments.
Then we went home and I agreed to let the girls go swimming. I figured if they were cold we would just leave. The pool was surprisingly crowded. We lasted about 20 minutes. When we came home I gave them each a small container of ice cream. Our grocery store has these cool little containers of Ben and Jerry's for $1 each. Then they ran through the sprinklers. They were so cold after that that they went straight to the bathtub.
Our night is winding down and everyone is appropriately exhausted. I would say our first ever celebration of Quadruplet Day was a success... and I challenge you to have a similar celebration with your own family, quads or not. It was definitely worth it!