It's Potty Time!

I didn't have the time or the resources to "go all out" for this but I think it turned out quite lovely : )

I made invitations but mostly just for fun since I think I only passed out 2 : )

It was supposed to rain so we started off inside but quickly took it out side when the weather turned for the better

I made this bad boy from scratch (no box mixes or canned frosting), I started early because it was the trickiest thing I had to make that day. I set the cakes outside to cool (like I did my practice cake), and two hours before the party was set to start I went out to get my cakes and start frosting them. Only to find that my cakes were destroyed by stupid crows! I ran to the grocery store for more ingredients and whipped up another one! I mostly wanted the potty cake for the novelty since I also made plenty of cupcakes just in case my cake was a bust, it was close!

My buttermilk vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting!
Yes, I'm not a chocolate girl, I'll pick vanilla over chocolate any day : )

Party Time! The boys loved getting bonked over the head by Oscar

I let the boys pig out on cupcakes, I figured since I made them from scratch that they're not all bad : )

Eli's cake face

Caleb

Our cute little guests : )

The dirty stairwell was just so much fun!

We played a couple of games, first was a frog hunt and then pin the tail on the donkey. The frog hunt was a bit of a bust since they didn't quite get the concept (except for Oz).

Pin the tail on the donkey went a little better but still I think they are a bit young for this : )

Prizes!

Checking out their prizes : )

Caleb taking a break from the frog hunt (I told you they didn't "get it!")

It was quite the challenge to get everything ready by noon, like I told you, I had to make a second cake but also in the process of making it I burnt my beans! I had Phil run to the store 30 min before the party to buy cans of beans because there was no time to start from scratch! Anyways, we had a yummy lunch of bbq'ed chicken, mex rice, beans, and homemade roasted salsa. It was quite handy to have our out of town friends visiting because they helped out a lot, they bbq'ed the chicken and blew up balloons among other things, hats off to them : ) The boys had a blast playing and pigging out on cupcakes, we even let them skip their nap. They were fine till about 7 pm and then started having melt downs from being so tired, it was nice for us because we put them to bed early, ha! 

I should also update you on the boys potty trained status, I had been steadily seeing less and less accidents before our trip to California, they weren't having very many at all really. I definitely saw some regression when we went on vacation to California, I don't recommend big trips soon after potty training (we had already planned this trip before I even thought to try potty training). It took a little while after we got back, but all the boys are now doing better then before we left. Eli has the most accidents, maybe one every other day and its usually when he's having a lot of fun and doesn't want to stop what he's doing to go to the bathroom. Thomas has maybe one a week. Caleb doesn't have accidents, I can't remember the last one he had, it's been weeks, in Cali he had maybe one max! They all don't stay dry at night but that's still a bonus in my book, I don't really care, it'll happen someday but until then I'm working on eliminating the cost of disposable pull ups. 

Let's face it pull ups are pretty much diapers only more expensive, the cheapest I've found are 26 cents each but they average about 30 cents a piece. That's almost $1/day for us or $2/day if we also used them at nap time. We switched over to them because I told the boys that diapers where for babies and that the pull ups were night time underwear. They go on like underwear and are easier to put on than traditional diapers. I also figured the pull ups would buy some time while I researched cloth diaper pull ups. I still feel strongly that one of the reasons my boys potty trained so early (for American standards anyways) was that they always wore cloth diapers. Since pull ups, like diapers, suck away moisture I wonder if they are doing the boys a disfavor in not letting them feel wet and thus no connection in the brain is being made to stop this. Maybe it's developmental and it will happen when it will happen but since we can't say for sure it's definitely a variable that I would like to eliminate. 

My SIL introduced me to Bummis Training Pants:

which I like and are perfect for nap time but don't have enough absorbency to go all night. Also, if you have a poopy accident there is no clean way to take them off, if it's not real solid it will probably smear all over their legs as you take them off. A plus, they are on the cheaper side ($11-13 each) and since our poopy accident's are few I'm willing to invest in a few of these for nap time. But for night time I found Kissa's Training Pants an excellent fit for what I need. It has snaps so a poopy accident is easier to clean, and two snaps to accommodate growth and elastic in the back that makes it easy to pull on and off like underwear.  

These are essentially a pocket cloth diaper (like the all in ones), the 2T runs in between a medium and a large cloth diaper cover (so this might be a better buy than buying a large all in one if your kid is close to potty training). It comes with a layer that can absorb (which for us, sadly isn't quite enough for nap time) but you can buy a separate insert to add enough absorbency to go all night (it goes in the pocket so it stays in place)! I bought Thirsties Hemp Inserts which I also recommend. Cloth diaper pull ups/training pants for triplets is quite the pricey investment, $15 each plus $4 for one insert (so about $19 each), but I think it will pay for it's self before long! Better for your wallet, better for your kid (no chemicals and they will feel wet), and better for the environment! It's a win win in my book : )