5 years old.

I can't believe it. 5 years old. 5 years ago we weren't even sure we'd have one of our triplets alive today. Levi and Vivian are doing amazingly well!

Their birthday party was a blast! I made the volcano and Megan and her friend Kenzie made the lava, which ended up being a smaller than expected explosion, but fun nonetheless. Levi and Vivian helped make dinosaur footprints on the walkway to the house, and Megan and Kenzie decorated the house. Levi, true to form and just like he planned, put his face in the cake before anyone got a piece, glad to get that on tape! LOL! Before the party the babies (oh shit... not babies I guess, when will I stop looking at them that way?) let balloons go to heaven.

Thank God for Trina. Once again she came to my rescue. I couldn't get all the errands done before the party, so if it weren't for her we would have had no red for the lava and no candles...

The kids at their party seemed to really like the roller coaster in the back yard and the train table in the playroom. I was surprised not so many kids seemed to like the bounce house. Levi and Vivian love it, and it's nice to have for those bored days... It was so much fun to have so many kids running around the house!

There are a lot of questions this year about Eric. From Vivian especially. She wants to know a lot about him. Why he died. Why she didn't die. Where is he. Will he be alive when they get older. Can we go visit him in heaven. Does he have school in heaven...

5 years ago I was a REAL mom of triplets. Yes. I know. I am a triplet mom. I know. But people only SEE two. "Are they twins?" "No, triplets, identical boys and Vivian was our bonus." "But I only see two..." "Yeah, only two here today." Then Levi will inevitably pipe in; "We're surviving triplets."

5 years ago we still had all three.

I hate the cemetery. They weed-eat every year, invariably right before their birthday. Makes Eric's grave look like shit. Takes the grass around it down to dirt. This year I had planted grass in the bare dirt I always keep around his stone. It wouldv'e looked really nice for his birthday. They weed eated DAYS before their birthday and took all the nice new grass down to solid dirt.

Matt played his first soccer game this year the day of the birthday party. It was hard on him. Looked like his body was pretty sore, but he did it. I was proud of him. He did so good. He's got 5 more games before regionals. Sounds like the team's doing pretty good this year. I'm actually looking forward to a few practices and maybe even some runs with Matt... It'll be fun to kick the ball around with him and Levi toether.