Drew's birthday weekend

I am not sure who was more excited to celebrate Drew's birthday; him or his two older sisters. I think he was excited because they were so giddy. Drew was anticipating the arrival of his friend Zach more than anything and he knew Zach and Ally were coming over on his birthday. Our dear friend Lisa had called earlier that week and wanted to watch all seven of our kids plus her two so that Paul and I could have a date. A wonderful and brave lady indeed!! The older girls had vacation bible school this past week so Paul and I decided we would drop them off and have a morning date. Drew loved the attention of Ally and Zach and showed his dislike of having to share them with the babies by biting Zach. Oh why do kids have to be kids sometimes. Later when I asked him about this incident he buried his face in his hands and sobbed so hard he could not even talk to me. It is hard being three and the middle child at times. When we arrived home there was some serious cake eating to be done. And the amazing Lisa made Drew a spiderman cake and he was in heaven riding around on a major sugar high after one piece!

Birthday breakfast of cereal. The kid goes all out!

Photo bomb by sister

A couple days after his birthday after eating another piece of cake Drew exclaimed, "Lisa make me more cake." She has won the little boy over through his tummy!

We had originally planned to rent a beach house in Oregon for Drew's birthday but because we will be gone for my sister's wedding in two weeks we decided a day trip might just work best. We decided on the San Fransisco Zoo. Paul and I had never been and we knew it had to be better than the Sacramento Zoo and we were right. We became an exhibt loved seeing all the different animals and the grounds of the zoo were beautiful. We even got to see a baby giraffe, tiger and gorilla. If we had space in our backyard I would be looking on craigslist for a baby giraffe. They are such neat animals to watch. We spent about four hours at the zoo and then the kids started complaining about their feet hurting and we knew it was time to head out.

The start of having to take a picture in front of every animal statue

This snake was huge.

Paul and I are getting very use to having people complete a double take when they walk by us and for the most part we have gotten really use to it. It does become tiring but we know it is not every day one sees four babies all the same age. People thought it was cool when we had twins so add two more babies and everyone thinks you should have your own tv show. Being in San Fransisco was by far the most awkward experience we have had yet. I am not sure if it was because people in the city are very liberal and feel it is okay to speak their mind no matter what or if they felt that if you have quadruplets you have lost the sense of hearing. People were not rude to us directly. In fact very few even talked directly to us. Instead they made sure they made all of their comments to others loud enough so we could hear them. It was as if we were totally invisible and the stroller was being pushed by itself. It was a very strange experience. Much of the talk was about how we had three already and then added four more. The comments themselves were not even that bad it was just the fact the people wanted to make sure we heard them. I only had to push off block the babies from one lady who had never heard of personal space. We were eating lunch and a lady came up and first looked at the babies in the front of the stroller and then came around back and literally tried to push me away so she could get to the babies on the top. I looked at her and could have probably kissed her on the cheek because she was that close and told her we were eating lunch which she probably did not understand since she was not speaking English. She continued to touch the babies feet and this is when I stepped in and blocked any further contact. Bullet point for all my awesome readers: IT IS NOT OKAY TO TOUCH ANY PART OF A BABY WHO YOU DO NOT KNOW AND HAVE NOT ASKED THE PARENTS PERMISSION! After the zoo experience Paul and I have decided we are going to get two double umbrella strollers for trips like this so we can try and stay under the radar a little easier and it will also allow  the babies to all face forward.

Amazing colors

All but Kenzie took the opportunity for a snooze.

They at times really love each other.

Love the back space of our van.

After the zoo it was time for a picnic in the car. The babies needed some stretch/playtime. The older kids needed a snack because of course they were starving! Our next plan was to drive into the city and go have dinner and ice cream on Pier 39. For those who have never been to SF the pier is a huge tourist trap. Everyone who goes to the city goes there but there are a couple good restaurants and Ghirardeli Square is close which may just have the best ice cream sundaes every so that was the plan for the evening. Our plan did not even come close to what actually happened. Nothing went as planned and for a while I wanted to be as far away as possible from our van filled with seven kids. It started out just fine. Six of the seven quickly fell asleep after we left the zoo. Paul typed in Pier 39 on his phone and we were heading in the right direction until we realized his phone was taking us to the actual Pier 39. Like the industrial, worn down ship dock. Okay no big deal a little detour which allowed the kids to sleep longer. Next we put in Ghirardeli Square into the phone and things started looking a lot more familiar. Drew was the last to fall asleep but all of a sudden he started crying in a panic that he had to go to the bathroom. No problem we pulled over into a u-shaped drive way. Paul grabbed the kids toilet I had packed for this trip and I went to unbuckle Drew to realize he was panicked because he had peed his pants while sleeping. His car seat was soaked. His pants were soaked. His socks were soaked. And of course his mom did not pack a spare pair of pants because this boy had not had an accident in forever. No big deal we will just stop at an Old Navy which I knew was not to far away. Only 2.8 miles. We would be there in no time and be back at the pier. Yeah right. An HOUR later we finally had pants. Traffic was crazy and one car was getting though a light at a time because of all the pedestrians. When we were a half mile from Old Navy I got out of the car and hightailed it to Old Navy. Went up to the third floor and found a pair of 3t jeans and some socks, paid and was waiting at the street corner before Paul made it to me. Crazy. Reason #356 why I will never live in the city. So now we have three older kids that want out of the car along with two babies who are not liking our detour.We head back to the pier which thankfully does not take long to only find that there is no parking unless you want to pay $45 flat fee. We cannot justify that kind of money to park our car. I tell Paul we just need to leave. Time to head home and call it a day. The older kids are now having meltdowns because they are not going to see the ocean and have dinner. The babies are an hour past their normal dinner time so I whip out some food pouches I had and make my way into the back of the car to feed on the go and we head out of town. It has been almost two hours since Drew peed last in his car seat so guess who has to go again. Yup you guessed it. This time we pulled over in front of a fire hydrant and he was able to make it into the toilet I had brought for times like this. This is the moment that I wish I could have rubbed a genie and wished to be lying on a beach with the sun shining down on me and a book in hand with no kids in site. But I had no genie so I was stuck and having a mini meltdown of my own. So you think it can't get worse. Oh no it does because now we are trying to head out of town and guess what is starting...a Giant's baseball game. Traffic, Traffic and more Traffic. Finally after trying for 3 hours to get somewhere we got over the Bay Bridge and found a Black Bear Diner. How did my seafood dinner turn into a ham & cheese omelet? Thankfully after full belly's we got back into the car and made it home by 10:30 that night. All in all we had a great day. The kids remember the zoo and not the time spent frazzled in the car so we are calling it a success. Paul and I are really enjoying our adventures with the kids and have a couple more planned. The next time we hit San Fransisco it will be during the week when Paul takes a day off. The Lesnau's will not mix a Saturday and San Fransisco together for a long time!

All of the big kids are into posing for the camera...

but you do get some cute pictures out of them when they strike their poses.

A HUGE rhino...like 5,000lbs huge.

Drew you are now 3 and hopefully I get the 'Happy Birthday' banner and disco balls down before your fourth birthday but for now we are enjoying the new decor and loving that our little boy still thinks its his birthday every morning when he wakes up.

A real hippo...

and a fake hippo. Guess which one the kids liked better!

A dinosaur in a zoo? Okay sure.

Trying to stand like flamingos.