Happy Halloween!

Not that the picture turned out all that great, but these are the girls' Halloween pumpkins. The one in the back of the picture is a Teddy Bear holding a carved pumpkin and the one in the front is a kitty sitting on the moon. Tonight is the first time the girls have seen their pumpkins both carved and lite up, needless to say they loved them!! Here is a picture of them checking out the light inside:





As you can see, the girls were lady bugs for Halloween (like in my previous posts). Have I mentioned how much they LOVE these outfits ... especially Alyssa who wants to never take it off. They are very warm outfits almost like a winter jacket and fleece pants, so wearing them all day long in doors makes them get overheated and sweat like it is 90 degrees out and July rather than 50-60 and October. At any rate, we really did not go trick-or-treating this year, except to Granny M's apartment building where they got a goody bag of puff corn and teddy grahams from Granny and then over to Grandma & Grandpa's house where they got enough loot to make up for not officially trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. We also attended our little friend's (Grace) party across the street. There were lots of neighborhood kids there, but we only stayed about 45 minutes before Alyssa decided it was time to leave. She was frightened by a fog machine making fog and noise in the garage.

All in all, I think the had a good Halloween, but I am sure they will love it next year when they actually officially go trick-or-treating for the first time!

Hoping everyone had Happy Hautings for Halloween 2007!


Love & Hugs -

Amy

Ladybugs in the Classroom!!

The girls had a Halloween Party at their "school" today. Basically it was a normal day other than the fact that all the kids wore their Halloween costumes and exchanged treats in their respective school box units. Everyone was super cute. We attempted to get a group photo, but only about half would sit long enough to be in the picture ... as you can see one ladybug already flew away and the other one was on her way out:

The morning was filled with lots of crafts and activities in the color orange, fall and lots of pumpkins! The girls had fun painting, gluing and filling paper pumpkins with yellow yarn and real pumpkin seeds to make the insides like real pumpkins. One station was set up with real pumpkins that were cut open so the kids could squish the insides!!

Now we just have to carve our pumpkins at home today and then tomorrow we have our last Halloween party to attend at Grace's house across the street before we head over to Granny M's and Grandma & Grandpa B's houses to trick-or-treat!

Happy Day Before Halloween Everyone!

Love & Hugs -

Amy

Harvest Hoopla!!!

Tonight was the ECFE (Early Childhood & Family Education) Harvest Hoopla which included dinner, dancing, games, prizes and best of all ... eating ice cream while dressed up as two very cute lady bugs and one adorable lion!!

Yes, it is the first of the Halloween activities over the next five days for the kids. Tammy and Chrisitian decided to drive on over our direction and join us at the Hoopla. We decided to skip the taco dinner at the hoopla and instead opted to have pasta at our house before getting dressed up and then head over to the party. After eating and getting our little bugs and lion dressed, we let the kids get use to their outfits and run around the yard for a few minutes while we attempted to get pictures ... again, I say attempted. Two 2-year-old lady bugs and one 18-month-old lion are hard to keep in one frame, but we did manage to get a shot or two:

After our photo session, we loaded the kiddos up and headed to the party. The girls got to see all of their teachers and were especially happy to see Miss Alyssa. The girls and Christian had a fun time running around the gym in the dark and dancing with all the other kids, although it is hard to keep track of two black and red ladybugs in a dark room we found out!

After dancing for a while, we went and checked out the other gym which was full of fun games to play. The kids had a great time in there and we had a hard time getting the plastic golf clubs away from the three of them! The kids all won lots of little prizes, many of which are now safely tucked away with the girls in their crib for the night. The spider ring is now a prized possession of Miss Madison and Miss Alyssa has taken a liking to a small foam bat and shinny pumpkin money!

Also in the game room, there was an inflatable obstacle course that Miss Madison just had to try. Miss Alyssa thought she wanted to also, but upon removing her shoes and finding out she had to crawl though a small hole, she promptly said "No, No, Nooooo" and walked away leaving mommy standing there holding her shoes. Here is Miss Madison going through the course:

Finally, we took a break after the game playing to enjoy a vanilla sundae with chocolate syrup and Halloween sprinkles ... yummy!!!

With one final run around the dance room and quick inspection of the lobby area, we decided to call it a night and take our tired little bugs and lion home to bed ...

Until next time ...

Love & Hugs

Amy

The Pumpkin Patch 2007

Today mommy, daddy and the girls met Tammy, Chris and Christian at Cal's Pumpkin Patch to get our Halloween pumpkins! Despite being such a windy day, we managed to have a little fun while there.

Our first stop was to fed and pet the goats. Christian was a champion goat feeder and loved every minute of it. Madison had good intentions, but basically just stuck her hand in the fence and dumped the feed onto the ground. Alyssa, however, stayed back with daddy and didn't really want to have anything to do with feeding the goats.


After feeding the goats, Tammy, Christian, Madison and myself decided to walk through the inflatable haunted house. Miss Madison and mommy only made it past one inflatable ghost before the inflatable spider sent us running for an emergency exit. Once again, Alyssa opted to wait with daddy. Since the haunted house was not such a success (Christian made a fast exit too), we then headed to the hay bale maze where Christian and Madison had a great time running through the maze and the tunnels. Daddy once again kept Alyssa company off to the side after a short ride on his shoulders:




Finally, we made our way to the pumpkins. Alyssa took the reins and pulled her sister through the patch in a wagon. We had a minor accident at one point when Madison took a tumble out and landed on the pavement, but otherwise all went well. We managed to find a pumpkin for each girl before heading out to dinner.

We finished out the afternoon with dinner at BW3 for some chicken and smiley face fries ... yummy!! All in all, a very fun afternoon!!

Love & Hugs -

Amy

A Visit with Heather, Tiana & Sophia

The girls had visitors today! Mommy and the girls got to spend a few hours today with mommies good friend, Heather, had her two daughters, Tiana and Sophia. They came down to bring the girls' their birthday present and to have a little lunch with us.

The girls just adored Tiana and loved playing with her. They were also really intrigued by Sophia, who is about six months old. They do not get to have "babies" around them very often, so I think they thought she was like a toy that moved, babbled and cried. Madison especially liked to repeatedly wave in her face and say hi over and over and over again ... it was cute!

We tried to get a picture of the four girls together, but alas Heather got to experience my woes of the cosmic inability to wrangle two 2-year-olds into a single picture frame ... it is utterly impossible ... good grief.

So, I am going to post a couple pictures I took of our visitors:

Tiana & Sophia:

Sophia:

Love & Hugs -

Amy

The Great Bunny Exchange

Old Bunnies:

New Bunnies:

Well, after nearly a year of scouring through E-Bay postings and posting her own "item wanted" post, Grandma B was successful at obtaining the second replacement bunny. With her prize in hand, Grandma B came over today to babysit while mommy worked. After she arrived, she very cautiously placed two new 2005 Carter's Pink & White Fleece Bunny Blankets on the washing machine.

Mommy then announced that the girls' bunny blankets needed bathes and that they needed to get their boo-boos fixed (the shredded ear linings). Reluctantly and with some protest, they handed over the bunnies and mommy promptly put them in the washing machine with the two new bunnies. So far so good!

About 90 minutes later, mommy went back into the laundry room and removed the two new bunnies from the dryer (leaving behind the hopefully soon to be retired set). Upon returning to the girls, mommy announced that the bunnies where clean, dry and all fixed up! The girls were excited and came running.

Madison took her bunny without much thought, then noticed that the ears were fixed. Mommy and Grandma said that the bunnies boo-boo's were all better now. That was good enough for Maddie and she promptly started caressing her face and nose with the satin bunny ear, demonstrating how the other four ears were eventually shredded.

Next Alyssa eagerly took her bunny, initially excited and then, always my little thinker, questioningly started stroking the new very soft and fluffy blanket with a doubtful look on her face which she shared with mommy ... like what are you trying to pull mommy?!! Mommy panicked internally for a moment after all, the old bunnies fleece was matted flat and pilled beyond belief ... what could I possibly say that would be accetable to a 2 year old ... and then I calmly said, that the bath made the bunny all soft and fluffy (not to mention actually pink and white instead of gray and grayer) ... with a nod of agreement and a flash of smile she snuggled her bunny in acceptance.

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, this pretty much sums it up:

Before heading off to bed, Alyssa paused to stroke the bunny again while looking at me. Mommy said that sure is a clean bunny from the bath ... she smiled an extra large smile and nodded in head in agreement.

Whew ... we did it!! We couldn't have done it without Grandma's hard work and persistence. Hopefully someday the girls will understand that our deception was for their own good and hopefully these new bunnies will carry them until they turn 4 ... before we have to panic again.

Now, as I sit here alone snuggling the old now retired bunnies, I feel said for them ... I think I have watched Toy Story too many times lately or something ... Maybe they will like sleeping with mommy just as well ...

Love & Hugs -
Amy

The 2 Year Professional Portraits

Well, they are what they are. I found out that even a professional cannot always get two 2-year-olds to stay in the same frame long enough to get a decent picture. I am beginning to think I take better pictures on my own ...

At any rate, here are the girls 2-year pictures:

Alyssa:

Madison:

And finally, the dreaded together picture. Honestly, we struggled with the girls for a good 15 stressful minutes trying to get a picture and this is the best we could do, so here is our 2-year-old pumpkin, three lady bugs (enjoying a snack of pumpkin) and finally two girls ... good grief:

Love & Hugs -

Amy

2 Year Well Child Check Ups

Today the girls saw our family doctor for their 2 year well child check ups. They are both doing beautifully. We discussed their speech development concerns and our doctor still feels that they are communicating well and interacting well with each other and that the speech will continue to get better and better. We agreed to give it a little more time and then if we are not seeing steady improvement, we will be referred to "Capable Kids" for a speech evaluation and to begin therapy if needed.

We also discussed Alyssa's eating habits, or lack there of, and he said to keep doing what we are doing and eventually she will eat more things. He did suggest offering her the previous meal leftovers at snack time rather than an actual "snack" item. Maybe we will give that a try, although with two it is hard to give two different things and I hate to make Madison have to re-eat a meal just because her sister is being picky. This is one of the the hard things with twins.

They are growing like weeds as always:

Alyssa is now 37" tall (94 cm) and 29 pounds (13.15 kg)

Madison is now 35" tall (88.9 cm) and 24 pounds, 8 ounces ( 11.11 kg)

They both received their last Proquad vaccination (a combination of four vaccines in one). We had an extra nurse come in the room so that the girls could be given their shots at the same time. I am amazed to say that not only did either girl make any noise, but there were no tears. We just got dressed and went on our way ... they handled the shots like true champions!

So, unless we have continued concerns about their speech or dietary habits, we do not need to be seen again until age 3 other than illness or injuries prior to that time.

Love & Hugs -

Amy