“When she buys me toys”
This is reminiscent of my Valentine’s Day card! But either way, totally heart melting 
I can look at this picture all day long and get continued pleasure from it!!! The hands, the smiles…ahhhh!
I’ve gotten 80% of my Mother’s Day goods from the kids already because they were so excited. I’m excited to get a little pampering on Sunday…think there’s any chance in hell of that happening!!?
Over the holidays I snapped the most beautiful photo that I had forgotten about until I recently rediscovered it.
My 3 children with their 4 grandparents…all together on Christmas Day. Now I know I’m going to hear about it for writing this, but each grown up in that picture is either already 80 years old or turning 80 within the next year or two….pretty amazing huh?
I’m so grateful my kids are so close to them all.
Do your children have special relationships with a grandparent or grandparents?
A few days ago the little one, who is an extreme lover of anything bunnies, excitedly thought about the approach of Easter and made a run around the house to gather all of her bunny ears. We had no idea she owns 57 pairs ( you don’t even want to know how many bunny stuffed animals lurk in her room ).
The kids spent a few cute minutes modeling each one. And I of course had to snap some photos. But this may be one of my all time favs ever because I love how my too cool little man can’t shake his giggles with the ears, little sis is laughing as she looks at him, and my big girl, always the cooperator, is perma smiling for yet another photo!
Whatever you celebrate, whatever you are doing, hope your day is happy and filled with family and love!
Little man had a St Patrick’s day play on Monday and I was so excited to go watch.
Here’s why…now that he and his twin are in the “big school” there aren’t many opportunities for parents to come to the class. Also, the kid is an introvert like me and was DREADING the whole thing which made me know it was going to be all that much cuter!
He complained that he was playing the role of the knight, but as far as I’m concerned it was the most awesome role in the entire play.
The play was called The Mystery of the Missing Pot of Gold, but other than the title as a clue, I had NO IDEA what was happening.
I do know that the little man was happy as can be when it was all over and he could tear off that itchy costume and dig into the cookies.
I cherished every moment with my shining star.
If you know me you know I’m really not a big fan of this Hallmark produced holiday.
However, the kids really seem to make old V Day extra sweet and today was no exception.
First I got to go to the little one’s class to help out with her Valentine’s craft. She was so excited to see me and I loved being able to spend time with her at her school.
Then when we got home she presented me with her amazing card.
I mean there is seriously NOTHING better than the cards the kids present with family portraits and messages. They are TO DIE FOR, as also evidenced by my son’s card.
Ironic that the mom who tries to live the healthy life and spread that message continually to her children is loved for candy and soda!
Hope you had a great Valentine’s Day too!
We had such a nice New Year’s Eve and Day. Once again the kids wanted “to party”, which we did, just the 5 of us.
My husband and I are so tired. We had some lovely offers to go to parties but we really just wanted to be home and relaxing. To my utter delight, the kids, for the first year, joined me in watching the Twilight Zone marathon. They were enthralled despite seeming to have no grasp on the plots.
I can’t believe another year has flown by. A very happy and healthy new year to you!
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. Albert Einstein
Another holiday tradition we have going on, thanks to my children’s fabulous aunt and cousin, is gingerbread house decorating. My sister-in-law and niece, for the past 5 years now, have invited the kids to partake in decorating their own houses as Christmas approaches. They absolutely love this event and harrass ask my sister-in-law about when it’s going to happen as soon as we enter December each year.
So even though it’s a bed of germs over here, with the little one still hacking post croup and my big guy dealing with PNEUMONIA (!!!) they came over prepared with all the necessary house fixings.
The kids had so much fun with all the types of candy for decorating with my son exclaiming, “I’m doing more decorating than eating!”
Then my daughter and husband tried to re-enact the little one a few years back trying to take a bite of her entire house (when I said she could have ONE PIECE of the house candy!).
The houses came out looking surprisingly awesome.
But all that work tired out the little one.
Feeling like I need a little strength to tackle the next couple of days with the kids…how about you?!
I cannot stop thinking about the horrific tragedy at Sandy Hook School.
I am, however, glad I filled the kids in because they all told me there was a lot of chatter about it at school today. My son’s teacher discussed it with the class. His twin’s teacher did not (my daughter did ask her teacher if she had heard the news ) nor did my kindergarteners. I guess the school admin left it up to the teachers. Either way the kids and I talked about it more today as they did homework.
Then it was time for my daughter to attend her brownie meeting, except today it’s a special event as the troop is going Christmas caroling. I fondly remember doing this as a brownie so I feel uplifted that my daughter is having such a fun experience with her friends. She was so excited to go!
She’s caroling as I write this, and I’m smiling as I think about it.
last photo as 6 year olds
I have to say that at this point in the year I usually feel a weight lifted off of me. When I am here it means I made it through the twins birthdays and their parties and their school parties and Thanksgiving (which I usually host). Don’t get me wrong…it’s all good stuff, but just loads of work, especially when you are a manic mom!
The first celebration was my sons. He wanted a party at a laser tag place and he wanted just boys…meaning not only didn’t he want his sisters to attend but he didn’t want his own mother there either!!! I told him he could invite who he wanted, all boys was cool, but that he will never have my permission to exclude his sisters (and mother!) and then blah blah went on about how important family is, etc…
And the party occurred in the midst of the post Hurricane power outages so I literally had only like one kid rsvp. But the little dudes had a good time running around like lunatics in the laser place. (only posting pics of my kids to respect privacy of the other kids)
twin battling twin
Had the singing and the cake and then the family shot where at least one person is always unhappy!
At the end of that week my daughter had her party….17 very high pitched girls running around my house for a spa party! I found a lovely spa lady who comes to the house and coordinates the activities…our theme was foot fun.
The girls seemed to really have a good time as they did some beauty things and gave themselves pedicures!
My ears were ringing that Friday night when the girls left and if I had any narcotics in the house I might have indulged! But my daughter said it was the best party ever so I’m thrilled. She even wanted to write a thank you note to the wonderful spa lady:
This year it was all pretty eventful because it was the first time they had completely separate parties. Past parties I’ve tried to get away with it by giving them separate but at the same time parties to make it easier…girls on one side and boys on the other with 2 cakes, 2 candle blow outs etc. But this year it was time to let them do it up individually…pretty monumental in the life of a twin!
On the actual birthday I brought treats into their school and got to visit both classes. I love doing that and jump on any chance to see them at school in action. That night it was the twins choice for dinner and they came up with a great idea, Japanese hibatchi.
The most favorite thing about going out to eat there is the notorious volcano!
They were also really excited to get their photo taken. Every customer celebrating a birthday gets a photo snapped during their special dessert. The photo is placed on a wall at the entrance where the kids always become enthralled with the sea of birthday faces.
So you can see between the hurricane and the birthday and thanksgiving we’ve had loads of excitement. It’s all been a great reminder about how fortunate I am to have these wonderful moments with my family.
There’s a nursery not far from us that puts on a big display for Halloween. My husband used to go as a boy to check out the central character, Otto the Ghost, and the kids love going every year. That is, except for my son, who lately, as he approaches the age of 7, is too cool for almost everything. You can see it on his face below.
But though he felt above it all he sure ran around the place like he was totally into it.
It’s a really fun time for them. There’s farm animals, fish tanks and tons of Halloween stuff to look it.
There’s also tons of Christmas stuff out too which is annoying…(let’s finish one holiday first!)
It was so cute hearing their comments about everything, like when my son said “who would ever want a skinny pumpkin!?”
Do you have any Halloween traditions?
