Visitors

We have been fortunate to have some good friends in town within the past week! Saturday my friends Christy and Jen came with Jen's boys Decovin (2 1/2) and Camden (6 months). I had SO much fun with them! We had lunch at Japan Express (Christy's favorite!) with Sam & Amy, then hung out at our place for the day. We had an impromptu purse party and got some adorable handbags and sunglasses...the kids swam in the little blow-up pool outside (thanks again for the air compressor, Dad--it was a lifesaver!!)...then Jen grilled dinner for us (tenderloin and grilled veggies--YUMMY!!). They are two of the most fun girls I know--I wish I would have taken more pictures, but all I took was of Sophie and Decovin in the pool. AND one of Sophie's waterlogged diaper...I SWORE I put a swim diaper on her, but alas....no...:

Today was the last day of Summer Play Day at church, so now the kids are stuck with me on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. It's going to challenge me to be as entertaining as the Summer Play Day staff, but I'm up for the challenge! We'll miss it--I know they've enjoyed it.

Today our friend Gina and her daughter Allison spent the afternoon with us--it was a great day! We ate lunch at Old Chicago (my all-time favorite), then hung out at our place while the kids napped. They are a blast to have around--I wish we lived closer so we could see them all the time. Gina is a great mom and is so comfortable around our kids--I felt like I could completely relax and visit while they were here. Awesome!!


Tonight is the Sneak Peek at Dream Dinners! We all get to make an entree to take home, and get a tour of the facility. I'm so excited! (Partly for the food, but mostly because of all the girls that will be there that I haven't seen in a while--I can't wait!!)

Speaking of food, this is what a 22-month old will do to an unopened package of graham crackers if she really wants it...if I hadn't caught her red-handed, I would have thought we had mice....

Tea and Teeth

Hello again! Sorry it's been a while!

My brothers had a guinnea pig when I was little, and I was petting it through the cage wire when it bit me on the finger. I will never forget how sharp those little teeth were, or how bad my finger hurt and bled...I'm still cautious around rodent-like pets. I told you that story to tell you this: GRAHAM HAS THE SHARPEST TEETH I'VE EVER FELT IN MY LIFE. Sharper than the guinnea pig, I swear. 90% of the time he kisses, 10% of the time he bites. As his mother, I think this is an acceptable ratio...I'll take my chances. If I didn't, I'd miss out on the kisses, right?! His father, however, does not share in such riskiness...he won't let that kid's mouth anywhere near him. Poor Graham, he tries to snuggle up to Brent and he practically gets catapulted into an outward-facing football hold! A few days ago, Graham got a particularly good chomp in on my shoulder--through my clothes he still managed to make me bleed. That night, Brent tells me I sat up in bed, turned the light on, and said "Get him out of here! Graham's biting me!" Aren't dreams crazy?!

Last Saturday I went to high tea with Melissa and Shelly. We had so much fun! Melissa's friend Jancy was there, too, and we were lucky to get to sit with her. It started with a shortbread cookie and delicious chilled berry soup, then came the savory plate of spinach balls (sooo much better than they sound), chicken salad sandwich, quiche, and a scone with lemon curd and cream. The final course was a plate of desserts that included a toffee bar, lemon bar, raspberry bar and an oreo truffle-type ball. FAB-U-LOUS!!!!! Here are some pictures:


Sophie was wanting a nectarine this afternoon (which she called "apple"--anything round apparently is an apple!), and she was sitting on the kitchen floor eating it. Blake rounded the corner and you could see in his eyes that he wanted that nectarine. The following pictures are the events that followed--you can see that she keeps scooting backwards toward the dining room trying to get away from him. He practically steamrolled her trying to pry it out of her hands.

New haircuts!

Kelly came over today and helped me give the boys a haircut. My plan was to use the electric clippers/razor, but their hair was way too fine for that--I ended up cutting it with scissors. EEK!! I made the first cut and looked at Kelly with terror in my eyes--I thought for sure I was going to mess it up and we'd be going to the barber shop to fix it. It went better than I expected, though (in my humble opinion)! The first two are Blake's before and after (he was the first one I cut, so it took longer...he was mad at Kelly and I by the time it was all over!), the second two are Graham's before and after, and the last one is both of them together after their haircuts.



Not too bad for a beginning stylist, don't you think?!

Bathtime and Shenanigans

I'm lucky to spend a lot of time with Jessica and Elly when our husbands are working evenings, except that Jess is an awesome cook and I feel like I'm getting fatter by the minute. When Brent is working I spend a lot of time alone with the kids, so it's nice to have the company!! If anyone wants to join in on the fun, COME ON OVER! I'm almost always around, and if you don't mind the noise and the mess, I'd love to have you! :-) The more the merrier!

These pictures are from this week--the girls thought they needed to help me give the boys a bath! Don't they look helpful?!


The boys woke up from their naps the other day, and I could hear them on the monitor "talking" to each other and laughing--not just a giggle, but a full belly laugh. When I went in, I saw Graham standing in his crib with his arms in Blake's crib. Blake was pulling on his crib toy with all his might, and I saw that Graham had untied it! Aren't they mischievous?! Look closely at the third picture--can you see Graham's eyes peeking through the slats of the crib??


I have to admit, the first several months with the boys was more work than fun. Don't get me wrong, we really enjoyed them during those first several months, but sleep deprivation and lack of a routine made it a LOT of work. Now we're getting to the stage where they're mobile and expressive, and I'll tell you...THIS TWIN THING IS FUN STUFF!! We spend a lot of time laughing at their expressions and activities these days. Sophie thinks they're a riot until they crawl on her and pin her down...then she loses all humor about it!

Jess and I spent the day at fabric stores (we're taking a sewing class starting next week), and took the kids to McDonalds for lunch and play. We picked out cute patterns of outfits to make for the girls...and now I feel like I'm heading to home ec class! We met our teacher today, and she was wearing a polyester suit (handmade, I'm sure) and had her hair in a bun. One of her first questions to us was "Who's watching the kids? Dad, I hope?" Jess told her we'd be bringing them to class with us, and I think the lady is more than a little fearful that she was serious! I offered to bring wine, too, and I think she wanted to faint. Hee hee!! She's totally wishing she was charging us more--we might be the first two students to get expelled...I'll keep you posted.

BLAKE HAS A TOOTH!!!

NEWS FLASH! Blake finally has a tooth!! It's one of his bottom front teeth, and his second bottom front one is close behind it. Hooray for Blake!

Also, I revised the pie recipe on a previous post. I made it last night and made some adjustments to the recipe. I used pink lemonade and it was so good!

Monday night I joined some girls at Dream Dinners to make frozen meals. The concept is to go in once or twice a month and make entrees for your freezer. Since our frozen supper club couldn't meet this month, my freezer needed stocked up! They have stations set up with all of the ingredients for your entree. When you're finished making one, you move to the next station. I made 12 entrees (each with 3 servings) in 2 hours!! I loved the concept, and can't wait to try out the meals. A great thing is the meals are put into bags instead of pans, so 12 meals took up a small portion of my freezer.

I loved it so much that I booked a Sneak Peek for July 31st at 7pm. A sneak peek is a mini open house for them and it's free for us to attend. They tell us about their company and how the menu plan works, then everyone gets to make a 6-serving entree to take home for your family to try--for FREE! If you're interested in going, let me know! If you like it, I'm planning to book a session in early August for us to go back and make our meals. Plus, we can take wine and snacks in with us, so we could make a true party out of this! :-)

Mischief

The boys found my card basket and scattered cards EVERYWHERE--Graham fled the scene when I ran to get my camera, leaving Blake to look like the guilty party. Somehow I think this won't be the last time Graham will try to pin his brother for something??

All 3 of them were looking out the window in our bedroom yesterday morning. Graham found it first and pulled himself up to a standing position--this window is the perfect height for them!

Here are the boys working on Sophie's potty chair. They had pulled it away from the wall and were inspecting it. Teamwork!

Here is the difference in how they look after a meal. See how clean Graham is? Almost NO food gets past that kid's mouth. Blake, on the other hand, spends a lot of time spitting it out...inspecting it...grabbing at the spoon...and blowing raspberries with a full mouth. Usually I have to strip him down while he's still in his seat and get him washed off!

4th of July festivities

We hope everyone had a great 4th! We started out the day with our neighborhood parade. A fire truck led us from one of the neighborhood entrances to the neighborhood pool. We all got popsicles and everyone "won" prizes (I chose one for our kids to share--a set of bubbles!). There were a ton of kids, at least 60! Such a great turnout! Brent and I wondered if it was due to the "staycation" trend of everyone vacationing close to home due to economy/fuel costs? I'm taking over the role of "recreation chair" for our neighborhood association, so next year the parade will be one of my jobs. How fun!



Our friend Charlcie gave the boys outfits that say "Little Firecracker" on them, and Aunt Kris gave the kids ballcaps. Here are a couple of pictures of the kids in their new duds! (Graham was trying to crawl away, and I think Sophie was holding him there--see her hand on his foot??) The first picture was taken at church on Thursday--they have the neatest displays each year for the 4th of July, and (of course) I had to dress the kids up for Summer Play Day!

We hosted some of the neighbors here for dinner (we got off with the easy part--we just fixed hamburgers, and our neighbors brought over the most amazing side dishes!), then we sat in our cul-de-sac and watched the fireworks going off around us. You'd think we were at a professional display--it was unbelievable! Someone said that one of the men in our neighborhood does fireworks displays for a living, and I can believe it.

Here's a recipe for one of the great dishes we had last night--so tart and sooooo good:

Lemonade (Limeade) Pie

1 (12 ounce) can lemonade (or limeade) concentrate, keep slushy

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk (chill in fridge first)
2 (8 ounce) containers frozen whipped topping, thawed completely

2-3 drops food coloring (if desired)...green for limeade, yellow for lemonade, red for pink lemonade
2 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crusts

Fold first four ingredients together. Spoon into crust and freeze for several hours (24 hours is best) before serving.

Hello Kitty dress

Here are a couple of pictures of Sophie in the Hello Kitty dress I made her! Her daddy was tickling her, so that's the arm you see in the picture. :-) This was my second sewing project (my first were the outfits for Sophie and her cousins)--it was fun to make! Now I'm on the search for some antique/vintage pillowcases that have pretty embroidery or lace to make the next pillowcase dress out of. If you run across something, let me know! You know how I love garage sales...I'll be watching for pillowcases!

Tonight was the last night of swimming class for the kids. I took Blake tonight, and he loved it. I didn't sign them up for the next class, since each week was the same as the week before. We can do it by ourselves until they're ready to move to the next level. Sophie did NOT want to stay in the daycare tonight, though--she's going through a real separation anxiety stage right now. Poor thing!!