Speaking of Toys...

We are a little behind on getting thank you cards done. And behind on a few other things. Soon! Above the boys are opening their gifts from their buddy Baby Aidan, in Arizona.

And yes, that was chocolate on their faces. It was birthday!

Toys

At some point last fall, I can't remember exactly when, I reorganized the boys room while they were at Nana's house. We got one of these inexpensive, but somewhat cute, storage systems. We got a set a little smaller than the links shows, and it's blue instead of pink. Though pink would have been OK with either boy, it's their favorite color. Really. It lives in their closet. It's really more accurate to say its crammed into their tiny closet along with a thousand other things, including some really cool vintage clothes from Grandma Ellerman's closet.

But, right after Christmas our house was overflowing with toys and I knew we needed to edit the toy collection. I tried to edit the collection when we got the storage system, for every toy I considered getting rid of I could also imagine a scenario wherein the boys might want to play with that toy. It's hard to get rid of toys, I've decided. And I'm pretty good at getting rid of stuff. Just ask Keith where his fleece with the holes, the holey t-shirt or that throw pillow he loved so much but smelled like Elvis is now. 

So, with the boys at Nana's again, I pulled all the toys out of the bins. Here is a small view of what was scattered on the floor. 

Then the sorting began. Small things that fly went into one bin. I was almost done finding all the small airplanes when I remembered that Cole likes to hoard things, so I pulled back his covers and found 3 more little airplanes. He likes to take a toy to bed with him, and that really isn't a big deal, but usually you'll find him 30 minutes later, still awake, "flying" the airplane through the sky. So we made a deal that he can take the toy to bed, but he must lay down and the airplane must be under the covers next to him. And this is how several airplanes were in his bed. I also found 2 books, one of Grady's stuffed animals, a spoon, and one of my hair rubber bands. 

In the next bin went little people, other characters like Oso, sesame street characters and little animals. Basically anything not transportation related.

Another small bin got their "electronics". Yes, we let them play with our old cordless phones. 

And into a large ziplock went a decision I still regret. We have these little balls scattered throughout the house. Under armoire's, under the couch, behind pieces of furniture. They are from several different toys the boys had when they were younger, and we've donated most of those toys, but some balls stayed behind. And as I was organizing the toys I kept putting the balls into the ziplock, and then finally had to decide what to do with the bag. Here is how my thinking went:


 Uggh. These balls. Who gives a gift with small hard balls to toddlers? Must remember so i can retaliate when their kids have bdays. Keep or toss?


Toss. Definitely toss. These babies are hard and G does love to launch it across the room.


But...maybe the boys will want to play outside with them? Yes. Keep. Definitely keep. They'll be good children and only play outside with them.


Who am i kidding, they won't. There will be 10 balls all over the house, I'll get hit in the face, and one of my pottery pieces will get broken. Or a window. Or a brother's face.


Toss.


And I really was going to toss them, except we were having date night that same night since the boys were at Nana's, and then it time to get ready, and I stuck the bag of balls somewhere. You know, with the intention of coming back and throwing them away the next day before the boys were back. 


Only, I did not do that and naturally, the first thing the boys played with was....the bag of balls. So come visit us and you will find a yellow ball in the living room, the bright red ball next to Cole's placemat, the turqoise in the bathtub, and who knows where the rest are. Damn balls. 


I will say that the little blue soccer ball did make its way outside. It gets played with a lot, but is not missing in a big shrub. 

Partying With 3 year olds

Turns out when I take a break from blogging, I turn to food. So 4 unnecessary Ritz crackers and two slices of cheese later, let's get back to chatting, shall we? It's been way too long. Let's get on with it. 


So, that birthday party went by in a blur. Seriously. One minute I'm making Mickey shaped invites with weeks to go, next thing we're cleaning little hand frosting shapes off the sliding glass door amidst a pile of wrapping paper and new toys. That's pretty much what all of life feels like, so I'm bummed it's taking me this long to document more of the moments. Let's hope I recall the good stuff.


I want to preface the post by saying that Keith took most of the pictures at the party. I don't want to give the guy a hard time, he takes some good pictures, but they're not of the things I noticed at the party, and that makes it hard to share my thoughts with you. So I'll share real pictures, and my mental pictures. Not sure what a mental picture is? Let our favorite couple from The Office tell you: 



K. Ready? 


Mental Image: Very excited Grady and Cole waiting for "our fwiends" to arrive at the door. 


And their friends did arrive and we all dove into our craft, which was decorating our capes. Mena is so stylish. 

Our good friend Justin dove right in with the kids. Grady wanted to make sure he got the stamp on the cape, notice the two handed press. Adam from Camp Keller in the background, and Alex, Mena's twin on the right. Yes, naturally we have lots of twin friends. 


Mental Image: So many of the little ones getting more excited about the shapes of the stamps than the actual stamping process. OOOOH. Bugs! Oooooh. Aminals!

Camp Keller's girl, Amanda, helps Cole sport his cape. I was really surprised by his color choice.


Mental snapshot: Cole picking up every stamp and yelling very excitedly what the shape was, "oooooh, CATTTAPILLA!", then "ooooooh, wadybug!", "oooohhhh, zeba!". 

My buddy, baby Alex, who really is now big brother Alex, was too cool for these capes.


Mental Snapshot I wish I had: A shoulder hug from Alex. He's just too much of a big boy for that sort of cuddling, you know. Sadness.

Grady tried on the cape. 


Mental snapshot: Several kids, and perhaps a parent, running with their capes and their hands stretched out in front of them, like Superman.

Several of the kids, after a few minutes, did not want their capes and insisted the parents wear them. Cole was one of the kids, I was one of the parents. I look good in green, so it was OK. 

And here is another twin friend, Morgan. Her poor brother was sick and couldn't make it. Don't worry, Mason, we'll have some fun tomorrow when you come to play. 

Mental Snaphot from several weeks ago when we watched the double M's: Mason tugging on my leg (after eating a plateful of mashed potatoes, carrots and meatballs that would satisfy a high schooler), and asking for "dinnah".


Me: "You just ate a whole plate of food"
Mason: Blank Stare, then "I want dinnah." with a look that said, FEEED ME! Must be a growth spurt. 


Anyway, here is his gorgeous momma and sister. Can't wait to spend some time with a little girl this weekend! 

Another Fwiend is Harper, below. She's checking out the stamps and ink pads, and was likely trying to make a cape for her little brother. Not sure. 

Adam is such a good sport, he wore his crown for the longest time.


Mental Snapshot: Little Piper's littler sister Gracie is rough with these hats. I was standing in one spot stapling hats together, and every few minutes Piper would bring Gracie's hat back to get fixed. I'm not sure what Gracie was doing with that hat, but seeing the look on Piper's face when she brought the torn hat back was priceless. She didn't say it, but I could tell she was thinking "I can't explain how I'm related to that paper hat assassin". Haven't we all felt that way about family at some point?

Next up was scavenger hunt. the kids were searching for the birthday candles that mysteriously "disappeared". They had clues to follow and that turned into them mostly running back and forth. Some of the kids "got it" and were excited to find the candles, some just ran back and forth with the rest of the group. Still fun.


The group arrives for another clue. 

Then  runs back that way! Follow Keith and Adam, everybody.

And now back this way. Note Cole's excellent running form, he's the blue striped shirt on the far right. No, not gray and white, that's Keith. The little dude one over. 

Closing in on the location of the candles...

Does Melissa and baby Kate have the candles? Maybe so. Or maybe not. 

And then all of the sudden the candles were found, which meant we needed to get some cake eaten, or risk a mutiny. 

Mickey cupcakes for the little dudes.

Followed by quality backyard playing by all. 

And as quickly as it came, the party was over. Aunt Angela and gang lingered a bit so the cousins could play. Cousin Logan opted to sleep.

But woke up a little later to chill with Uncle Keith. 

And the three older cousins posed for a photo. Seriously, this is the best picture of the Three Banditos I could get. Sorry, GG.

Uncle Keith and two nephews.

And some kisses for Baby Wogan. A perfect ending to a great party. 

Nothing to See Here

No really. Nothing here. I'm taking a short break from the blog because I'm tired, preoccupied with work, and just not feeling the need to blog. From time to time something crosses my mind and I think its blog-worthy, but by the time we get the boys to bed, I'm just want to get to bed. I'm not complaining, just recognizing that I need to rest and get back to normal before I spend time blogging. 


Oh, if you're a twin-mom, and you've been hearing, "oh, it gets so easy once they turn 3" for three years, rest assured that it's true. They are easier. Less pissy and more happy. And way, way, way more active during the day. Wow. 


Can't resist a quick pic from the party. 

BellyMomma's Birthday

Today we wish a happy birthday to this little lady, all grown up.

I have a coworker who insists that a person should thank their mother on their birthdays, so let's all thank Nana and Oupa for raising such a wonderful daughter who is loving, caring and selfless enough to grow me some good looking babies. I know, for a second you thought the wonderful daughter was me, right? I figured that. I'm pretty awesome.

Nana rocks a hat, no? Almost as stylish as Oupa's hairdo. Karen is the glowing happy kid, and I'm the fat cheeked sleeping baby.

Naturally I take credit for some of Karen's patience. We younger children invade the older's lives and send our siblings though a bootcamp of making them share toys and attention, and mostly that makes them more patient. Or it makes them secretly hate us, who knows. I am lucky to have had a big sister who was a protector and let me tag along many a time.  

Wow I had fat cheeks.

As the younger child, I followed Karen's footsteps at school. In Kindergarten, I distinctly remember getting sent on an errand by my teacher to go take a note to an older grade's teacher. This particular teacher was Karen's teacher the year before, and when I arrived, she summoned the other two teachers on the hallway. LOOK! she said, and had me stand there like a specimen on display, it's Karen's little sister. OOOOOH, the other teachers said, Karen! Ooooooh, ...and they gushed and reminisced about how perfect Karen was for at least 5 minutes. And then, this is the funniest part, they inspected my hair. See, Karen had long golden locks that teachers loved and loved to brush. And I had really short dark curly hair, and no one, NO ONE should brush curly hair. I digress. My point is that Karen was obviously a kiss ass and that's why her teachers loved her.

Hahahah. Just kidding. See? Younger siblings, we do this. More than likely it was her mellow and happy ways that endeared, and still endears her to people. She's got dad's soft heart and mom's calm and caring demeanor, and people love her for both. And, now that she's older, she has my curly hair too.

Here her hair is not quite long yet, but you can see it was lighter in color. Don't you think Rhett favors her?

Happy birthday, Karen! We love you and I couldn't ask for a better big sister*

*Except for the time you kicked me off the couch and we both got spanked. That sucked, and it was totally your fault.