More summer fun!

I am loving our summer vacation this year! We are having fun outside with sidewalk chalk, taking a tumbling/gym class, and going to the "jumpy place" that is full of inflatables! Sweet, fun times!! Right now, we are waiting on Aunt Ivy, Kate, and Sully to arrive! They are coming for a visit, and we are planning some fun times for the cousins. More pictures soon!!

Ponytails and Periwinkles

My plan for the summer is to keep everyone nice and busy! We had a great start today. Rush has decided that we should all start our day at 5:45 am. This is much earlier than they had to wake up during the school year, so I don't know what IS UP!!?? I am not even a girl that likes to sleep late, but I tend to stay up a little later during the summer, so that feels REALLY early to me right now to be starting the day. But, according to Rush's schedule, we are all up and have had breakfast and are out the door for our morning walk a little after 7:00. I told him tonight as I was tucking him in that if he wakes up and doesn't hear anyone else awake to stay in his bed and try to make himself go back to sleep. Generally, when you just tell two year olds to randomly force themselves to go back to sleep, it works like a charm, so we'll see what tomorrow holds. ;-)

After our morning walk, we went to the post office and then to Walmart to buy some flowers, seeds, and new watering cans. We planted some flowers by the front door. Hopefully, this will draw our visitors' attention down to the lovely flowers and away from the door that needs to be sanded and restained. Too hot for that now because I would have to leave the door open for a little while... not an option in this unbearable heat! {But, who am I kidding? It has needed to be restained for a while now!} Did you hear me mention the heat? Oh, great day in the morning, it is H-O-T.. even for early June in Alabama. Temps have been averaging in the upper 90s! So, when we got home with our plants and seeds, Rush was already beginning to wilt. He poked out that bottom lip and said, "I go inside now. I hot." It was hot, I will give him that, but we had spent $43 at Walmart on gardening junk, and by gosh, we were going to have fun! I think I uttered the words, "Get over here and plant these seeds. Now." {I will admit that my tone was less than friendly...} So fun and precious of me! We all had to have showers/baths before lunch today. I think they will be excited to see the seeds grow into flowers, though. We planted marigolds because it said, "Easy to grow" on the package. Yes, I don't need any flowers that won't bloom. SF has asked me about 45 times today if she has "fowers" yet. This could be a long 5-7 days.

Yesterday, I decided to be brave and attempt "Toddler Time" at the library again. We went ONCE last summer. If you don't remember, there was a kid that stole Rush's backpack and several children that made me feel like I wanted to use my "teacher voice." Umm... control your children please. We were already heading to the library, though, and would be there just before the 10:00 program started. So, I thought, "Why not?" If it is chaotic again, we can leave. So, the sweet media specialist comes in to start the program and says about 4 words before Godzilla begins to shriek on the other side of the room. Everyone's kids have had their unsavory moments. We once had a "the bow-screaming incident" at Target. But as a parent, you gotta know when to fold 'em. This Mama wanted to try to regroup her child that was bucking out of her arms and screaming, quite honestly, like nothing I have ever seen. It was a full-on, out of control, FIT. There was no regrouping, and everyone in the room seemed to realize it. Except his Mama. Even the sweet group leader said, "Do we need to take a break?" "We" meaning, "you" with the kid that is freaking out. Finally, a librarian from outside the enclosed room came in and pointed at the mom and gave her the "thumb out" sign. I was pretty impressed. She got up and left. I felt bad for her, but then I sorta didn't. I would have been high-tailing it out of that place if that had been one of mine. Thankfully, the rest of the session was very pleasant, and the twins really liked it. We sang songs, she read two books, and we even glued some ice cream cones together. It was entertainment that didn't involve my two slamming each other's faces in the laundry room door {Rush to SF when we returned from Walmart today}. So, we will go back and brave the library next Wednesday.

The kids are also going to start a gym/tumbling class next Thursday. I promise to post pictures from that. Little Frannie needs some gross motor skill development. She can tend to be on the clumsy side. :-) Rush can do a front roll already, and he likes to show people. He calls it a "headstand". Eh.. semantics. :-)

We also had a fun day at the pool with some friends, and we are looking forward to lots more "pool days"!

These are some pictures from our morning of gardening. I am also including a picture of SF's first "real" ponytail. There was nothing but a rubberband holding it up, and she was very excited. It didn't require any barrettes, etc. :-) She has also turned into my little helper and wants to help put away laundry. She is shown carrying the sheets to the guest room. Where was Rush? He was busy watching his allotted time from "Whitening Na Queen". The boy loves Cars. Cars 2 is coming to theaters this June and is rated G. I think I see their "first movie" experience coming our way. :-)

Remember us? We are still here and having lots of fun so far this summer!! Our Mama is tired, though. She said all this fun is wearing her out. She said she will post some new, fun pictures from our summer time adventures really soon! Meanwhile, our Daddy was doing something very entertaining which is why we can't look at the camera for a picture, and this was the only one our Mama had to put on the blog. She says blog posts are more fun with pictures, so you have to work with what you've got. :-)

The Girls

I just wanted to show you my two favorite girls playing tea set together. The tea set? Circa 1983... It belonged to Ivy and me when we were little girls. :-)

Rush's Big Day!

We are starting to feel like the kiddos need some individual time to be with each of us. Rush got to have his day by himself with me last weekend. Rush is my child that is OK with being by himself and often wants to play on his own, but I always want him to feel special even though he doesn't demand as much attention as someone else I know. :-) So, we told SF a little white lie. She thought we were going to the grocery store. We did go to a store, but that was to buy Rush a new toy. She got a little something new, too. But she has no idea that Rush and I also enjoyed breakfast at Chick-fil-a and then a trip to the park. Rush had THE BEST TIME!! I couldn't have planned it better if I had tried. When we got to Chick-fil-a for breakfast, we were pretty much the only people in the place. The employees showered Rush with attention telling him how handsome he is and how much they loved his blue eyes. He just grinned and looked at everyone. Then, he got to choose any color balloon that he wanted. I have to be honest, sometimes we forgo balloons and things like that because it is just too much to have TWO of them flying around in the back seat on the way home. Then, someone's balloon pops... there is crying...attempts to get the other's balloon.. you get the picture. So, since Rush is a twin, he probably has not reached his balloon-getting quota for kids. Balloons are pretty exciting. :-) We tied his giant green balloon on the chair as we had breakfast and talked about all of the photographs they had decorating the walls. After that, we went to Target to purchase a new set of cars. Nine new ones in all! They were on sale and were in a Cars (the movie) package that Rush just couldn't resist. He kept telling me it was his "spesha {special} day". We ended our morning at the park. Rush climbed and played. We even went down the "big twisty" slide together. I wasn't even sure he remembered it all or that it made an impression on him, but Sue Sue, our day care provider, told me that he gave her all the details one day when he was the first one awake after nap. I was so happy to know that it was something he remembered! Here are some pictures of our day:



P.S. A sweet little girl is standing beside me watching me post this saying:
"Dat's Rush. Where's me? Where I'm is? Mama, where's me? Why I not in dat picture? Where I'm is?" See what I mean?

Loving the weekend

We had a fun Saturday! We went to our local city festival this morning.The weather was absolutely beautiful today. I found tons of super cute things for Syd. She got new bows, clips, and a new dress. Poor Rush left with nothing new, but he would have looked funny with a new flower hair clip or hot pink bow. And the pillow case dress? Not his style... They didn't know I was buying things anyway, they were just along for the ride, so I don't think he will be jealous of her new bows. :-) As Rush would say, "Dat's for guhls {girls}, Mama." We also did another of my favorite things at the festival... EAT. I couldn't resist the polish sausages with onions and peppers. Or the funnel cake. Or the sweet tea. So, I had them all. And so did the kids.. along with some homemade chocolate chip cookies and all of Papa's strawberry ice cream to finish out the morning. Yep, I said morning. All of that was before 11 am. It was fun and delicious. Plus, there was a country band that caused us all to dance and clap a little bit. Fun stuff! Then, we we came home for a nap and some afternoon sprinkler time. No one told me it was still entirely too cold to have my children outside in the sprinkler. Last year, they were scared of the sprinkler, but they LOVED it today. Unfortunately, after about 15 minutes, poor Rush was literally shaking from head to toe. His skin felt cold when we touched it. I think it might have been the slight breeze that was blowing that made him get cold quickly. {In my defense, he gets cold very easily anyway. SF wasn't shaking.} So, we dried off and headed inside for a warm bath and some juice. Over all, it was a good day.







I hope most of you have realized that there is more to our life than what I post on this blog. But, when I started the blog, I decided that the focus would be on my children. It is a way to document the events in their lives. So, I usually steer clear of current events or news, etc. {I am very opinionated and might lose some readers if I really started to tell you what I think about things. :-)} I am going to make an exception this time, though. Last week, the state of Alabama was ravaged by several deadly tornadoes. I couldn't help but think about those that lost their lives and the areas {very near our home} that were demolished by those horrible storms as I sat with my family in a park today. The beautiful, sunny day we spent at a festival was in sharp contrast to what others were doing with their Saturday. The clean up efforts are massive. The families are picking up the pieces of their lives, and some of them are doing that after losing a family member or a friend. I am thankful today that my family and friends scattered across our state are safe. I pray for those that lost everything. People from across the state (and beyond) are traveling short and long distances to help. People are sending supplies and man-power. Trucks are being loaded with donations that are traveling to help. It makes me proud to be from Alabama. Sweet home...

Easter 2011

We had a very busy weekend!! We were on the go! Starting Saturday morning, we went to our neighborhood egg hunt. The kids had lots of fun there. Our HOA does a great job of organzing that for us every year. There was a visit from the Easter Bunny. Rush was a huge fan as you will see below. SF? That is a big, fat NO! She was more than happy to wave "bye-bye" to the oversized, furry guy. {I don't really blame her...} After we left, she told us, "He is a nice bunny. Maybe next year." I think she is trying to convince herself more than anyone that she might one day be willing to accept Santa and the Easter Bunny into her life. On Sunday, we were greeted by backets full of goodies that the Easter Bunny left behind. Syd was more than happy to accept her surprises and treats in E. Bunny's absence. Then we headed over to Gigi and Papa's house for some egg hunting and a delicious lunch. After that, we were back home to see Gram and Granddaddy and Uncle Chris. It was a full day of fun!! (There was a fun birthday party tucked in there on Saturday, but I will save it for another post.)