A snow fun day

We had a long weekend.  The boys had half days at school last Wednesday and Thursday and were off Friday.  And they were off today also of course.

Friday, I took the boys along with a few friends to the movies.  We saw Escape from Planet Earth.  It was a cute movie.

With the long weekend, we had hoped to be able to take them away for a skiing weekend, but that ended up not working out.  We felt that we should do something fun that involves the cold and snow.  We decided to take them tubing.  We had never been before and we haven't had enough snow at home to sled down the hills in our neighborhood.

It was a short drive away and we got there fairly early. 

Hot chocolate break!

 

The thrill seekers.



The non-thrill seekers by the fire.

The husband, Tee and I went down together the first time.  I didn't like the big drop at the beginning.  Tee loved it.  Jay and E went down together.  Jay did not like it much.  He said that he felt like he was going to throw up and he couldn't breathe.  I just didn't like it. 

So Dad, E and Tee spent the morning tubing down the hills.  They had such a fun time.  I wished I had brought my good camera.  Dad ended up videoing the last ride down but I can't load easily onto this page.  It was funny watching them. 



Birthdays!

I can't believe it has been over 3 months since I have been here.  It seems as though life has taken over.  I run around all morning and do as much as I can before the kids get home from school.  Once the kids are home it is homework and our extra activities.  By the time my butt hits the couch at night I find that I am too tired to type.

What I do miss is keeping up with everything that is going on in our house.  So many funny stories and stories that are unbelievable.  I hope that within the next month I can get caught up.  It has been very interesting.

But I can't go on until I wish my two boys a very happy 11th birthday.  I am not sure where the 11 years have gone.  I remember the day they were born and how overwhelmed I felt.  Some days I have that same feeling.  But at the end of the day, I feel so blessed that I get to be there Mom. 



I forced them to get close for their birthday picture!



The boys and Dad



This year the boys have decided to celebrate their birthday separately.  It seems really weird to me but I think they deserve to celebrate their day how they want to. 

This past weekend, we took Jay and two of his good friends to Dave and Busters.  We played games for a few hours. then to dinner and then back to the house for a sleepover.  It was nice to just have it be about Jay.  Tee and E were home with a sitter.  

This coming Saturday it is E's turn.  He is taking three friends to Laser Tag, then dinner and one of his best friends will spend the night.  We will once again leave the other two home with a sitter. 

We celebrated the boys' birthday this evening with dirt cake (as requested).  

Hmmmm....wonder what this year will bring us.

Halloween 2012

Although Hurricane Sandy caused 2 days off of school, we were fortunate that Halloween was a go.  You know Halloween is really important.

The older boys purchased scary hooded costumes and Tee was able to "shop" in our bin.  His choices were a blue power ranger, a red power ranger or a puffed up spiderman.  He decided he would wear the two power ranger costumes(we had a few parties to attend).

We went to a friend's house for dinner on Wednesday.  The kids were all very excited.   



A picture of the group!

 

I managed to NOT get a good picture of my kids at all.

Most of the kids in the picture above went house to house together.  Just call me Sally social planner.  I tried hard to make sure everyone was happy.  The group started out with 8 kids and 3 adults (my husband being one of them).  At one point the group ended up with 2 adults and only 7 kids.  Then at the end is was only my husband with 5 kids.  Tee and his friend did a great job keeping up with the older boys.  



After the first couple of houses, the masks on E and Jay came off.  Unbelievable to me.  So I told the boys from now on, no more expensive costumes.  They will need to be a little more creative and definitely no more masks.

Tee ended up tuckering out about 1 hour.  He came and hung out with the ladies.  The older boys kept going.  They got a lot of candy.  In fact, we just went through today and sorted.  They kept some and we are donating the rest.  I have a friend who will take the candy to a homeless shelter.

Easter 2012

I have such good memories of the twins when they were young.  My multiples group always held an Easter party with a spectacular egg hunt for the kids.  They always had such a great time.

Unfortunately, due to the older boys' schedule, Tee has not been to an egg hunt.  So this year I decided I would take him to the egg hunt at our church. 



He has such a good time.  He saw many of his friends there.  When I tucked him into bed that night, he said, Mom I had such a good time at the Easter egg hunt.  I was so glad to hear that.

 The bunny worked her magic and left these awesome baskets.  They worked hard getting eggs ready for the hunt.

The first call in the night came from Tee's room calling my name.  It was about 4:30 am.  I quickly told him it was not time and to go back to sleep.  Next call at 4:45.  Then it was the dog that needed to go out.  Tee ended up coming into our room around 6:30 and then shortly after we got the big boys.

Our normal on the step picture.

Looking at the treats!

E showing his book!

The Easter Bunny even brought something for the dog.



The egg hunt in the basement.



It happened that the Orioles suite was open today.  Attending a baseball game is not something that we would typically do on Easter, but decided it would be a good change.  

It was a fun time.

We ended up eating a big lunch so we decided to have our Easter dinner tomorrow evening. 

The number 5

It is amazing how I can still remember this day 5 years ago.  I remember I had an awful night's sleep.  I woke up in the morning and didn't feel well at all.  I hesitated taking the twins to preschool that day because I felt so horrible.

And that is when it all started.  My contractions started and I lost the mucus plug.  But I was going no where until my legs were shaved.

I called my husband, who had taken his car to the dealership and was at work.  He got a ride to the dealership and came home to pick me up.  Luckily, my doctor's office was close to our home and the office was connected to the hospital. 

I had a scheduled c-section set for March 15th.  This was 4 weeks early.  Not how I planned for it to happen but he was coming ready or not.

That day our family became complete. 



We celebrated Tee's 5th birthday at Pump it Up.  He was so excited to have his party there.

 We invited his preschool class along with some other friends.  A good time had by all!

 He wanted a hot wheels cake.  I was disappointed when the place I went to didn't have the template.  So the next best thing was a race track and we put hot wheel cars on top.

 Cake time.  He had a hard time blowing out those candles.

A family photo!  Love those boys!

No, this is not trash but the presents Tee received.  That would be two bags.  

Momma and her boys.

Daddy and his boys.

Tee had a great time.  He is very blessed to have so many friends and family that joined him on his big day.

My Babies turned 10

It seems so hard for me to believe that my boys are 10 years old.  I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. 

As I mentioned, I finally got the boys to agree to a dodge ball party.  The party was held at an indoor place which also has batting cages.  The boys practice baseball at this place during the winter. 

The boys invited 12 kids and every single one of them was able to attend.  I was a little worried that they were going to get bored with the dodge ball after a while.  The boys played for 1 hour and then we took a break for pizza and cake.  Then the boys went right back to dodge ball.

The boys had a blast.  The refs were awesome.  They kept changing up the game.  So for one game you would maybe use your non-dominant hand and the next you would be on your knees. 

The boys!

I think this was Army style, if your leg gets hit you have to hop.

Jay spent a bit of time over on the sidelines.

I purchased 2 cakes just because I thought they needed to have store bought cakes.  I made dirt cake by request.  The dirt cakes was gone, these cakes were taken back home.

 E did not want to have to blow out his candles.  I did not give him any choice.

Jay's turn.  I always make sure I have 2 cakes.  We sing happy birthday to each one and always E first since he was born first.

Even though we had some issues prior to the party, I think the boys (all of them) had a fabulous night.

The boys each had one friend spend the night.  We rented a movie for them and then it was bedtime.  They slept in the basement and we had no issues. 

Switching gears to get ready for another birthday party......

Confused

The day started out pretty well but as the day progressed I started to get more and more annoyed. 

After I picked up Tee from preschool, I let him play on the playground for a while with one of his friends.  The Mom and I were talking about what we feel is missing from the preschool.  She said let's see what they brought home today.  There was a note in the folder talking about Valentine's Day.  Valentine's day falls on a Tuesday so when would you expect the kids would celebrate?  I would think on Tuesday, but the teacher wants to have the party on Friday the 17th.  What would be the point?  The issue is that the public school are off that day and more than likely Tee won't be in school.  I was so upset that I marched back into school and spoke to the director and asst director.  I explained the situation and asked them if they could remedy.  I certainly don't want to have him miss the party but why would you not celebrate on the day.

The boys have a birthday tomorrow.  We debated on how to celebrate because they did not want to do the same kind of party.  I am not ready to have two separate parties at this point.  Since I am the planner it does have to be convenient for me.  So we settled on a dodge ball party.  The boys were told that they could invite 5 friends.  They were having a hard time and we spent some time working on their list. 

E decided to not invite one of his good friends.  This friend tends not to do well with lots of boys.  We really didn't think that dodge ball would be his thing.  Well, the other day, E came home telling me he felt so bad that he didn't invite him.  There was a friend who was going around telling people he was invited to my kid's birthday party.  I felt bad for E.  We talked and I decided I would call his Mom and let her know the situation.  She was ok with it and her son has decided he will join us.

And if that was not enough.  One of Jay's friends is a little upset he is not invited.  One of the boys invited doesn't like this other boy and keeps reminding him that he is not invited..  I feel terrible because I made him invite this not so nice boy.  He claims to be his friend and I just didn't understand how he could not invite him. 

I think parties may be a thing of the past.  I just can't stand all of this nonsense that goes on.

Hoping for a better day tomorrow!

Christmas at our house

It seems like we sped through the Christmas season.  We got our tree, put it in the stand and waited a week to decorate it.  The majority of our Christmas decorations and ornaments didn't make it out.  Yes, it was such a hectic season. 

Our church offered a service on the eve of Christmas eve.  We decided to attend that service, which was a very nice candle light service. 

I started not feeling well on Christmas eve.  I managed to get the turkey in the oven and started baking the other dishes to our meal.  By mid-day I knew it would not be possible for me to actually eat dinner.  So the husband cut up the turkey and put away all of the other dishes I had made.  I spent a lot of the day in bed, catching up on the housewives of NJ.  I knew I was going to have to rally for the evening activities.

Can you guess what I got for Christmas?

I got it a little early

 And was able to catch these images of Tee.

 You guessed it, a nice camera.  I wanted to be able to use it for Christmas day.

The annual reading of Twas the night before Christmas!

The normal stop on the step before letting them run to their pile of presents!



Santa visited!

Having fun looking at their presents.

Santa was so nice, he installed the xbox in the playroom.

Mom and baby!

Dad and his oldest sons!

 

There was a bit of a mess when all was said and done.

We had a very nice day.  The boys indulged in all of their gifts and we watched them.  The best part was that we only had to warm up our dinner.

Tee has still been singing some Christmas songs, which seems very funny to me.  He enjoyed hearing the songs on the radio for about the 2 weeks leading up to Christmas.

Thankful for so much

Thanksgiving week was a great busy week.  The husband took the week off from work.  The boys had a few half days off from school.  Attended the boys conferences.  Celebrated Thanksgiving with family.  Took a trip, picked up the dog and wrapped up the weekend with the festival of trees.  Whew!

The boys did amazing on their report cards.  I am so proud of their hard work.  We keep them very busy with extra activities and they manage to keep it all up.  The teachers had such nice things to say about the boys. 

Thanksgiving was celebrated at our house with my brother and three of his children.  We feel very blessed that we were able to be with some family.  It is hard to be away from our families.  We would love to be able to be with everyone but it is not possible.  I can't believe I didn't snatch one picture.  It was a nice relaxing day.

We woke up Friday morning and headed to Hershey Park for their Christmas Candy lane.  We went with friends of ours.  The have an older daughter, a son E and Jay's age and a daughter Tee's age.  So it works well with our family.

We could not have asked for better weather.  It was a gorgeous day.

We started at Chocolate world when we first got their.  We received an education on chocolate and the best thing was we were able to taste lots of chocolate.  We then took the tour that explains the process of making chocolate bars. 

We then made our way to the park.  There were no roller coasters open but there were 30 rides open.  We split up a little because the younger kids did different rides than the older kids. 

In chocolate class

Tee liked this ride!

Tee did not like this ride!  I didn't think it would ever end.

Family picture

It was a warm day but that didn't stop Frosty.

Our handsome boys on the train ride!

We were able to see a light show at the park and then headed to dinner.  Dinner was really good.

After dinner we headed to the Sweet lights.  A 2 1/2 mile drive of over 600 light displays.  It was nice but a bit long. 

We finally called it a day after that.

The next morning we woke up and went shopping at the outlet that was really close by.  I had no idea it was there.  Then we headed home to pick up Sadie.

She cried some of the way home.  I don't think she likes to ride in the car.

The boys absolutely love her.  Jay seems a little scared of her, Tee can't keep his hands off of her and E has a real connection with her.  He is very responsible when it comes to her.

Sunday we headed to our annual visit of the Festival of Trees.  I was a bit disappointed in the Santa but I really wanted to get the picture of Santa with the boys.

The boys racing cars.

Tee and Dad were the big winners.

It was a jam packed week but a good one.  This week it has been back to our routines.