How Rude

We had a play date at our house after lunch today. After feeding the kids, I hurried and tried to clean up our lunchtime mess. Upon finishing cleaning the table, counters, high chairs and floor, I discovered Annie by the bookcase and Maddie by the couch. Further inspection revealed 1 and 1/2 shelves missing their books. My little tag-team was taking the books, 1 or 2 at a time, putting them in a pile on the floor. Only the pile was not as big as I would have expected with that many books missing from the shelves. And then I saw where the rest went:

Maddie was systematically shoving them under the couch. These 3 in front are blocking the view of many more under there.

Seriously, how am I supposed to keep up with them???

(Don't Be) Part of Your World

Elizabeth watched the Little Mermaid this afternoon. I was sitting on the couch, alternating holding Elizabeth, Annie and Maddie. In a good moment, we can get two kids on my lap and a third by the rest of us. But it only lasts a moment. Someone always gets jealous.

So, while I am juggling kids (literally), I started animatedly reciting the words along with the movie for the twins' benefit: "Les Poissons, les poissons, how I love les poissons..." Elizabeth turned and looked at me with an angry face. "Don't sing with MY movie."

So, I waited a couple of minutes and tried again, reciting some lines of Sebastian: "You gotta pucker up your liPPPs like this..." (Come on, with the lips sticking out...? It makes the twins smile.)

Elizabeth looked at me again. I have a feeling she's perfecting this look for her teenage years. The You-Are-Embarrassing-Me look. Then she tells me, "You can sing with Ariel."

Note- at this point in the movie, Ariel has NO VOICE. I got dissed by a 5 year old.

Waiting....

Isn't Daddy home yet?

She's 5!

Recently Elizabeth had her birthday. She's known it was after Emma's birthday, but it was sure hard to wait until it actually arrived. The day before her birthday Elizabeth told me, "Mom, it sure was a lot of days to my birthday." But came it did, and she was (as always) bursting with excitement.
Elizabeth got to open her presents when Emma and her dad arrived home. She loves opening her gifts. Her technique is a lot like Emma's- open everything as fast as she could, and enjoy the stuff when all is out in the open. She asked for spaghetti with meatballs for dinner. I have to say I have never made that before. I've made meatballs for sweet and sour before. I have to give credit to the "On Top of Spaghetti" book for giving Elizabeth the idea.
Since the theme Elizabeth picked for her birthday was Rainbows, we had spaghetti (red), peaches (orange), spaghetti noodles (yellow), beans (green), meatballs (brown) and juice (pink). That was as much of the rainbow as I could cram into a single meal. The cupcakes did a better job of getting all the colors.
We invited ourselves over to our friend's house for dessert. We were planning on sharing the cupcakes with them, but they have a bigger driveway for the riding of her BRAND NEW BIKE. (She was so excited!)

Annie

Elijah taking Emma's bike for a spin.

This is Elizabeth's favorite gift of the day. The helmet and knee pads were Disney Princess to match the bike.

The dads had to get in on the fun. This is Elijah's scooter. The size did not discourage them in the least.

I Like To Look For Rainbows

What happens when you add a whole lot of food coloring to white cake mix? And then you painstakingly add one layer of color at a time to the cupcake tin....

You get rainbow cupcakes!

I found the idea here at the Family Fun Magazine website. These cupcakes, I have to warn you, take a very long time to make. I didn't use just a regular cake mix, but used a recipe from the Cupcake Doctor cookbook. I love that cookbook.

I'm a Quitter

...According to my husband, anyhow. Ryan and I have this unspoken war of sorts when it comes to certain things. Neither one of us wants to be the one to admit defeat. When it looks as if the toothpaste is gone, we can usually get another week's worth out of it. But all things must come to an end, especially those with finite resources. As usual, it was me who gave in and got the new tube of toothpaste. Ryan actually laughed at me as I pulled it from the box. It was certainly a laugh-AT-you kind of laugh, and not a laugh-with-you laugh. It's always me who gets out the new toothpaste. Or soap. Or shampoo. Ryan claims he was unaware that this was a power war. He said he was assuming this was about us being thrifty. Ha! It's just not fair that he has stronger hands than I do. I couldn't get any more toothpaste out without cutting the silly thing open and rubbing my toothbrush on the inside. And he just has to rub it in.

Helpin'

This is my helper. While the twins take a nap is the best time for me to fold laundry. Otherwise I have three helpers, two of which provide the kind of help that might send me for a weekend get-away in a padded room. The twins can unfold laundry faster than I can fold it. Putting the clothes on the back and arms of the couch no longer keeps it out of their ever increasing reach. Elizabeth at least makes an effort into making piles. You can see that she at least wads up the clothes and separates it according to size.

It's really important that I go through the ritual of washing, drying, folding and putting away the clothes. It supplies the twins with fodder when they unload their dresser drawers. It definitely teaches cause and effect. Mommy puts away the clothes nicely, twins throw all the clothes on the floor and then the clothes are just wadded and thrown back in the drawers for the next round. It never looks quite the same.

That ritual is also important in Emma's case. The clothes should be neatly folded and put away so she can dig through everything to find a shirt that nicely clashes with her pants and shoes. And when I say "dig," I really mean "strip mining." Half of the clothes end up on the floor so we can't tell which is clean, which is dirty, and which was worn 5 minutes before mommy veto-ed on account of the weather. (No skirts if it is pouring down rain in February. No long sleeved shirts if it's supposed to be 73 degrees. etc.)

Luckily, I have Elizabeth to help me. There is nothing like wadded up underwear, and wrinkled clothes that starts a day off right. Ok, I might actually refold Ryan's and my clothes before putting them away. I just can't do it in front of certain people whose feeling might get hurt. After all, she is being Mommy's Great Helper.

(That is, if the clothes even get folded and put away before use....)

Bathing Suit Hunt

When it comes to bathing suits, you can't start shopping too early. By the time the weather is actually warm enough, it seems like the selection of bathing suits is already well picked over. Aside from the maternity one I bought when I was pregnant with the twins, I haven't purchased one in a really long time. As in pre-wedding long time. I hate bathing suits. I guess that's not true- bathing suits themselves are largely benign. I hate bathing suits on me. They show all the extra-white parts that I prefer stay hidden. It's even scarier since I had kids, and definitely worse post-twins. I guess I can't really complain too much. My body has bounced back remarkably well. Perhaps "bounced" is the wrong word. There was nursing for 6 weeks (during which I lost a pound a day for 2 weeks), followed by sweat and exercise for the last year. But even with being at that "goal" weight, my body just ain't what it used to be. Imagine, if you will, that my body is a t-shirt, woman's size M, and Ryan tried that t-shirt on. Yah, that's what my body looks like- stretched out and a little lumpy. Another mother of twins came up with a great name for it: Twin-skin. Anyway, it's just a little sad and trying to find a bathing suit that covers enough is like trying to keep my house spotless. If I had my way, I should be able to wear something like this: without people staring. That would cover enough, don't you think?

A Very Hawaiian Birthday

Yesterday we had Emma and Elizabeth's friend birthday party. I decided to combine the girls' parties so there would only be one I had to plan and execute. We went with a Hawaiian theme, since Elizabeth invited Best Buddy Elijah, and I figured another princess party wouldn't suit. We really needed to branch out, and since I had a couple boxes of Hawaiian stuff packed away not being used- problem solved. I did make a visit to the Dollar Tree for a few things, and had fun decorating.

First on the agenda was to make flower leis, made from paper flowers, straw pieces and yarn. Ryan and I spent a couple of hours tracing the my flower template and cutting out all those flowers. As I was nearing being finished, I thought I really need to make friends with someone who has one of those Cricut cutters. Anyone?

Then it was time for a rousing game of Hot Coconut. It is surprisingly similar to Hot Potato, if you are curious. Except you use a coconut and play Don Ho's "Little Grass Shack" song.

Lunch time- keeping with the Hawaiian theme: Hawaiian pizza and fruit kabobs. I'm sure it's very authentic Hawaiian food.....

Cupcakes.

If you have a chance, you should click on the above picture of Elizabeth for a closer look. She has a super-crazed, excited look over the big box of play-dough. Clearly this was the Best Present Ever. Even now as I write this blog post, she sees that box and is still excited about it even though she played with the play dough for quite a while yesterday afternoon and this morning.

Optimism

My kids are incredible. With the exception of certain holidays, we do try to eat fairly healthy. There is (nearly) no basis for Elizabeth to think she'd get a favorable answer for the following question:
"Mom, can I have marshmallows for lunch?"
And yet she asked, with her sweetest Elizabeth smile.
It made me think, how often do I prejudge a situation? Where do you draw the line between logic and hope? Maybe life would be a little better if we all were a little more optimistic, and didn't just assume.

"There is hope smiling brightly before us...."

My Make-Over

Tonight Ryan went to the Priesthood session of General Conference tonight. And while he was away, the girls and I had a little fun. They set up a little "restaurant" in the toy room, and Emma served me up a lovely dinner of hot chocolate, toast and stuffed green peppers. And then I was brought down to Emma and Elizabeth's room, where I got to sit on Elizabeth's pillow while they "groomed" me. So, for your amusement, enjoy my "before" and "after" pictures.

Don'cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me.....

Tulip Festival

We went on a little trip to the Skagit Valley for their tulip festival. The tulips were blooming and they were beautiful. Just check out some of our pictures! I love spring and I love tulips!

I had a little moment of envy for the people who live around these fields. Can you imagine this view from your window?

Well, 4 out of 6 looking at the camera isn't bad, right?

Would have been an even cuter shot if she'd looked at me....

Maddie and Emma

Annie on Daddy's shoulder

The ground was a little soggy. Kudos to Elizabeth for finding the soggy silver lining in the form of mud puddles.

It was a gorgeous evening!