Pictures from the Twins' First Holy Communion

Noelle (L) and Natalie (R) on their First Communion Day, pictured with Fr. Adam

Natalie with Philip and Regina

Natalie

Natalie

Noelle

Noelle

Two of a Kind

But which one is which?

February 24, 2014

Sock Babies

I found this craft idea and couldn't resist - making a Baby Jesus out of a sock.  You can read more about the tradition here.

As an added bonus, all the socks were matched from the sock-matcher basket while we were looking for stray white socks to use for the craft!

Wigs 4 Kids.

The picture is a little blurry...but the twins each had 11 inches of hair cut off to donate to a nonprofit wig organization...NOT Locks of Love, which I discovered does NOT supply wigs for cancer patients or burn victims, and DOES charge for its wigs.  The organization we chose is listed below.  We would have gone with Wigs For Kids (international) but they required 12 inches of hair, and we only had 11 to give.

Time For School With The Twins

I don't do a lot of formal schoolwork with the twins. What!? They're only five! To my way of thinking, playing IS their way of learning at this point. They can both read already, so they do a lot of reading. We play educational games. I answer every question they ask me. We cook and clean together. I direct them to educational websites. But we don't sit down very often with workbooks and such. Why not? THIS is why not.....

In case it may seem that they are only acting up for the camera, let me assure you that it was not so. The only difference between their behavior on and off camera was that they glanced over at me behind the camera, instead of me sitting between them at the table. They were every bit as giggly and ridiculously silly before the video, and after. I'm also homeschooling, and accountable for the educations of, an 11th grader, a 9th grader, a 6th grader and a 3rd grader. This takes up a significant portion of my day. Working with the twins takes up a lot of time and saps me of my will to live energy and enthusiasm. I usually need a glass of wine or a nap when I've had enough they are finished. On the other hand, they really are pretty darn cute. It's not so cute and funny when the 11th and 9th graders get that silly during lessons.

For Sarah

The mailman brought a big surprise for the twins this morning - a letter from big sister Sarah at college.  

I didn't expect they'd be able to read her handwriting, but I was wrong.

They read it out loud, together.

She sent them a movie quote that touched her recently:

"If I were God, I would have made the world just so and no different. And so I have you."

Baking Bread and Taking Names

Okay, just baking bread.  My husband cooked a ham last night that we didn't get to eat, because we went to the amusement park instead.  So I cleaned it last night, got the vegetables ready, and put all the components in a crock pot to simmer.  This morning - voila!  Homemade bean soup!  And nothing goes better with bean soup than fresh bread, so I enlisted the twins' help in adding ingredients to the bread machine, then let them watch as it started mixing.

They were playing a game with the kneading blade as it turned, using chopsticks and trying to avoid the dough ball as it went round and round.  Whenever the dough ball touched their chopstick, they screamed "Chain Chomp got me!!!!!"

After a few minutes of kneading, the blade starts to pulse intermittently.  They didn't know this.  All of a sudden, the blade stopped.  They both peered in closer, quizzically.  What happened??  And suddenly, it leapt to life again, and they both jumped backwards and almost fell off their chairs, screaming with laughter.  I only had my cell phone camera with me, but this memory was made for keeping.

The World's Awhirl

Tonight we took a quick last-trip-of-the-season to Knoebel's.  We only had an hour and a half before closing time, so there wasn't too much time for rides.  We had to hit our favorites to make it count.

It wasn't too crowded, for once.  Third time on the carousel, the twins snagged outside horses and tried for the brass ring.  They weren't even close, of course, but they were so proud to finally be big enough to try.  

I used to be able to ride anything, but standing next to Regina's horse made me nauseous today.  Blame it on the bifocals - they already make the world bend and swirl under normal circumstances.

I thought the pictures turned out really cool, in a surreal sort of way.

Brian & Regina <3>

Cowabunga!

 One month ago, the twins were essentially non-swimmers.  Although they could swim for a short distance underwater, they usually stuck to splashing in the shallow end or playing on the steps.  All of my attempts to get them out deeper or to try to get them to tread water were met with shrieks, panic, and desperate arms clutching my neck for dear life.

We had been taking occasional swim lessons with a lifeguard at our pool.  When I say occasional, I mean a half an hour, one or two days a week, whenever her work schedule allowed.  I don't think they had more than 6 lessons all summer, and they didn't seem to be making any significant progress.

The last lesson we had was about a month ago, and the lifeguard cajoled them into getting into the deep end.  Once they got in, Light Bulb!  They realized that it wasn't any scarier there than in the shallow end.  They'd jump in next to the ladder, come to the surface, paddle like mad for the ladder, get out, and do it again.

After about 50 repeats of this, the lifeguard asked if they wanted to try it from the diving board.  I really didn't expect either of them to take the bait, and if I'd had to pick, I would have predicted Natalie would be the one with enough guts to go for it, since Noelle was the one who put up the most fuss whenever I tried to get her in the deep end.

To my amazement, Noelle was the first one to make the jump.  She angled her jump from the board toward the ladder, and surprised herself by being able to swim the short distance with ease.  Of course, Natalie couldn't take that lying down.

That was the morning that changed everything.  Since then, they OWN the pool.  There's nowhere they can't go.  They can go after the diving rings now.  They're working on their cannonball and pencil dives.  Their latest challenge/thrill is having me push their heads down in the deep end to try to touch the bottom of the pool with their feet.

Noelle still won't dive without holding her nose.

CANNONBALL!!!!!!! (Natalie)

And the added bonus, for Mom, is that that they're so completely exhausted by the time we go home that they can't wait to fall asleep.  Win-win.

Picture Parade: Twin Beds

Picture Parade: Twins.

Identical or not?  I can't see how ANYBODY couldn't tell them apart...

Natalie won the wrestling match.

Picture Parade: Collaboration

Practicing their reading and geography skills.  I now consider the price of the map to be money well-spent!

Picture Parade: Cashing In

The twins were so cute today . . . we had two boxes full of change, and our credit union has a no-fee coin machine.  They stood next to each other on tiptoes, taking turns loading the hopper and shoveling in the coins, until every last penny of the $31.00 was cashed in.

Picture Parade: It's Fun To Play At The Y-M-C-A.

The girls took swim lessons at the Y last winter, but the biggest treat was going to the day care/play area after they were all dried off and dressed.  The day care officially closed at noon, but we were allowed in as long as I supervised my kids and made sure they cleaned up when we were done.

Sometimes they used the huge foam shapes to build houses or castles or cages.  Today they built a store.

This is a lousy picture; I just loved Noelle's bouncy little ponytail.

Open for business.

Spring Portraits

I had hopes that I would be able to meet with an old friend this weekend to shoot some candid shots of the girls.  She's an old pro with a camera, whereas I can't even seem to keep my camera battery charged.  If I didn't have my cell phone, none of you would know what my kids look like.

Sadly, circumstances prevented her from keeping our appointment until June.  WHAT?!?!  I am far too impatient to wait.  I had the twins with me for almost two hours at a beautiful location; it would have been a travesty to waste such an opportunity.  I figured out how to charge the battery, threw their dresses in a bag, and foom!  We were off and running.

We got off to a fairly good start; there was a flowering dogwood with low branches that looked promising.  Noelle, as usual, wasn't very camera shy and was fairly cooperative.

Then we got some really good ones.

Natalie, on the other hand, couldn't seem to muster up a pleasant face.  

I had specifically chosen a shady spot and faced them east, away from the sun, which is what usually causes them to squint and frown.  

But this watery, worried, half-smile was the best she could manage.

That's a little better.

This one is nice.  Too bad I cut off the top of your head.

Of course, she smiled when she said, " I want to marry a banana."

And naturally, they were both happy as can be when I gave them the green light to climb the tree.

To be continued...

Picture Parade: Has anybody seen the twins?

Never mind.  I found them.

Hats Are All The Rage This Season

Can't speak for their other fashion choices, though.

Twin 'baby' seats. Another reason I love Costco.

Happy 5th Birthday, Twins! Sorry I'm A Few Days Late.

Can't believe they're 5 ALREADY! They have really grown up in the past few months. Dresses that were floor length in the summer are mid-calf now. They are getting so leggy and coltish. They're changing, too. They're cracking jokes, and they can participate in a successfully executed game of "Pass It Down The Alley." Right now their biggest hurdle is being able to complete a song on Dance Revolution with a passing score.

I tried to take a nice birthday photo of them, but they kept giving me the goofy buck-toothed grins. So here you have them in all their goofy birthday glory. Natalie isn't taller anymore; she's kneeling on a chair.

e them

Sweet.

Noelle is sweet.  There's no other word to describe her.

When I ask, "Who's going to help me clean __________ up?"  she is on her feet and helping before I finish talking.

Whenever she sees me looking her way, especially with a camera, she stops what she's doing and gives me a sweet smile, compared to some of the other hams in the family who stick out their tongues or make a crazy face.

Noelle - smiling.  Natalie - sticking tongue out. 

They all saw me taking a picture.  Guess who's the only one that smiled?

She's always the one to give in to Natalie whenever Natalie pitches a fit over who gets the red cup, who gets to sit next to mom, who gets to pick the story, etc.

The other morning, the three youngest were all in our bed after their nightly migration.   And for some reason, they weren't content to rest quietly - they all had to thrash and flop until they were mashed up against each other.  Natalie's head was hanging off the edge of the bed.  Regina was close to putting her fingers in Noelle's nose.  None of them were sleeping soundly, but every time I tried to separate them, they would, in their sleep, coalesce again into a fitful conglomeration.

L-R:  Regina, Noelle, Natalie.

Regina was especially fitful.  She kept scooching and throwing  her head around with a mighty flop.  Eventually the inevitable happened:  she scooched next to Noelle and brought her head down - smack! - right in the middle of Noelle's face.  Noelle instantly woke up crying, but the next thing she said melted my heart.

WAAAIIIIL - WAAAHHHH - and through her sobs:  "Regina! Are you okay?"

Bless her little heart.