A slice of morning fun

Squdge said, "I drew Adam and Eve about to get kicked out of the Garden of Eden.  Eve ate the forbidden fruit and Adam did too and now they are hiding from God behind the bushes.  But He can see them anywhere!  Hahaha!"

Bouncing little girls and their balloons and paper bracelets.  Peach made bracelets for her and Biscuit.  They took a trampoline break after learning about Persia.

Peach finding out what happens when you draw on a balloon and deflate it-- "It gets black all over and it goes smaller."

Guess what I want for Christmas by these picture clues

Twin A -- Tater

Twin B -- Squdge

Playing tricks on Auntie

The twins (almost 5), under the influence of cousin Anna (age 10), thought it would be totally fun and sneaky to dress alike and switch their natural hairstyles to trick Auntie Leslie.

Anna helped curl the front of Squdge's hair and straighten out Tater's swirl.

We'll see how many times today Auntie Leslie mixes them up.   :P

Anna is having a good time dressing the little girls like real live dolls.  

I still think the twins are fraternal.  But most extended relatives think they're identical.  What thinketh you?

May the force be with your literacy

During quiet time today, I was teaching Squdge lesson 4 of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Since the twins will be 5 in just three months, I figured now was a good time to start to learn to read.

At the end of each lesson, they practice writing a couple letters.  It's a nice gentle way to ease them into handwriting along with practicing the sounds they learn to read.

Squdge's letters and handwriting skills are atrocious.  I usually have to hold his hand with my hand and guide him through.  (Tater is this way too.)

Today he made a HUGE "S" after I modeled a couple lowercase letters for him.

I said, "Squdge, I don't want you to make a giant one.  Make a little one like mine."

He said, "I'm making a force field for them!"

Valentine cookies with my sweet Squdge

Today we made Auntie Leslie's sugar cookies recipe.

They were a much better flavor than another recipe I tried earlier this week.

I put the borders on the cookies and after they dried the kids enjoyed coloring them in.  I let Squdge do several because he was my baking shadow.

Some of the kids chose to make faces or designs.  

I was super excited to learn this technique of icing.  Thanks Leslie!

When life hands you "Delay Fish"

Have you ever tried to rush a 3 or a 4 year old?  What about one 3 year old and two 4 year olds?  No?

They are like "Dorie" on Finding Nemo.  

They are delay fish.

I very much love these little delay fish.  They are a good reminder to stop and smell the flowers, draw pictures in the condensation, play with the crafts we find while decluttering and packing, and read The Busy Car Book (5 times).

In which the twins learn they get to be testers when they help bake

In my opinion, four is the ideal age to start teaching my kids to bake.  Younger than that they usually follow me around and "help" but are too distracted to follow instructions.

Squdge flips Lion House rolls

Tater had a hard time flipping rolls so he chose to cut circles and make Parkerhouse style-- or in his words "mouth rolls."

Squdge and Tater trying the fruits of their labor.  (Squdge was trying to finish chewing before asking for more.)

They especially liked it with strawberry freezer jam.  (We didn't butter our testers since the recipe has butter in it, we add butter before flipping, and butter is brushed on the tops after baking.)

The first thing Squdge said this morning was, "They not hot anymore.  We can eat the rolls now!"

Happy Thanksgiving from our family!  

I'm so thankful for children that play together.

I love hearing the chatter of make-believe.

Biscuit (left) loves sitting at this step-stool for snacks or play.  And both Biscuit and Peach love things just their size.

These three play together well too.  This pic was taken at Disneyland a month ago.  Bun, Pookie, and Gabbers were giving their best Cheshire Cat impression.

Admittedly, I'm not always thankful when the twins are doing things together.  Sometimes they get wild ideas. 

Here they are passed out at Disneyland.  Danny got lots of comments from people and some even took a few photos.  Hahaha!

And this Hammy of course, is the middle child. He's my mini-me in many ways-- he doesn't look like me (other than his big head).  He plays with Bun.  He plays with Peach.  He plays with Gabbers.  He plays with the twins.  He plays with whoever is willing.  

I'm so very thankful for the blessing of children getting along.  Those are the days that go much more smoothly.

Our last Halloween from this base

Today we got official orders for our move.  So this is our last Halloween on the central coast. 

Here are some fun pics from this week:

Biscuit giraffe didn't answer the FB riddle right. ;)

Little Red Riding Peach caught the vision of trick or treating last night at the ward trunk or treat.  She watched in amazement as people put lollipops and M&Ms in her little basket.  

Is it just me, or does Tater remind anyone of that store in the mall?  Was it called "Hot Dog on a Stick?"

This little Hammy missileer (Squdge too-- but I didn't get a pic) told everyone he was a Daddy for Halloween.

For school crafts this past week we made ghostie pops one day.  Squdge especially enjoyed making them and made like 6 when the other kids made 2 or 3.

We also made pictures to go with our fictional stories we wrote during language arts.  This one is Gabbers.

This one was Pookie's.

Unfortunately the twins' and Hammy's pictures stuck to the table and didn't survive.  

Peach chose to use her torso instead of card stock to decorate.  But I won't be posting that on the web.  :P

Stay tuned for tomorrow.  My 1000th post.

Just one of those things you say to 4 year old twin boys

I walked into my parents' dining room as my dad was about to take a picture of Tater and Squdge.

Dad, "Now buddies, sit nice and look at Papa.  Hey, and don't put your finger in your buddy's nose."

In which you find out we've gone vegan

We recently started trying to eat a plant-based whole foods diet as a family.  That's basically vegan.  Except we also eat raw honey.  

It's a difficult thing to completely change our way of eating.  But we are getting better at it.  

Here the twins are on their thirds of milkshakes right before bedtime routine.  We have smoothies or milkshakes daily to pack in vitamins and nutrients.

This one had:

Strawberries (locally grown)

Bananas

Vanilla almond milk

Dates

Spinach (locally grown)

Chia seeds

Ground Flaxseed

Spirulina

Ice

Grateful for my little balls of energy

I am grateful for these 2 little monkeys. 

 

Tater on left, Squdge on right

 

We just bought a twin/full bunkbed.  These little guys share the bottom bunk and Bun sleeps on top.  I have been having the hardest time keeping them off of the top bunk today. 

 

But this age is so quick to forgive, so full of energy, and so full of the funniest things to say.

 

About a week ago, I took this picture.  I had just sat down at my laptop to check upcoming cupcake and bread orders.  It was late-- like 9:45 p.m.

 

They came out of their room together and went straight into the kitchen.  I could hear them talking amongst themselves and trying to get something out of the sink.  I said to them,

 

"Come out of the kitchen and don't touch my ingredients.  It's time to go back to bed."

 

They responded in unison,

 

"But Mommy, we got ideas!!"

Taking Danny to our secret park

Peach and her tongue (she's cutting molars)

Hammy and Gabbers love to swing! 

Bun and his new sling shot

Squdge in a tree

This is our favorite park.  My friend said once, "[This park] is the secret nugget of parks in [this town]." Except of course, she used the park name and the city name. :P

It's true. It has picnic tables, benches, a bathroom, shade, terrific climbing trees, playground equipment, and NO ONE is ever there. Why? I can't figure it out. But we're not telling. It's the perfect place to chat with my friend and let our kids play for hours.

Tater, Peach, and some preggo chunk

I did tell Danny though about it.  Danny came home for an unexpected visit between training and deployment.  We took him to this park last Saturday after running errands.  I intended to get pictures of him with the kids, but somehow he ended up holding the camera.

Pookie talking about how some of his army men are camouflaged by the wood chips

Peach checking out the camera up close

Twin buddies on a slide (Squdge on left, Tater on right)

Me, Peach, and Pookie

Naptime Tweezing

It's naptime and I decided to do something I could not do with Tater awake.  Can you guess?

When I went in with the tweezers, this is what I saw: 

How stinkin' cute is that?  They're holding hands in their sleep.  I was laying down between them to stop them from playing long enough to fall asleep.  Squdge (on the right with the pastel blanket) fell asleep first and then when Tater was almost asleep, I got a phone call from Danny.  I thought for sure that when I came back Tater would be up and playing.  nope.  He just fell asleep holding his buddy's hand. 

Please excuse the quality of pictures.  They were taken on my phone.  My used-to-be trusty camera was recently deployed.  It's okay-- it likes to put a dark spot in the corners of my photos anyway.  So you get now lower quality pics with no dark spot.  :)

I'm not gaining many popularity points.

I think I may have secured the title of Meanest Mom of the Year. 

We just started a new points system with the kids.  It's very much like the Mommy Store but they can redeem points daily.  Their only limitation is they can only pick one goody/treat per day.  No saving up 50 points and buying five candy canes to snork down at once.

For example:

Today the goodies available to buy are Cherry Cordial Cookies and candy canes.  Most of the kids picked a candy cane.  But since I had two green apple Tootsie pops left, I offered the twins that option.  They happily chose "pop-pops."

picture here

Of course they would NOT stay in their chairs at the table.  High chairs aren't even an option anymore-- they can escape in less than 30 seconds from them.

I should also add, it's FREEZING outside.  So sitting on the porch licking a lollipop is not an option either.

I reminded them about twelve times to sit at the table with their lollipops.

Then I told them, "If you don't stay at the table I will have to take away your lollipop." 

In about 90 seconds there was lollipop stickiness on my curtains, digital grand piano, lightswitches, doorknobs and the bottom of the television (which was off so I don't know why it lured them). 

I had to keep my word.  We don't issue threats unless we're willing to follow through.

I took the lollipops.  I knew full well that if I threw them in the kitchen trash they'd dig them right back out.  So I marched outside to the curb, where the big black garbage can is waiting for the garbage man, with twins trailing closely behind, and tossed them in. 

Squdge threw himself down in the middle of the road a helpless Pop-Pop-less heap.

The crying didn't cease for about 10 minutes.  The pouting much longer.  Gabbers just watched in disbelief.  The only reason they did stop crying was because I put Word World on so I could stuff workboxes and teach a long division lesson.

Crying over spilled milk

This little girl didn't do it.  She stood by and observed though as it happened. 

Yes, this little Squdge did it.  And while he dutifully cleaned up his mess, he didn't realize he was pouring milk out of his cup.  That's when these pictures stopped so I could help him.

Taking the pictures helped me not yell at him. 

Unfortunately, I didn't think about pictures fast enough this time before losing my temper and I reduced my Squdge to tears.  It was more than 1/2 a gallon of milk in this incidence.

Since then, I've stopped crying and yelling about spilled milk.  I just keep a handy stack of prefolds (cloth diapers) available for such an occasion.  We've had plenty of practice since then.  And the four big kids know exactly where to find them.

And I realize, half a gallon of milk is a little less than $2.

But a Squdge's heart is worth a lot more. 

They look so innocent when they're asleep.

Squdge will fall asleep anywhere.

  That can't be comfortable.

You'd never guess all the naughty stinkery wonderful things he discovered and did this day.

We are encouraging Tater & Squdge to feed themselves.

It helps that they insist on doing it too.  Squdge LOVES spaghetti.

They're very enthusiastic about the process.

They encourage Peach too.

They're proud of their work.