Countdown

My sister Megan called with great news yesterday!!!

Just because...

...I miss the kids already and can not wait to drive over and get them.

Here are some cute pics from their soccer game yesterday. Stella is crawling??


Here is Thomas having fun with his friend Jacob.

Perspective

We had such a busy day today. Papa drove over for the twins soccer game. They had a blast and then he took them back to Clearwater. I was off to a baby shower for my friend Jennifer and Tony manned the garage sale. Tony and I had a delectable child-free dinner complete with margaritas and conversation. All this happened today and...

my mothers good friend had her daughters funeral.

Shocking, isn't it. She was a couple years younger than me....she grew up in Buffalo like me. She moved to Florida and was recently engaged and had just bought a home. She was on her way home from the Bucs game and there was an accident. An accident and now her mother planned her funeral. Life is so fragile and short. I am going to remind myself of this and hopefully make more of the moments. Even if I run late to work and don't do the dishes and even if my living room is a mess...it really doesn't matter....my family is all together and we are happy. Life is good. And fragile and short.

Sleep deprived

I have talked to a couple of my friends about my struggles at nighttime. Tony and I used Babywise and we had twins that dropped one nighttime nap at 5 weeks and slept from 10pm to 7am at 10 weeks. I was feeling like I had it all together...ha!

Now as I am moving from the toddler well into the preschool stage I find myself wondering "what happened? where did we go wrong??" Thomas sleeps. He loves to sleep and he really can sleep through anything. Partly because he shares his bedroom with Stella....who does not want to sleep. She needs a kiss, another hug, a drink of water, another one of her many animals, to be tucked in again, etc....you get the picture.

I leave the 467 things I still have left to do before my day ends until the kids are in bed. I settle in at the computer or I start grading papers and ~creak~ the twins door opens. How can I feel two completely conflicting emotions...sweetness....this little bunny standing, usually holding a bear, unicorn, dog and tiger...wanting something. And anger...how dare you cut into my time (Ha! My time...more like work time, laundry time, etc) but you know what I mean.

I am here in my office going on very little sleep and I come across this post from not that i don't love my kids that had me laughing out loud and this hilarious post from Poot and Cubby and I realize I am not alone.

Green Gators

We have a team name....The Green Gators...very appropriate since their jerseys are day glo green.

The kids were so focused tonight.



The kids lined up (aren't they cute??) and they kicked the ball around some cones.




And just some more for good measure...

Wow! My kids are deep!

The preschool will send home pictures that the twins have drawn with a caption. They must ask..."what is this?" and then write down whatever Thomas or Stella tell them.

Well today, Stella has one and it looks like a hurricane. The caption reads "It is the twisting will of God"....so I think, wow, my kids are deep!

So later I ask Stella about the picture and she tells me it is "the twister from the Wizard of Goz". Hmmm, should I fill the teacher in or let her think that my children ponder the twisting will of God??





Oh, and I know that only a momma could look at the above picture and think their child really drew a hurricane. Haha!

Can you tell the difference?

Can you tell the difference? On the left is the list Tony made before he headed out on his daily trip to the store and on the right the list that Stella wrote...

Random

We are on our way home from TNT...

Momma: Who did you learn about tonight?

Thomas: Adam and Eve

Momma: Who are they?

Thomas: A boy and a girl. God made 'um.

Momma: That's right....

Stella: Do you think Eve had a ponytail?

Learned behavior?

What is all this nonsense about learned behavior?



The other funny thing is anyone who knows me knows that the fact that Stella was allowed to write in my planner meant I really, really wanted to be on the phone with my friend Angela.

Go Green Team!

Go green team!


We do not have an official name for the soccer team yet but you will see by the designated color of the jerseys....this works.

The ref reviewed the rules...



... and then they were off:



Here is some video of Stella in action...


...and Thomas getting a piece of the action. Check out the older kids in blue. The league is 3 to 5 years. Did anyone check their ID??


Gigi and Papa made the drive over and the twins were thrilled! Papa even wore his soccer shoes so he could run and practice with them. I think everyone was very tired!


Afterwards we had a nice brunch with Papa and Gigi. Brad and Drew stopped by to drop off some gifts for Stella and Thomas at the restaurant. Thanks Drew and Drew's daddy. We love the crocs.

It was a great beginning to our weekend.

Reason #43

We are over the hump with Thomas going poo poo on the big boy potty. A couple of days ago he went and I said, "See, it was a piece of cake!".

Now every time he goes poo poo...he says, "Look mama...cake!"

Reason #43 he will be in therapy.

Preview...

I forgot the camera today so no pictures of soccer practice:-( However...we went out to eat after practice and while we were at the restaurant, Stella kept saying, "no, not that goal...this goal". Hmmmm, this is what we have to look forward to on Saturday??

What if God was one of us?

We had a fun night at TNT (I wish I could insert sound effects there). Dinner was great. Thomas had his fill of chicken nuggets and fruit:-)

The kids sang and prepared for the trip to Winter Park Towers and their performance in front of our congregation! They also learned about all the animals that God made. In the car on the way home, they named every single, and I mean every single animal.

Stella also sang a song for us...it went something like, "God is good, God is great..." Was she really singing this Joan Osbourne song??

Tony had a great class on play therapy and my 'Bible from Scratch' class was excellent. My class has such an interesting mix of people; some people in their 70's and 80, a bunch of couples and some younger people new to the church. We discussed the beginning of the Bible and the story of how God created the earth and humans. I was raised Catholic and was always taught that story as a young girl. Tonight we looked at it and discuss the scientific evidence out there and how the two theories can really co-exist. I do like discussions about religion; especially with such an educated and well rounded group.

Thank goodness it is pizza day at school tomorrow. I think packing some drinks is about all I can handle right now.

TJ turns 5

We had such a friend filled day. The twins had their friend Sarah over for a bit this afternoon. They played "castle". They screamed and yelled and chased each other up and down the hallway. Castle?

I attempted to get them all down for a nap. Thomas went right to sleep in our bed and the girls took over the twins room...not much sleeping taking place in there! It was so sweet to hear them giggling in the room. I wonder what they were talking about? Watching Stella and Thomas interact with their friends can be so interesting and I truly hope they will be friends for years to come.

We then rushed over to our friend TJ's birthday party. He turned the big 0-5 today.



He had a Sponge Bob party complete with pineapple slushies, starfish cookies, games and goodie bags. The twins had a blast:



Stella and Thomas were not the only twins at the party. Check out these cuties:


During the party, the men were inside watching the big game. UCF lost but it still was a good game. Go Knights!!

Soccer Mom

The twins had their first soccer practice tonight. We picked up the soccer balls and matching shin guards and they were ready to go!

We arrived at the field and their new coach, Ms. M was there and they stretched out.




They ran some 'drills' and I use that term loosely. Basically the kids ran around the field and the coach blew her whistle once in a while.




I think we have a winner, folks. Thomas loves to run and he was so happy to find out that he gets to run and run and run some more during practice. He picked up how to stop the ball and then kick it to a partner really quickly. Watch Flash Lightening with the bright blue ball:

Stella enjoyed it too. She can kick the ball to a target very nicely and she liked the idea of doing a team sport with Thomas.



Finally, the coach had them 'scrimmage' against each other. Again, I use that term loosely:

At the end of practice we had two sweaty kiddos.

We met Lynn for dinner and the twins told her all about it. Thanks again for dinner Lynn....totally unnecessary!! Soccer was a hit!

He's got the whole world...

We had a fun night at TNT. The kids did some pottery with Mrs. C. Hmm, why did I not care for her? Oh yeah...here is a good reason. Our family walks in, yes late, for pottery class. She says, "Oh I saw you came late last week so I figured you would be late this week." ~grrrrrr~

Then it was time to eat. We went up with the kids to get some dinner. This little old church lady was volunteering her time serving the food.

Tony asked for chicken nuggets for Thomas and some fruit. She puts one chicken nugget on a plate and hands it to him. Tony and I looked at each other. Awwww, poor Thomas only gets one chicken nugget. She came around and ended up giving Thomas two:-)

The kids went off to 'music and make believe', Tony went off to his 'wellness' class and I took in my first "Bible from scratch" class. My class was great. We discussed the different versions of the Bible and what religions use what versions. Very interesting stuff!

We left and Stella and Thomas were singing "He's got the whole world in His hands".


"Mama...did you know God has powers?"

Really, like a superhero? At least they are beginning to get the right concepts.

Tomorrow should be quiet. We just have to get two size 3 soccer balls for our first soccer practice on Thursday.

Daddy Day Care

Tony is home with the kids some since he has started going back to school. On Tuesday they all head off for some fun adventures. One of the best investments we made was our Orlando Science Center family pass. I believe it was $100 for the year and we easily have gone 50 times.

Once the school year begins, it is very quiet during the day and the twins have so much fun! Here are some cute videos of them off exploring for the day:


They love spending time with Daddy:-)

The sweetest thing

Each morning Thomas wakes up and crawls into our bed with us. He will curl up with me and let me wrap my arms around him. We can fall back asleep for a bit until the rest of the family wakes up. It is one of my favorite feelings in the world and I can call the feeling up upon demand. For example, work is stressful, I can bring up the feeling of snuggling with my Bubba Yub Yub in the morning and it calms me. Sometimes, we will have our faces close together and he will stroke the side of my face or play with my hair. It is the sweetest thing. I am beginning to realize how quickly they move through these stages so I try to stay in the moment each morning. Have I mentioned, it is the sweetest thing in the world?

Cypress Gardens

We had a very fun and very hot day at Cypress Gardens today. Stella and Thomas love the 'Princesses' walking around...that is the 'Southern Belles' to ya'll. We saw one as we were walking in the front gate:

Thomas was being shy and didn't want his picture taken.

The good thing about Cypress Gardens is that you can do something new each time. This time we started our day with a Pirate show:




Their favorite line of the show was one pirate saying "You know what?" and the other saying "chicken butt". No, we haven't heard that 100x today.

Then, we checked in with the baby wallaby and her momma who were both sleeping:



Wait...what is nelson doing there??


Thomas kept asking to ride the roller coasters!! Daddy and Thomas rode in the front and me and Stella rode in the back of this one:

Now, you are thinking, "wow that is big...weren't the kids scared?"

This was my view of the brave little bunny sitting next to me with both of her hands up in the air!!


They are both so brave. They went on this one too:


I can tell that any day now they will be asking me for the keys to the car and driving off into adulthood!

We walked through the gardens which Tony and I love...





...because the kids wanted to see the butterflies.




It was a great day...complete with dippin dots and two bears that Tony won for the kids! Needless to say, the kids were exhausted!



It was a great day!