Happy Birthday to Ben!!

2 years ago today, at 12:20pm Ben made his way into the world. It is amazing how much he has changed in the past two years, although he still looks exactly the same, only bigger.

The highlight of Ben's day today (besides seeing Daddy after two days apart) was opening his package of Thomas trains from Me-Mom. And he enjoyed listening to Grandma sing to him over the phone. Our independent little Benny even walked right up to Chuck E Cheese today and gave him a big high five. My baby isn't grown yet but he certainly is growing up fast.

We love you, Benny! We are so excited to watch you grow during your "terrific two's"!

Happy Birthday to Ace!!

2 years ago today, at 12:18pm Ace was born. Over the last two years, we've had the joy of watching him grow from a tiny infant to the sweet little toddler that he is today.

Ace enjoyed his second birthday. He talked to Grandma on the phone (but ran away from the phone when she sang "Happy Birthday" - sorry Grandma!) and then opened his presents that had arrived in the mail over the week. Daddy surprised us by cutting his business / golf trip short and was home before the buddies woke from their nap. We enjoyed a family dinner at Chuck E Cheese's where Ace loved riding in the cars and climbing on the play scape.

Thanks for two incredible years, Ace! Mommy and Daddy love you!

Family Time

We enjoyed some special family time this weekend. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Carlee, and Cousin Michael came to play and wish the buddies a happy birthday. We played hard all day yesterday and ended the day with birthday cake and presents.



Ace and Ben, digging, dumping, splashing, and making a mess in their sand and water table. ---->







<---- Ben loves Grandpa Mike!
















What fun to have Aunt Carlee and Cousin Michael in town! ---->







<----- Grandma, reading "Goodnight Moon" to two sleepy boys.

A Trip to the Austin Zoo

Who is wilder: a) Zoo animals or b) A hoard of families with multiples, embarking on the Austin Zoo? After today, I can say with certainty that the answer is B.

The Austin Zoo is a non-profit rescue zoo, with about 300 animals and approximately 100 species. Over 90% of the animals are rescued. This small zoo doesn't compare to the zoos that Steve and I grew up around - you won't see any elephants or giraffes and if you're lucky you'll spot the one lion (we didn't - he was hiding). But it is a funny little place that is perfect for a bunch of toddlers and pre-schoolers.

Each spring, the Austin Mothers of Multiples sponsors a day at the zoo for all members and their families. This year, it was my job to plan the event. It was a success! 160 people showed up to take part in the festivities. We studied the animals, fed the goats, deer, hogs, and llama's in the petting zoo, had a BYOS (Bring Your Own Sandwich) picnic lunch, and ended the day with a train ride.

Our buddies loved feeding the animals, especially the goats and deer. One of the hogs put Ace's whole hand in his mouth. Ace didn't feed the hogs again after that. Ben loved running around the zoo and jumping down the steps in the dirt path. He LOVED the train ride and tried to sneak back on for an encore ride but his mean mom wouldn't let him. Below are some of my favorite pictures from the day:

3 generations of men

Ben jumping down the path

Ben feeding the deer

Ace feeding a goat

Family Time

Choo-choo!

Two fine men, in the caboose

A Surprise Birthday Party Playdate

It was our turn to host our playgroup today. Since the buddies' birthday is just around the corner, we decided to throw a surprise party. The surprise part was for our friends, since I couldn't trust them not to bring gifts otherwise.

So, when everyone arrived for our playdate, we invited them to have cake with us and celebrate the near- completion of Ace and Ben's second year. 8 mommies and 16 kiddo's shared in the fun. It was a wild and noisy party.


<----- Check out cake #1 from my cake decorating class.

Family Update

Many of our faithful readers have been asking me how Ace's speech therapy is going and then that leads to questions about Ben, and then to Steve and I, so I thought I'd post an update on the "behind the scenes" of our household.

ACE
Ace is doing wonderfully in speech therapy! The progress he has made is amazing! I keep a word log for him and as of this evening, he is up to 32 words. It is obvious that he really wants to talk and that's half the battle. We've discovered that he is particularly interested in animal sounds (meow, woof-woof, baaa) and environmental sounds (beep-beep, toot-toot) and those account for about half of his vocabulary. Our therapist taught me to give him lots of choices during play and that encourages him to use words. For example, I'll hold a ball and ask, "Do you want it to bounce, or roll? Bounce or roll?" instead of just asking yes/no questions like "Do you want it to bounce?" It seems very logical but I'll be darned if I would have thought of that on my own. And the best part is that he loves these games so therapy is actually FUN! Ace is such a sweet kid. He loves his brother like crazy and has the best belly laugh in the world.

BEN
So what does Ben do, during our speech therapy sessions? He climbs in our therapist's lap, brings books to her, repeats the words that she's practicing with Ace, and joins in on all the games. Both of our therapists are really sweet and always include Ben. He is quite the charmer so it isn't as if they really have a choice. And I can't talk about Ben without mentioning that he is in a train-phase. Ace likes trains too, but Ben really likes them. If you came upon Ben at any time of day, you could wait five minutes and you'd surely hear him say, "toot-toot!". He only wants to talk about trains, play with trains, watch movies about trains, etc. I even made train-shaped sandwiches for dinner tonight and he sat at the table shouting, "toot-toot!".

STEVE
Steve is doing great. His job with Cisco is still going really well. He has worked there for almost nine years now, with the same guys, who are among our best friends. He's one of those rare people that truly loves his job. His hours are flexible, so he spends a few hours with the buddies each morning, then goes into work, and returns home after they are asleep for the night. The schedule works well for us and we don't mind having a family breakfast each day instead of a family dinner. Steve is playing in a softball league and a soccer league and he still plays golf every chance he gets (which isn't that often).

ME
It is hard to believe that I've been a stay-at-home mom for almost two years now. It is the hardest, yet most rewarding job I've ever had. I never thought I'd come up with so many ways to fill my time, but I am busier (and happier) than I ever have been. I was recently elected to the Board of AMOM, my twin mom's group. In addition to that, I am the Family Activities Coordinator and have been working on our annual trip to the Austin Zoo (coming this weekend!). I also co-coordinate our NW AMOM playgroup where we meet weekly with our kids, have a babysitting swap, and a monthly Mom's Night Out. It is an awesome group of moms and kids. I've also joined the Guild of the Christ Child at our church, which is a group of moms that get together once a month for fellowship and periodically meets for playdates. I joined their Spring Bible Study and will complete it in a few weeks, but have discovered that I am not the Bible Study type. Even so, I've made some more friends, and that can't be bad. :) For fun, I play Bunko once a month with the ladies in my neighborhood and I'm taking a cake-decorating class at Michael's this month with a few friends. We have massive amounts of homework before each class. Last week, my friend Stef and I got together to do our homework. We whipped up three different consistencies of icing, colored it, leveled our cakes, iced our cakes, cursed, drank wine, and totally wrecked my kitchen. Three hours later, we were done.

OUR FAMILY
That's a glimpse of each of us and what's going on in our lives. We spend a lot of time at parks on weekends, where Steve teaches the buddies to climb on things that make my heart stop. They love it, of course, and so far haven't attempted anything too dangerous while they're on their own with me during the week. We're looking forward to summer, when the pools and spray grounds open. It won't be long!

Choo Choo!

Have I mentioned before that the buddies are obsessed with trains? They wake in the morning saying, "toot, toot!" Then, they play with trains all day long and surely dream about them at night.

Today, we decided to treat them to a ride on the real thing, a train named "Sophie". Sophie is a 1/4 scale miniature train who takes kids of all ages on a 1.3 mile ride around Williamson County Regional Park. Parts of the ride were really lovely with trees creating an arch overhead. The buddies liked the ride well enough, but the unusually chilly (and very windy) April weather kept them from enjoying it too much.

They sat on the ride, shivering, and barely seemed to notice that they were on a train. The funny thing is, when we arrived home, Ben sat on my lap looking at our pictures on the computer screen and he was really excited about the train from the comfort of our home. So, I guess, for an almost two year old, a picture of a train is as good as a ride on the real thing. I'm sure that will change before too long.

We enjoyed our picnic lunch on our living room floor in the warmth of our home and considered the afternoon a success.

Our 5th Anniversary

Steve and I celebrated our 5th anniversary today, Friday, April 13th. Neither of us are superstitious, but as we set the date almost 6 years ago, we did discuss the ramifications of anniversaries on Friday, the 13th. Looking back, I remember discussing that our first "unlucky" anniversary would be our 5th and that even if it was a terrible day, we'd have five years of solid foundation under our belts and therefore our marriage would survive.

Today was not a terrible day! In fact, it was a pretty good day. The buddies and I had a good time during the day and were even able to work in a good deed by delivering dinner to a friend with two sick kids and a sick husband. Steve made it home from work in time to spend some time with the buddies and then help me cook our anniversary dinner. The menu was Beef Wellington, Shrimp Scampi Bake, and Parmesan Green Beans. It was delicious and I ate too much, but my kind husband is in the kitchen doing the dishes while I type this and let the food settle.

Since traditional 5th anniversary presents are supposed to be made of wood, I gave Steve two pictures of the buddies in wooden picture frames for his desk at work and he gave me a nice card (paper is made from wood, after all).

All in all, it was a happy anniversary and I can honestly say that each year of marriage has been better than the last.

Happy Easter

The Easter Bunny brought the buddies all kinds of goodies this year. He was kind enough to hide their eggs indoors, since Austin experienced record low temperatures. We even had snow flurries and sleet early Easter morning and you'll notice in our pictures that the buddies are dressed in their winter pj's. I had almost packed them away for the season a week ago.
Two stuffed bunnies, four baskets filled with goodies, and one inflatable bunny rabbit made for two happy little boys.

Ben likes marshmallow peeps for breakfast.

Ace thought it was great fun to eat candy for breakfast.

Yes, Aunt Carlee, the Easter Bunny remembered to hide eggs in their shoes. Ben LOVED that!

An Egg Hunt Play Date

This morning, the buddies and I met some of our friends at a park for a play date and Easter egg hunt. First, everyone played on the play- ground equipment. As usual, our two loved climbing and sliding.

Once everyone had arrived, the big kids hid the eggs for the little kids and we had our hunt. Ace filled his bucket fast and then started putting eggs in Ben's bucket. Ben was collecting eggs too, but he'd stop every few seconds to open one or slide down a slide or play with dirt. Ace also tasted his first chocolate candy (a Hershey Kiss) and immediately said and signed, "more, more, more".

Once the egg- hunting festivities were complete, we had a nice picnic lunch and let the kids play some more. Ace and Ben discovered a big puddle under the picnic area and had a blast jumping and splashing. I thought it was a hoot and took lots of pictures. Then, some of the other kids came over to join in on the fun and their moms said, "Oh no. We don't splash in puddles." Really? Are kids not supposed to get dirty any more? Granted, I did have strip off Ben's soaking wet shorts and have him ride home in his diaper. But, it seemed worth the smiles to me.

Coloring Easter Eggs

In last month's edition of Parents Magazine, a mom wrote in with this tip for coloring Easter eggs with toddlers: Do it in the bathtub! I love it!

So, this afternoon, the buddies and I headed upstairs with three cups filled with egg dye and 12 hard- boiled eggs. I cleared the bathroom of all our bath time toys, rugs, and towels, draped the shower curtain up high, dressed myself in old clothes, and stripped the buddies down to their diapers. What fun they had! It took them about 5 seconds to figure it out and then they were dunking away.


When they'd colored all twelve eggs, I just stripped off their diapers and filled the tub with water to scrub them down. Easy and relatively mess- free! Of course, both boys are still speckled with red, blue, and yellow dye. Ben even has a big pink spot on the back of his head and Ace's feet look just like our eggs (thanks to Ben dumping the entire cup of blue dye on them). I'll have some explaining to do at Ace's 9:00 speech therapy appointment tomorrow morning.

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