Pretty Boys

The boys are due for a hair cut - big time.  Especially Owen, who has been waking up from his naps with his thick hair sopping wet with sweat (gross).  Recently I've been asked by quite a few people if they're all boys.  Most people are actually mistaking Spencer for a baby girl.  Even a little girl on the playground, maybe about 4 or 5 years old, asked me if he was a girl.  Well here was some irresistible fun we had the other night before bed...the twins were running around yelling "pony tail, pony tail" and fighting over whose turn it was to get one!

That's not waffle!

Here's one of the funniest things that happens just about everyday during breakfast - Spencer loves the word waffle, at first I thought he was calling everything he likes waffle...but then I noticed that he only uses the word for his breaded favorites like buttered toast, PB&J sandwiches, breaded nuggets, french toast, and of course waffles!  Pretty smart boy, haha, and loves his carbs.  So Owen has taken it upon himself to be in charge of letting Spencer know when he incorrectly calls a food waffle.  He does it with these high pitched inflections in his voice and it's just really darn cute.  Here is Owen in action trying to teach Spencer a thing or two - he gets a little excited and I had to remind him to talk nicely to Spencer and not yell.  In the second one, we really were having waffles and Owen got to tell Spencie that it is waffle!

Trampoline

We now have a trampoline in the living room.  That wasn't exactly the original idea when we bought the thing last week, but we decided to put it together in there and try it indoors before bringing it outside and exposing it to the elements.  It turned out to fit nicely in the opening between the living room and dining room, actually working as sort of a blockade to the dining room; we just might leave it there for awhile!  And as an added bonus, I can see the boys in it perfectly from the kitchen.  It's nice for them to be able to bounce in the brightly lit, air conditioned house as a break from all of their outside activities.  Boy are they lucky - having a dedicated playroom, screened in porch filled with swings and cars, and toys strategically placed in just about every other room of the house - I figure why not turn the living room over to them as well :)  Hey, they're the ones who spend the most time at home, so we try and make it as appealing to a toddler and conducive to learning, playing and exploring as possible!  They first "discovered" the trampoline after a nap, before we put the poles and safety enclosure on, so we took some video of the initial reaction without the net.  Later, with the net on, I brought out some balls to throw in and make the jumping more fun...as you can see, they did have fun making the balls bounce like popcorn and eventually end up all over the floor!  Oh and the last video is a fun one - a trampoline wrestling take down session...it doesn't get much more rough and tumble than 2 boys wrestling with their baby blankies in hand!

My view from the kitchen!

Summer is Here!

It really felt like the first official weekend of summer at our house this past weekend - living in sunscreen, popsicles, watermelon, and the pool all day long!!  Ryan and I both noticed that the process for getting everyone dressed and down to the pool from the deck is a lot easier this year, now that the boys can walk down the steps themselves!  Another exciting event - Owen decided to try and that he likes watermelon.  I was shocked when he refused to try it a couple weeks ago.  And until Owen makes the decision for himself that he likes something, there's no convincing him otherwise (as with his current stand off with ice cream)!  I think the thing that pushed him over with the watermelon was that Ryan cut it into little triangles the boys could hold and eat on their own.

 

 

 

 

 

Bouncy Day

Daddy took today off and we decided to try out a place called Sports Bounce of Loudoun.  I hadn't taken the boys here yet mainly because I got the impression it was for slightly older kids and might be an outing that I would want Ryan there to help.  While it did turn out to be geared for slightly bigger kids, the boys still had a lot of fun!  Since Spencer is only 15 months old, he technically wasn't even allowed to go on any of the moon bounces or slides (minimum age allowed was 18 months)...but he is one determined boy!  After he disapproved of the somewhat lame toddler play area, we let him sneak in to some of the less crowded bouncy houses, and even sent him down the big slide a couple times.  Oliver was the most fearless, running around trying everything out without hesitation.  Right before we were about to leave - Ryan was with Owen and I was chasing down Spencer...I turned for a second and Oliver had taken off to the front of the complex and found the gigantic slide with a sign saying the rider must be a lot taller than he is to go on it (see black line in the first picture of green slide below)! This thing was tall and almost completely vertical...but daredevil Oliver climbed up and went down all by himself, and loved it!

Slides and Ice Cream

I've known about this playground - next to a Cold Stone Creamery - for a little while, but had never taken the kids there until today.  I'm not sure why...I think I was under the impression that it wasn't fenced in and might be too dangerous because it's right in the middle of a shopping plaza.  But another mom of multiples recently told me that wasn't the case, so we ventured over to check it out.  I was pleasantly surprised by the metal gate fully surrounding the play area and the equipment specifically designed for toddlers.  My only complaint (and I knew this ahead of time) was the lack of shade.  But we were prepared with sunscreen and hats!  The Cold Stone was just a few steps from the playground and so we took a snack break and got a "special treat".  Oliver loved picking out the colors of his ice cream - we had pink (strawberry), blue (cotton candy), and orange (orange creamsicle).  He and Spencer jumped right in taking bites and loving it.  I would put a little on Spencie's spoon, he'd shove it into his mouth, and then hold the spoon back out and say "more"!  It's funny that Owen is smiling and happy as can be in the last picture because, he would not even try the ice cream and kept saying "no, no, Owen don't like it!"  This child clearly does not take after me.

Father's Day Swim

All of Daddy's hard work in getting the pool ready for this summer was rewarded with a fun morning in the water with the boys on Father's Day.  They are doing really well with their arm floaties, and quickly caught on to using the new kick boards we got for them this year.  I couldn't believe they were actually swimming for short periods on their own with these aids.  I think the lessons I did with them over the past winter have really paid off.  The twins were even requesting to do "humpty dumpty's" - a game we played at the swim school for jumping in off the side on their own.  I'm excited to keep working with them this summer and see their improvement over time!  The last picture is a little project I worked on with them for Father's Day - the owls' wings are supposed to be finger painted hand prints, but it's sort of hard to tell and Spencer also made a mess of his!  They kept ripping the eyes off after we glued them on, so I decided not to bother with the pipe cleaner feet I had planned to glue on.  They are still in more of a create and destroy mode when it comes to crafts :)