Merry Christmas

There was no Twinkle Family Christmas card this year, but if there had been, it may have looked something like this...

Sugar Cookies

Play dates at my house usually involve a whole lot of running around and destroying things and not many scheduled or planned activities.  Most of the play dates we go to are much the same.  However, I do have a friend or two who organize wonderful, organized and thoughtful gatherings for our children.  For example, a cookie making party for the under 3 crowd....

Complete with gobs of icing...

Hersheys Kisses

and M&M's.

Lot's of M&M's.

And pre lunch cocktails for the mommies....

"Twick or Tweat"

My dinosaur and Tinkerbell, AKA "Faiwy Pwincess" had so much fun trick-or-treating last night. Grace carried her weight in candy (the handle on her plastic pumpkin actually broke. A nice neighbor taped it back together for us) and stayed up way past her bed time. This morning, when we asked what she wanted to do, she suggested, "twick or tweating"?

Hope everyone had fun!

Memorial Day

We had our first beach day of the year. The kids were in heaven and despite the fact that I have no intention of wearing a bathing suit this summer, I enjoyed myself too. This was the first summer in a while that I was not pregnant or in charge of a baby who eats sand. It's a good place to be.

They played hard
and didn't seem to mind that the water is so cold that it causes shooting pains to rip through your legs.
Then they slept. In the car. For two hours.

We will be going to the beach a lot this summer.

Happy Mother's Day

He handed me a handful of dandelion heads and a few violets . I told him that they were beautiful. He said, "This is what Mother's Day is all about, doing nice things for your mommy.I love you mom." I looked at the handful of weeds in my hand and then into his beautiful, big brown eyes and I felt so unbelievably loved and lucky to be his mom.

Not one to be outdone, my sweet Grace ran over to the tulips. I smiled as she leaned over to smell them.

And then, she pulled the head right off and brought it to me. The grin on her face was priceless. She knew exactly what she was doing. Loving her mommy.

I am so incredibly blessed that God chose me to be their mom.

Happy Mother's Day to all my mommy friends and family. I hope that each of you had a special moment today that reminded you that along with the chaos and frustration that are part of this mommy job, we mommies are a lucky bunch. There's nothing in the world like the wonder and joy and love that children bring into your life.

PS. Mom,
Thanks for being such a good example. You were the best teacher. I love you and really wish we could have spent the day together. xoxoxo

"Rosanna, He's Alive!"

That's what Sam has been singing for the last week. He is insistent that these are the correct words. Hosanna? No, "that's silly."

Nothing like a Cadbury Eggs for breakfast!

Ready for church!
Fondu...
is
SO
Good!
Meet the Easter Bunny!

AKA "scary monster"
AKA...Grandma

Hope that everyone had a wonderful day.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, I mean Easter.

Not something you see every day.
"I will find more eggs. Do not try to stop me. Roar!"
As close as we ever get to a family photo...
"I really wanted to wear bunny ears, but they didn't fit over my hood. I think I'll just make a rabbit face instead."

Jack, just because he let me take his picture.

I think the pictures say it all. Yesterday was 50 degrees and I had visions of Grace in bunny ears and a tutu (with a pom pom rabbit tail stuck to her bum) participating in her first egg hunt. It was not to be. Instead, we wore boots and tights under our pants...

The kids didn't seem to mind. In fact, snow makes it very easy to spot brightly colored, plastic eggs full of treasure. They found all 325 eggs in about 10 minutes! It was not a competition, but I'd have to say that if it was, Sam won. And he knew it. "I won, I won!" was joyfully proclaimed, over and over and over. I can't imagine where he gets his competitive nature.

Who knew....

that you can't buy little kids Valentine’s Day cards the day before Valentine’s Day?

I've been seeing Valentine’s Day cards at Target and everywhere else since the day after New Years. I didn't buy them because I was afraid that I'd lose them before Valentine’s Day and I also had this notion that Sam and I might actually make them. You know how crafty I am...

Needless to say, we never got around to making cards. Today I braved the miserable weather that we've been having and ventured out to Target. I checked the three aisles of Valentines candy, toys and clothing four times before asking for help. You would have thought that I asked where the fake Christmas trees were. The 19 year old girl looked at me like I was crazy and replied, "Valentine's Day cards? Oh no, those have been gone FOREVER.". Trips to the grocery store and CVS were also fruitless.

So here I am at nearly 7 o'clock helping Sam make and sign 15 cards. Grace is usually in bed, but she is awake, tugging my leg and screaming. Sam is melting down, slumped across the table and whimpering. His "signature" looks like...well, something a very tired three year old would do.

I'm so tired I just grabbed his pencil and forged the last four cards. Can you tell which signature is the forgery?

Good thing I've always loved Valentine’s Day so much. Whatever....