First of Many Spring Park Trips

Mar 18

Everyone,

Our day in pictures:

It got to 81 today just about an hour after I took that picture. Wow, what a beautiful day!

Butterfly loves to be picked up from school on our bike. Plus, she’s super cute in that helmet!

We have to cross the train tracks to get home. This was a very long train.

Still going.

I love grilled hamburgers! Yummy!

And then we had “ice cream” for desert.

We took some flying lessons (Mommy look me! I flying!)

We tried more ice cream.

And walked home under this beautiful full moon.

Safire

Safireplay parks parks

Park Playtime

Jun 30

Everyone,

Today we went to the park with Vinny and Lala to get the kids out of the house.  Today was the first day at any park that I was able to just sit back and watch the kids play together.  It was amazing.  And nice!  Well, until the boys found the working drinking fountain.

But before they soaked themselves, the boys (and Butterfly) played so well.  Apparently, Vinny and Pirate were on a team and Butterfly and Professor were on a team.  They were running away from each other and all over the playground equipment having a grand old time.

Except there is one spot in the playground equipment that has a really big step.  The big kids handled it just fine.  And Pirate, the monkey, handled it just fine too.  But Professor just couldn’t get down off of it.  Normally at this point I would jump up and go help him.

Today, Butterfly turned around and helped him down.  And every time they came to that spot in the play ground, Butterfly would wait for Professor and lift him down to the ground.  What a kind big sister.

Professor also tripped once and I stood up to go help him brush himself off.  Butterfly beat me too it though and helped him get up and brushed him off and made sure he was okay.

For all her crazy ways, she has such a kind heart.  I’m so glad to see it.

Safire

Safireall 3 kids, Butterfly, play parks Butterfly, park, Pirate, Professor

Thankfulness

May 05

Everyone,

At the park yesterday there was a pair of toddlers wearing matching shirts. I went hunting down their mom because here was another twin mommy! I first approached her friend (who was watching a toddler of her own on the slide) who pointed me in the direction of their mom. Their mom was sitting on the side with her iphone out. The friend informed me that the twins and her boy were 21 months old. Twin Mommy had brought their nanny along to the park. When I saw Twin Mommy again (kids pulled me away), she was on the playground talking. After saying hello and pointing out my boys, I made some kind of light hearted joke about how fun it was to be at the park with twins. (Being slightly sarcastic, of course. Being at the park with twins is tough work.)

She looked at me over her sunglasses and made this noise in her throat. Then she said, “Well I have help.” She walked away from me pulling out her phone. My mouth hanging open.

I’m not sure why I was shocked. I mean, I had seen them there with their nanny. She probably had a job and was taking time out of working to spend time at the park with her sons. I just don’t know why she didn’t spend that time WITH her sons and let the nanny do all the work.

Yes having twins is hard work. Yes going to the park with them at this age gives me a huge headache. Yes I’ve watched them climb up ladders and get stuck. I’ve had to climb into small slides to rescue them. I’m frequently running across the park to save someone from certain death. I think I end up being more tired than they are after a park trip.

But I don’t get it when people aren’t mentally checked in to their kids. Is it too hard to put the phone away for an hour and be with them? She missed her boys waving at my boys and a super cute twin moment. I hope she doesn’t miss other things.

I am grateful to her, however. This reminded me to be more checked in with my own kids. I watched Pirate sit quietly and watch the older boys playing with their back hoe toys and nicely ask to play. I watched them welcome him in and his face light up. I watched Professor climb all the way to the top of the play structure and look back at me and say, “Hi Mommy! Look me!” I watched Butterfly learning to make new friends by telling them, “Hi, I’m 4! I’m Butterfly! Want to play?” and how much fun she had ordering these kids around (the little empress). I listened as she proudly said that she had 2 brothers the exact same age and the happy glow she got when the kids were suitably awed. I watched Professor wave good bye to everything…tree, slide, tunnel, flowers, grass, port-a-potty, etc. I watched Pirate’s little legs pumping as fast as they would let him go to try and catch up to the big kids.

They sure are amazing. I am so lucky.

Safire

Safireinteractions, play parks

Today Was an Outside Day

May 04

Everyone,

This morning was horrible. The kids were NOT listening, not being good, and trying to break things again. The boys had 4 or 5 time outs before 9am. I wanted to put them back into their beds and just call it a day after they put all their cereal in the dog water and then smeared it all over the walls.

There was no mommy time this morning. Meaning I didn’t get my exercise in for the day. I barely got into the shower when I heard screaming from the other side of the door. I actually like the screaming because then I know where they are. They are standing right outside the door, unhappy, but not getting into mischief.

Trouble makers.

When I had a moment to look at my email, I saw my friends from church were meeting at a park to play. I wrestled all three kids into clothes (Butterfly didn’t want to go. She was having “too much fun at hooommme!”) and shoved them in the car with water and snacks.

We stayed at the park for almost 3 hours. Butterfly cried when we got in the car to leave. She really wanted to go back to that park and play with her new friends. We had chicken nuggets for lunch with a friend. Butterfly spent most of the boys’ nap time outside running in the front yard with Soot. Then dinner. After, we spent another hour outside.

They stopped ruining the house. They stopped driving me crazy. They picked me wild flowers and discovered ants. Butterfly tried to climb trees and ran back and forth with Soot. It’s so much less stressful outside.

It would be good to remember sunscreen for me though. My nose is burned.

Safire

Safireoutside, play parks, time outs

Give Me Your Best Shot- Park

Apr 09

Everyone,
This has been an amazing week for weather. The beginning of the week it was close to 90 degrees. It was hot. It was sunny. It was beautiful. We spent all day every day outside as much as possible. Because normally, when it’s 90, it’s unbearable. But there was barely any humidity and we loved it.

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Then last night a huge rainstorm blew in. It turned cold, fast. Today’s high was only about 58. It was windy. But we went outside anyway! We met some friends at the park and had a wonderful time. This is my favorite picture of Professor (I took it yesterday) and it just shows his personality so much. What a fun picture and a fun boy!Cute Pirate on the swings. The swings were a big hit today. We swung and swung and laughed and swung some more. The swings were in the shade so we (my friends and I) became Popsicles but the kids seemed to enjoy it. Cold red noses and all. This little girl enjoyed it the most. It was the only thing she wanted to do the whole time at the park!

Butterfly made a friend of a little boy who wanted to be tree frogs and climb all over this rope thing. This was right up Butterfly’s alley. She climbed higher than I’ve ever seen her climb and was a frog most of the rest of the day. When we got home, Juice came home and took Butterfly back outside for 2 and half more hours of play. What a lucky girl.

And they were all in bed by 7:09pm tonight. We are all exhausted. But it’s such a great exhaustion.

Safire

SafireGMYBS, Lala and Mimi, play parks

More Talk about Clothes

Sep 02

Everyone,

I know, I must be boring you with all this talk of clothes. But apparently I need to talk about them because that’s all I’ve been thinking about lately.

So. Clothes. How do you keep clothes clean? I swear between my 3 kids I am always washing something or pretreating something. The past 2 weeks or so I have washed something every single day, as well as doing all the rest of my laundry on my laundry day. Well, I should have been doing laundry on laundry day. But I was so burned out with laundry every day that I just wasn’t keeping up with it. Then I thought, “Why not just do this every day?” I’ve been trying it out for the past little while and it’s been working great. I think, any way. I have a lot less laundry to put away. I do kid laundry, then our laundry, then towels, then kid laundry, our laundry, sheets. And when I need to do whites, I’ll do those that day and start up my rotation a day later. I also throw whatever is stained in with whatever I’m doing that day.

Speaking of stains, my mom is the queen of stain removal. I am trying to become so but it is slow going. I have started to use this stain removal called Soilove. It’s pretty good, and seems to be working for most things. Plus it has so many other uses!

One other thing I do is I make up my own laundry detergent. I take half a cup of borax and washing soda, and add that to a cup of grated soap. I use fels naptha soap and it is working beautifully. I also mix them together in my food processor. I usually make a huge batch of it, mixing at least 4 bars of soap (grated) and about half a box each of the borax and washing soda. I figure I make about 96 loads at a time and it only costs me around 7 or 8 cents a load. Pretty cheep! I make the powdered soap but if you want to, you can make this into a liquid (more like jelly than liquid) by cooking down the soap with water before adding the borax and the washing soda. I don’t do this because I think it takes forever and I also don’t have a 5 gallon bucket to put it in. Or even a place to put this supposed 5 gallon bucket. So, I go powdered.

I think I am boring myself now. I’m off to find something else to do. Oh I know, picture clean up! I am excited. And sarcastic.

Safire

PS- I went with Lolli and AJ to a castle park today and we had so much fun! The boys took 3 hour naps afterwards, and only 3 hours because I woke them up when it became 5pm. A fun day! No pictures though because I forgot my camera. Oops.

Safireclothes, laundry, Lolli, play parks

Like A Turtle on his Back

Jul 30

Everyone,

Today we met up with my twin mommy group for a bit of park time. I’m new to the group. This was actually my first visit with them. They have been meeting every other week or so, starting the week before we left for Utah. So needless to say, this is the first time I’ve really been free to hang out. There were about 6 or 7 moms (I can’t remember who all came…it was a park after all, and we all have multiples) all with twins 12-18 months old. A few of us have older children as well. I’d say there was between 14-17 kids there at one time. That’s a lot of kids! Everyone has been taking turns doing things near their houses. I guess my turn is coming up.

Today we drove into DC to go to Turtle Park. This is one cute little park! They have what they call a “sprinkler area” which is just a big fountain in the middle of a fenced in place. It was very cute for the boys. Butterfly got a little bit bored and tried to block off all the water. She did love it when it came back up!

Pirate sat next to the fountain and tried to fill up a bucket with water…even though his bucket was upside down. Even though he got so cold he shivered. Even though he couldn’t open his eyes because of the water spraying around, he still tried.

Professor walked around and around that little enclosed area. He yelled in anger or frustration every time he got remotely wet. It was really funny.

The day ended with a picnic with the other moms and Butterfly cried when we had to leave. I, for one, was so happy to go home. Even with Flower helping, parks are getting to be too crazy to go to. Unless I am the only one there.

Safire

Safirelife with twins, play parks, sprinklers

Nice Day For A Birthday!

Mar 31

Everyone,

What a beautiful day we had today. The sun was shining, the clouds were high and white and the world is a bright spring green from all the rain. I was noticing on Sunday during a break in our showers that the grass and trees and everything seems to have a green tinge to it. I think spring is my favorite season in Maryland. It is so gorgeous and I feel like I have green glasses on all the time. Plus, I do love getting out of the house without so much “equipment” to wear. I am looking forward to the days of sandals without socks and no coats!

Today is Juice’s 30th birthday. I’ve seen him for about an hour total today. Work (obviously) was first and then he came home for dinner and left to go help out a good friend painting her house. I am happy to have him help her out and we’ve already celebrated his birthday several times now.

We did have some left over ice cream cake today and sang to him before he left. Butterfly even blew out his candle for him but cried when he licked the frosting off and not her.

The kids and I spent our day at the park with friends. Boy those kids ran and ran and ran. We wore out both dogs and the babies sat in their strollers and ate. It was so nice to feel the sun on our faces and breath the fresh air. I came home and opened all the windows. Did I mention how much I enjoy spring?

Happy Birthday darling! Can’t wait to see what this decade brings us!

Safire

SafireJuice's birthday, play parks

Play Time

Jul 26

Everyone,

Okay, I have really bad pictures (quality wise, there is no bad picture of Butterfly) to show you of our play time yesterday. We walked to the farmer’s market with Vinny as always, and then we stopped at a park near by. I had not been to this park and I was excited that it was all fenced in, and had no big drop offs and a play house and train! What a great park! Vinny and Butterfly ran and ran and ran and ran. Butterfly came back covered in dirt. It was even in her eye lid folds. But she had a fabulous time!

Safireblogs, farmer's market, Juice's Travel, play parks