Nutcracker

Sunday, Dec. 12th, my friend Nadine (Joe's godmother) and I took our daughters to see the Kansas City Ballet's Nutcracker. We had an amazing time and Caroline and Emily loved watching the ballerinas. While Emily (age 4, almost 5)sat in her mommy's lap, Caroline danced in front of her seat trying to imitate EVERY move the ballerinas made. It was quite entertaining. For a "new" 3-year-old, I think she did very well. Thank you Emily and Nadine for a WONDERFUL time! We look forward to it next year!!!

The girls, Emily and Caroline, in the lobby of the Music Hall.
Thank you Emily for the Pink Crown!

Girls Night at the Ballet!

Three Years Ago....

We were born!!!...And why not have 3 birthday events to celebrate it!

Caroline striking a pose!

Here we are blowing out our candles at home with Mommy, Daddy and Jonathan.

Here's Joe with a new remote control truck. They got lots of fun new toys! Thank you Grandpa and Granny Sandra, Grandma, and Grammie and Grampie Bak!!! ..OH, and mom and dad too!!

Santa Visit 2010

So, this year we spontaneously decided to go see Santa at the BassPro shop. The kids were all VERY excited to see him ... until they actually set eyes on him, except for Joe. The closer we got, the more Caroline clung to me. When it was our turn, Joe ran as fast as he could to get in his lap, Caroline held on for dear life, and Jonathan hid behind me. Once Caroline saw that Joe was "safe" in Santa's arms, she did tell him he wanted a "princess tower" (not sure about that?), Jonathan informed him he wanted a Jackhammer (not sure about that one either?), and Joe just asked for a candy cane (since he saw all the other children walking away with one). Needless to say, I am hoping next year I won't have to be in the picture!

More to come....

...when we set up our home computer again. We have moved our "office" to the basement to make room for the upcoming birthday (twins) and Christmas onslaught of new toys. SO, when we are up and running I will have lots of great posts about the twins 3rd birthday and Christmas. Until then...:-)

"J" is for...

Jonathan: Hey Mom! LOOK! I made a big "J" with the dinosaurs.
Mom: That's awesome Jonathan.
Jonathan: Yeah. J for Jonathan. J for Joe. AND, J for Julie. That's you! Three "J" people in our house.
Mom: That is right!

Twins do the Weirdest, Oops I mean Cutest Things...

Tonight after baths, and very LONG and LATE naps, the twins got into their "wonder-twin-play."(SEE ABOVE PICTURE: "riding the bus") It is something we have noticed the twins do. They don't plan or discuss what they are playing, they simulateously start to play this elaborate, detailed pretend fantasy, of say, "riding the bus, to go to school, to go to the grocery store, to take their babies to the doctor, to go to daddy's work..." and it goes on. What is interesting to me is that they carry on this conversation while playing but don't really consult with eachother about what they are doing, but they are BOTH playing along...to top it off, and this is the BEST PART, they get into this zone of no disturbance! I LOVE IT!!! They want nothing to do with me...as I write this they are in the basement playing who knows, but I got a blog completed.

SO, after I finished this blog, I called downstairs to the twins for bedtime and this is the response:
Caroline: Shhhh Joe joe, mommy coming.
Mommy: Ummm, please come upstairs, it's bedtime.
Joe/Caroline: No, 5 minutes please,.
Mommy: No, it is late and you have school tomorrow. It is bedtime now.
Caroline: But we flying the airplane to the beach. See?
Mommy goes downstairs and sees the following scene:

Caroline: See Mommy! We flying the airplane. Joe Joe is the pilot.

Note: They had half of the toys in the basement piled on and next to a mini trampolene...that will be fun to pick up since I just reorganized the entire basement play area. Oh well... they played nice and I got to blog:-) Enjoy the flight!!

Spiderman, Dora and Diego

Happy Halloween 2010!

Jonathan as Spiderman, Caroline as Dora, and Joseph as Diego.
Outside shots were difficult ... it was like holding back the horses at the Derby... they couldn't wait to get going!

The Daddy's could barely keep up! (That is NOT Thomas in the clown wig:-) We have a new neighbor and he and his daughter went treating with our clan).

All the Toddler's in our neighborhood treating together.

Gingerbread Grammy

For those of you that don't know, my mother taught elementary school for YEARS. So, when she planned to come out, she wanted to volunteer and do a "lesson" with the kids in their classes at Kid's Day Out. She planned her lesson around the story "The Gingerbread Boy." She had a friend make her the most adorable apron with a gingerbread pattern. As a bonus, she had extra material that she had her friend make the kids matching aprons too. You can see below my mother and kids making gingerbread in their aprons. The kids were SO excited and HAPPY to have their Grammy visit their school!

Reading the story in Jonathan's class.
Helping Jonathan make his Gingerbread Boy for an art project in his class.

Reading the story to the twins class. They are sitting to the right side of the "circle." (Joe is leaning back and Caroline is next to him.)

Making Gingerbread with Grammy in their aprons.

Grammy time- Part 2

AMERICAN GIRL DOLL:

If you asked me what my favorite thing to do as a child, I would tell you, "Playing with my babies." I am SO THRILLED that Caroline LOVES playing babies too. SO, for her (early) birthday present, my mother and I took her to the AMERICAN GIRL DOLL store. She was in Heaven!!

Choosing her baby with Grammy.

Testing out the baby stroller (she thought it was hers and played with it for quite a bit).

She sat on this "couch" and read a story to this baby for quite a bit too!

At home with her NEW BABY.

She named her ABBY!

Grammy Time-Part 1

SO, Grammy (Julia's Mother), flew in Wednesday, Oct. 20th. We have been having so much fun, that I'm not sure how many "parts" to the blog I will be adding!

KC ZOO:

We were VERY LUCKY to have TWO Grandma's join us in the visit to the zoo!

This was the first trip in about THREE YEARS, anywhere, we did not rush home for naps or bottles! We feel like humans again and can't thank the GrandmaS for coming because, for once in a very long time, adults out numbered the kids!!

Playdough

Yesterday Jonathan came home with homemade playdough from school. So, today we made enough to go around!

Firemen and Bike Riders

Today (10/10/10) we went to the Olathe Fire Department's Open House. Caroline was present but was a little tired, so she had no desire to participate. She did enjoy watching her brother's have fun!

The boys got to spray the fire hose.

They sat in a helicopter.

Watched a "wreck/rescue" demonstration.

OTHER NEWS:

We promised Jonathan a new bike for his 4th birthday. We really didn't know when we would buy it since he could ride his other one just fine...we were sort of waiting for Joe to show an interest in riding a "big boy" bike. Well, that occurred and we got Jonathan his new BIGGER big boy bike! WE have had SO much fun riding together!!!

"BIG KIDS" now on their bikes!!

And there they GO!!! (sniff sniff from mommy!!))

Pumpkins, Playing and Puppy!

I'm packing all the following photos/experiences into one blog due to time constraints. Hope you enjoy!

PUMPKINS: The kids got mini pumpkins the other day. Joe and Caroline had a blast decorating!

PLAYING: The neighbors across the street made a ramp off their steps. The entire hood of kids had a blast!

Joe and neighbor Colin

Jonathan

Caroline and her "big girl" Bailey

PUPPY: Not really a puppy any more, but it went with the title. The other day Jonathan was playing with tape. I heard him say, "Gage, stay still. Look I gave you a pretty necklace. Oh, Mommy he loves it!" Well, not really... he was growling, but I let Jonathan think Gage liked it:-)