Thursday, September 30, 2010

Rainy Days

I love to get out of the house with the kids even if it's just for a walk.  No such luck today!  The weather here as been kind of crappy: rainy, windy, humid, and downright GLOOMY.  Apparently there was even a tornado watch, but I didn't see any.  We had to stay in, and Mom-mom had a great idea... Let's color!  The girls sat on a large piece of foam board and scribbled away.  The first time they colored, they just ate the crayons.  Over time, they started to get the idea and now enjoy it!



I'll miss my family this weekend when I attend the 15th Annual At-Home Dad Convention in Omaha.  But, I'm excited to network with other stay at home dads and meet some fellow bloggers, such as Rebel Dad.  I'll let you know all about it when I get back.  Talk to you soon!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Please Touch Museum

What a blast it was!  The museum is huge, and even after 3 hours of play (which is pretty long for kids) we didn't even see every exhibit.  Mom-mom and I had lots of fun, but Poppy and Olive were absolutely amazed with everything they saw!  The lighting wasn't wonderful in some spots, so the pictures are only OK.  However, I was able to adjust some of them.

Olive riding a giant swan

Olive walking on the piano from the movie Big.

Poppy playing with the musical frogs

Can we please ride?

Yay!

Poppy and me

Olive and me

Poppy--Nice birdies

Poppy hanging clothes

Olive hanging clothes

Poppy--"What a nice goose."

"Kiss me!"

Poppy steering the boat

This was the highlight for the girls!  It's one of those optical illusion rooms that makes you look like you're growing as you walk into it--a la Alice in Wonderland.







"Yep, we need more corn."

"And celery..."

"And cauliflower..."

"That's probably enough vegetables."

"Mmmm, peanut butter!"

Olive is delivering the mail.

In the fake shoe store, Poppy marvels at the size of my feet.


Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Blue Eyes

Yesterday, we went to Janis's house to play.  She always makes us feel welcome with cookies and coffee (not for the kids).  Our friend Jen and her kids were there as well.  Someone realized that all 6 kids have blue eyes!

M

 L

Olive 

J


Poppy has blue eyes... Trust me! 

Fall is Fun

Trying to Catch Leaves (Olive in the middle)

 Olive

Olive 

"Weeeeeeeeee!" (Poppy on slide)

Poppy
 

Olive at Bellevue State Park

 Olive (What happened to her hair?)

Poppy (sick that day)

I am Not Sexist, But...

Even on the hanger, these house dresses look like aprons.  Why should I expect anything else when they are actually on the children?  They look like little housewives, ready to cook, clean, sew, and watch Oprah. If that's what they want to do when they have families, I will support them 100%.  So, we had a home economics lesson consisting of...

...greeting your guests.

 ...baking lots of goodies.


...licking the spoon.

...yelling at your children.

"Alright, dad.  Enough.  I think they get it."

Monday, September 20, 2010

Fall


The beginning of fall is undoubtedly the best time of the year.  The air is crisp but the sun still warms your skin.  This weekend was no exception, so we took the opportunity to enjoy a local orchard.  It was so much fun!  We met up with friends Janis, Mike and their twin boys to enjoy some cold apple cider and warm cider donuts.   
Kids from Left to Right:  Olive, Poppy, M and J*
At this time of year the orchard is filled with bright orange pumpkins, apples of all sizes and colors, and kids – actually, there were multiple sets of multiples at the orchard on Sunday.  It’s always fun to run into friends from our Moms of Multiples (MOM) group.
 
Poppy and a goat
Daddy and Poppy Feeding one of the goats
Olive feeding a goat (she didn't understand how to hold the food in the palm of her hand, so she just picked some grass and fed it to the goats)
J
Daddy and Olive feeding the chickens
M
M checking out the pheasant (or peacock - we didn't really know)
Mike and J feeding the chickens
Poppy
J in the sun.  Look at those adorable cheeks!
Olive milking a fake cow
Olive was also getting a little red from the sun, but that didn't stop her from enjoying the pumpkins.


Poppy
Poppy and J
Poppy
Me and Janis
Of course, this wasn’t the only time we saw our MOM friends this weekend.  On Friday and Saturday our MOMs group held its biannual resale event.  It always amazes me how organized and efficient the sale is, especially since preparing for it seems like a never-ending task that lingers on my to-do list.  Thank goodness my mom was here to help tag the clothes and keep the kids away from the safety pins.  Oh, and cousin Lauren and her roommate, Amanda, were able to pull themselves away from their studies at the University of Delaware to babysit the girls for a few hours while Joe and my mom volunteered/shopped at the resale on Friday night (and I tried to catch up on the housework that I’d neglected while preparing for the resale).  As always, it was a wonderfully successful event and all the MOMs (and dads) went home with a sense of accomplishment and a lot less stuff. 
We were lucky enough to sell an entire truckload of the girls’ baby items, but we didn’t come home empty handed.  We got some new dolls - both girls love dolls (which is my mother’s dream come true).  They hug them, feed them and kiss them a hundred times a day.   
The girls are so much fun at this age!  They run around the house and squeal with joy.  But my favorite part of this stage is that they can tell us what they want with sign language.  Don’t get me wrong – they only know a few words, but it makes all the difference in the world.  They know “more” (which Olive does by clapping her hands and pointing to the item she wants), “milk,” “poop” (although they don’t tell Daddy when they have to go, they only tell me and MomMom), “up” (which they also say, but it’s just so much cuter when they put their arms straight up un the air and wave their little hands), and a few other words like “ball” and “baby.”
Reading books is another of the girls’ favorite pastimes and like most kids their age, they want to read the same books over and over again.  I’m not complaining, but I’m glad we were able to pick up some cheap books at the resale that did not have the words duck or dog in the title. 
After an event-filled weekend, the whole family was tired and DIRTY!!!  These girls sure do like to play in dirt!  Here they are just before (their much needed) bath time.
Olive

Poppy
*Janis, who blogs here, and Mike prefer to keep their kids' names off of the internet, so we follow Janis' example and use their initials.