Our playdate with old friends

Today we had a playdate with Josh, Jack, and Ally.  I met their mothers about 7 years ago on a infertility forum.  We discovered we all lived near each other.  We planned to meet each other but before we met, I got pregnant.  So I asked them if they still wanted to meet me.  Of course they said yes, and a month later, they were both pregnant too. 

Jill had twins Jack and Ally, and Cynthia had Joshua.  After they were born we had monthly playdates, sometimes even more.  Once they hit 4 and starting preschool it became harder to get together, so we started meeting up from time to time for dinner, movies, etc.

The ironic thing is of course I went on to have twins (via IVF) AND last December Cynthia had twins too…..naturally!  So it was a hard pic to take getting all the kids together, but who would have thought when we met in winter 2002 that we would ALL be parents of muliples one day.   Anyway, the kids haven’t seen each other in forever and they all came over today for a playdate.

They got along great and had a lot of fun.  They were cracking me up with their 5 year old humor…..see the video!

Here is a pic from I think their first playdate

Braeden, Jack, Ally, Joshua

And we thought take pics of 4 babies was hard back in the day…..now there are 8.

 

Our day at the zoo

We finally found a weekend with nothing planned and hoped to make it to the zoo.  We had been watching the forecast all week calling for rain.  The good news was after the babies woke up from their nap it was looking pretty nice.  By the time we got to the zoo, we had a perfect sunny day.  My mom called and wasn’t doing anything so we added a row to the van and she came along too.

Braeden has loved this zoo since he was little because there is a train.  We like it because its a small zoo that is doable in a few hours.  We have bought the season pass almost every year, so on our way home from a shopping trip we can pop in for a quick ride on the train or short tour through the zoo.  We made it there with Liam and Brenna last year once.  We are hoping to get up there a few times this year, we also bought an add-a-guest for grandma or grandpa.

I had hundreds of pics and really I did narrow them down to my favorites, but there are still a ton!

  Here Liam and Brenna are last year (6-27-07)

And here we are this year…..I didn’t realize until I looked it up that it was almost a year to date.  (6-28-08)  Wow, what a difference a year makes!

  Here we all are on the train ride

Liam on the train ride and Brenna playing peek-a-boo through the door at the train station.

The kids all loved the butterfly house and we let the little ones down to chase the butterflies, but were careful not to step on any. 

Braeden feeding the cow

This was the babies favorite animal….not sure if they realized he wasn’t alive.

Brenna loved the pond, she decided she thought it might be like a real pool. ICK!The penguins

  Brenna LOVED the carousel!

Liam was not a fan, he sat out the rest of the rides.  He was a lot happier watching.The boys

Can’t wait for the next trip to the zoo!  

Another busy summer week

T-BALL

This week Braeden started t-ball, he is on the Angels this year…..the only team with a WHITE shirt….gee thanks. They play on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They really don’t practice, it is pretty much a fun league where they teach them the basics and sportsmanship during the game. They don’t announce the score at the end of a game and every inning every kid in the line up gets to bat, regardless of how many outs the team has.

He’s the one running to first base.

Vacation Bible School

On Tuesday, Vacation Bible School also started at our church. I used to be active in planning it, teaching, doing games, etc back before having children. I tried to be helpful when Braeden was younger and I just wasn’t as helpful. Now with Liam and Brenna I am on the sidelines a bit more, I feel bad i can’t be more helpful, but when they see me chasing one as the other one is running in the opposite direction in the activity center, I’m sure they understand.

A bit blurry, but this is his buddy Abby, we met them at church back when the kids were just babies and Abby and Lilly (her sister) are the nicest girls. They also have a brother Nicholas who is close in age to Liam and Brenna and expecting another little brother in September!

After dropping Braeden off at VBS on Wed, I took the babies for a walk on the church grounds and in the park….they napped for about 45 minutes. AWWWW!!!

VBS was beach themed this year.

And the kids final performance…..Braeden is behind the boy on the far right with a baseball cap on.

AUNT HELEN

We’ve had a trying week, lots of crazy things have happened with the outlaws. We may be having Aunt Helen move in with us, things are kind of up in the air. It might be time to step in and take our turn.

Most of you know Aunt Helen, those of you who don’t, she is Ed’s 90 yr old aunt. His father passed away 14 years ago and this is his only sister. Ed pretty much has been like a son to her the last 20 years, they are extremely close. Amazingly enough she had been healthy enough to live on her own with our help when it came to yardwork, household chores that she wasn’t able to do on her own, dr appts, groceries, all the things she couldn’t do when they took her license away. Last year about a month after Liam and Brenna were born her health took a turn for the worse and she was no longer able to live on her own. Because the babies were so young and demanded so much time….and you know how life is with a newborn (or two) in the house, we were not in a situation where we would be able to meet her needs.

She moved next door to my bil’s house, they have been taking care of her the past year. I think they are getting a bit burned out and its time for her to get a change of scenery. Anyway, there was an incident this week the prompted a big argument with my sil (my husbands brother’s wife). I don’t want to leave the lovely details on my blog for everyone’s eyes to see, but it has been a very stressful few days.

OUR FUN PLAYDATE

On a more upbeat note, it was nice to get an invitation to my twin mommy friend Barb’s house which took us out of the house for a few hours to avoid phone calls from everyone trying to get the latest on what is happening, etc. Liam and Brenna were sleeping a bit too late and I knew that if they didn’t get up soon, Sarah and Jacob would be ready for their naps before we even made it over there.

We arrived at lunchtime and Barb made everyone lunch, I told her about what great appetites Liam and Brenna had and after about 10 minutes of eating they proceeded to throw their food all over their cream carpet….niiiiice guys, way to leave an impression, lol! After Paul Oxy-cleaned the carpet (Thank you Paul!) we took the kids out for a swim.

I really thing Brenna is going to be a child who needs a bit of extra time to warm up to social situations and a need for extra time and advance warning when transitioning to the next activity. She took a while to warm up, but after she went off on her own for a bit she was finally ready to play with the others for a bit.

They played in the pool….Liam stole a few toys, Brenna ate the sand, they drank the pool water, all the things that toddlers love to do on a summer playdate. They had a fun time and were sad to leave. I’m happy they have twin buddies that are so close that they can grow up with. I know it will be fun to watch them all grow up together.

The girls playing in the sand

Anyone want to suggest a caption for this one….check out where Jacob’s hands are at. We are going to have to teach Liam how to defend his sister’s honor! Instead of taking action he is have a drink of some nice cold pool water….ahhhh!

Liam thinking he needed ALL of the sand toys!

When Braeden was born, we had a playgroup of three children all about the same age and they had a lot of fun on those playdates (hoping to get them all together next week, its been a long time…will make a post if it happens), I’m glad we have some friends for the babies too. I’m sure you will see lots of pictures to come. Thanks Barb, Paul, Sarah, and Jacob….we will have to do it again soon!

Wordless Wednesday

    

Happy Birthday Lochlan

Yesterday we had my nephew Lochlan’s third b-day party here.  My sis Amber lives near Detroit and most of the guests live up here.  We volunteered having it here before thinking about the work involved.  No it really shouldn’t be a lot of work…..but those you you with twins realize how keeping the house clean is like impossible.

I wouldn’t want anyone to think I don’t clean, because I swear I clean like 10 times a day…why I’m not sure, at the end of the day it looks just like it did two hours before when I just picked it back up.  But you know that deep cleaning that you might not want anyone else to see.  Like the caramel that was spilled in the fridge 2 months ago, you just didn’t get a chance to scrub yet.  Or the fridge phonics letters that have made their way INSIDE the fridge….we were wondering where all the E’s went!  But you know the stuff that goes with having a gathering at your house.

Amber arrived about 1.5 hour before the guest were to arrive in true Amber style (hee hee, gotta love her) with the cakes not frosted and nothing set up.  I think I took over the cakes about 2:30 when the twins went down for a nap and finished up the cakes 3:15 as she was finishing getting dressed…um yeah the party started at 3:00, thank goodness my parents were able to entertain the family memebers.

Anyway, the black clouds rolled in right on time at 3:00.  So much for all the kids running around outside.  It did get nicer a bit later though.  Lochlan loved his cake and was so cute.  He looked at the train cake and informed Amber that the train had no buffers.

The kids had fun breaking open the pinata and playing pin the 1 on Thomas.  I remembered I had a Thomas music CD and put it in and Lochlan was so cute dancing to the music.

Here are a few pics!

Lochlan with this Thomas cake.

Opening a present

Madelyn and Amber

 

 

Bumpa and Brenna

 

My cousins Jenn, Rex, Pati and our next generation….Lochaln, Brenna, Jillian, Kati, Braeden, Liam, Madelyn, and Laiken.

Playing

  Braeden pulling Lochlan on a birthday ride

The Fireman’s Homecoming Parade

Today was the Fireman’s Homecoming Parade in the town we live in and where I grew up.  I march in this parade as a kid with the brownies, church, library, theatre group, and a politician.  Maybe a few other things along the way too, I forget....and of course I think I love being on the sidelines to catch the candy the most.  It was always one of the highlights of the summer. 

We debated on whether we should go or not for a number of reasons, especially because it was after their bedtime, but ended up saying...hey what the heck, lets try it.  If they don't like it we go home.  We parked in a spot where we knew it was safe and headed up.  When we got to our parade spot my sil and bil and their kids were there which made Braeden's day.  He loves to hang out with his cousin's Matthew, Brenden, Billy, and Nicole.  Baby Melissa was there too.  We didn't think they would be there, in the past few years we have been the only ones up there.

The babies needed some friends to watch the parade with and their twin buddies Sarah and Jacob came to join them.  They all hung out climbing up and down the stairs and playing in the wagon until parade time.  I was a bit nervous with the twins both wanting to climb the steps the whole time, but once the parade began, we strapped them in to keep them safe and they were content.

I thought Liam would like it the most, at Disney he was in heaven yelling "car, car, car" at anything with wheels on it.  He sat contently watching, but looked a bit unimpressed, I guess Disney's Pixar Parade is a tough act to follow.

Brenna on the other hand, was pretty excited.  She was jumping, waving, smiling, and clapping especially when the fire truck all had their sirens on.

I'm not sure if I figured out how a video works....we will see if that doesn't work here is the link http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v23/Brookie/?action=view&current=parade1.flv

The kids all held out pretty well, Braeden came home with a bag full of candy. We got home about 9pm, the babies were still up but once we changed their diapers and put on some jammies, they were out and slept pretty well through the night.

Barb and twins Sarah and Jacob and me with Liam and Brenna waiting for the parade to begin.

The kids blowing off energy before the parade.

Liam, Brenna, and Daddy

 

Brenna getting excited with the care noises, notice the grip on Liam's leg.

Clapping

 

And just being happy!

Liam saying "caaaa caaaaa caaaaa" (car)

I think he was having a stare down with the cop going by.

Braeden is pretty happy about getting lots of candy.

Bumpa doing his juggling basketballs.  The funny thing was as a teenager, my dad would do this in the parade and I would be soooo embarrassed.  And here Braeden is next to me telling anyone who would listen...."that's my grandpa, that's my grandpa!"  He was with the healthy community float.  They put my mom's stairmaster on the float too......ummmm the stairmaster hasn't been seen since.  They took it back to a church and put it next to the shed and when my dad went to get it, it was gone....needless to say, my mom is pretty hot right now!

Oh, and poor Jacob got nailed in the head by a fireman throwing candy....poor guy!

 

And the parade is over, time to go home and go to bed!