strike! spare! ...gutter!

Yes, the girls went bowling today!! We had intended to make one last visit to the swim pond with H&M, but the weather didn't cooperate. Instead, we headed to the bowling alley! 

Fortunately, we were the only people there so didn't feel bad that the kids were a little crazy excited. Having not known what to expect (I tried explaining bowling before we left), the girls had more fun than I'm sure they imagined.

First of all, how CUTE is it that they get to wear bowling shoes!

And second, when you are with your friends, you can't help but have a ton of fun!

H&M are seasoned pros having been bowling twice last winter, but the girls caught on to the game immediately. In fact, after a few frames, Little Pie required no help from me. She was a maniac on the lane and her enthusiasm was out of control! (imagine that!?)

Little Bird had all the technical moves down and was very precise in her movements. She too was able to mostly do it by herself (she just needed a tiny bit of guidance). Though, she takes after her dad and is quite serious about her game.

 

All of the kids were very good sports and cheered each other on with incredible enthusiasm. Everyone was so proud of each others' successes.

It was such a huge blast. I was so impressed at how well they did. Look at these scores!!

winding down the summer

As Labor Day approaches and as big kids get ready to go back to school, the girls and I have been feeling the end of summer as well. Our "usual" activities are coming to an end and we are thinking about cramming in trips to the zoo and last visits to the swim pond. 

One of our favorite activities of the summer came to an end last Thursday. Our last Town Green experience was a blast. The Okie Dokie Brothers band played to a dancing crowd of excited kids. 

The girls were excited to wear dresses since they knew they would be dancing. They were concerned that BFF and Ms. E. might not wear dresses too, but were quite pleased when they saw their little friends in their dancing clothes. (Pretty soon these girls will be calling each other up, asking "what are you going to wear!?")

she's always on your side

Last week, I wrote a little something about how Little Bird has been showing off her incredibly huge heart. Well, as it tends to go with twins, her sister has been showing off hers too.

If you are looking for a boisterous cheerleader who will always take your side and be proud of even your littlest accomplishments, then Little Pie is your gal.

This girl can go from being down about not getting her way, to being so excited for your happiness in a matter of seconds. She loves to tell you how proud she is of you. She loves to clap and cheer for a job well done. One of her favorite sayings is "wahoo! I'm so proud of you!". 

She is proud of her sister for mastering skills she has not yet figured out. For example, she just can't seem to bring herself to poop on the toilet (even enticing her with a sucker or Mike n Ikes doesn't do it). But the minute second Little Bird poops in the toilet she is right there with loud praise and an eagerness to see Little Bird grip her Mike n Ike in her sticky little hands. 

She even praises me when I'm successful in the bathroom. (I can't seem to convince her it isn't necessary.)

I'm so proud of Little Pie for seeing things from other people's perspectives and for being proud of and happy for others instead of feeling jealous or hurt. I know those days may come, but right now I'm glad she is learning how to be supportive of others. 

She is going to be an incredible friend some day.

emotions

When you have two two and three quarter year old girls in the house, you can expect to see many emotions flying around.  Sometimes you can see all of those emotions within 5 minutes!

Because there are so many emotions flying around, we are working on identifying what they are and using them appropriately. We have a pretty good book that we try to read often to help learn what/why we are feeling a certain way at a certain time.

The girls are good at identifying the emotions that other people are feeling; sad, happy, mad. And while I have seen them share a special toy with each other or another friend when they see how badly the other wants it, I don't really expect to see a lot of empathy from them. After all, they are still young, and it takes a long time for children to see the perspective of another. 

However, the other day I introduced one of my favorite childhood movies to the girls. The Fox and the Hound. Since they love dogs, they were pretty excited to watch it. Typically when we watch something new or read something we haven't read in a while, the girls point out everything they see. Usually it's just the physical objects; "I see a fox! I see a bird! Where is the dog? I see a barn!". But now that they are getting older, they are starting to point out how characters feel. "Oh, the puppy is sad. They are happy! They have friends!". 

But while watching the movie, Little Bird went a little further. The fox and the hound are friends when they are little, but when they grow up the hound has been trained to hunt, and the two realize they can never be friends. Tod the fox, lives with a nice old lady while Copper the hound lives next door with the hunter. There is a scene where the old lady realizes she needs to save Tod from the hunter, so she decides to take him to a game preserve and leave him there to live. The entire scene is visual, there are no lines to describe what is happening. The old lady sweetly takes the fox in her arms and brings him to her car. He is excited because he thinks they are going for a ride. She sings him a song about how much she loved their time together. They get to the preserve and she lets him go. He tries to come back with her but she gently nudges him the other way. He bows his head in sadness. 

At this moment in the movie I look over at Little Bird; her bottom lip is quivering, tears are welling in her eyes and she starts sobbing, unable to catch her breath. She says, "the fox is sad, he wants to go back with her." She wants to know why he can't.

I start sobbing too because I can't believe how sad she is. I had no idea she would even be able to understand what was happening. We snuggle and talk about why he's sad and that he won't be sad for long. Let's watch and see when he is happy again.

I was truly amazed at her level of maturity. I honestly didn't think that either of the girls would "get" what was going on in every scene of the movie. I was proud of her for feeling the emotions of the fox even though I was so sad that she was so sad. 

Maybe I went to far in letting them watch this movie at this age, but I think I did the right thing by talking
about it with her. It is, of course, how we all learn.

Little Bird continues to amaze me with her maturity. She really does have a soft spot in her heart for how other people feel. She is really starting to see things from the perspective of others and I couldn't be prouder. Yesterday as I helped her put on her swimsuit we accidentally bonked heads. While I didn't say anything, she looked me in the eye and said "Sorry Mom. It was an accident. I didn't mean it." Then she kissed my forehead. 

Seriously. Right now she couldn't make me more proud.

one of those beautiful summer days

Today was one of those beautiful days that you just can't help but wish would come around more often. When you wake up in the morning with a cool breeze coming through your window, you just have to smile and feel refreshed and relaxed.

With that said, we of course had to take advantage of it!

After a whirlwind and exciting trip to Hom Furniture, we headed to Parker's Lake for some sandwiches and R&R. This park is awesome because there is a lot of shade down by the lake as well as by the playground equipment. It was a perfect day to be out past nap time.

After a yummy picnic lunch (that I'm thankful I had the foresight to pack before our trip to the furniture store)...

the girls got busy on the playground equipment.

The best part was that mom and dad could sprawl out on our picnic blanket and watch the girls play on their own. 

Of course that didn't last long enough because the girls are into the swings again. I'm glad Rob was here today to do the pushing (it can get so boring!).

And before we knew it, it was snack time again!

Hopefully we can get a few more of these days in before you know what comes around.

pizza!

Sometimes all we need is a spontaneous dinner out with Gramma and Grandpa!

Wild Rumpus

Story times are sometimes hit or miss with toddlers. This morning we visited the popular story time at the Wild Rumpus bookstore in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis. It's a really fun bookstore because they have chickens and kitties roaming around for additional entertainment (yes chickens!).

The story teller did her best to read the engaging books, but because the place is so popular there are a lot of toddlers who are busy doing other things. Our girls enjoyed the singing on between stories because it was something they could really participate in.

We headed to Lake Harriet for a picnic lunch, and I believe the girls were a bit more into that because food was involved and ducks were there!

A perfect summer morning with our friends!










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perfect t's

The girls at this stage are, of course, into asking "what does it says?"

They have some t-shirts from Gramma when she was in Marco Island last year. They are a bit snug now so they are jammie shirts. But, they had to ask me what they "says".

So, I told them.

(In case you missed it, "Pinch my cheeks again, and I'll kick you!")

Cuddle up!

Don't they look cozy? The girls new favorite thing to do after breakfast is cuddle up on the couch TOGETHER and watch Mickey Mouse.

I love to hear one of them say to the other, "come on! Let's get cozy!"



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the game.

Little Bird has always been the catalyst to which we determine if bedtime will go smoothly or not. Lately she has been providing us with her rendition of just how terrible the twos can be. Any little thing could set her off, so when bedtime would roll around, Rob and I would brace ourselves for some terrible unpleasantness. 

For several months now, Little Bird has only allowed me to get her jammies on and read the bed time books. She does let Rob give her a bath, but I have to dry her off, get her dressed and read the books. If Rob tries to do any of these things, she has a huge tantrum and because we are not willing to wait out the tantrum so close to bedtime, we give in.

I know giving in wasn't the "right" thing to do because soon we had two little girls that only wanted mommy to help them get ready for bed. I am, many times, the only one getting them ready for bed (many times Rob is out of town or working late), so I can see why it might be hard for them to change up their routine when Daddy is around.

But, they need to change it up. I would love the help and more importantly Rob wants to be involved.

So, I invented a game.

I put several pieces of paper with the words Mommy or Daddy on them, into a cute little bag and the girls draw out a slip to see who will get their jammies on for the night and who will read the bed time books. It's actually kind of fun because they get so excited to see who they'll draw. What's even more cool is that they can "read" what it says without our help. And the best part is that they accept who they received and are actually excited about it!

So, while sometimes both girls draw Mommy or both girls draw Daddy, it's nice to change things up a bit.

Bedtime has gotten to be more pleasant these days and I'm giving myself a pat on the back for my brilliant idea. Hopefully the newness of the game doesn't wear off too soon and we can ride this wave of pleasantness for awhile!


Side note: The other night, I left the house a little before bedtime to get my 4 mile run in, so Daddy wasn't sure how the girls would handle just him putting them to bed, so he rigged the game. Amazingly they drew his name every time! ha!

future oles!

On Sunday, my three best friends from college came over with their families. We enjoyed a yummy brunch, swimming and water play in the backyard, watching each others kids while marveling at how they've changed, and generally having a wonderful time. 

While us girls get together often (but not often enough!), we hardly get together as families, so it's been awhile since we've seen each others' husbands and kids. It was really fun to see everyone again. The kids had a great time playing and eating together.

The kids loved running around the backyard, some getting in the water, some just enjoying the food. Rob had a great time chasing the two boys around with water guns. After the heat, humidity and bugs got to be too much, we headed inside to cool off. The dads took the kids downstairs to the playroom while the moms got to enjoy some quiet chatter and dessert. It was an incredible morning!

We of course had to take a picture of the kids so we could show it to them when they all attend each others' high school graduations. See, remember when you all used to play with each other when you were little!?!

In order of birth: Bergen (7 yrs), Annika (4 yrs), Sam (3 yrs), Kaia (3 yrs), Evie (2 yrs), Sophie (2 yrs), Ingrid (2 yrs), Siri (1 yr), Violet (3 mos)