First day(s) of school

Evan had his first day of his last year of school (Sept 7th) - And I still managed a few quick snapshots before he left for the day!
And the twins had their first day of their 2nd year of school (Sept 21)! Even though the twins are still on California time, I woke them up early Monday morning, tried to sneak cute outfits on them before they truly woke up, but alas, I lost the battle again. And the end result, my very grown up 3 and almost 1/2 year old big boys, Austin and Logan on their first day of preschool:


And on their pick-up with their new teacher, Miss Beth!

The Boys of Summer...

I LOVE this picture! These are the boys of summer! I'm not sure they ever all sat down like this at one time, not doing all the "love" hitting, shoving, laughing, squirming thing that boys do so well.

Our neighborhood is inundated with boys! The way these guys play, reminds me so much of my childhood - everybody playing together, outside, all different sorts of games (basketball, baseball, tag, hide and go seek, water fights, etc) going on at the same time, all summer long.

The days dragged by when one household was on vacation. The rejoicing, extra sweet when the family returned, had barely pulled into the driveway and those left behind attacked and pulled out the long lost playmates.

We even started sharing meals together. It just made sense. Synchronized dining. Instead of the chaos created by staggered dinner times going on in separate households. Door bells ringing during your 15 minutes of table time. And at least in my house, dining to "Are we done? Can we go out now? But, Mommmmm, they're playing basketball! I wanna play basketball! We're gonna miss them. Are they inside now? Puh-leeeze, can we go outtttttttttt?"

Dining together - everybody prayed. Everybody ate (for the most part), they all talked and shared jokes, they cleaned up, then, together, they went back out into the great outdoors!

Sadly, school has interrupted our daily backyard camp (okay, fine, yes, truthfully, more like the frontyard), the days are shorter, nighttime comes so quickly, but we're currently still managing to hang on to those glorious 45 minutes or so when all boys are home, outside, fully energized and ready to play! Parents have adjusted, once again, synchronizing homework and meal times to allow for optimal playtime!

It's fun. It's sweet. I'm very blessed and very thankful to have such wonderful neighbors!

Goofing off...

While doing some "spring" cleaning, we came across Austin and Logan's baby carriers that we used extensively in Guatemala and then when they first came home.

I bought the material off of E-bay and had it shipped to another woman on E-bay who made them just for us. They were so comfortable and used to keep Austin and Logan so close, right up to my chest - right near my heart and under my chin.

I remembered they were advertised as holding up to 40 or 50 lbs...so...I just had to try...
Believe it or not, it was pretty comfortable carrying them. Or rather, at least not painful. ;-)

Nonnie got in on the fun, too and Logan even had a little snack going on in his!

I can't bring myself to sell them, so up they'll go with the other "valuable" and precious (too few) items from Austin and Logan's babyhood.

Of course, now that they've seen them and been carried in them, guess who asked to be "carried like Mama's babies" for a week!?

Momma's helpers...

And the winner is.......

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Guatmama! Guatmama, shoot me an e-mail at "donnataylor4 at verizon dot net" with your shipping address!

And in case I don't hear from Guatmama, I've got my back-up winner ready!

Thanks to all the entries and thanks to the sweet ladies over at Multiples and More for hosting an awesome party!

And many, many special thanks to Ink and Paper for the fantastic prize!

(Now, I'm of to work on my next Give-a-way!!

One day left!!

You can enter the below give-away up until 10 PM Sunday night!

Lurkers - delurk for the awesome prize!

Guatmama's get in on the fun!

The only requiremnt...

...is to comment! ;-)

The lucky, lucky winner will be announced Monday morning at 10 am!

AWESOME Give-a-way!!

Part of being a girl means loving "pretty" things! Especially nice "packaging" and stationary. I mean, who doesn't love an oh-so prett-i-ly wrapped gift or getting a precious little note card? I know it always makes my day!

So, when I discovered Ink and Paper (http://www.inkandpaper.com/) was a branch of the new company I work for, PUNCH (http://www.theartofimpact.com/), I immediately spent hours (off company time, of course!) drooling over all the gorgeous designs!!

And I am ecstatic! ecstatic! that they are providing me with my first Blog Give-A-way!

Over $100 worth of wrapping paper, stationary and notecards!

5 rolls of wrapping paper

3 packs of notecards, 1 pack of birthday notecards and 2 packs of stationary (can be used with your computer or handwritten).

How do you WIN this FABULOUS package?

Simple: Just leave a comment!!

And then check back on Monday, September 7th to see who the lucky, lucky winner is!!

Want more chances to WIN this prize? Go on over to Ink and Paper and then come back, tell me what your favorite item is in a 2nd comment and your name will be entered twice!

Want more fun give-a-ways, visit....

(P.S. There's a great post about Hubby below, don't forget to show him the love!)

Strong Daddy!

When you are active 3 year old twin boys it is really, really good to have a super strong Daddy!

Wait - is there a Daddy somewhere in there?

Oh - there. Here is our Daddy!
We LOVE you, Daddy!
Daddy, Daddy he's our man! If he can't do it, nobody (except Mom) can! (Hey, it's my blog!) Off to bed - the FUN way!
And it wouldn't be complete without that extra ounce of adventure to the ride that my twins must add...cuz you know he had to keep holding on well past the "safety zone" and almost fell off Daddy's shoulders!

And it's not just the bedtime shoulder ride that separates my hubby and my method of parenting. I've noticed that Daddys teach. Here's a quick example:

The Mom way: "Teeth time. Brush your teeth. Come on, hurry up, brush and then potty time. Here. Let Mom finish. Open wide." And then I finish the job, and off to the next task.

The Daddy way: "Alright, let's go brush our teeth. Get your tooth brushes. Let's put the tooth paste on and then, brush your front teeth (demonstrates this), Okay now, open wide...tilt the tooth brush (again demostrates),"...you get the picture,.

He's the "coach" of their lives. He breaks it down.

One (and I do mean, one) of the good things about Gary working every weekend, is that he has the boys two days during the week all to himself (while Mommy goes to work). And I constantly hear things like, "Daddy taught me how to swing - your feet go up like this and then you lay down like this." and "No, I do it like this, just like Daddy showed me."

And of course, the other stuff: "No, I want the meal in the box like Daddy gets us!" - as opposed to Mom's more economical $1 item purchases and we even split the french fries and drink!