I See Gymnasts in my Future

The twins hardly play with their toys.  So I have to get creative most days.  Any activity that lasts at least 8 minutes is a good one.  I don't know why I thought of this before... but the homemade balance beam kept their attention for at least 10 minutes.  Extra special!

 Look at Elinor's face and body language on the last photo!  PRICELESS! 

I finally broke down and had Elinor's hair trimmed in the back.  She was so easy at the salon.  It was only $6 to cut off the mullet in the back.  Not sure why I waited so long to do it.  I think I was hoping that it would all start to blend.... but it never did.  

 Birthday week this week.  It ends with a trip to Olean for the weekend and a trip to the pediatrician.  

B&B

My neighbor took a few shots of the kids one evening. It was the end of the day.  They were dirty.  I thought I would share a couple.

We have had a slew of visitors in the past two weeks.  I love to stay at B&B’s; however, I know that I would never be able to run a B&B… the constant change of sheets and towels; keeping food in the house; keeping floors and furniture free of dog hair… it’s all a bit too much for me.  I need a few days in between each visit to keep up.  I love the hustle and bustle though. 

For the record… this heat is a killer on me.  I would rather have the snow… lots of it.

New Sitter

The kids are trying out a new sitter on Mondays starting today.  Actually, they have spent one other day with her before. They came home with handcrafted projects – which I just love.  That is just one of the reasons we are thinking of going to a new sitter.  I really want them to be involved in many different activities and different types of play.  I don’t think the current sitter is providing that. I also do not believe that the twins sleep well at the old sitter’s house which results in mood and behavior problems at home; not to mention sleep issues during the night. 

John is receiving speech therapy on a weekly basis through the county.  A speech therapist comes to the house and plays/works with John. The program also administered an ADOS test for John and surprisingly he had a few red flags for being on the spectrum. We do not believe John has any level of autism, but we will follow through with the recommendations.  If he qualifies for special programs, then by all means we will take advantage of them while he is still young.

I am quite interested to see how they did today and how the rest of the evening goes. 

Just like her mama

See, I am not the only one in my house crazy about black beans.  Elinor was eating them like candy.  I was so happy!

First she picked them out of her sweet potato & black bean quesadilla

Then I made it much easier for her and gave her a nice pile to eat from. 

Yum!

Back To Work

It's back to work for me this morning.  We had a wonderful weekend.  The kids were awesome everywhere we took them.  They were outside a lot.. summers are great for that.  Over the weekend, we enjoyed: swimming, carousel rides, hot dogs & hamburgers, dinner out, lunch out, ice cream, watermelon margaritas, play time, sleeping in (until 6:30), pizza on the grill and much more.  I'll try to post some pictures later.

EDIT:

Happy Independence Day

We took the kids to a street fair.  We forgot the stroller.  It was hot.  However, some fruit smoothies and a shady spot in the grass gave us some relief. 

John and Andy mowing the lawn. 

John has to do everything with Daddy. 

Carousel Museum

Too bad neither child wanted to ride on a carousel horse.  

We were too busy keeping the twins from drowning while at the beach club on Saturday to take pictures. Too bad because the scenery was beautiful.  

Ice cream. 

The kids were so great when we took them out to eat at a restaurant for dinner, so we took them for ice cream too.  So fun. Isn't she beautiful!