My Little Biker Gang

Uncle Matt, Aunt Nikki, and Aunt Laurie got the kids little ride on motorcycles for their birthday. These are the first toys that the kids can actually ride, and move by themselves. They never understood any of the other toys. They were so excited that they could hardly wait for Matt and Nikki to get the wheels on! I love this picture of the two of them, because they really are like their own little biker gang, with Jack being the leader as expected! They ride all over our house, and when Jack stops, Sophie stops too. Then they giggle at each other, and ride on. The bikes have an engine sound for when you start the bike, and music for the turn signals, and horns. Of course the kids hit the key button to turn the car on, and then they have to play the music the whole time they are riding. So much fun! I love that they are playing together more and more, and discovering each other.

Trick-or-Treat at the Mall

We took the kids to the mall last night to go trick-or-treating, and collect some loot. (The kids won't know if I eat it all right?) There was supposed to be a Curious George show, but instead it was a witch singing. I'm not big on the whole witch thing, so we skipped out and started trick-or-treating instead. It was good, because we missed the crowds, and were able to pop into Picture People for free pictures. (Free pics of my kids? Sign me up!) Then we came home and visited a few neighbors. The Gates, who live behind us got Sophie a stroller and Jack some Matchbox cars. Needless to say, Sophie had to push the stroller the rest of the way...and sleep with it! Silly girl! We also stopped in at a house of one of our neighbors with kids. Emma gave the twins tons of candy, and invited them in to play. Needless to say, we were done at that point, and let the kids play. It was a fun, and late night!

*Please bear with me that the pictures are all mixed up. It has taken me HOURS to do this post, and I refuse to spend anymore time on this. I see a switch to typepad in our near future. Blogger has me so mad I'm going to throw my computer across the room!!!!

Getting candy at the bookstore. It took the kids a little while to understand how to take the candy and put it in their bag.(Of course their mom kept telling them the candy wasn't a good choice when they took things that would get stuck in their teeth. Matt thought I was crazy!)

Waiting with Scooby-Doo to get their pictures taken.

Getting candy.

Sophie's little cat costume. Matt taught her to say, "Meow," and to pretend to lick her paw.

Waiting with Daddy and all the other kids.

Jack-er I mean Lightening McQueen. (Did you really think it would be anything else? ;))

The kids with their homemade treat bags. (I wasn't going to pay $20 to buy two treat bags!)

What a cute cat!

Punkin' Pickin'

OK, so we didn't technically pick any pumpkins, but we did have a good time. On the way back from the beach, we stopped at a big pumpkin farm right off the highway. We had talked about doing this for a while, and when Matt saw the sign, we took the off ramp! There was so much to do there, and it was fun to watch the kids run around. True to his nature, Jack wanted to see everything all at once. He only wanted to stop long enough to discover what each activity was, and then he wanted to see the next. Sophie, true to her nature, wanted to stop and smell the roses. She wanted to take her time, and fully explore each activity. Therefore, Matt and I split up after the first few minutes. We both ran with our own kid all over the pumpkin patch. Well, I ran, Matt walked. It was a gorgeous fall day, just lovely, and we took advantage of it, and played, ate, and enjoyed ourselves!

I'll warn you now that there are a TON of pictures. We had a really good time, and I felt like sharing. Complete picture overload! ;)

The kids were way too short to operate the cars themselves, but Jack wanted to push, and Sophie wanted to be pushed, so it worked out.

We spent the most time on this big "Jumping Pillow." It was almost like a bounce house, but it was shaped like a pillow. The twins were apprehensive at first, but after watching the other children, and trying it out, they loved it. Jack was jumping with both feet off of the pillow, where as Sophie was a little more apprehensive. We were lucky that when we came back later, before lunch, we had the pillow mostly to ourselves. There were no big kids going crazy. Jack even figured out how to walk up it himself, by going up the corners. Too fun!

Sophie was much happier when Daddy was there to spot her.

Jack in a tractor.

Pushing a big ball around a fenced in area.

A slide made on top of a hay bale.

Jack loved this teepee. Sophie hated it, and wouldn't go anywhere near, let alone in it! It's funny that they don't trust us when we say it's safe.

Daddy being silly for the twins.

We wanted to get a picture, but Sophie cried because we stopped the wagon.

Look closely, and you can see my bribe to get Sophie to stop crying. Hint *It's in her cheek. Haha!

Trying to get a good picture by the pumpkin was impossible!

Pushing the wagon, except she could only do it backwards!

Finally a good picture after lots of hard work!

Beach, Part 2

Here are a few extra pictures of our trip. Enjoy!

Family Bike Ride

Family at the beach.

Mommy and Sophie in the water.
(Please excuse my yucky white legs! HA!)

Playing Bocce Ball with the extra balls, while Daddy, Renee, and Mike all played.

(So glad Sophie didn't drop it on her toesies!)

Beach! Beach! Beach!

Columbus Day Weekend, we loaded up the car and headed to Ocean City Maryland, for four days of the last of summer. It was a gorgeous beach weekend, with warm weather, and a luckily, some warm water too. The twins were the only kids this weekend, and were therefore spoiled rotten with attention by all of our friends. We played in the water at the ocean and the bay, rented bikes, and rode down the boardwalk, went for walks in the stroller down the main drag(it was anitque/hot rod weekend, so the kids loved this), had lots of good food, and tons of fun with our friends. All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. Jack only woke up once screaming for his trucks, so that was good! ;)

We were the first ones to the house, and couldn't get in without the keys, so we ventured to the beach. It was a quick walk, and the twins rode in style, on our shoulders of course! When we got to the beach, the twins were instantly excited. After all, it was the biggest sandbox that they had ever seen! They mosied slowly down the beach, stopping to play in the sand, and pick up shells and other treasures.

This was Sophie's first reaction to the water. The picture is not lit well, but if you look at her legs, she won't let them touch the water. She gripped my waist, and when I pryed her off, she held her legs high in the air. Silly girl! This beach-loving girl was not expecting her daughter to do anything other than love the beach!

This was Jack's reaction. Yep, he's thinking, "no mom, it's not gonna happen. I'm not going anywhere near that water." And he didn't. I tried to put him in the water also, but he is much stronger than Sophie, and I couldn't pry him off of my hip!

Thank goodness Sophie decided to give it a second try. Her face says it all. She loved the water and the waves. Matt held her hand, and she would rush into the ocean, until the water was up to her chest. She even tasted a little...and made a huge yuck face. She wanted to stay in all afternooon. My little fish!

And this was Jack giving it a second chance. No, nothing changed. I don't know why he doesn't trust his mom and dad, but I think he thought we were trying to throw him to the wolves by taking him to the water. So we gave up and let him play in the sand, and took tons of pictures of Sophie. He was happy in his sandy world.

Daddy and Sophie jumping the waves. I really should have put a suit on her!

Ah, finally Jack became excited. He loved the seagulls. He chased them all around the beach screaming at them. He actually does a pretty mean impression of them, but it scared them away. And then he would cry. Lucky for him, the seagulls are all over the beach.

We were very lucky that the house we stayed in shared a private beach on the bay with the other houses in the complex. The bay was much calmer. My mom tells the story that when I was little, and first saw a lake, I walked until the water was to my chin, and they had to pull me out for fear I wouldn't stop. That's exactly what Sophie did, until Matt turned her around and guided her back towards the beach. She loved it!

Here's Jack, finally being brave and going into the water. He wasn't as overwhelmed at the bay, because there were no crashing waves. He also became adventuresome, and walked out into the water.

We gave the kids some sand toys, and let them play. The loved it! When we asked them if they wanted to go to the beach, they would say, "Beach! Beach! Beach!" I'm happy, because I am a beach lover, and I have such good memories of family trips to the East Coast. I can't wait to raise a couple of beach lovers of my own!

Two Year Pictures

Matt and I have decided that we are going to make taking pictures in the park a tradition. If you don't remember last year's pictures, go here. (click on the word here!) We went to a local park the day after the twin's birthday, all decked out in their birthday gear. We let them run around the field while we snapped pictures of them. It was way more work than last year! We did get some good ones though, so I was happy! If you would like to see all of the pictures, once again, there are tons, so click on this link to flip through the pictures on facebook. We hope you enjoy looking at pictures of our kids as much as we do, because there are a lot! ;)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36703&id=1373563290&l=6a1c8bb9f5

Happy 2nd Birthday Babies!

Today we celebrated Jack and Sophie's second birthday! So much fun! We got up bright and early this morning and opened presents first thing. Jack was so excited, that wanted to just grab everything and open it. They were very excited to get new toys and books. Sophie was especially excited about the skirt I picked out for her with pink polka dots on it. She was not happy that I didn't put it on that second. We spent the morning getting ready with some help from Grandma P. Thank goodness she helped, because I was a wee bit over my head. After I iced the cakes, Matt decorated them with more icing, and Cars toys for Jack, and "Girls" for Sophie. My mom and I made a million puff balls for celing in the screened in porch, just in time for Uncle Rick and Aunt Kim to arrive to help us put up the decorations. Then Grandma and Grandpa A arrived. We got the twins up from their nap, and showed them the decorations on the porch. Jack was afraid of the puff balls! Too funny. After this, Grandpa P and Uncle Matt and Aunt Nikki showed up on their Harleys. Jack loves the "bikes." Lastly, Great Uncle Greg, and Aunt Theresa, and cousin Rachel came. Rachel played with the twins, and made them wild! Everyone talked, and snacked and played with the kids for a few hours, until it was time to cut the cake. Jack took one look at his cake and started pulling the cars off. Sophie pulled her dolls out of her cake, and licked off all of the icing. She loves icing as much as me. After cake we opened presents. The twins are spoiled rotten, and received lots of toys that will keep them busy for months! After everyone left, we calmed the kids down, and put them to bed. They went right to sleep after such a long day!

There are way to many pictures to post on the blog, so instead I am including a link to an album on facebook. All you have to do is click on the link, and flip through the pictures. Maybe you can get a sense of how much fun we really had! :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36238&id=1373563290&l=4a997c96bc

Back to our regulary scheduled progam.

We have filled the summer with memories:

• playing in the baby pool, and puting the kangaroo climber slide in it,
• having play dates with the Dowlings,
• visiting the Hershey Zoo, and Chocolate world,
• eating lots and lots of berries and watermelon,
• learning to talk, the kids are reapeating almost everything we say now(such a relief that they are finally talking!),
• playing together, and fighting some too,
• going to the park, and playing in the sandbox(Jack's favorite) and on the swings(Sophie's favorite),
• playing in the mud,
• running around in the rain(Jack loved it, but it took Sophie a little time to warm up to it)
• visiting with family,
• drawing with chalk on the basketball court,
• blowing bubbles in the backyard,
• visiting with the neighbor who lives behind us, Kathy,
• watching the birds, bunnies, squirrels, and groundhog that live in the backyard,
• going for lots of walks and jogs in the jogging stroller,
• offcially starting potty training (EEEKK!), now if i could get someone to sit on the potty...
• eating ice cream,
• staying up late, and waking up early...a wicked combination!,
• watching Cars, which is Jack's favorite,
• ransacking the house daily,
• visiting a few fairs,
• visiting Daddy at work for lunch,
• going shopping with mommy,
• laughing at butterflies,
• enjoying the warm sunshine,
• cracking up at our little ones,
• enjoying God's beautiful summer, and the blessing that our family is.

Now that summer is over, it's time for me to get back to blogging! I have missed coming on here and writing posts. It gives me and excuse to take pictures, and a reason to record everything. I love that we recorded their first year on here, or we wouldn't have any record of it, it was such a whirlwind. So, I will let you know when something new and exciting happens!