Terrific Tuesday

1. Saturday was our 11th wedding anniversary...we celebrated with a romantic dinner date and conversation about things unrelated to kids or work schedules. It was lovely. Here is to many more fantastic anniversaries, love!

2. Sunday was Father's Day, which we celebrated by hanging out with Hubs' family. Hubs also won a 4 way tie at church for having the most kids under age six! (Had Pastor lowered the age a bit I'm sure we would have won first place!) Congratulations...I think. Parenting with you is a joy and an adventure for sure!

3. The street sweeper just came by!!! This is the kind of stuff we anticipate all day...he's been going up and down the other streets in our neighborhood and the kids have been asking incessantly when it's coming to our house.( I'm glad it's finally over.)

4. We also consume large amounts if chalk and pink lemonade so I'm glad I bought them in bulk.  Sometimes we practice letters, or trace bodies to make the drive look like a crime scene, but now we draw race tracks. One big one for the kids' bikes, and two small ones for their toy cars. They think the center of the 8 is FOR crashing, not for near misses. Maybe I'll take them to the track this summer....yeah, right. Who am I kidding?

5. Vacation Bible School is like a little slice of heaven! The boys love it and I do, too. For the first time in almost a month since school let out I tackled a project outside of standard kitchen/bathroom/laundry maintenance. I organized the pantry! It doesn't take much to make me happy. Just a quiet morning with a cup of coffee and a pantry to clean. The boys are going to be covered in temporary tattoos by the end of VBS if the applications continue at their present rate, but I do NOT care. They are learning verses, eating snacks, and amassing an arsenal of OrientalTrading  Company trinkets. It's wonderful. 

5. I think C is cutting teeth again. He's been pretty ornery. He's also about to walk, so he's clumsy, too. I think 13 months is when called the boys destructo-babies. C is on the same track! 

Try Again

I wrote a really cute post yesterday but it wouldn't publish. I'm not sure if its a problem with my phone or Blogger, but I've tried a dozen times. 

I even updated the Blogger app which my app app told me needed updated. 

This time it told me error 400, try again. 

So I did, with the same results. 

At least today it is telling me an error occurred. Yesterday was the spinning wheel of death. 

So lets see if this will publish,eh?

Greekfest

St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church...WHY have I never been? 

This is their 35th annual festival of Greekness, and Hubs suggested we go. I thought it was a good idea (and he was surprised...geez, am I really such a party pooper? Okay, I totally was last night, but besides that? Anyhow, so we went with Grandma A and Aunt L...)

And I'm 35 so technically I could (and should) have been eating all that awesome Greek food every summer of my entire life! 

We filled our faces with all kinds of yummies that I can't spell and danced with the band that made N cry because it was too loud, and went to the porta John a half dozen times and temporarily lost N in one because he found them so irresistible- I think it was the twins' favorite part of the fest until we found the pastry tent. Yeah, like there was a food tent, a beer tent, and entire tent JUST for pastries!!! I'm savoring a bite of balklava right now, just a bite because I have to make this piece last a whole year...or at least a while longer tonight. C ate rice pudding for dinner which was his favorite by far! 

My favorite? Enjoying a picture perfect Summer evening with my family eating really delicious food. Seriously, it was a rough week but it ended well today. 

Because before that I met a friend at a park for a play date and hung out with my fab sis and nephews this afternoon and the kids had a blast all day. So the over scheduling worked;)

And Hubs is home to celebrate our anniversary tomorrow.

All's well that ends well...M was smiling on the way out! 

Keeping It Real

Sometimes, when your kid makes you feel like the worst parent in the world and you're receiving text messages from your husband on the West Coast about the crazy ped you already despise who apparently charged us $900 for C's one year well child appointment - yeah, just his, and the baby is crying because you put him to bed too early because you were dealing with two fighting four year olds, one who injured the other- as in a real injury, and of course now it's raining since you spent all morning watering the flowers, and the one who had to go bed early because he hurt his brother howled for an hour, yes HOWELED for and HOUR-and your dishes are piled high because you we're actually NICE to your kids before all that went down and made them pancakes like they asked for dinner....

Sometimes, you just need to sit down with a beverage,

Read Facebook like an idiot,

Play that stupid bejeweled game that is like crack somehow,

Write a ridiculous blog that will be embarrassing tomorrow,

And remember that 

This too shall pass. 

I read the news online tonight while I was sitting on their beds waiting for sleep, blessed sleep, to overcome and bring the evening's peace...

And while the world seems to be going crazy this week (I say that more and more)

And my day was a wee bit hairy there at the end (though there was a nice sunny hour between 3-4 when the baby napped, the kids played well and I did some meal planning and grocery list making) 

Life is still good. Very, very good, and I would never in a million years change it. (Maybe the twins fighting non-stop, I would change that...) 

My kids are healthy 

My husband is wonderful

We celebrate 11 years on Saturday (with a date, too!)

Grandma comes home on Sunday (praise God!)

Vacation Bible School starts Monday

Next week will be better folks. We regressed a bit into craziness during our third week sans preschool. Those six glorious hours a week are gold for me. 

Pure gold.

Fortunately I have overscheduled us tomorrow so we should be too busy to argue.  Which reminds me, I need to pack a bag and their clothes are in the dryer....of course.

Garden Schmarden

It only took an hour and a half to water flowers at our house and my mom's. 

Four years later, everything still takes three times longer than I think it should with twins. I used to think it was because they were infants, then babies, then toddlers...now that they are preschoolers, I've decided it must be a twin thing. 

Because if you read any mommy blog, you read all the merits of planting a garden with your kids! It's totally awesome! And fun! And rewarding! And relaxing! And life-giving and all that cultivating-relationship baloney. 

Bet those moms don't have twins. I can barely get flowers watered with my kids helping. 

•the baby wants a snack

•N wants a snack

•M wants N's snack despite his refusal to eat breakfast and therefore not get a snack for this morning. 

• N wants to water, M wants to water, fight over hose while I try to unravel it. 

•N turns on water while M sprays flowers and I'm catching the runaway baby. 

• N tries to wrestle hose out of M's hand who screams bloody murder while I try to take control of the water without getting drenched. 

And that's just Mom's front yard...still have the back yard and all of ours to go. 

I cannot imagine what a disaster a garden would be. I should be weeding my little flower bed, but after the last hour of breaking up bicycle fights and encouraging chalk road drawing cooperation, I'm beat and using the 10 peaceful minutes I hope for while they play in their new sandbox together to write to you. 

And tell you I have no hope for a garden, ever. 

My best hope is to keep the flowers watered this summer and not kill them before the end of July. 

Garden Schmarden. 

Today's Headlines

About six o'clock, for some reason, it occurred to me that I haven't watched the evening news here in weeks, probably months. Occasionally I'll catch the 11:00pm news, but rarely because I'm already almost sleeping. One thing I liked about Central Standard time: nightly news is 10:00pm! 

I wondered what the top stories are, what the weather forecast is, what national and global news is today. I do read news and weather online, so I'm aware of some current events...but I wonder if our local news is covering the same stuff I read? 

I wondered what they would report if a news channel followed us for a day? Riveting headlines follow: 

Twins Sleep Until 7:15, Eat Cereal For Breakfast

Mom Misremembers Library Story Time Summer Start Date; Will Try Again Next Week

Call to Friend Confirms Mom's Suspicion: MN Healthcare Was Superior

Family Runs Trivial Errand To Fill Time, Eats McD Lunch with Aunt L

Afternoon Baths For Kids, Baby Takes Late Nap

Kids' Intense Desire For Library Books Fuels Bike Ride

Ham and Cheese Sandwiches for Dinner; Dishes Still in Sink

Kids Earn a Million Reading Points Today, Mom Skips Bible Reading Against Protest

Mom Writes Ridiculous Blog; Refuses to Answer Questions About Ice Water Drinks 

National News: Most Handsome Man on Earth Arrives at Seattle Airport

Global News: Something Bad is Going On In Turkey and I'm Worried For a Friend Who Plans to Move There.

Weather: Overcast, Humid, Cottonwood Flurries all day

Tomorrow's Forecast: Second Verse, Same As The First, A Little Bit Louder and A Little Bit Worse! 

Mattack Chicken

Because someday I will likely forget this hilarious game:

C desperately wants to play with the twins at all times, but especially when Hubs rough houses with them. So he invented "m'attack chicken!" 

It's played like this: Hubs holds C in front of him with his toes grazing the floor, like he's going to help him walk. Then they cry, "Balk! Balk! Balk!" And chase the screaming, balking twins all over the house. 

When they "catch" the twins, C "attacks" them by climbing on top of them. C laughs like crazy, Hubs balks like a mad chicken, the twins scream and holler with glee. 

Repeat.