Here’s another video from Alex and Avery’s 4th Birthday from Uncle Bill.

Here are a few videos from the Twins’ 4th birthday party last week.  Photos to come shortly.

Happy Birthday Songs and Candles being blown out

Piñata smashing

Wow, it’s spring already.  How did that happen?  As usual we’re staying busy and have lots going on.

Alex and Avery are close to wrapping up another year in preschool.  Both got great comments on their report cards yesterday and have grown quite a bit this year in class.  Avery really seems to have come out of her shell and made many efforts to make new friends and play independently without Alex.  Alex’s teacher pointed out how much Alex loves to tell stories and how he’s quite the socialite.  The twins are both set for a 3 day a week all day program, which should be good preparation for transitioning to kindergarten after that (wow, I can’t believe we’re almost there!)

Adam, who spent almost as much time in Alex & Avery’s classroom as they did, is set to start his 1 day a week 2 year old program next year.  Considering how many activities he participated in this year with Alex and Avery in their class, I feel like it will already be old news for him when he starts his own class next year.  I’m definitely anxious to see how he does by himself in a class without his big brother and sister.

I believe we’re just about done setting up all the camps and VBS sessions for the kids this summer.  We’re trying to get enough things lined up where they have things going on all through the summer but also want to be sure that they do get to enjoy some time off at home too.  Hopefully it all balances out well and they have a great summer!

We’ve got Alex and Avery signed up sports this summer.  Alex and Avery do a soccer clinic now but it’s really not a team and game type environment.  They’re having fun now and learning some good skills.  This summer Avery will start the 4 year old soccer league and Alex will start the 4 year old flag football league.  They both chose what they wanted to play and Alex was especially psyched to play football.  Both sports will keep us all extremely busy with soccer having 1 practice a week and football having 2 (@ 1 1/2 hours a night).  Both kids will have their games on Saturdays.

Leaving the elementary school cafeteria where we signed them up last Saturday I quickly realized that Jen and I just made ourselves extremely busy for probably the next (10-12 years of our lives!)  While I’m sure it’s going to be hectic at first I’m very excited for them to get started and can’t wait to put some miles on the new camcorder we got a few months ago.

As for non-kid news, we’re right in the middle of having our backyard debacle fixed.  Our old retaining wall (which failed and fell) was taken out, the patio was removed and they’re about halfway done rebuilding it all.  We have a cool new design for how things are going to work back there and are adding maybe a total of 500 square feet of new patio/walkway area in pavers.  Both Jen and I are excited for it to be completed so we can get the pool open and start to get ready for the twin’s birthday party in less than a month.  I only pray that we can get the pool open and ready by then (it’s going to be close).

Lastly, a big part of the reason we don’t post as much on here is that we do much more “microblogging” on Facebook these days.  If you want to follow either me or Jen on there feel free to friend us on there.  If you can’t find either of us on there feel free to email me and I’ll help you out.

Here’s some video of avery’s “It was overwhelming” Christmas experience and various other videos of them opening gifts, playing with new toys, etc.

Note: It’s driving me nuts that I can’t figure out a way to embed HD video in the playlists (what those videos use).  It may be a limitation of YouTube right now, I’m still looking into it.

You can see the lower quality (non HD) version here.

No, we’re not wasted away in Margaritaville. But a mom can dream…

Earlier this week, we had a playdate at a friend’s house and rushed home just in time for a quick lunch for the twins. Adam was very tired, so after plunking the twins down at the kitchen table with some munchies, I took Adam to his room to feed, rock, and put down for a nap. It’s a quick and easy job when he’s so sleepy, maybe 5 minutes. And the twins are used to eating on their own at that table while I deal with the baby. They’ll wander in with messy hands to tell me if they need something usually.

In hindsight, I should have known it seemed too quiet in the kitchen, I suppose. But I enjoyed the peace and time with Adam. I walked back into the kitchen ready to wipe them off, hit the potty, and do the naptime routine. But I found piles of salt. Everywhere. Like a whole shaker full. On the floor. On their plates. On the table. On their clothes. On their hands and faces. In their hair. Oh, and they were sooooo pleased with themselves. And they were already headed for a late nap even before the mess.

“Who did this????” I asked.

Avery proudly replied, “Avery and Alex did this!” Huge smile. She was thrilled.

Alex added, “Assah needed peppah sauce.”

Oh, well, that explains it.

The real problem is that the salt shaker had been clogged. And I clearly remember last week when Don went to salt something on his dinner plate, found the clog, and cleared it. A little too well, I guess.
Lesson learned.