Practically a two week post birthday wrap up

So I was about to delete all the photos on my camera(I had already burned a disc)and as I was looking through the pictures, I realized that I had not posted about the kids birthday...so shame on me.

The pumpkin patch birthday is something I wish I would have done every birthday now that I have done it. Why not with October birthdays? The kids had a blast and have asked to go back everyday we drive past it on our way to Walmart.

My kids enjoyed the hay activities. Lilly preferred the hay maze. Her expression is one of pure joy, but the shadow makes it hard to see that.


Drew preferred climbing to the top of the hay stacks with cousin Matthew.


Uncle Matti flew into town for the big event and Drew spent lots of time with him.


Matthew is such an awesome big cousin. He hung out with Drew lots too.


Lilly could have done this single activity the entire two hours we were there. Feeding the sheep....


We all got to go on a tractor ride. That's not entirely the truth. Drew did not go on the tractor ride because he refused to use the port-a-potty(can you blame him really?) but he also did not want to pee in the bushes either, so Todd drove him home(less than 5 minutes)to use the potty.



This is what happened every time we sang happy birthday to the kids in a group setting. This was on there real birthday evening.


What makes me laugh the most is Drew's expression looking at Lilly, so puzzled as to why she is crying. That is what a confused Drew looks like.

They each had their choice for dessert. Drew went with the brownie and Lilly chose ice cream.

I have had enough of them

We are Yankee haters in this house and we dress our kids accordingly. When Drew does wear this in public, he either gets the thumbs up and "love the shirt" quote or my son is booed. Drew thinks they are trying to be scary ghosts and just says BOO! back to them. That's my boy.

Fall weather ...

Makes you have to wear a jacket and sun glasses.




How cheese-ball straight out of an 80's movie are the kids expression in these pictures?

Two things that don't go together

Lilly and a bell


It's my clean up bell that I have to say works rather effectively with Lilly and Drew except when she gets her hands on it.

26 days

I can hear the piano now

Add another letter in the mix

So we are still doing some at home letter work and letter B week was fun. But the highlight(by far) was our field trip to the bowling alley. I was laughing pretty much the entire time. If I wasn't laughing I was making sure Drew didn't drop a 10 pound ball on his foot, or Lilly wasn't putting her hands on the moving belt where the balls come back up.


We were the ONLY people there in the entire bowling alley(besides the employees). I think this worked to our advantage with two three year olds running around.


We helped them at first, but they caught on pretty quickly.



This was pretty much Drew's permanent expression while we experienced the bowling alley. He was in heaven.


Lilly and I were on the "nemo" team and here is an example of our team work and high five skills.(we did lose in the end, much to team T-rex's pleasure)



Six pound ball, but still a little challenging to hold correctly.




This is just outright disgusting at a bowling alley.


Lilly's after a roll, bowling, happy dance


Slipping during the dance

I need some love

I am considering retiring from doing this blog. Would any one out there really care? Really? I need some blog love people. Something to keep me going.

If you ever read this blog, even glance once in a while, tell me who you are blog stalker. Please reveal yourself by leaving a comment. Remember...I am an out of the closet blog stalker myself. All I need is a little love.

Thanks.....

3 years in the record books!

So how does it go? Once your kids are one, there are not babies, they are toddlers. Once they are three they are not toddlers, they are preschoolers? Where has the time gone? Let's take a look back, shall we?

Can you believe I was 5 months pregnant with twins here? Not to mention probably the last time for a long time that we will be in Hawaii. Todd wanted to show how sun burn he got on the first day of vacation.



The VERY FIRST pictures of Lilly and Drew that were taken at approx. 3:40pm on October 18, 2006. I did not take these pictures(and don't know who did actually)due to the fact that the doctors were still putting my insides back in and sewing me up. Fun times.

Drew


Lilly


Drew


Lilly..this one is especially tough for us to look at, but it reminds us of how far they have come



Now today. They are strong willed, healthy, going to school, potty trained, telling stories, loving, rambunctious, sweet natured, thoughtful, sensitive, independent, full of the joy for life kids.




It was three years ago today that we were introduced to the bigness and the monkey and our lives have never been the same. We are so blessed.

An attempt at a solution

Now that it is footie jammie time...this bad boy goes on under the footie jammies. She will learn in time that she can take off the jammies to get to the "special sock," but until then,

Dear Toes,

Please separate and don't cause future problems.
Thank you for listening toes.

Sincerely,
The mother

Pre-birthday interview with Lilly and Drew

I asked the same questions to both kids.


Where are we having your birthday party?
Drew- "A pumpkin patch"
Lilly- "Pukin patch.....jump. jump."(there is going to be a jumpy house there)

What present do you hope you get for your birthday?
Drew- "A big big big monster truck"
Lilly- "chocolate cake"

How old are you going to be on Sunday?
Drew- "I'm going to be three."
Lilly- "Big Nemo"(I think she is confusing all questions with what are you going to be for Halloween?)

The early birthday gift

Did I just really witness that?

So I just have to share about a wedding that Todd and I attending recently.

Here we are before the reception. Isn't he handsome?


So here are some facts about this wedding:

1. The invitation was sent in a package the size of a shoe box, that really was more of a photo album outlining a four day celebration starting with a catered dinner Thursday evening, something else that I don't remember Friday, wedding Saturday, and then a "day at the park" Sunday. It was like a itinerary for an all expenses paid cruise.

2. Open Bar with every goodie. Filet Mignon and Lobster for dinner. I,of course, opted for the vegetarian because I am annoying like that.

3. There was a private train that the bridal party rode in on to start the reception.

4. The ceremony took place in a beautiful redwood forest overlooking a private lake.

5. While admiring the surroundings of where the ceremony took place, there was a live 3 piece orchestra of some sort playing in the background including a harp, violin, and cello.

6. At the reception, the couples monogrammed initials were made into spot lights on the dance floor.

7. They had a photo booth with a variety of costumes, hats, masks, and other silly things to wear as their guest book feature. After you indulged in the photo booth which is really something I enjoyed, you went over to the "scrap-booking-craft" table where you personally designed a page to go in their guest book. There were six pictures from the photo booth. Three went in their guest book and three you got to take home.

8. And I saved the best for last. As we were seated and given a program at the ceremony, we were also given a small triangular shaped box closed by a rubber band. When I asked what this was(maybe a chocolate or something edible) I was told the box held a live monarch butterfly and all guests were going to release them together at the end of the ceremony. I seriously chuckled and asked the girl really what was in the box. Then......I suddenly felt small vibrations coming from the box. I peeked in the small air holes to witness this butterfly trying to get out. Ummmmm this is a true story. Is anybody else out there laughing right now? I was wrong on my edible prediction. Boy was I wrong. I think my butterfly was injured because when the time came to release this creature in all it's glorious beauty, mine did not move. And to make matters worse, I think it pooped or something all over itself and the box.

The ones we kept


Holy Moly..what a wedding

Will she get the call back?

Cindy Loo Who? She really would be great next to the grinch.

Hey, it's something, right?

For those of you who's eyes ever wander over to check my blog list and specifically look at Elissa's blog(busy me busy with three)....let me just say that I am not Elissa. I wish I had a fraction of her craftiness and really just energy to do all the awesome things she does with her kids.

But I do like to teach my kids and I like my kids learning new things. And isn't this blog about the everyday life of the Petersen's?

Drum roll please.

So starts, a very down scaled version of an at home preschool. As of now we are starting with letters. Here are just a couple things we did involving the letter A.


We have made alligators and read alligator books. Highly recommend the book. While reading the book, the kids have their alligator's acting out parts in the book. It's like a mini-play in our living room.






We visited lots of airplanes at the Pacific Air Coast Museum. Just a little fun thing to do on the first Thursday of every month, they have a BBQ out there. It's only 5 dollars and you get a HUGE BBQ hot dog,(don't puke in your mouth because I admit I eat hot dogs people) chips, fruit or chili, and a drink. But the food was not the best part...the kids got to get up close personal with some really awesome airplanes.


As an added bonus, Todd met us for lunch and got to enjoy the Petersen twin school field trip too.

How could I forget?

I had a few more potty training pictures.

We had sticker potty charts for our dolls in the morning and I would like to show each of my kids charts.


Drew's


Lilly's


There is so much said from the difference of these charts about my children.



I also forgot to show what each of my kids picked out as being "big kids" that go on the potty after our potty training weekend. We took a luxurious trip to WALMART on Sunday evening(oh how glorious)

Is it too much?