Fourth Birthday Party....

The day before the twins party, we had a little shindig in our backyard to commemorate the event.  I say "little" but it's all about perspective, I guess.  There were a TON of people there...mostly family, but some of our friends, too.  This is probably the last year where I got to create the guest list for them.....if I had it my way, it would be a friend reunion for ME.
I told myself I was going to calm it down this year....after all, they are turning four.  They don't care about anything other than having their friends over and a cake.  I tried, and I think I did okay.  I didn't stress out about it, even though the dude at HEB smashed his forearm into Cale's cake, making a big wonky dent in the side.  Or that Hayden's cake looked like it was decorated by a 200 year old...Whatev.  My children couldn't have cared less!  They were both excited to splash outside and have an excuse to eat whatever they wanted for the day....

 Nice visual of Cale's smooshed cake...ugh.

 SOMEONE enjoyed their cake.  Can you tell who?

Back to the Beach....

Last weekend, we found ourselves back at the beach for what is hopefully the second trip of several planned for this summer.  Mommy doesn't like being sandy and sweaty, but babies (and their daddy) love every second, every sand granule of the beach, so Mommy just has to overcome.
We went with the McGinnis', and stayed at Cinnamon Shore, in an adorable house!  So clean and contemporary....both Kelly and I have the decorating bug after staying in that cute house.  We have both decided we want to come home, throw out everything we own, and start over.  The boys wanted us to stop noticing how cute the house was.

 Thursday it was black, dark clouds and rain the WHOLE drive to the coast.....we were hoping that the storm was moving through, and not parking itself right over Port Aransas.  Lucky for us, it was beautiful by the time we got there.  We unpacked, and the babies played while we opened all the doors and let the air blow in....before dinner, we walked around the neighborhood to check it out.

 All the kiddos (minus Finley) had a fit when they saw the swimming pool, and ran right into it with their clothes on!  No swimsuits needed for these peeps...After soaking ourselves, we walked down to the beach.  The website for this house claims it is a three minute walk to the beach...which is probably true if you aren't herding preschoolers.  A "three minute walk" to the beach turns into twenty five when you have to stop and look at everything on the way there.  Sadly, there were several nests on the ground with dying baby seagulls in them.  I guess the storm and high winds knocked them from their trees.  Being the bleeding heart that I am, it made me sick that there was nothing we could do to help them, short of adopting them and bottle feeding them.  Ugh.

 We didn't head to the beach with the intention of getting in, but you can tell in this picture from Cale's clothes that we went ahead and did it anyway!

 Poor baby Livi was just standing at the water's edge, enjoying the view...when a giant wave (giant if you are two feet tall) came and crashed right over her!  She was a trooper, though, and only fussed a little bit.

 Baby Livi showing us how cold she is.  :)

 Running away from the waves...

Over three days, we spent time at the pool and the beach, and just hanging around our cute little house.  We were treated to another one of Ronny's shrimp boils which was YUMM-O.  We will definitely stay at Cinnamon Shore again, but next time we are renting a golf cart to transport this herd of kiddos and their gear down to the beach and back.  

The big FOUR!

My tiny ones are four.  FOUR.  When did this happen?  It wasn't four minutes ago that they were born, much less four YEARS....
On Thursday of last week (three days before their actual birthday) they were honored at school.  Daddy and I came along to celebrate...we went with them to chapel, where they had "Happy Birthday" sung to them, and the director of the preschool called them up to the front and gave them each four hugs.  They were asked which song they wanted to sing in honor of their birthdays, and they both chose "Jesus Loves Me".  I got moderately emotional during chapel, and had to pull myself together.  When did my tiny babies become big preschoolers?  It happened in the blink of an eye.

 Bub doesn't often smile so big for pictures....he was just SO happy we were at school for his big day.

 While Miss Jane was giving them birthday hugs, Cale told her "That's enough".  He's not a big hugger, unless it's on HIS terms.

On Friday, Daddy took off work so that we could go on a Birthday Adventure.  In the past, their birthday adventures included the zoo and the museum.   This time, we decided to brave Sea World.  Shawn's mom, (Nana) was so generous and bought our family season passes, so we had the luxury of not having to pack it all in one day.  We saw two shows, and visited the indoor aquarium, the seals, and the dolphins, and then left at lunch time.  We are so excited to go back and do everything there is to do....but Mommy is not looking forward to doing Sea World in 114 degree heat.  Let's just say we'll be making lots of morning and evening visits!

Sometimes love from your siblings "hurts so good"....

 So happy about being at Sea World!!

I'm not sure what this face is, but I'm pretty sure it involves the sentiment "Stop already with the camera."

Baby Livi wasn't too sure that the seals weren't going to bust through this glass and come get her.

We LOVED trying to pet a dolphin....and got SO close!  Hopefully next time!

Easter 2011

The day before Easter, we headed to Devine to visit with Shawn's family at his mom and stepdad's property.  The big attraction this time were the cows!  They have started their own little herd of longhorns (three mommas, all who are expecting) and we loved checking them out.  The kiddos were interested, but didn't want to get TOO close.

We visited the chicken coop, and Cale even found an egg! 

 Enjoying chocolate ice cream outside....

 Being in the country makes us sleepy....

 Easter morning was spent at our house.  The babies got up early to see what the Easter bunny brought them, and then we headed to church.  Livi had a runny nose (again) so we kept her out of childcare and took her in the sanctuary with us....let's just say she doesn't sit still for long.

 We came back home, and my family came over for lunch, and the Easter Egg hunt.

 The Easter bunny overdid it again, I'm afraid.  Seventy five candy filled eggs are fun, and make the hunt last longer....but it just creates more candy for the Easter bunny to eat later.  Ugh.  Remind the easter bunny to put just ONE piece of candy in each egg next year.....or money.  That makes them happy, too!
The best part of this easter was the Resurrection boxes the twins made at day school.  They were tiny wooden boxes, filled with little items to remind them of the easter story.  Those kiddos are so great at telling the story!!  Their retelling is hilarious, too.  Some of my favorite comments included, "Mommy, they spanked Jesus 39 times." (Cale) and "Mommy, Judas was a really, really, really bad friend.  And a weirdo." (Hayden).  Cale also told me that Jesus hung around with "The 12 Psychos."  (Disciples)
They retold the story over and over, and carried their little boxes around with them everywhere.....I think they loved the boxes a little TOO much, because I have found toothpicks in their room (the spears that Jesus was pierced with) and other tiny items strewed all around.  I guess it was a far fetched desire that the items stayed in the boxes.  Too tempting to not play with!
I am so proud of them for knowing the real meaning of Easter, and for their little day school for being a place that helps teach them about Jesus!!