Happy Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving - leading up to it, we made a thanksgiving tree and each night we each picked something we were thankful for and wrote/drew it on a leaf. It was fun to see what the kids would choose each night! This is the tree with which we ended up:

On actual t-day Tory abandoned us and golfed all morning while I hung out with the kids. To pass the time we made turkeys out of fruit:
Our main meal was a little different with our recent change in our diet (we eat a mostly plant-based diet, i.e. very little meat, dairy, eggs and processed foods). So we didn't have a turkey, it was a meal of sides which turned out great! It was a nice low-key Thanksgiving. Oh yeah, and we ended the day by going to the beach :)

Hair

Penelope is getting so much better at letting me fix her hair. But usually when I pick her up (from nursery or preschool) I am also handed a ribbon or bow. So lately I've been telling her if she leaves the bows in her hair the whole time, she'll get a treat when we get home. Its all baby steps, right?!

Halloween 2011 (mostly in pictures)

Our darling Snow White in front of our house:
Our esteemed train conductor (he loved saying "All Aboard!"):
And my favorite fishie.....ever!! He was just so cute especially when he make fish sounds by opening and closing his mouth:



Here comes Princess Snow White at her preschool parade:


Here's Parker and Penelope with their teacher Miss Sharon aka Tinkerbell:

And here she is again with Oliver because he likes to think Miss Sharon is his teacher too:

Eating some popcorn at the kids' preschool's carnival:


On the 'big' night we went trick-or-treating with some friends, here they all are although Parker wasn't too thrilled about the photo shoot before we left:





All in all, a great Halloween and Tory is taking the rest of the candy to work with him tomorrow so I can come down from my sugar high!

Pacifiers be gone!

We are now a pacifier free home! Parker and Penelope have used pacifiers from birth. In the beginning they were such a life saver and I was so grateful they took them. Penelope liked hers more but Parker also enjoyed a good suck! Just after they turned one we decided they could only use their pacifiers in their cribs. Since then they have only used them in their beds and it hasn't been a problem. But as time passed I knew I needed to take them away. However, I was worried about the effects on their lovely sleeping habits. As they passed the age of two I was afraid to take them away because I thought they might drop their nap and a lot of mornings I live for nap time! So I let them keep their pacifiers. Then we went to the dentist a few months ago and the dentist 'talked' to me about their pacifier use. He was really nice but essentially said they should probably not be using a pacifier. He could see some effects of the use in Penelope's mouth but not Parker which makes sense because Penelope LOVES her pacifier where as Parker just uses it because Penelope has one. This past weekend I was finally in a place where I was ready to attempt breaking the paci habit. So Friday we 'traded' their pacifiers for a new toy. Parker gave his up without looking back. Penelope started crying right after the trade but we distracted her with fruit snacks. That night Penelope cried for her pacifier but Parker didn't even ask once, he was too busy with his new train. I went in to the twins' room a couple times to help Penelope feel better but she fell asleep ok and they both slept the whole night without calling out for mommy! They woke up a little earlier than usual but after telling them it wasn't time to get up, they read books in their room until I was ready to get up with them. When we were getting ready for naps Penelope asked for her pacifier once but I just reminded her of the swap and she didn't say anything else. They both napped fine and neither one of them has mentioned the pacifier since! I'm so grateful it went so smoothly and so, so happy we are a pacifier free home! (Bless Oliver's heart for never taking to the pacifier!)

First Day of Preschool

It finally happened, Parker and Penelope started preschool. Its so hard for me to believe they are old enough to go to school.
That being said, they were so excited and totally ready for preschool. As the day drew closer, I was the one getting nervous, wondering how their first day would go, if they would be ok. Then the day before their first day, I got an email from the mom helping on the first day (one mom helps each day) saying her child was sick and she needed to swap. So I hurried and called Tory to see if he could take the morning off to watch Oliver. He was going to go in late anyway since he wanted to help drop the kids of one their first day of school. He could and so I quickly emailed the mom back. I'm so glad I got to see them experience (and document - I took a TON of pictures) their first day. I loved seeing what the kids did, how their time was spent and how they did in a school setting. Parker and Penelope didn't really care if I was there or not so I knew they would be ok when I wasn't there. We got to open the door in the morning and help each of their new friends pick out their 'shape' that they would be sitting on in circle time.

Then after everyone sat down Ms. Sharon, their teacher, did some welcome stuff and had the kids practice doing the pledge of allegiance. Since I was the mom helping, Parker got to hold the flag, he did a great job!

Circle time:After a story, the kids drew pictures of themselves and then got to have some free play time. Parker and Penelope LOVED this time.



Then came snack time:


After snacks the kids got to go outside and play, they have some great outside toys at this preschool:
Here is a picture of their whole class lining up to go back inside after playing outside:
When they got back inside it was more circle time and Ms. Sharon had each child come up front with a baby picture of themselves to introduce them to each other:

Then there was some fun singing and dancing:
And then it was time to go home. There were no tears or anything from Parker and Penelope, they were so great the whole 3 hours. They keep asking when they get to go back. I think they are going to love preschool!

As for Oliver, he desperately wants to go to preschool as well. He loves all the toys and cries when I take him to leave, he so wants to be a big kid!

Sesame Street Live

Early in the summer a moms' group that I am a part of told me that they could get really inexpensive tickets to Sesame Street Live so I bought 5 tickets for our family. I knew that Oliver might not last the whole show which is why I bought a ticket for Tory as well. But the day before the show Tory hurt his leg and wasn't up for it and since I wasn't up for taking my three kids, I left Tory home with Oliver and we invited Parker and Penelope's friend Dmitri to come with us. We got to our seats just as the show was starting. In the opening song the characters come down off the stage and since we were sitting on the side, they were right by us which scared my kids. Thankfully Dmitri wasn't frightened by them. Parker and Penelope fell apart , they were so scared of the life-size characters. They both jumped into my lap. Penelope settled down quickly and I was able to move her to her seat in a few minutes. But Parker, bless his heart, he pretty much cried through the first half. He kept asking "is it over?" and "can we go home?" After the intermission we went back in and Parker didn't cry but he did plug his ears for the entire show, poor kid. But afterwards all the kids just talked and talked about how exciting it was to see Elmo and Big Bird and Cookie Monster. Here are some pics from our first theatre experience - they are all from the 2nd half when Parker calmed down and I could take some photos!

Here are the three kids just after the show outside the theatre. I think having Dmitri ride in our car was just as exciting as seeing Sesame Street Live. They loved having a friend with them!

Penelope

Just trying to fill her dad's shoes, well socks and shoes.

P.S.

I forgot one of the biggest highlights of my parents' visit. One morning we went up to the North Shore to hit the beach and my dad noticed some people cliff-jumping off some rocks on the side of the beach. He asked the lifeguards if it was safe and they said while they don't condone it, as long as we aren't inebriated and don't jump onto someone already in the water, we should be fine. Now, as some of you know, I have been known to jump off some cliffs in my day but since I had kids, I haven't done anything of the sort. Well apparently I got my adventure genes from my dad because a little later in the morning he said, "Come on, lets go jump off those rocks." So he and I trekked over there and climbed up the rock. It was about 25 feet up according to the lifeguard although it looked A LOT higher from the top! My dad went first and then I was up. I knew I couldn't stand there and look down for long so I counted to three and jumped. It was really fun and exhilarating. I still can't believe we actually did it. I wish I had pictures of it but Tory and my mom were busy keeping the kids corraled so I just have to be happy with the memory. Thanks for jumping with me dad!

Grandpa and Grandma are gone :(

But we had a wonderful time with them. We did tons of stuff and they even survived watching our kids for 2 days and nights while Tory and I explored our new island home sans kids! I won't give a complete travel log, I'll only hit a few highlights of their visit (besides just having them here). One day we went to Hanauma Bay. I had been there years ago but we hadn't gone since we moved here. The trip didn't start that well. The parking lot was already full when we got there and Penelope fell apart when her dad left us to go park the car and we had to walk in without him. It was not pleasant. Then we had to wait around forever to watch an educational video of the bay (it was mandatory). FINALLY, we got to go down to the bay. It was AWESOME!! We took turns snorkeling, the kids played in the water. We broke for lunch and ate sand infested sandwiches, chips, fruit and brownies. Then a few of us snorkeled a little more, which, by the way, was AMAZING. Then we packed up and headed back to the car. While the start of the day was a little stressful, it ended up being so fun.

The only sad thing was the snorkelers didn't apply enough sunscreen on the back of their bodies which we paid for over the next few days.

Another day we hiked up to this lighthouse. I had heard about the hike (really an uphill walk, we were able to take our double stroller) from some friends. You can't actually get to the lighthouse but the view at the top is gorgeous.

*A typical 'family' photo!

Another highlight of their visit was celebrating my mom's birthday. The twins are all about birthdays and were SO excited to celebrate with Grandma. Parker especially enjoys the cake and ice cream.







Another highlight was when my parents graciously offered to watch our kids for a couple days while Tory and I got some time away. We hiked, swam, snorkeled, went to the temple, slept and ate, ate, ate! It was a glorious 49 hours! Thanks mom and dad.

Then the sad day arrived. We had to say goodbye. Here are a couple 'goodbye' photos:

Thanks so much for coming to visit us and for putting up with our crazy family.