Super Saturday

It has been one busy day!  The girls and I had a nice quiet breakfast.  Then they played with the paper plate masks I made.  Nothing fancy at all, just some faces on plates.  Toby got this picture while the girls "arred" like pirates:

This morning we wrangled two frustrating two year olds into their clothes and the stroller.  We walked up town to the farmers' market.  Toby hit the baked goods as always and I found some mint.  I also got a free bar of soap because my name was the name of the day.  Surprise!  It's a lovely handmade soap and is scented with barberry spice.  The girls munched on blueberry muffins while we walked to the grocery store for the veggies we didn't find at the market.  It's too early yet, I guess. 

After unloading the stroller, we had lunch - complete with time out for Thalia.  She really likes to throw her food around.  Then a lovely, long naptime.  Snack and Caillou led into going to Nana's.  Nana was gracious enough to watch the girls so that we could have a date night.  That turned into a "let's redo the front flower bed" night.  As an added bonus, Nana cut the girls' bangs tonight!  WE ADORE NANA!

This:

Is now this:

I still have to dig out the dead weeds between the flagstones.  That is one disgustingly slow task.  I should be able to get it done in a few nights, though.  I really only get to work out front when the girls are in bed or at the sitter's.  We have a busy street running out front.  I can't watch the girls and get anything done.  Fenrir has been my yardwork buddy.  He's getting better about not freaking out when people go by.  For an 80+ pound lab/husky mix, he is one big weenie.  That's about all for now.  I hope that some of that gardening makes up for the muffins and raspberry bread we had today.  YUM!

Painting with Toddlers

At the beginning of the summer I stocked up on art supplies and simple things to keep us busy.  I bought a set of Crayola paints (washable, of course) and the girls mostly demolished that today.  So, how do you paint with two year old twins?  This is what we did and what I would do differently next time.

First, think mess.  Two year olds are all about exploring everything: color, texture, taste, etc....  I covered the table with a piece of cheap plastic drop cloth.  My mom had a vinyl table cloth that worked great.  A friend of ours went to the fabric store and bought some clear vinyl to cover her pretty table cloths.  I thought that was a great idea.

Table covered, check!  One color paint pot open, check!  Paint brushes, check!  Bed-headed toddlers, check!

This is how we started out.  One color.  Nice.  Neat-ish.

This is where we ended up.  Not too bad, but there are two t-shirts soaking in dishwater.  Dishwater is a miracle cleaner.  I learned that from some awesome parent friends.

Now, what I plan to do next time:

• Save the empty paint pots
• Refill empty paints with homemade cheap paint (water, corn starch, food coloring, and liquid soap)
• Could put paper inside a cookie tray to contain the mess (don't remember where I read this, but I've read it on a few mommy blogs)
• Buy some t-shirts at thrift shop for artsy activities
• Set them up at the table and let them go! I could have gotten some work done nearby because they were so into the painting.
• Thought about a paper plate "palette" instead so that I don't have to open/close colors for the girls.  Read several places that you can recycle bottle caps into a palette by gluing them onto a paper plate or cheap plastic plate.  I think I'll just put some blobs of paint onto a paper plate and let them go.
• Sponge-painting!  Probably way easier for them to manipulate than the paint brushes. 

Overall, it was a good way to kill an hour and the girls had lots of fun talking about colors.  They were very impressed with the water changing colors.   It's now 9:20 and we have a long way to go until naptime.  Next up:  bike ride around town, park and playground, haircuts?, lunch!  Then it's sweet, sweet naptime. 

A Trip to Grandpop's House

Yesterday we went to see my dad.  It's a shame that it was so chilly outside.  The girls still had a blast running around in his big yard.  They ran out to the old chicken coop  to explore.

Sometimes they hold hands, but it's more of a game than an affectionate gesture at this point.

They got to take a ride in Grandpop's lawnmower cart.

We went to see the neighbor's steer.  The girls happily cried, "cows!" and were really interested when Grandpop held out his hand and the cows licked his gloves.  I couldn't get a good picture in the barn since it was really dim.  It was great to see the girls exploring the way I remember exploring.  It used to seem like everything was so big when we went to visit my grandparents at "the farm".  We went to lunch with Grandpop and picked out some flowers at a greenhouse.  Overall things went well, but they are two and there were some whiny times at McD's.  The girls settled in for a nap while Dad and I drove around.  After dropping him off, we had the whiniest car ride home evar.

I am not a SAHM

I respect SAHM's a lot, but I just can't be one.  It will make me crazy and the kids will be miserable.  I'm feeling a bit guilty about being so delighted to drop the girls off at the sitter.  However, I have gotten things done today and I still have time and patience for more.  The bushes in the front beds have been pruned, clippings raked, weeds sprayed with poison, potted plants moved to their new locations, dressers cleaned out, lunch made, and I'm still going.  It's so much easier when I don't have to referee two little ones.  Again, I feel a bit bad for not being the supermom who can handle it all and whip up a beautiful cake, but not too bad.

Rain day fun!

The plan was to go to the store today.  The plan was to buy floaties and then go to the pool today.  The plan has been thrown out the window because it is stormy here.  So, it's time to play indoors.

We made paper plate maracas.  The girls had no idea that's what we were doing.  I gave them plates to color on and then let them put in a few handfuls of dried beans.  The beans were such a hit that we're still playing with them now.  I had some really, really old bags of dried beans...some of which are discolored and I doubt they'd taste good.  I poured these into pie plates and the girls are playing on the kitchen floor.  They have a dump truck and scoop.  They each have measuring spoons and cups. Calli has been filling the back of the dump truck very deliberately for a while: measuring spoon to cup and then cup to truck. 

 Calli and the dump truck

I like watching them studiously scoop and pour things from one container to another. 

Thalia and the scoop truck

First real day of summer!

Teachers love summer vacation as much as the students do.  Think about it, we cram all of our work into nine months.  Contrary to popular belief, I am not paid to do nothing in the summer.  My salary is simply divided over 12 months instead of 9. 


That said, I am planning to enjoy this summer to the fullest.  Today we had a nice family breakfast and then went to the park.  To keep you from thinking that we have some idyllic life, the girls we a handful to wrangle into clothes and shoes.  There was a time out for hitting and a lot of whining and "No!"  The girls had a good time climbing on the playground and then we biked home.  They voluntarily put themselves down for a nap (yay toddler beds!) and now I'm working on lunch.'

If last summer is any indication, we'll have roughly this routine:

(6:30) wake up sometime around this
           eat breakfast
           go to park or for long walk in stroller
          play, play, play!
(10-1) nap (shower and nap for me, too!)
          lunch
          play, play, play
          tv/quiet time
         dinner
         bath
(6:30-7)bedtime

We are having these baked zucchini coins.  They smell awesome, but I'm not sure how crunchy they will be.  Probably will have some canned spaghetti sauce for dipping and will add a fruit, too. 

There is a load of towels in the wash and I'll fold some laundry while the girls play later this afternoon.  So far, I'm keeping busy, but it's just been one day.  I hope I can keep this pace up.  I'd like to be more active and lose this last 15 lbs...or at least redistribute it a bit.  Time to get lunch finished up...I hear the girls stirring a bit.

So not Martha Stewart

I used to love watching her.  She was the goddess of all things crafty.  Then, I grew up and realized that I'm not a full time homemaker and I don't have a full staff at my disposal.  So, I muddle along the best I can.  I really enjoy reading Ree Drumond's blog, but again, I'm not a full time homemaker with a handy man at my disposal.  My husband is great, but he grew up on a boat, not in a house.  Also, he has no desire to work in the yard/garden.  I won't force that on him, either.

Today I potted a bunch of plants.  I like the idea of container gardening.  It's not permanent, you can prevent weeds much easier.  You can start very small and grow.  So, I have flowers and herbs in small pots. 

 I bought some big plastic tubs at WalMart and punched holes in the bottoms.  Nothing fancy.  I just grabbed a screwdriver and made holes.  Lots of them all over the bottoms of the pots.  I am seeing how old plastic pots work as drainage.  You know the cheap plastic that the flowers come in?  I used to save those in the garage thinking that some day I would start seeds in them. Not so much.  I mostly just stacked them.  Today I threw a ton of them into the big blue tubs.  I put the empty tubs on top of some leftover flagstones, filled with dirt, and added plants.  I'm curious to see how they grow.  I have a beefsteak tomato, a grape tomato, a yellow pear tomato, eggplant, and golden pepper planted.  I'm hoping that it isn't too much for the tubs.  They are really big, but it could be too much.  I also hope that they get enough sun next to the garage.  If not, we'll be moving them...all 120 pounds of dirt and plastic. 

I'm curious to see what will happen.  I'm also pretty sure the girls will adore watering the plants and watching things grow.

Summer 2011

I am determined that this summer will rock.  The other day I brainstormed things I could do with the girls when they got bored with playing with toys.  If I don't watch them, the war of the wonder twins breaks out.  It's usually caused by boredom, frustration, need for a nap, or hunger.  I wrote lots of little activities on slips of paper and tucked them into a tin (leftover from candy somebody gave me once...there was no more candy and I was a bit sad).  Some of the things in the tin:

• balloons - I used to play for a long time with a plain balloon.  Good for a rainy day.
• paper plate maracas - Coloring and music!  
• paper plate masks - No need for tons of supplies for these.  
• finger painting - Read a suggestion that you put a bit of paint on a paper plate to keep things tidier.
• shape walk - The girls know their shapes and we can look for things in those shapes.  
• cloud watching
• tp tube kazoos
• table fort
• peanut butter play dough
• play with bread dough and bake it
• stamps on paper
• potato stamps
• bucket with soapy water - they're two, anything is fun!
• obstacle course with household objects
• baby doll bathtime outside
• face painting - fun to do and fun to wash off
• visit nursing home down the street - pass out flowers or stickers to residents
• make a book
• make hand prints on cardstock - which I can turn into thank you notes later.  Must remember to give each child a different color or write names and ages on the page.
• make ice cream in coffee cans or zipper bags
• go for a walk in the rain

Today I started out by making the finger paint.  The girls are with their Nana and my gardening projects were not going super.  I used this recipe:  Bath Tub Soap

Upon many reviews of other recipes, I used tear free baby soap.  I screwed up and added water to the corn starch/soap mixture when it looked too thick.  I have a recycled pickle jar half full of this mixture in the fridge.  So, oops, but score!  If the kids like it, there's extra left.  I am hoping that it would make a neat gift.  I just want to make sure that it comes clean before I give it away.

Mine came out a bit lumpy, but the two year olds shouldn't mind.  Life is about messes and textures for them right now.  Here's a pic of the containers I have:

I can't wait to get the kids all grubby so that they can play with this in the tub.  It should be a good bath tub and finger paint base.  I read a suggestion that you let the kids paint on an old sheet hung up outside.  I might try that to see if the colors wash out.  I will post more as we try the different activities throughout the summer.