My crazy week!

The past week has been pretty crazy around here!  Here's what we've been up to:

Sunday (apr 17) - drove out to the museum of Play in Rochester.  Met up with my aunt & uncle and some cousins there.  Had tons of fun, exhausting pretty much everyone.  Made tentative plans to have my cousin Maggie come out later in the week since she's on spring break.

Monday - quiet day.  the only one for awhile

Tuesday - Went to the store with all the kids to get eggs for easter-egg dying.  Dyed the eggs with Lexi during the boys' nap.  Maggie arrives for a visit.  She stays with us through Friday.

Wednesday - Hung out in the morning, took the kids & Maggie to the mall to hang out and visit the Easter Bunny.  Lexi gets sick with a cold.

Thursday - Packed for our big trip, got my new stroller in the mail, started getting it set up

Friday - Maggie's folks come to get her, we drive to Plattsburgh (4.5hrs).  The boys catch Lexi's cold.  All 3 kids have trouble sleeping.

Saturday - Decorated eggs with mom, went on a field trip to visit some chicks with Lexi, and had a bunch of family over to mom's  house. Another night with sleepless boys (Lexi sleeps though)

Sunday (Easter!) - Drove down to Chestertown (1.5 hrs) had a great easter egg hunt, hung out with lots of family, drove home (3.5hrs).  Come home and don't even unload the car farther than absolutely necessary.  Collapse in bed.  Thankfully everyone sleeps!

We shall see what today brings!

a t-shirt dress

For awhile I've wanted to try making Lexi a dress from old t-shirts.  There are a bazillion patterns online, I just don't generally have the time.  Last Saturday, however, Kelly left me alone for some kid-free time, so I decided to play with it a bit!!

Here are the two t-shirts I was working with:

I used this little dress from her closet as a pattern of sorts:

I'm using the purple for the top half of the dress and the pink for the ruffle.

So I basically cut out the pieces, re-seamed the sides, gathered the ruffle, and sewed it together.

Clearly, however, that neck needs work... This is how the neck compares to one of her shirts.

So I put an elastic in the existing neckband

And shrank it up a bit.

I'm still fixing up up the armholes and trimming....  I'll take a picture of the finished project soon!

Pink Blueberry Muffins

We had a baking adventure last week!!  We made these awesome pink blueberry muffins.  The pink is caused by beet puree.  Lexi doesn't know beets are a vegetable yet... :-D

The muffins - bright pink before baking!

With topping

What Lexi did with the leftover topping...

All baked up!

Yummy!

The Family Bed!!

Some quick pics I took the other morning, when the kids were all snuggling Kelly.  Let me tell you, this made Kelly very sad...

STICKERS!!

I realize that Lexi is supposed to be the one who get very excited about stickers, but we got a set for the car that I wanted to show off because they are really cool.

I would like to point out that Angela wanted to order these before I gave birth, and I wouldn't let her.  Now who's the clever one, eh?

Also, Lexi loves the stickers, especially the one of me, because she can see it from inside in her car seat.  When they go on drives, she likes to tell Angela all about how she can see Mommy on her motorcycle behind them.

Rice Creek Adventure

Last weekend we went hiking at Rice Creek Biology Field Station.  Its part of SUNY Oswego, and has some fun trails going through different habitats and near ponds.  We hiked the red triangle trail, about 1 1/2 miles, each with a boy on our back and Lexi walked the whole thing. 


Angela and Edward

Me and Big Ben (and Petpet)



The boys slept through most of the hike, but they also enjoyed looking around while they were awake.

Lexi brought a piece of pink pool noodle because she decided she needed a walking stick.  We told her she would have to carry it the entire time, and she only needed a couple of reminders.


Lexi pointing out the red triangles painted on the trees.

Lexi's favorite part was finding mud puddles to splash in.  We definitely had to change her pants when we were done hiking, before she was allowed back in the car.  She tried splashing in one of the ponds, and the water went up to her knee, it rather startled her, hehehe.  Her other favorite part was looking for the animals that had made the tracks we found - some deer, some dogs, some people.  Lexi was certain that there were "bad-guy" deer out in the woods who were going to come get us.

Splashing in the mud puddles.



It can be problematic when you suddenly decide your walking stick is a telescope

 After our hike we hung out in the little pavillion for a while and had lunch.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day.  We will definitely be going back soon.

Identical or fraternal

So we were pretty sure that the boys were fraternal, because we were getting good at telling them apart. But Angela has recently been reading stories about other fraternal twinfants, and all the stories talked about how different the behaviors were of the individual babies - different sleeping habits, different eating requirements, reaching milestones at different times, etc. But our boys are still pretty nuch spot on together. They even have growth spurts at the same time, maintaining 8-10 oz difference between the two. The only difference we have found is that Ben has a lovely bald spot on the back of his head, complete with combover up top, but Ed still has all his hair. We still need to ask the doctor what she thinks.



Ed on left, Ben on right, I think.



Note Ben's bald spot



Baby Boys are 5 months now

Just wanted to share some fun pictures of the family. All the kiddos Boys in their Christmas presents from Aunt Darlene Boys "wrestling" on the couch. Or maybe that's bonding. Ben is now ~15 lbs 4 oz and Ed is ~14 lbs 9 oz.

Magic Penny

The other night Lexi was watching a Strawberry Shortcake movie, and in it was a magician. She was pretty impressed by the magic tricks, so I decided to show off a little bit. I should clarify, I do magic about as well as I juggle, which is almost well enough to impress a 5 year old. Anyhow, I pulled a penny out of Lexi's ear. Now, she was pretty amazed, and wanted me to do it again. Of course, I was out of pennies, but Angela came along with a dime that she pulled out of Lexi's ear. Next Lexi wanted to pull coins out of our ears, so we had her peer in to determine if she could see any money growing. She was pretty certain that she could see a baby penny growing in Mommy's ear, but when asked what was inside Mama's ear, she declared, "MOLD!" Lexi showing off her new coins.

Bedward

It finally happened, and it only took 5 months, and Angela said it (not me).

She was trying to talk about Benjamin, but first she said Edward, and then she merged them into "Bedward!!" So from now on, if you mean both, they have a combined name.

Bumbo Seat

We got a Bumbo seat passed down to us from a friend at work whose daughter had outgrown it. The boys absolutely love it. It's basically a big piece of foam molded so babies who can hold their heads up can sit in it, and it works their ab muscles, and prevents them from falling out. Most of the time they just stare at their big sister, laughing and shrieking.

Mr. Ed

Big Ben

First Motorcycle rides of the season

This week it was almost warm enough to ride in to work at 6:30 in the morning twice, and I did it anyway. On Monday in the wind and rain - I was leaning a good 10 -15 degrees trying to keep it going straight.

Thursday morning was much nicer, only cold, about 33 degrees. But I find that if I wear a long sleeve shirt under my work polo, a hoody, my motorcycle jacket, and a rain jacket on top of all that, plus long underwear, jeans, and rain pants, its not too bad.

I am still the only motorcycle in the parking lot, and the guys in security like to comment on how crazy I am, when I come though with my helmet. On the flip side, I would much rather those cranky old guys be discussing my crazy work commuting habits than certain other items I bring though security, hehehe.

Monthly cooking pictures

OK, so the monthly cooking thing was a bit of a mess thi smonth, mostly due to inadequate planning on my part.  Next time, I'll be making a detailed plan, it goes much better that way!!  But I got it done, and here are my pics. 

Meatballs (for spaghetti and meatballs) and pork (for cantonese pork & pineapple)

Eggplant ready to be roasted for roasted eggplant lasagna

All the chopped fresh veggies ready to go! (there were also several bags of frozen)

Mine, all mine

Yesterday was my first full day back at work. I think it was hard on all of us, especially Lexi. She really needed some time, attention, and snuggles last night, and I was happy to oblige. We played catch with this big orange squishy ball thing, I introduced her to wrestling, and we pretended to be every animal imaginable (to a toddler) swimming under the ocean. It was also good for to just stop and play with her, instead of trying to keep her entertained while getting stuff done. Anyhow, at some point during all that, I gave her a big hug, and asked if she was mine, all mine. Her response, "But Mama would miss her girl!" And then she announces, "But we can shared each other." At this point Angela could no longer resist, and had to come join the snuggles. Then Lexi began giving play by play, "I'm hugging Mommy, Mommy is hugging me, and Mama is hugging both of us." Then Lexi requested a pause (nice adaptation from her cartoon watching) to return to Busiest Little City onNetflix. But it didn't take long for her to stop watching, stand in her chair, and declare, "More family snuggles!" Which we, of course, obliged.

Trying to get a new job

I recently decided that I am really unhappy in my current position here at the plant (I've been doing the same thing for over three years, and I need change). However, this place is terrible about moving people around and filling vacant position. I have applied for 3 positions in the last six months - every opening that I am even vaguely interested in. The first one got filled by the hiring manager who wanted to step down. I had interviewed for that one. The second one has been almost 4 weeks since I interviewed, and no one has heard anything. The third one I was promised an interview about six weeks ago, and no one has heard anything. Oh well. Angela and I have agreed that if nothing changes by the end of the year, I will start looking elsewhere. Any votes on where we should relocate (if we were to relocate)? I was thinking maybe a little souther and a little warmer. Where would you, our readers, like to come visit?

Lexi's newest masterpiece

The canvas:  Benjamin

The medium:  yarn, construction paper, and winter wear. 

The artist at work:

The masterpiece:

Japan

I'm sure you all can imagine that we are paying a lot of attention to Japan given where I work. We receive updates from corporate daily on the challenges facing Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Here is a link to some pictures of the facility after the event. I'll be happy to take questions, my plant is very similar in design to these units. http://cryptome.org/eyeball//daiichi-npp/daiichi-photos.htm