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