Halloween and Happy Birthday!

This past month has FLOWN by.  It seems like there has been something going on constantly, without much time to do much other than work around the house and work around the school.  I'm sure that's an incredible exaggeration, but...that's what it feels like.

On to more important thoughts...

Three years ago today I met my baby girls.  Here's a funny thing about having twins: they had different personalities/habits in utero...and many of those qualities/traits/habits whatever you want to call it, have continued today.  Cora can't sit still to save her life.  She is constantly wiggling, stretching, and pushing against anything and everything.  She wants her way when she wants it. 

But they are the very best of friends, and it is so much fun to watch this friendship grow.  Better than any TV show or movie is to just sit back and watch the girls play.  Every day they amaze me with what they know, can do, and say. 

This whole parenting thing is turning out to be pretty fun. 

Speaking of fun....this was the first year that we did anything for Halloween.  Halloween isn't my favorite holiday, and I just didn't see the point before they could actually participate - and that was this year.  They had a BLAST.  We live on a small-ish cul-de-sac, that is just the perfect size for trick-or-treating when you are (not-quite) three. Then, when we got home, I think they had just as much fun helping Ian answer the door.  A big "thanks" goes out to my sister, Katie, who took the girls with me while Ian manned the door.

Here's a few pictures of Halloween.  I'll try to get on again this weekend and post some birthday pictures.

OK, so this one isn't Halloween...but this IS how Ian dressed them to go out to eat a couple weeks ago...shoes and all :-)

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday

I'm a little late (about two weeks!) on this one...but...

Happy Birthday to Ian!

Wordless Wednesday

Ok, ok...just a couple of words: The girls have told me that this is the Dog Park. :-)

Summer's Bounty

I've wanted to have a garden for quite awhile now, and finally got around to it this year.  Of course the year that I decide to move would be the year that I get around to wanting/having a garden. 

I settled for mostly container gardening this year.  We started with two tomato plants, two bell pepper plants, a zucchini, and a trashcan full of potatoes (a new method for growing potatoes that I found in this great book - Grow Great Grub).  The zucchini was an early casualty.  Apparently the soil that I used was not the greatest, and it showed in our yeild. Although, since we've moved and the plants are getting a bit more sunlight, they've done much better.  I'm sure that has been a big part of it.  But - it's been a nice learning experience. 

This weekend we decided to harvest our potatoes.  I had no idea how to tell when potatoes might be ready for harvest, but I had read that it should be around 90 to 100 days after planting.  It had been longer than that, so we thought we'd go ahead and give it a try.  Out of a whole 38 gallon trash can, here's what we got:

Not much.  But, it made a great meal of our version of Huevos Rancheros (made with all home-grown veggies (see below) and fresh eggs from my uncle's farm)

We encountered/resolved another tragedy this weekend.  When we moved the plants to our new house, we noticed that one of the tomato plants looked like it was perhaps being eaten by a tomato worm.  We looked and looked, but couldn't find him.  Then we moved, and got busy, and then I got sick, and we just didn't get around to conducting a hardcore search and rescue (search for the bug, rescue our plant). Our poor plant, meanwhile, was slowly being devoured by this little creature.

I finally found him.  Ick.

Ian picked him off and squashed him. (I would have done it if Ian hadn't been there.  But with Ian there, there really was no reason for me to have to do such a thing.) Guts went flying everywhere.  Double Ick.

In better gardening news: We also planted some things out at Ian's grandparents' farm.  Several varieties of peppers, a zucchini, a yellow summer squash, a cucumber, a watermelon, an eggplant and a couple of butternut squash.  We've had more success here than in our containers.  We brought this home the other day, we added it to another large bag of green anahiem peppers we had in the fridge and roasted all the peppers and froze them until I get around to making some sauce.

I think I have the spot for the in-ground garden at our house picked out.  We're planning on doing a raised-bed, since the soil out in our newer subdivision isn't very good.  Hopefully we'll have some great luck, and I can have enough to make pickles, canned tomotoes, etc. etc. 

A Trip to the Farm

My brother, Dave, and his girlfriend came to visit for Labor Day.  They didn't stay with us, but with my parents who live about 10 minutes away (now that we've moved...it used to be twice that :-)).  As part of the trip, we all went out to my uncle's farm for the morning.

I love this farm.  I have such wonderful memories of the farm, that even the smell doesn't really bother me.  (Well, it doesn't bother me at the farm...the smell that stayed on my clothes and in my hair after leaving the farm...that was a bit bothersome.)  Before this farm was my uncle's, it was my grandparents'.  As a kid, when we come to Iowa to visit, this is where we would go.  A lot has changed, but....much is still the same.  And it was great to get to take the girls out there - even if they did have some mixed feelings about the experience.

The day was an all-around good day.  We started the morning with a breakfast of doughnuts - a rare, but loved, treat.  Went to the farm, lunch at my parents, then after a much needed shower and nap, we bought new family room furniture.  But the highlight, of course, was the trip to the farm. 


My cousin (who helps my uncle farm and lives just down the road) sent her daughter over to the farm with all of her little bunnies for the girls to pet and look at.  This was as close as Evaline would get - and even this close was a little too close for her.  Cora, on the other hand, was very excited to see a bunny up-close and loved petting the soft fur.

There were a bunch of sows getting ready to give birth - they probably have had their litters by now.  But at the time, these were they littlest pigs there.  They were about 3 weeks old.  You can see Evaline clinging to her Aunt Katie.  Of course, our brave little Cora pet the pig.

Cora and her daddy.

 Cora and her mommy.

Cora and her daddy - once again.

 Looking at pigs - from a distance.

Put to work shoveling $#!^ . 

Evaline and her mommy.

 Taking a bit of a rest up on the hay bales.

This was Evaline's favorite part of the trip: the old swing hanging from the huge, ancient oak tree.  (When I was little, I, too, loved to play under this tree...on this very same swing.)



Evaline also had a great time on this part of the trip to the farm - we all loaded up onto the pig-loader and my uncle pulled us with his tractor to another part of the farm.  The second we started moving, Eva raised her arms in the air and giggled with joy.  Cora started crying and screaming "I want to go home!" at the top of her lungs.  On the way back, she walked back with her Grandpa Bill, but started bawling again when she saw all of us on it.

And some rare footage - all four of us together.  But, of course, both girls have their hands in front of their faces.

Daycare

We have a sort-of crazy daycare schedule this year.  We are incredibly lucky to have such a schedule - not because it is crazy, but because we have an awesome set of people caring for the girls while we're at work.

Last year we started the year with the girls at KinderCare (part-time - I'll get to that).  We really liked KinderCare.  The girls had a good time at KinderCare.  But...the second day there, Evaline came down some sort of stomach flu.  Then Cora got it.  Then they got colds.  Then came the barrage of ear infections.  In December they finally had ear tubes put in.  But that did not stop the ear infections. They came just as fast and furious as they did before the surgery. 

Some friends from work started taking their kids to a lady who was starting an in-home daycare in January, I think.  She was taking additional kids, and she was willing to take them on a part-time basis.  We made the switch in March, right after spring break.  Since then, the girls have had one cold.  Having healthy kids is a wonderful thing.

And they LOVE going to Kate.  We are very happy to have made this switch.

But it gets even better.  I said they go to daycare part-time.  They go only three days a week.  One day a week they get to spend with their Petersen grandparents.  One day week they get to spend with their Cooper grandparents.  I love that they get to spend time every week with their grandparents, that they are getting to build this kind of relationship with them.  They love it (the girls...I can't speak for the grandparents, but I'm hoping they feel the same way).

I'm afraid that this year all these different places on all these different days might get a bit confusing for the girls.  So I came up with this idea.  I created a chart to show where they will go everyday (I'm hoping that it may do double duty as providing a way to see where they are going AND to help teach them the days of the week).

Each picture is actually a pocket.  I cut out pictures of each girl and attached it to a large popsicle stick, so each day they can move it to the place they are going.  Like this: