Rollin' down the street...

For quite some time now, we've been planning on updating our vehicle situation.  Originally we'd been planning on getting something new around Christmas, but it seemed to make better sense financially to hold off on the purchase until summer.  

The summer before the girls were born we bought a Honda Fit.  Actually we bought it roughly one week (maybe a little less) before we found out that we were having twins.  It has been a really good car for us, but I'm not entirely sure that we would have made the purchase if we'd have known about the whole twin thing beforehand.  

Ian has been driving an old Honda Accord.  Neither of these are options for a family about to grow to five.  So, we started our search, thinking we must have to get a minivan, because what other option could there possibly be that could fit all three kiddos and their car seats (I'm so sick of car seats, by the way!  Life - or at least car shopping - would so much easier, albeit dangerous, without them!).  But here we ran into another problem: I want to be able to have all three kids in the middle seat (or seat just behind the driver).  I'm just not comfortable with any seating combination that doesn't include all three in the middle - we talk to the girls all the time in the car and I don't want that to change or become more difficult, I don't want to split up C & E and put one of them in the back, and I don't want to put the new baby in the back.  We were in a bit of a pickle.  

From what we could find, it seemed like the 8-passenger model of the Honda Odyssey was our only real option.  The Toyota Sienna has a "temporary" third seat for the middle row, but not one that could accommodate a car seat.  We went to look at it anyway, though.  And to our surprise, on the lot we were distracted by another car - the Venza.  This car looks kinda SUVish, but technically falls into the "wagon" category.  But, this isn't your Clark Griswold station wagon, we wouldn't have looked at that.  

The choice came down to the Odyssey or the Venza and the Venza won.  The Odyssey seemed like so much more room than we currently need.  The Venza has plenty of trunk space, and room for all three car seats - even more room when the girls move to boosters instead of the full-blown, 5-point harness seats.  There is more leg room in the Venza than in the Odyssey, which works great for getting in and hooking the girls into the seats, etc.  I have no doubt that when all the girls are bigger they will want more room to spread out.  I can't imagine taking a road trip of any length in the Venza when the girls are 8 and 12.  So at that point I'm sure that we'll be getting a van...but we figure that when the time comes that we really need one, we'll be able to get the newest model.

For now, we are incredibly happy with our sweet, smooth-riding Venza:

Summer!

Well, its been awhile.  After I claimed that I would be better at updating the blog...I then proceeded to wait two months to do it again!  Lots of little things have happened, but nothing of too much importance.  I thought that since catching up on all the little things would take longer than I think anyone would care to read,  I'd leave most of this one to the photos.  The one thing that I have been good about this past month is keeping the camera handy...not all of the pictures came out well, to be sure (we are still struggling, desperately, with getting both girls looking - let alone smiling - at the camera at the same time), but at least it is documented.  So, without further ado, take a look at our summer so far!

We thought we'd start a new family tradition this year - the first day of summer break we headed for Palisades Park (a local, large park with hiking trails along side the river here) for some hiking (thankfully the girls love hiking!) and a picnic lunch.

 The only picture I could find of me where I didn't look like a house.  I've decided that I don't wear pregnancy particularly well, at least in photographs.

 Attempting to "skip" rocks in the river.  Evaline would always throw from where she's standing in the above photo, only rarely did the rock actually make it in.  On the other hand - Cora seems to be a natural athlete, throwing the rocks far and with excellent form.

I decided to invest about $7 in a kiddie pool for some hot summer days - which, although it is only June 23rd, we've had plenty.  Evaline is the one who always wants to set it up (a 15 - 20 minute process when you take into account the filling up, sunscreen, changing clothes, etc) and spends about 5 minutes in.

 Look at the air in that jump!!

For Father's day the girls made Ian a "cake".  This is one of my favorite desserts from when I was a kid, and one that they can do with very little help from me, which just makes them feel good about doing something by themselves.  Here's the recipe:

Layer graham crackers on a serving plate.  Spread with a thin layer of applesauce.  If the applesauce is unsweetened, sprinkle on some cinnamon and sugar.  Layer on some bananas sliced about a quarter of an inch thick.  Repeat until it is the size you want, or until you run out of some ingredient, ending on a layer of graham crackers.  Frost with Cool Whip.  

For this one, we used three whole graham crackers for each g.c. layer, and a total of 5 bananas.  I think we probably would have used 4 bananas if I had been doing the cutting...but I let the girls do it.  

This project reminded me of why I'm not a preschool teacher.  It was very difficult for me to "let go" and just let them do it.  But...I restrained myself from perfection and let them do it mostly by themselves, and they had a wonderful time - so proud of their creation!

 Since "Blogger" (my blog host) updated their settings, I can't figure out how to fix a picture if it comes in wrong... If anyone reading this also uses Blogger and knows how to change this please let me know!! I have several photos below where this is the case...but I'm going to leave all of them anyway.  

The girls insisted on helping paint the new baby's room.  Yes, it is a girl.  And yes, we did paint the room blue. (Turquiose Mist, to be exact).

Dance class started last Wednesday!

I think I've mentioned it before, but this spring we planted a 4x12 foot raised bed garden.  And so far it has been pretty successful!  Here we are shelling fresh peas for dinner one night last week!

This is the first real parade that we've been to since the girls were about 7 months old.  We've just always had some scheduling conflict.  In the words of one of the girls (don't remember which) "I've never seen so much candy before!"

Tonight we head to fireworks for the first time, too!  I accidentally spilled the beans to the girls, so I'm sure won't hear the end of it from the minute they wake up from their nap until we get there!

Easter Weekend....just a tad late

The countdown to Easter at our house was full of excitement this year.  I'm not sure why...Ian and I don't make a huge deal out of it.  We don't even go to church (on Easter...or...ever, really).  But the girls were excited.  We dyed eggs the day before, which was fun and left their Easter baskets out for the bunny to find, fill with toys and jelly beans, and hide eggs all over the living room.

Something weird is going on with Blogger, and I can't correctly upload vertical orientation photos, so the super cute one of Cora is going to be left off, unfortunately.

The Monday after Easter Ian and I both took off of school so that we could head west to Lincoln, NE to visit my brother and his family.  That Tuesday he had his deployment ceremony, and that Friday he left for a training base somewhere stateside (maybe Indiana?) for a couple of weeks before he heads overseas to Afghanistan for what could be a year.  This trip was a lot of "firsts" for the girls: it was their first long car trip (we went to Des Moines - a 2 hour drive - once when they were about 9 months or so, but that doesn't really count), their first night away from home that wasn't at Grandma & Papas (either side), or Aunt Katie's, their first stay in a hotel, their first time hiking (which, unfortunately I don't have pictures), their first time staying up late to roast marshmallows, their first time to eat S'mores, and their first trip to a Children's Museum.  I think that's it for the firsts...Oh...wait, I forgot a highlight that really stands out to them as a fantastic memory of the trip: it was their first time to eat "colored cereal" aka - Fruit Loops.  That was something special :-) Here are some of the captured highlights from the trip. 

Here they are with their (soon-to-be) Aunt Sarah and (soon-to-be) cousin Kiley.

Eatin S'mores - Cora wasn't thrilled with the stickiness of them.

With Uncle Dave.  Everyone is having a better time than they look in this picture. I promise.

See?

  

Grocery store at the Children's museum, we only had a little over an hour there, and they could have spent five.  The first floor was set up like a little town: a grocery store, doctor's office, pizza parlour, vet's office, fire truck and police motorcycle, bank, etc.  The girls liked the doctor's office the best, because they had babies to play with there, and babies are the best. things. ever.

The lower level was cool, too, but unfortunately we found it just as we were getting ready to go - a large performing stage with costumes, etc.  Oh my, they were sad to leave it.

We're going to all miss Dave very much as he is  away overseas.  But we are proud of him, and looking forward to his return.

Dancin' Machines

I've been hoping to get the girls involved in some sort of dance class - they both love to dance, and (especially Evaline) love to perform.  Our local Parks and Rec has one class a week, but only offers it on Wednesday mornings.  This is something that I consider absolutely and completely unfair.  I understand having something during the day so that kids who's mom/dad don't work can go to...but what about the rest of us??  I'd been holding out hope for the summer, because I'm lucky that I don't have to work in June or July...I thought perhaps they'd get to go to dance class then.  No such luck, it would seem that the class is only held during the school year.  And there really aren't other options available for three-year-olds: all the other classes/sports/etc don't start until 4 years old at the earliest.  Not a fan, Cedar Rapids.  Not. a. fan.

Last weekend Evaline asked me to turn on some music in the upstairs "miscelaneous" room (it will one day be one of their rooms, if they decide that they are done sharing a room).  I complied, and a little later, this is what I found - they had both pulled out their tutus, and had found my yoga mat - which apparently they've figured out is used for excersice is some way (I have no idea how they've made this discovery, Lord knows they've never seen me use it!). (You can also see, from this video, that Eva is easily distracted.)

How many "x" chromosomes can you fit in one house?

I'm not sure what the official scientific data would say, but apparently, in our house, there is room for two more!  We had our ultrasound today, and found out that we're going to have (another) girl!  Of course, I've heard too many stories about people who know people - I've never known anyone personally - who has had a mis-read gender on an ultrasound...so I still won't be painting any rooms pink.  But, then again, I wasn't planning on painting the room pink, regardless.

So, now that there will another girl added to the mix, Ian will be outnumbered four to one...but I still probably won't have anyone to cuddle with on the couch.  I'm sure that this one will undoubtedly be a "Daddy's Girl", too. 

We are about 95% sure about a name for her, but aren't sharing until she arrives (we have to keep something a surprise). 

Want to see her? (warning, the new ultrasounds have a 3-D option which is really cool...but kinda creepy, too.)

Happy Easter!

I've decided to make a return from my bloggin hiatus.  My goal is to make this a regular (or at the very least, semi-regular) thing once again.  I've missed it, and it encourages me to make an effor to take more pictures of the girls (something which I am terrible about).  If you are one of the three or four people to have visited my other blog/recipe collection, I've started that one up again, too...only I've moved it...it is slightly changed and is now located here http://fromsugartospice.wordpress.com/

The past several months have been crazy-busy with work (I've been teaching Advanced Placement Economics, a project which has been a killer....considering that I've only ever taken two coures in Econ - once about 12 years ago and another around 6 years ago), and when I came home, the very last thing that I wanted to do was open the computer. 

The pregnancy on top of that has drained me even further.  It took until around week 16 (I'm around 19 1/2 right now) to feel anywhere near normal...and not just nausea and fatigue.  For about three months I lost interest in, well, almost everything.  I think I went that long without baking cookies...and you know somethings got to be wrong when I'm not baking.  But...I feel like I'm back.  And that's a very good thing (perhaps not for my waistline...but my waistline is going to expanding anyway over the next five months, right?).  Speaking of being 19 1/2 weeks pregnant...I have an ultrasound later this week....so stay tuned for news as to how many "x" chromosomes this little creature has! 

We've been back in our regular routine after spring break for a week, and have 8 weeks (or, 38 days...which sounds shorter) to go until summer and I'm pretty excited.  Spring break home with the girls was fun (although I think that Ian was going a tad stir-crazy, he's not as good about staying home as I am...I could regularly go a full week without leaving the house - except to go outside/on a walk/etc), and we (girls included) are very much looking forward to more time at home together, and more time running and playing outside.  Over break we got a few projects done around the house - I'm almost done with the girls' room, and got about half of our pictures hung up on the wall (its only been....what? 6 months?), we picked out and ordered carpet for our living room (I'm so very excited that I will only have to live with the laminate flooring in there for another three weeks!), and I began planting my garden.  Its just a small raised bed, about 4x12 feet, we thought about putting in two but decided that since we will have a newborn in the middle of the "harvest" it would be best not to overextend ourselves.  We build the bed last fall, and filled it this year (maybe everyone knows this and I'm just out of the loop...but...news for Cedar Rapids/Linn County folks - you can get all the free compost you want at the Linn County Compost Center over by Mount Trashmore), and at the end of break I planted spinach, three types of lettuce, radishes and peas.  I also started some peppers, chiles, and tomatoes indoors.  (I should have done those several months ago but, well, see my previous paragraph.) The radishes and lettuce are beginning to sprout...so excited to see how this experiment will turn out!

This week has been all talk about Easter.  The girls are so very excited for the Easter Bunny to come tonight, and to get to hunt eggs and everything that goes with it.  We dyed eggs this afternoon, which was fun - instead of buying the dunking-type of dye this year, we bought some paint-on kind and they loved it:

 I had to include this one (above)...for the LONGEST time, it has been awful trying to get both girls looking at the camera with pleasant faces, let alone a smile (probably part of the reason we don't take many pictures).  So I asked the girls not to say "cheese" but instead to smile, like they were happy about something...apparently this is Evaline's "Happy Face"

And here, they wanted to show off their finished eggs...and their messy hands :-)

Here's wishing you a very happy Easter!

Five

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed.  Five little monkeys swinging from a tree.  Five little ducks went out to play.  There are five fingers on one hand, and five toes on one foot.  Num-ber five...is a-live! I am exactly five years and five days older than my sister.  Five days comprise a work week. A job well done is celebrated with high-fives.

And sometime on or around August 30th...

our little Petersen clan will welcome a new member...making us a family of FIVE!