Weekend Fun!!

My Rocker and My Madonna Girl!


We went to a birthday party for one of my friends Kim on Saturday. It was a roller skating party with an 80's theme. What fun! Caitlin LOVED her costume and I think we now have her look for halloween! I have to fine tune Christopher's but I think that he also has a punk look for halloween. Maybe a little Billy Idol...

Caitlin as Madonna! (kinda)

Christopher as a little Rocker



Roller skating was so much fun! Caitlin loved it! I am not sure Christopher did. But he definately tried it out! It was such fun hearing the 80's music blasting and skating around! The kids really enjoyed it! What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon!
Christopher Skating

Caitlin and Mommy Skating


Sunday was a nice lazy day at home. Football and jammies! Tomorrow it is back to school! Yay! Hope you enjoy the pictures! We really had a great weekend!

Me and Jim

Me and my best friend, Jackie

The Girls From the 80's

Caitlin's Second Week at Dance

Caitlin is really enjoying her dance class. She has such a nice time getting ready. I love watching how fascinated she is with dancing. When we get there, there are always older girls waiting for class. She watches them so closely and tries to mimic what they do!

We are still trying to perfect the hair bun. Hopefully I will get that down before too much longer! But everything else is going great! Hopefully I will have a dance bag for her by next week. I know she is excited to have one. Hope you all enjoy seeing my little ballerina. I am very proud of her!

Silly Kids

Just some pictures of the kids over the past week..being silly like kids often are!

Caitlin posing before school

Christopher too!

Being Silly at Mommy's party...No pictures for Caitlin please!

Up Close of Caitlin

Bengals Boy! "Who Dey Think Gonna Beat Them Bengals"

CAitlin with her hair down for school...she looks so much older!

Silly Faces Christopher!

Ready to go to the bus stop mom...one more silly face though!

Random Pictures and Updates

Last week on Thursday was my 40th birthday! Yay, Happy Birthday to me! I had a very nice day. I got some very sweet phone calls from some wonderful people in my life! (Thanks Aislinn, Jenny, Tracy and Mom!) I got a few birthday texts. I got to go shopping with Shyan at the outlet mall. (That is always nice...even if I didn't buy ANYTHING for myself!) Jim had to work late and did not make it home until 7:30, but made it up to me by making me a wonderful birthday dinner! Thank you sweetheart! You are the best! Caitlin also tripped and fell at school that day. She managed to bruise her cheek again. Poor baby! There are some pictures of that over the next few days!

Caitlin's bruised cheek...day one!

Caitlin's bruised cheek..day five!


The weekend was spent celebrating my birthday. Friday night was girls night out. I had an amazing time! A very special thank you to the ladies who came out to celebrate with me: Shyan, Jessica, Polly, Jules, Jen, Wendy, Barb and most of all Jackie! You are all so much fun! Jackie, you worked so hard to make this weekend special for me, thank you so much. I appreciate it and you more than you know! Saturday was a BBQ here at our house for the families. We had a good food ad good friends. What more could you ask for? The kids all had a good time and so did I. I got some great gifts to go shopping again! Woohoo! My favorite! Thanks for sharing the day with us, Jackie, Shyan, Keith and kids, Jessica, Chris and Sky, Sondra Chuck and Maddie, Kim and Natalie, Julie and girls, Heather and kids.

All in all, it was a great weekend! Now for the evidence! lol!

Friday Night

The Chaos begins Saturday

The Girls Saturday

Sunday Football and Christopher is READY!

Caitlin's First Night of Dance

I enrolled Caitlin is a dance class this fall after she watched a DVD with two of her friends dancing in a recital. She has been so excited about it! When I took her last week to be fitted for shoes and such, she was just fascinated. She LOVED it! We came home from school yesterday and got ready to go. She had a wonderful time! I think I have a little diva on my hands! Look out! Here are some pictures we took at home. I am so excited for her!

Weekend Fun at Busch Gardens

We had great weather this weekend, so we took the kids out to Busch Gardens for the afternoon on Saturday. We all had such a nice time. Caitlin got to see the Horsie and get her picture taken with him. The twins rode the log flume for the first time. (Caitlin was NOT thrilled!) We also took them into Corkscrew Hill. (One of those movie rides with the glasses) They both HATED it! Caitlin started crying and screaming as soon as it started moving. Christopher just covered his eyes! Oh well, I guess that just means they are not really ready for the "thrill" rides just yet. One more year maybe! Here are some pics from our day at BG...enjoy!

Waiting for the "Horsies"


On the Swings

Week Two of School...We Survived....BARELY!

So here we are, it is Saturday and we survived the second week of school. In some ways it is getting easier, in other ways it is getting harder!

Christopher has adjusted to school VERY well. He loves it! He comes home and tells me all about his day. He loves his teacher, he loves the bus, he loves pretty much everything about it! He gets up in the morning excited to go for another day. It has been a relief and a blessing to have him so happy about it all! He has come home every day but one on green. (For those who don't know what that is, it means he made good choices at school and had a good day. There is green, yellow and red.) Yesterday he came home on yellow. He was NOT happy about that at all! But I think he will keep trying and doing well at school!

Caitlin has had a harder time. I have put her on the bus crying several days since school started. It breaks my heart, but I know I need to do it. I know she stops crying pretty fast. ( I asked the bus driver about it!) She is not really talking to us about school. We ask her and we get nothing back from her. She also started having accidents at school. So much so that we went to the doctor to have her checked for a UTI. I really think she is having a hard time dealing with the stress of not having me or her brother around all day. She seems to have a much harder time functioning without Christopher. I worry about her. She did actually talk to us about school on Thursday and Friday. So that is an improvement! She had two bad days though too, one on yellow and one on red. I am hoping that we have made the turn now though and that things will get better! She got on the bus every day this week but Monday without tears. And Wed, Thrus and Fri, she actually hopped on the bus and smiled and waved at me! I'll take that any day of the week!

As for me, I am slowly trying to adjust to life at home without the twins. It is so quiet here. I have yet to find a real routine, but hope that in the next few weeks I will. I have been slowly turning the house upside down trying to get it all organized and together. I guess you always need chaos before you can get things settled and organized, right?

And just because, here are a few pictures of the twins! Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Caitlin playing Rockstar Cowboy


Christopher Playing Cowboy..pardon the pink hat...he lost his green one so he borrowed Caitlin's!

Silly Kids!

So, in the craziness yesterday and my "bad" morning with Caitlin and the bus, I forgot to relate the funny of the day!

Christopher got up yesterday morning and went into Caitlin's room to wake her up. No big deal, although I would LOVE it if he would let her sleep a little bit later! He is such a morning person and Jim and I have NO IDEA where that came from since neither one of us is a "happy" morning person! Christopher just bounces in the morning though! Caitlin drags a little bit. So anyway, I go into her room and he is playing the candyland game she has as a carpet. Again, no big deal. Caitlin is watching him from her bed because like me, she does NOT bounce right out of bed. I tell Christopher to put the game pieces away so we can get ready for school. He says "I can't play anymore?" I said "Nope buddy, time to get dressed." He says "Dammit!" Caitlin chimes in from the bed "Dammit, I wanted to play!" I stopped and said "What did you just say?" So they repeat it for me, word for word...now I am doing my best NOT to bust out laughing. I tell them "That is not nice. We do not use that word. I understand you want to play, but it is time to get ready for school now." Then I go to my bathroom so I can laugh! Horrible I know....now, when do you think I will get the note home about this one???

Wow...

So, this morning started off good, I thought. Kids and I got up. Got dressed, ate breakfast and headed for the bus stop. Waited for the bus. Everything is going good. The bus was pulling up, I gave Caitlin a hug and a kiss and she immediately tells me she is not going on the bus. What? Why is that? She pulls away and doesn't want to get on the bus. She starts crying when I take her hand and lead her to the bus. She is crying as I carry her onto the bus and crying when she sat in her seat. I gave her big hugs and kisses and promised to see her when she gets off the bus today. She was crying as the bus pulled away and then I started to cry again.

Am I a horrible mom? I feel awful! I just sent my daughter away crying on a school bus! Why would I do that? But I know she needs to go to school and I know she needs to take the bus. Man...this school thing so far is kicking my butt! When does it get easier? Did I do the wrong thing? Should I have not made her take the bus? I don't know....but right now I am feeling awful and I wish I could hold my baby!

The Second Day

Okay. so an update from yesterday and a little about today..

First...thge bus was supposed to drop the kids off at 4:57pm...give or take a few minutes. They FINALLY got there at about 5:30pm. Talk about a LONG day for my babies. (Okay, so they are not really my babies anymore!) They said they had a great day. Caitlin did get into trouble for not sitting on the bus, but toher than that, a good day. Here are a couple of pics of them getting home yesterday.




This morning, we got up,and started our day. I got them ready for school, fed them and we walked to the bus stop. They got to ride the bus to school today. We talked at the bus stop about how to behave on the bus. And we talked about trees and about fall and about listening. And then the bus was there. They gave me a hug and a kiss and climbed on the bus and away they went. I didn't cry yesterday, but today I did. Something about watching my babies climb onto that big school bus and just pull away from me did that. I cried. I can't believe they are going to school. Where did the last four years go? When did my babies grow up? And how did I miss it?

So, for me at least, the second day has started MUCH harder than the first one. I sure hope this gets better! Right now I am missing them like crazy!

And Off To Pre-School We Go....

Today was the first day of school for the twins. They were so excited! I was so nervous! What have I done? I know they need to go and I know this is a GOOD thing, but at the same time I am so scared! I kept thinking about all the things I do for them all day long. Stupid things, but things that at school they are going to have to do for themselves. Things like opening a juice box, opening a ziplock bag, going to the bathroom and wiping, not just yelling "I POOPED!" and waiting for me to come in, pulling up their own pants and a million other little things that I have done for them for so long I don't even think about it. Am I crazy? Probably!



So anyway, we got them up, (Okay, they woke us up!) fed them breakfast, made them lunch, talked to them about their school day ( they get a "breakfast" and a "lunch"). told them about buying milk at lunch, got them dressed, took some pictures, loaded them in the truck and off we went to school. They were so excited to be there. Me, I was a nervous wreck. We waited for the bell to ring and then headed off down the hall to let them meet their teachers and drop them off. They are in different classes. We took Caitlin first, it was hard. She was fine until we walked in, then she got shy. It was hard to leave her there, but I did it. I gave her a hug and a kiss, told her to have a good day and that I loved her and out the door I went. No time to cry, since I still had one more child to drop off. So we went upstairs to Christopher's class. We took him in, introduced him to his teacher. He went right to his seat and sat down, he barely noticed I was there. So much for him being upset by school. I gave him a hug and a kiss, told him to have a good day and that I loved him and again, out the door I went. So far so good. I didn't cry, I didn't break down, but I wanted too!

Caitlin

Christopher


So, I now have two pre-schoolers. They are riding the bus home today. They were excited about that! Hopefully it was a good day all the way around for them! We will see when they get home! More to follow later! In the meantime, the house is quiet and I miss my babies!

Here we go!

Waiting for the bell

Daddy's Girl

Caitlin outside her classroom

Christopher outside his classroom


And PS...Thanks so much to Kim for making Caitlin's dress and Chrsitopher's shorts for their first day of school! Caitlin had three compliments on her dress while we were waiting for school to start!