Let the Fall fun begin ...

Fall is here!  My favorite time of year!  Bring on the cider, pumpkin patch, beautiful leaves and crisp mornings ... we're ready!  It was probably a bit early to head to the pumpkin patch (the kids were HOT since it was 80+ this afternoon) but we had a great time with my mom, great aunt Bernie, Michala, Caroline, childhood friend, Nina and her two girls.  I'm sure we'll be making quite a few trips to the pumpkin patch this year ... the kids loved it!

Hugs and kisses ... Smooch!

Caroline and Amelia were so darn cute at the park today that they had my sister and I just laughing and laughing!  Every time Amelia would come down the slide, Caroline would attack her with hugs and kisses.  What a doll!  Makes my heart so thankful to see these girls playing together!  (Luke was there too, of course, but was more interested in the high school kids that were playing soccer!)

Garbage Trucks!

When you're a boy who is almost two there are few things in life more exciting than trucks!  Especially on Monday morning when several of them drive by your house to pick up all your diapers!  Garbage truck morning is a good morning around here :)  Amelia loves looking out the window too but it's Lukey who runs to it yelling, "Ruck!  Ruck!"
The only thing that might be more fun is pushing your sister in a shopping cart!  Amelia looks thrilled, right?

Owies and kisses!

One of the things that the twins have started to do recently is give us and each other kisses.  I love it!  Amelia especially loves to give kisses which surprised me a bit since Luke is generally our snuggle bug (Amelia is usually too on-the-go to bother with time on our laps ... The girl's on a mission!).  Combine the kisses with the fact that Luke has become almost obsessed with "owies" and you've got a recipe for cuteness!  Dozens of times a day Luke will bump his head or see his old scratches on his knees and say "Owie! Owie!" and want a kiss from us.  This week he also started to notice all of his sister's owies and want to kiss them.  In this video he is pointing out Amelia's black toenail (I have no idea how that one happened ... opps!) and wanting to kiss it.  I love that they're starting to show concern for each other.

Grandparents Day!

Today is Grandparents Day!  At other phases of life that wouldn't have meant as much to me as it does now.  I've been acutely aware over the last two years of how thankful I am that Luke and Amelia have two sets of people that adore them and invest in them.  When I was pregnant my mom advocated for my kids, finding out everything she could about pre-term labor and treatment options.  When the babies were just home from NICU, Tim and Marsha took shifts with us so that we could get some sleep and they would stay up until 1am with the babes.  This weekend my parents watched the kids for a day so that Scott and I could go hiking (there's not much we miss about pre-kid life, but good hikes are one of them and we loved the chance to get out together).  I am so thankful for all of their willingness to pour themselves into the lives of my children.  Luke and Amelia don't realize yet what a blessing it is to be surrounded by so many adults that love them ... but someday they will.  They even have two Great-Grandmas that love them, pray for them and support them however they can.  What a blessing grandparents are!  The daily grind of parenting can be hard ... the disciplining (oh yes, the time-out chair is frequently visited at our home these days), chores, lack of sleep ... But that challenges are shared by the people that love us and lovingly choose to invest in our children.  The difficulties are small compared to the amazing JOY that these two bring to our home.  Singing, dancing, kissing, snuggling ... JOY.  Thankful tonight for the Grandparents in our lives!

20 months?!

These two are 20 months old today ... that is sounding closer and closer to TWO!   They're acting more and more "two-ish" as well ... asserting their independence, speaking more words, interacting more with each other and other kids.  They are so much fun!
Today is also Grandma's birthday -- happy #59 to my Mama!!  We love you!

End-of-summer treats!

We still have over a month of farmers markets to look forward to, so I won't grieve the end of summer produce yet!  But I've been having fun trying some new recipes with summer fruits and veggies.  I'll include a link to an amazingly yummy berry crisp recipe that I found on allrecipes.com (the link is here) and a great zucchini bread, which I make into muffins because they're the perfect snack size for the kids.  I also found the bread recipe on allrecipes.com (the link is here), can you tell what website is one of my favorites? :)  With the zucchini bread I make my normal substitutions, exchanging the oil for applesauce, adding an extra 1/2-1 cup of zucchini and using whole wheat pastry flour instead of white flour.
My other recent "trick" for getting extra nutrition for the kids is smoothies.  They love them and they have no idea how much I'm packing into them (how long do you think I can keep it from them?)  I always do a yogurt and banana base for the texture and sweetness and then I usually add in kale and chia seed (which you can find at Trader Joe's and is an excellent source of omega 3s) and/or flax meal.  Then I add whatever else we have -- peaches, berries, etc.  It's the first thing the kids get when they wake up and now they race out of their rooms asking for their "juicey" ... So cute!  To be honest I'm not usually brave enough to try them (ugh!) but as long as they'll drink them, I'll make them :)  The other day Scott was doing the morning routine and didn't realize that Amelia has come to expect her "juicey" very first thing in the morning.  She threw a full on tantrum because he was blending it up and getting it ready.  Apparently the service wasn't quite fast enough.  Ha!