The Twins First Day of Preschool

So I was trying to get caught up with organizing all my pictures from last year in the hopes that I could keep up with blogging a little better this year (I'm still working on September...I think the odds are stacked against me).  I was debating whether to try to catch up or just start fresh, but when I realized that I left off right before the twins first day of preschool I decided I had to do at least a little bit of catch up.

So here it is, the twin's first day of preschool:

As I mentioned in my other two posts, we had three different start dates for school this year and the poor twins were last.  Once Hannah left, every single day they asked if it was time for them to go to preschool yet.  When the waiting was finally over, they were pretty dang excited.  The older girls were pretty excited for them too.

For the record, I must say that I did not encourage them to wear the same thing that day.  I do my best to not be matchy-matchy with them.  But my mom had gotten them a bunch of different outfits and they both really wanted to wear this one for their first day.  I figured it was their first day and they had the right to wear whatever they wanted, even if that meant they would match.

They certainly didn't seem to mind.

Addison went to school at 8:00 and the twins had to wait a whole nother hour before their school started.  To complicate things a bit, Hannah starts Kindergarten 15 minutes after the twins start preschool.  Fortunately my mom was there so she took care of getting Hannah to school that day so I could get pictures of the twin's classroom.

We headed out a little early to get said pictures.

 They hung up their backpacks on the backpack hooks just outside the classroom door.

When the girls went into the classroom, Miss Renee (by Maya) and Miss Abrea (by Lilly) greeted them, and told them to find the bus with their name on it and put it up on the door.

I have to interject here, the way Lilly's pants are happens ALL THE TIME!  I have no idea how.  I haven't figured if she pulls them up or one just hikes up somehow.  It seriously cracks me up though.  I love it!

At the open house they were pretty excited when they saw these all-things-a-preschooler-could-possibly-want bins.

They grabbed a pencil and got right to work on their first worksheet.  

And after that I felt a lot like I did dropping off Hannah at her first day of Kindergarten.   Like they were just fine and wondering why the heck I was still there.  So I finally left and took this picture on my way out.

They have been loving preschool ever since.

As Promised

The second we got home from Parent Teacher Conferences, Addison asked if we could set off her volcano.  Unfortunately for her, the sink had dishes in it, so I told her we couldn't do it until the dishes were out of the sink.  Over the next few days there managed to be dishes in the sink non stop.  Addison kept asking and I kept telling her not while there were dishes in the sink.

Finally (a few days later) we actually had room in the dishwasher for every single dish, so I got them all out of the sink, and then with a completely empty sink in front of me I felt inspired to clean it.  No sooner had I finished polishing the last water spot off the faucet than Addison was at my side saying, "YAY! Now can we set off my Volcano???

So, the girls gathered around and Addison FINALLY got to set off her volcano.

And then I made her do it a few more times. It's still just as exciting as when I did it in elementary school.  Does watching baking soda and vinegar erupt from a volcano ever get old???

The Saddest Thing You'll Ever See

So it happened.  One of our kids broke their arm.  Poor little thing.

But let me tell you, Lilly is like super woman.  She was throwing a HUGE fit when she fell and, at first, we didn't even realize she was hurt. She had already been crying and the crying didn't change when she fell.  So we helped her up and took her to her room for a time out.  (I know, parent of the year award goes to us right?).  A little later, when she had calmed down, she came to the bottom of the stairs and was just sitting there whining and holding her arm to her chest.  It was seriously so sad.



This was just before dinner, so we decided to watch to see if she used it at all during dinner.  When she didn't we called the doctor.  By then it was after office hours, and they couldn't get us in until 8:00.



The after hours doctor was prodding and pushing on her wrist to see if anything was broken and she seriously didn't even flinch!!!  He sent us to the hospital for X-rays, and let me tell you, it was REALLY broken!  I am no doctor, but even I could tell it was broken!  I don't know how she wasn't screaming while he was poking at her arm.  Poor little thing!

Isn't her in that little splint the saddest thing you've ever seen!  Maybe it's just because I'm her mom, but every time I saw her in it I just wanted to cry!!!  (Not to mention how stressful it was to have my VERY active two-year-old running around seemingly oblivious to her injury).  Every time she ran into the corner of our couch or slipped on the kitchen tiles, I nearly had a heart attack! 

Much to my relief,  this flimsy little splint has been replaced by a very sturdy, strong, protective, and (hopefully) two-year-old proof cast.  I do realize that casts aren't completely indestructible, but I think it can probably deal with anything Lilly can dish out.  :)  And now my heart only skips one beat as she runs down the hall and falls or when she wrestles around with her sisters on the floor.  I feel like my little Lil is back to her happy, smiley, active self.  And if all goes well, she'll get her bright purple cast off on her Birthday. 

Close Up Portraiture

Last year I joined group of photographers who chose a theme to photograph, and then share on our blogs each month.  Most of my group dropped out after the first few months, and there were some months that I was definitely not as into it as others, but I decided to do it again this year for one main reason:  It kept me blogging.  And not just on the themes from our group either. 

There were a lot of months when the time to post on our theme was coming up and I realized I hadn't posted anything since the last theme. I didn't want the theme posts to be the only thing on my blog, so I'd dig through the pictures I had taken over the month and choose something to blog about.

So that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I am at it again.  But I am excited.  This year's themes are more open ended.  Although, let's face it, that can be a good or bad thing.  Open ended means you have to think more doesn't it?  ;)  But regardless, I think it will be good for me.  (And if nothing more, it will keep me blogging).

So, this month's theme is Close Up Portraiture.  I confess I really struggled with this one.  I don't have a macro lens.  In fact, the longest focal length I have is a 50mm, and you can only get so close with that.

But for a long time I had wanted to photograph my kids eyes, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  Bart and I have nearly the exact same eye color, so it's no surprise that all of our kids have blue eyes too.  But, despite the nearly identical color, it's fascinating how different the eyes of each of my kids look. I only got pictures of Lilly and Hannah's eyes, but I'm going to work on getting Maya's and Addison's too.  Maybe I'll even share it in another post.  :)

Here's Lilly's:

And here's Hannah's

They were taken at different times of the day in different lighting conditions, so the color isn't as close as it is in real life, but compare the irises.  They are just so different!  It's awesome!  I love it!

Now go ahead and check out Catherine's take on this month's theme.