NVMoM Halloween Party

NVMoM is the Nashoba Valley Mothers of Multiples and annually, the club hosts a big Halloween party for the MoMs and their multiples.  This group has been SO great for us.  I have met some great MoMs who have become close friends, and the kids have enjoyed so many fun play dates, parties, and other activities.  I'm so glad that I have this group!  The kids were excited to put on their costumes for the first of many Halloween events this year.  Mairead was particularly excited because she had been waiting a LONG time for this!  Our friends, the Estees, were kind enough to send Mairead a fairy costume for her birthday.  We thought she would like playing dress up.  Well, she LOVED the costume-- to the point where she slept with it on her headboard for months.  But, she would never put it on.  She kept saying that she had to wait for Halloween because it was her costume.  Pretty impressive willpower for a five year old!  So, when the day came that she could wear it, she was thrilled.  She even let me use the curling iron on her hair, which was a big deal for her!

 

You many be surprised to learn that the boys wanted to be superheroes.  But they needed the whole costume, not just the capes, so they had new outfits, too. Ben is Batman and Jack is Superman.

I need to find some pictures of me when I was this age because she is looking more and more like me all the time.  Of course, she is ten times more beautiful to me!

There was a photo area set up and the kids had fun posing there.  They kept switching partners for pictures, which was cute.  This is Ben with our friend, Aidan.

Ben and Aidan were joined by our friend, Jake.  It's funny, there are a few of us moms who are good friends, and our twins are Jack and Ben, Ben and Jake, and Jack and Aidan.  Two Jacks, a Jake, two Bens, and an Aidan.  Jack and Aidan are fraternal and easy to tell apart, but Jake and Ben are identical and I have a hard time with them! 

Miscellaneous October Pictures

Before I get into the myriad of Halloween pictures from the many fun Halloween activities we enjoyed this year, I just have some random pictures from the month of October.  The first is of the boys in the shopping cart at Hannafords.  It is not Halloween.  They just like to wear the capes everywhere, and on this day, Jack insisted on wearing the mask, too.  They got a lot of attention as they drove their 'batmobile' around the store.

These skeleton pjs came from a MoM in my twins club and my guys love them.  The bones actually glow in the dark, so they are pretty fun pjs.  You can see more in this picture that Ben is now bigger and heavier than Jack... he's maybe 3/4 inch taller and about 4-5lbs heavier.  It's strange, because Jack eats much more than Ben does!

Mairead loves any holiday-related activities, so she convinced her dad to carve a jack-o-lantern for her pretty early in the month.  She gets so excited and it's fun to be part of that excitement.  Holidays are so much fun again... parents really do get to re-live the joy of childhood!

Mairead and I had a little lunch date one Saturday and her favorite part was, of course, the ice cream sundae at the end.  She doesn't look thrilled in this picture, but you'll have to trust me on that.  I like it when she and I get to spend some time together... just the girls.  I hope that we always have fun on our dates!

Big excitement at The Fairmount this Fall... my dad has  ride-on mower/leaf bagger.  It is actually pretty awesome considering how many leaves there are here, and how long it takes to rake them!  This saves a LOT of time!  Plus, my dad says he feels like Evil Kanevil.

Getting it into the pool yard is quite the operation. It nearly ended with a lawnmower in the pool, but crisis was averted.

Mairead's school is very close to a playground so one morning, the boys and I headed there after dropping her off at Kindergarten.  They raced around making every piece of equiptment the 'bat-something.'  Bat cave, bat swing, bat slide, whatever. 

My kids are NOT good eaters... getting them to try new foods is a nightmare.  So, we are trying a 'rewards chart' to see if they go for it.  Each time someone tries a new food, he or she gets a sticker.  After five stickers, the person gets to go to Target and choose a small toy.  As you can see, Jack is pretty motivated.  Mairead, on the other hand, decided to take matters into her own hands, and drew a 'Trying Old Foods' chart in the hopes of conning a sticker out of us.

This picture is of Jack at the library in Chelmsford.  He was really excited to use the big kid computer, even though the headphones are just a bit too big.

Last October, we had a snowstorm that postponed Halloween, caused widespread power outages, and inflicted major damage.  This October, just before Halloween, we had a hurricane.  Hurricane Sandy swept up the East coast and did unbelievable damage to New York and New Jersey.  We were lucky not to lose power, but many people did.  Flooding on the coast was incredible, as seen by this picture of Brown's, a restuarant we love up at the beach.

 

I posted this because I find this graphic ridiculous.  HOW is this helpful to anyone?

The boys and I had a little lunch date at the 99 after I picked them up from school one day.  They are getting better about not crying when I drop them off, so they earned a lunch as a reward.  You can tell that this is Jack because he has a huge bruise on his face.  I don't even remember what it's from.  Oh, wait, yes I do.  My dad installed a new door knob on an interior door and it took Jack approximately 12 hours before he walked into it. 

Heads up to parents- Friendlys Restaurants offer a great deal.  On Wednesdays, all kids' meals are $1.99.  This includes a meal, a drink, and a sundae.  And, you don't have to buy an adult entree to get the deal, which is great for parents of more than one kid.  So one Wednesday, I took the boys to lunch.  I had an entree and they each had a meal, apple juice, and sundae.  Our total bill was $13.  Not bad for three people!

I'll be back soon with LOTS of Halloween pictures!

Smolak Farm

One on of the many beautiful Fall days we enjoyed this year, the boys and I met up with a few other MoMs and their twins for a morning at Smolak Farms in Andover.  This farm is great for kids- there are animals to feed, structures to climb on, and a slide.  Best of all, the have cider donuts!  They have a great little store with different baked goods, coffees, and gift type items.  I was wishing I could go back!

 

The boys had fun running around and exploring, and it was a perfect day for a fun, Fall activity.  The little plaid jackets they wore are some of my favorite things they own... I just think they are so cute.  Thanks, Jessica, for giving them to the boys!

Miscellaneous September Pics

I'm getting there... I am finally finished blogging about September and I only have these few pictures left!  I can move on to October, even though it is now November.  Anyway, the kids are always finding ways to be silly and creative, and to have fun.  Most of the men in our family own head lamps.  We are very much a DIY kind of group, so head lamps come in handy for lots of project.  Dave even uses his to go running at night!  Jack and Mairead thought they would give it a try.  It's funny, even though Jack and Ben look SO much like Dave, and so much like each other, we see a lot of my brother, Brian, in Jack.  He just has some looks and some ways about him that are so much like his uncle.   Fixing things and wearing head lamps are just two!

I have to show off this drawing of Mairead's.  She colored the figures in a book and then cut them out herself to glue them on to this 'frame.'  The tables are what surprised me.  She put the four legs pretty close to where they really should go, and she kept perspective in mind and made the back legs different than the front.  I thought this was pretty great- especially for a kid who has a lot of trouble with spatial relationships!  Her teacher tells me all the time how creative she is and what a talented artist she is.  Mairead spends a lot of time in 'her office' doing projects... cutting, gluing, decorating, drawing, whatever she can find to be creative.

This picture shows three (almost) three year olds (Lily's birthday is in December), playing together, happily, in one room.  I thought it warranted posting.  The cousins have been spending a lot of time together lately and they have so much fun together.  Yesterday, in fact, Katie and the kids came by and I hadn't told my kids they were coming.  Jack saw Lily and said, "Oh, Lily.  There you are.  Let's go."  As if he had been looking for her all day.  There are still some battles over toys, especially if Lily is going the 'wrong' direction on the train table, but generally they are very sweet to one another.  My kids ADORE Kellan and literally fall all over him.  He is just the sweetest baby- I can see why they love him so much!

My mom found an old copy of Mary Poppins and it got a lot of views in September... still does!  The kids really love it and their favorite song is 'Step in Time.'  We have recently added 'Tangled' to our list of movies they like (now up to three movies- Cars, Mary Poppins, Tangled) and all three kids really get into that one.  It's very cute and easy to follow.  There are some bad guys and some violence, but everyone does pretty well.  They do ask me to skip some parts but Mairead is able to watch pretty much the entire thing, and she is SUPER sensitive to violence or to seeing anyone get hurt.  I have to say that I think it's sweet that she doesn't want to watch anything where someone or something, especially an animal, gets hurt.  It just shows was a good kid she is, and I'm happy to keep her away from violent shows until she is ready.

Big excitement around here.  Jen and Mike came over and Mike gave the kids rides in a cardboard box.  It was crazy.

We see a lot of our friends, Jack and Aidan, but for some reason we never have pictures.  At one playdate, I did remember to take a few.  These kids have been playing together since the boys were all pretty young... maybe 18mos?  Jack and Aidan are 4 months older than my guys and it's funny to hear them say, "Not this Jack, the other Jack."  Jack and Aidan's mom has come to be a good friend of mine, and my kids love her, too.  At a birthday party yesterday, Mairead got Debbie to take her on the giant inflatable slide and she loved it.  Mairead liked it, too, lol.  Debbie's Jack calls my Jack, "New Jack."  They actually play together now instead of just playing near each other, and it's fun to watch them interact.  My kids always ask for Jack and Aidan and get very excited to see them!

The boys had been sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor for a long time.  They said that they wanted to be close together so they had to sleep on the floor.  Finally, I pushed their beds together and they now sleep in them.  It's pretty cute- at night, I cover the two of them with one large blanket and it looks like they are sharing a bed.  They are happy that way and they seem to be sleeping better lately, so they can stay that way as long as they fit in those toddler beds!