Joys In My Life

Wow!  The boys are officially done Kindergarten and moving onto 1st grade next year.  I really can't believe it!  With Liam being sick this week, things have been crazy.  Tommy had his Portfolio Breakfast this past Tuesday, but only one of us could go, as one had to stay at home with Liam.  Tommy said I should go when we asked him in the morning, but then when he got home from school, he said his dad should have gone.  LOL - little guy, we wish we were both there!  He has such a different personality from Liam, whereas Liam wanted to hang with us and show us what he had done at school and point out one or two friends, Tommy introduced me to a bunch of his friends. Liam on his day, was interested in all the treats and choosing the sweet ones he wanted. Tommy couldn't be bothered with going to get a snack.  I chose some treats for him while he kept building  things at the tables in the classroom and he snacked while he kept buildi...

Not sure how other twin parents have their children in school, but our school recommends twins be in separate classrooms.  In our case, I think that's been working out fabulously!  Liam used to be so quiet, shy and let his brother talk for him.  Since November being in separate classrooms, Liam is much more able to talk for himself and complain if he doesn't get his turn to talk! At the end of our elementary school year, there is a Portfolio Picnic at lunchtime, but Kindergarten is still half day, so they have Portfolio Breakfasts.  Both are an event for parents and siblings to come in and see what the students have been working on all year.  Today was Liam's class, so we got to spend one-on-one time with him reviewing some of his work over the school year, hence the term "portfolio".  It was a lot of fun to have him walk us through his writing and he read some of his papers to us.  We also got to start by seeing how they start their day, with ...

Lately, I've really wanted the kids to go off on their days to school in a good mood.  It's been very important to me.  I've been making them the berry-kale smoothies, which make them very happy.  I've been playing perky music while we eat breakfast.  I want the kids (and my husband and I) to start our day off right by being happy and energetic. Today, Tommy was in a grumpy mood.  He was getting his clothes on all wrong, he had a complaint about everything, including the music.  I teased him it was odd as he's usually our happy guy.  I teased him I was going to have to bring in The Odd Squad .  Nothing was working.  He had complaints the whole way down to the kitchen for breakfast.  As he sits down at the island with his brother for a bowl of cereal, the sun is in his eyes.  OK, let's move to the dining room.  It's too sunny in here too - grumble, grumble, grumble.  All of a sudden, I had a brainstorm that made smiles al...

Had fun at the sister-in-law's annual Easter Egg Hunt and dinner.  Getting the boys in pictures is difficult, especially when hyped up on so much sugar and excitement!  You'd think Phoebe would be easier to get in pictures too, but I have lots of out-takes with her with goofy faces.  As many as the boys.

I'm really happy with how our Easter Bunny picture came out this year, but unfortunately I could not get my free download until today, as there were technical issues with the company's website.  Really funny, is Phoebe told me she thought she looked huge in this picture, as in Amazon woman huge.  I looked at her with a straight face and said, "Darling, you're taller than me and you're pictured with two 5-year-olds, of course you look like an Amazon woman!"  I think she looks beautiful.

Sorry it's taken me so long to update.  I really need to stop saying that, but then craziness in life needs to stop happening too! The first update I'll give is on Phoebe's school.  Phoebe is an awesome student in an awesome school.  She's in 8th grade this year and is taking Honors Geometry, which a sophomore year of high school class.  She will go to High School next year with the GPA for this class.  She's an A/B student and is the goalie for her field hockey team.  The high school field hockey coach has already talked to her about playing next year and told her she should have no issue making the team, as she's a really good goalie. Well, this girl got an in-school suspension for something she did not do in October.  Both my husband and I fought it as it was a first offense, but the assistant principal is a bit of a jerk.  What happened is she came back to the girls' locker room after gym with 5 classes of girls all waiting in the...

October was a very exhausting and interesting month!  I'm looking forward to some more quiet in November, please.  We did our annual pumpkin purchases at Glen Willow Orchards.... Every year they bring out their hay sculptures.  The kids look forward to it! We went to the Renaissance Faire three days after my surgery.  Phoebe fully dressed up, I went with comfort. The boys are all about the pirate ship there.  It's always the first stop! Tommy and I when on the manual ride.  I think I did most of the rope pulling. Liam opted for a new form of time-out... Then it was time for King Henry XIII to kick off some jousting! After this, the camera ran out of it's battery charge, LOL.  Tommy was taking lots of pictures. These last two were from him.  We celebrated Phoebe's birthday the next day. More to come ... our 20th wedding anniversary, an in-school suspension for Phoebe and a change of schools coming...

Phoebe turned 14 last Monday.  Wow has time flown by!  Next year she will be in high school.  Please excuse what she's wearing.  All the kids got comfy at this point, as it was a Monday night and we took the kids out for sushi and Chinese (Phoebe's request and the boys didn't complain).  We went to Whole Foods afterward and Phoebe picked out a pear tart for her birthday cake.  Phoebe does not like cake.  We're not big fans either, so we all love a pear tart standing in for cake!!!!  For her birthday we got her a movie "The Fault in Our Stars".  She's read the book and saw the movie at the theater this summer.  She absolutely loves it.  We also let her get the upgrade for her phone to get her the new iPhone 6 (not the 6 Plus).  This may seem extravagant, but she is on her phone all the time, so it makes the most sense for a gift. She listens to music on it, texts her friends (sometimes about homework, LOL), watches movies, surfs...

I'm so glad I posted yesterday's post.  I'm also really glad the doctor and I decided to do a throat culture on both boys when we saw her yesterday.  That face the boys were making in the last post, it's still exactly how I feel! Tommy's fast strep test came back positive.  He also has an ear infection.  The doctor ordered him to be put on Omnicef and we were crossing our fingers for no allergic reaction to it.  He's had yesterday's dose and today's and still no issues.  Whew!  Hopefully this latest antibiotic which he'll take for 10 days will do the trick. Liam's fast strep test was negative; however, I called the doctor back to check today, as she ran an overnight culture and it's positive today.  We still don't understand if the allergic reaction he had was really the Clindamycin or the Omnicef, but we do know he had a definite allergic reaction to the Rocephin he had at the urgent care, so we're going to try Biaxin tonig...

Above is how I feel about the way the boys still haven't quite seemed to be able to shake feeling under the weather.  Both boys still have swollen tonsils and Tommy has a huge lymph node in his neck that he says hurts when I touch it.  Neither boy has had a fever, they both have gotten back on a regular sleeping schedule for school days (8PM to 6:15AM) and they've been eating just fine.  However, because this doesn't seem to be getting much better this week, I'm taking them to the doctor's this afternoon for a checkup.  Hopefully, we can get over the hump of this bug and I can stop spraying everything down with antibacterial Windex or Lysol wipes obsessively.  I'd also like to stop walking around the house with a thermometer and flashlight to check out throats! The one nice doctor's appointment we had was Tommy's eye checkup with the pediatric ophthalmologist.  He sees her every six months these days.  We all agreed his eyes are looking straight o...