Happy 85th (and a half) Birthday Grandmom!!

Today I had the honor of traveling to NJ to help celebrate my Grandmother celebrate her 85th (and a half) birthday. She made her kids promise to not throw her an 85th birthday party, but she never said anything about a surprise 85 1/2 birthday party, did she?? There were at least 91 people there, I do not even know 91 people, my grandmother has a better social life than I do. She was thoroughly surprised. Right after she came in she was giving her princess wave after given her crown:

My Aunt Jil sang a song for the crowd that she made up in honor of Grandmom which was both funny while it brought a tear to my eye. After that Grandmom of course got up and made a song up thanking all for coming off the top of her head.

There was a big playground at the church and all of the kids loved being out there



My kids stayed up two hours past their bed time and were such happy campers, we brought them in to say goodbye to the birthday girl and Bella just curled up with her

Jason, Jack, Bella, and myself with my favorite lady:

I have a zillion more pictures that I have to go through I just wanted to put a couple up.
But WAIT there is more!!! When we got home we saw this awesome box sitting waiting for us. Jack ran right up to it because it had all of the Toy Story characters on it and kept pointing to Buzz Lightyear. We came in and opened their cards
(Bella really wanted a close look at it)

and then opened up the box and what lucky kids I have:



How amazing are these?? My wonderful 85 1/2 year old grandmother made them foam blocks with their first and last names on them!!
They also got stickers, Jack really like them:

While they like the stickers they really really loved the blocks
If you could hear this picture you would hear Jack saying "WOW", he says that when he gets very excited

"OH NO!" the blocks fell down!

so after a very long day with a very short 30 minute nap Jack was about to meltdown as I looked at the pictures... how could I take this tantrum seriously when there is a Mickey sticker on his forehead:

but he is serious!

so I gave him a hug, and a bath to wash out the pound of sand in their hair, give them some milk and my wonderful children are now asleep.... ahhhhh.... a long day but it was worth every second to spend some time with my amazing Grandmother!

Random Bella....

I have to upload more pictures but just have not had the time... Here are some random ones of Bella.
Check out her sparkly pink sneakers... I LOVE them!
(she was caught playing with Molson's water dish, it is a favorite past time for both of them)

They both also have become obsessed with shoes... They love their shoes, they love my shoes, they love Jason's shoes... if you come here and take your shoes off they are fair game.
They will even try to wear shoes over their footed pajamas

Look she now has her purse and is ready to hit the town:

____

Otherwise we are all doing well. In just two weeks I will have 2-year-olds. This makes me a little teary... I can not believe how big and amazing these two are getting. They are so trying at times but they are just the best kids ever :)

Bath Time

Bath time is so hit or miss. For the most part Jack loves it and Bella does not. If we open the gate to go upstairs Jack runs up and tries to get in the tub with his clothes on... Bella drags her feet and rarely goes in willingly. If you go by our house and you hear screams, I promise, I am not beating my child... just washing her hair. Jack does not like getting his hair washed but he deals with it so that he can play in the water. In Bella's head I think getting her hair washed is a form of torture.
Anyway, one day I decided not to clean the kids up, just throw them in the tub. They had peanut butter and jelly and some blueberries for lunch. Jack got it everywhere


Both of the kids are amazed with the water coming out of the faucet. They like to turn it on, turn it off, and in Jack's case, he likes to drink it. At least he tries to. Here he is contemplating how to get it

Bella is trying to escape because she knows what comes next... I am going to rinse her hair, oh the horror!

Look... a clean face :)

Camping....

2 posts in one day... how lucky can you get?? Actually I am going to upload some newer pictures so I wanted to post any that I hadn't yet. These were the only ones left.
We went "camping" about 3 weeks ago with some friends at Jason's Aunt and Uncle's campground. We met up with a friend of mine and her family (she has twins a month and a half older than mine.) We were not "roughing" it. We had a cabin that had air conditioning, beds, fridge, and microwave. We were about 50 feet from the bath houses so that is about the "roughest" we had it. We all said that there was no way that we would go tent camping with the kids when they are this small. There is no amount of wine that could make me think that would be a good idea!
It was a really great time. We had a campfire and smores every night and there was several playgrounds that the kids could play on. Plus we had golf carts to get around on. Jack loved it and would yell "go!" and put his arm out in front of him while we were an it.
The added bonus of going with a friend who also had toddler twins was that they knew exactly what we were going though. It was nice to have 4 adults and 4 toddlers, it was a lot easier to chase them that way,
Ryan, Bella, Maggie, and Jack (Bella did not want to sit down apparently)

I love this one.... the boys are like "what is wrong with her??"

This is not the best pic but this is where the kids spent a lot of their time... the loved riding in the golf carts as well as playing on them

I love the way this picture came out... Jason was at the bottom of a tunnel slide and Jack and then Bella went down face first and I am all the way at the top watching them...

Sprinker :)

We got the kids a ball that you connect to a hose and it becomes a huge sprinkler. Jack and Bella hated it and were almost scared of it. We ran through it with them and they clung to us like we were torturing them. Their cousin Connor came over and he loved it and because he loved it, it must be cool.... Jack and Bella then had a great time!
Jack with his Pappy


Jack was not sure what to think

Going down the slide with Connor

Bella (after Jason was just throwing her up in the air... she loves that)


We are off to Dutch Wonderland today with Jason's Mom, sister, and Connor. There is a big water park there so I hope the kids hang in there... wish us luck :)

P.S. My Grandmother is by far the best lady in the world.... just in case you didn't know that already

Monkey See, Monkey Do

A friend of mine made these shirts for Bella and Jack. They say "Monkey See" and "Monkey Do". Jack is the Monkey Do while Bella is the Monkey See. They both follow each other but Jack does so just a little bit more than Bella.

Bella pointing to her monkey:




Less than one month until they are 2!!!!
I have to run... I hear them giggling at each other in their cribs, I better get them while they are still giggling and before it turns into screaming :)