Today is Alaina's funny day. This morning the kids were figuring out their place in the family. Ethan started saying that he had a brother and a sister. Austin thought about it and said, "Me too. I have a brother Ethan and a Lainy sister." Without thinking, I said, "Aren't you two boys lucky? Alaina has two brothers but she doesn't have any sisters." Immediately Alaina became glum. She mulled it over for a couple of minutes and then said, in a very serious tone, "Mama, you need to buy me a new sister. Go on. Buy me a sister." I tried to tell her that I couldn't just purchase her a sister (even if that is how we managed to get all our existing children) but she would not be swayed. So, if anyone has seen any good deals on sisters...let us know.

I took the kids on an afternoon of errands this afternoon. Eye Doctor, bank, post office. They did so well I decided to treat them to a deli dinner. While we were waiting for our food to come to the table I decided to test their sign language to help time pass. We got through a bunch of them without incident. Snow, rain, wind, sad, happy, excited, bird, cat etc. They were on quite a roll when I did the sign for dog. You sign dog by patting your thigh like you are calling a dog over to you. Alaina blurted out, "Big Bum!" Hmmm. Not exactly what I had in mind. So I told her it was a doggy and showed her again. This time she said, "doggy bum!" And that ended our little signing game.

While Robert was running a bath for this evening, Alaina jumped on the toilet to go to the bathroom. Who knows why, but she decided to mix it up on the throne and sat down with both legs on one side. Seconds later slipped and completely fell in. You can imagine that little thing with only her head, arms and top of her legs showing out of toilet. Ahhh. Gotta love that girl.

Happy Birthday Austin & Alaina!!!!

Today is the twins' 3rd Birthday. I can't believe we made it! We are officially out of the terrible twos, diapers (except at night) and booster seats. Our new wave of challenges center around independence and the constant battle of boundaries. Or in other words...Tantrums. (we do NOT negotiate with Toddlers!)

Three kids kicking and screaming of the floor of the store at once? Bring it on! This is what I like to call, Extreme Parenting, and I just got my second wind.

Yeah...I'm obviously a little bit delirious at the moment. We decided that trying to decorate a cake chock full of candy would only be possible at night. But knowing that the kids would never be able to wait until after Rob got home from work to eat the cake...we decided to have a breakfast cake party.

So, last night we started the cake. I had already made & frozen 2 small cakes, but it was clear that wasn't going to be enough. Rob whipped up another and then threw it in the freezer. By the time it was ready to cut it was 10. By 10:30 Rob had cut, stacked and put on the first layer of frosting. Apparently he had also hit his time limit for being awake, so I shooed zombie Rob off to bed and dug in.

I put the finishing touches on around 2pm. At that point I had four perfectly straight towers and everything looked gorgeous. Somewhere between the counter and the table it became slightly structurally challenged. This became painfully clear when one entire tower toppled to the side. With the second and third towers leaning precariously to the sides, I rushed over with lollipop sticks and performed an immediate pops-a-lops-co-pi. A procedure that demands a steady hand and a will of iron in the best of situations was made nearly impossible due to the blurred vision and shakes brought on by sheer exhaustion. I managed to keep all towers upright...but it was impossible to get them all straight again. Ahh well.

As soon as day broke the kids were clamoring at their doors ready for the party. We brought them out and had cake , candy and lemonade for breakfast. Needless to say, the sugar high was brief and the crash that came after was pretty impressive. Robert only had to deal with the high before he jetted off to work, and I've been dealing with the aftermath all morning. So, now I'm cooking up a hearty mac & cheese & tomatoes and planning on a nap (cross your fingers) so that by the time Robert comes home...everyone will be back in tip top condition. And I'm sure he'll think that cake for breakfast is a great idea for every morning. Cheeky monkey.

Enough babbling on. Here are the pictures of the big event. Enjoy!

Yeah...I know, the video stinks...I can't figure out how to make the video the right size to work with these things. So, just pretend you are wearing foggy glasses while you watch.

Baby Boom!!

Nathan & Lindi Jones welcomed their new arrival, Anna, May 20th.




Scott & Jenni Scribner welcomed their new arrival, Noah, May 21st (Mom Jones' B-day :)



They sure are adorable! (And those babies ain't so bad neither.)

Dad taught the kiddies the song of the 3 Bears sung by hip Bobby Troup (think Route 66) We went on a walk today with the kid's teddy bears...the kids insisted...and they sang this song along the way. It was like a soundtrack of their morning. (They put their own names in the song...and Alaina is always the little wee bear)

Three Bears.... Bobby Troup 1946

Once upon a time in a neat little cottage there lived three bears
One was an Ethan bear and one was an Austin bear and one was a Lanie bear
While they were out a-walking, through the deep woods a-stalking came a little girl with blonde hair
Her name was Goldilocks and upon the door she knocks but no one was there
So she walked right in and had herself a ball, coz she didn't care
Then she got sleepy, went upstairs to bed, when...
Home, home, home came the three bears!
Someone's been eating my porridge said the Ethan bear,
Someone's been eating my porridge said the Austin bear,
Hey Ba-ba Re-bear said the little wee bear, there's the girl whose broken my chair...Right there!


Just then Goldilocks woke up, broke up the party and beat it out of there

Bye-bye! Bye! Bye! said the Ethan bear
Goodbye, Bye said the Austin bear
Hey Ba-ba Re-bear said the little Lane bear
So ends the story of the three bears!

Ahhh. Bubbles. Ethan and Alaina covered themselves completely with the junk. Austin doesn't like to be dirty or wet. He certainly doesn't like to have bubbles on his head. I'm afraid he may have to be a speedos guy (at least while he is little) We put him into the pool yesterday and he kept trying to take off his shorts b/c they were all wet! Now, I love naked...but I'm not sure how the neighbors feel about it.














Love this kid!


















Got Milk? Alaina is too cute for words. But I'll give it a try anyways :) I still refuse to cut her hair for fear of loosing her curls.




















Doesn't Ethan look so old in this picture? I know...Alaina is a shrimp...but still. What happened to my round, gorgeous, fat baby?

















Here are the two sides of Austin. The cool cat and wild cat. Or would that second one be crazy cat?

"Help ME! I'm stuck! Help, it's too tight!"

By the time I moseyed on over to Ethan I wished that I could find my camera. He had put on 13 pairs of undies . I counted. His bum was bulging like nobody's business. I'm pretty sure he had completely cut off all circulation to his legs. Underwear no. 14 was cinching his legs together...there was no way it was going to even get close to getting around the mass of underwear already on his bum.

I spent the next few minutes laughing my head off and searching for my camera. By this time Ethan had gotten significantly more worried that the undies might never come off, so I had to give up on the camera and actually help the poor boy out.

It took me a couple minutes just to peel back all the layers of underwear to get to ground zero. Boy was that child relieve when I did.

What will he think of next? Ahh....don't tell me. It's enough to handle it as it comes without having to anticipate it.

We actually did do a couple of fun things while Dad was here . (Besides painting the boys room :) We went to the children's museum, Discovery Place, and out and about around Charlotte. But the kids really only wanted Dad to play the game "Kerplunk" with them and sing the "Goldilocks" song. Over and over and over again. Talk about living it up in North Carolina!

And here is a picture of Alaina chugging down the big cool drink I brought out for Dad while he was mowing the grass. Is there anyone this little diva doesn't have wrapped around her finger?

Most of all, it was just fun chatting it up with Dad. Not everyday that I get him all to myself. The kids loved it as much as I did and they are still asking what happened to Grandpa. Just this morning I found them tip toeing around and they were telling each other to be quite because G-pa was sleeping. Besides the fact he has been in California for a week, I'm not sure how much he would have heard without his hearing aids in. :)

While Dad was here we went to see Steve and Mary. Emily came with her husband and kids (Masen & Madalyn) for a BBQ. Her kids are very cute and all the little ones loved playing in Steve's little fountain stream. Unfortunately my camera was on a weird setting, so not many of the pictures I took came out.