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.