A Day at the Lake

We took the twins and my brother to the lake a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately we are not one of the lucky ones with a boat so we just brought some tubes to play in the water and it turned out to be a lot of fun. As I have mentioned before the twins LOVE water. They were in the water before we could get everything out of the car. We quickly put their little arm wings on and they played in the water all day. We bought some little tubes for them and put them in it and they sat in them for hours floating around in the water. Greg, Hunter and I also played in some tubes with the twins right next to us. There were times Greg took them pretty far out into the lake and they didn't mind at all, just sat in their tubes along for the ride. I had to take a ton of pictures so be prepared.

Silhouette Giveaway

The Idea Room & Silhouette are giving away a Silhouette cutting machine.  Get all the details here: http://www.theidearoom.net/2010/08/silhouette-giveaway.html all you have to do is leave a comment but hurry you only have until August 7th.

Growing Up to Fast

The twins are growing up way too fast.  We recently made the transition from the crib to toddler beds.  We wanted to keep them in their cribs for as long as we could to avoid them getting out and just playing when they should be sleeping.  I have to confess I also wanted to keep them in there just because I like that they need me to come and get them out. 

But we decided it was finally time.....so I put Greg to work on making toddler beds from plans I got here: Knock-Off Wood Toddler Bed by the way I love this website I have many, many more projects I want to do - stay tuned! 

So Greg made the beds and I painted them all within a weekend.  We made them pretty much exactly like the plans but we used the frame and mattresses from their cribs.  The twins love them.  I thought it would be difficult and I was really worried they would fall out with out railing but once again they surprised me with how great they are and made the adjustment really well.  I think it was harder for me I sat in their room for a while before we took down the cribs and soaked in the last of their babyhood. 

They were so excited about them that when we got them in their rooms they jumped on them and laid in them right away.  The first night they climbed right into their beds pulled their blankets up and we tucked them in gave them their kisses and they went to sleep.  And it has been like that pretty much since.  There were a few times during nap when they would get out and play with their toys but we put them back in their beds and they feel right to sleep. 

Every morning Jaelee has woke up first and she climbs right out of bed and goes over to the toys wakes her brother up and gives him a toy - she is so considerate and a great sharer (real word?).  My brother has been watching them this week and it has been nice for him because he can sleep in and they just come in and wake him up when they get up.

So here are a few pictures of their beds.  I hope to rearrange their room soon, add a few more things and then take some betters photos but for now here you go!

Here's the beds before I painted them.  I love the look of the natural wood and was tempted to just put a glossy sealant over them but I had to paint them white to match all their other furniture.

Jaelee had to go grab her power tools since dad was using his.

She just loves to pretend to sleep now.

Summer Fun - Tons of pictures

We are so happy that summer weather has finally arrived.  We have been able to have a lot of fun.

My mom had a knee replacement surgery and was in the hospital for over a week, while she was there my brothers watched the kids - and are still watching them (THANK YOU brothers).  As a thank you (well sort of we got the tickets for free) we took them and the twins to the Speedway to watch some race cars.  Jayse LOVES anything to do with cars and he watched the cars some of the time but a lot of the time he was playing with his own little car running it along the bench seats.  Jaelee of course hated the loud noises and covered her ears in the beginning but then I think she got used to the noise and she ran around like a wild woman.  After the races we went to the pit and looked at the cars.  All in all it was a pretty fun night.

We also went to a local water park.  I had been talking it up saying it had an area for the kids and a water slide but I hadn't been there in a long time and I forgot it didn't have water deeper than 3 feet - so it was not so fun for my brothers.  The big boys did manage to find fun in plugging holes in the fountains to make one blast with water.  The twins really liked it.  Jaelee watched her dad go down the water slide and then she wanted to go down it but was too little.  After playing in the water for a while we went to the park next door and had a little picnic before heading out to my grandparents.

We bought the twins some nets that can be used for catching bugs or fishing or playing swords or hitting each other with.  So my brother and I took them out to a field by our house so they could run around with their nets.  I also wanted to work on taking photos at sunset.  I love the silhouette photo I got of my brother holding the twins hands.