We can't look alike!

A couple of weeks ago, J got a shorter haircut. She loved it and she said everyone else loved it too. Daddy and I thought for sure that no one would mistake them for each other and people would appreciate that.

This week K finally got her haircut. We tried to make it different, like no bangs, but really, how different can we make the haircut without cutting drastically ? 

J got mad and said, "Mommy, she looks like me!!!" 

The next day Big M confided to Daddy quietely that he now has trouble telling them apart. Daddy told him to keep that fact to himself or his sisters will get upset.

On another day when I took the younger 3 out, they were running around playing.  Little M needed to quickly get J's attention so he yelled out , "J! J! J!" After the 5th time and J wasn't turning to face go , he realized he must have been mistaken. So he yelled out instead, "Sister! Sissssssssssterrrrrrrrrr!"

more christmas eve choir

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The first mass for Christmas was 4pm on Christmas Eve. We were supposed to be there 30 minutes before in order for the choir to have a quick practice. I thought that was enough time to get seats, but apparently most everyone thought the same because by the time we got to church people were already standing. We ended up separated but thankfully, the girls were able to sit in the choir area.

Children's Choir

J and K have joined our church's children's choir that began in mid-October. They practice for just a few minutes right before our mass starts so it's completely no pressure for the kids. This is the Christmas  Eve mass. We are a very proud!

sewing for my twins

I made these 2 monkeys peasant tunics and asked them to pose. They shall be models when they grow up.

Tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, turbinate reduction

J had her surgery in September, a week after school started. She missed 1 week of school and then 1 week of no PE.

After checking in the hospital, she was set up with the TV which meant she was pretty much hypnotized. Since we have instituted no TV during weekdays, the TV had more of a power over them once it is turned on.

The hospital staff gave her toy a name badge as well which made her feel less nervous. She even brought it with her to the OR.

In the recovery room, the nurse was so proud of J for gobbling up her Popsicle. She was upset that her vision was blurry but the nice nurse talked her though it.

J spent over night for observation because of her sleep apnea. She did well during the day and kept eating cold stuff. The tech was so wonderful (more helpful than the nurse). At night once J feel asleep, her oxygen monitor beeped over and over because she stopped breathing. The nurse was not concerned since J seemed to wake herself up every time to correct her breathing. 

The next day I told that to the doctor and she made sure to tell me that he would not give her prescription pain killer because of it because it will only slow her breathing. The nurse wasng concerned and probably didn't even report it to the doctor but it turns out to be very important.

 

Everyone visited late that day. I think they were all a little shocked to see J in this settif even though we told them what she was there for. J was pretty much exhausted at this point and couldn't talk.

J'a class wrote her get well cards which was so touching. Her teacher is just wonderful and thoughtful to get her clas to do it. J loved the cards.

By mid morning the next day, J broken down and asked to go home. She said she was tired of the hospital. It broke my heart to hear her say it, but there is just nothing compared to being with loved ones and being in your own space when you are unsure if things.

She did get discharged by lunch time. Her recovery was quite smooth. I woke her up for her Tylenol and Ibuprofen but 2 days later she was irritated by it. She didn't understand why she had to keep taking it so another day and I finally stopped giving it to her. Three nights after she came home her breathing while asleep was remakable. She had no more snoring.

Drama

Yet another accomplishment for K and J was their year-end production "Paradesia". Two weeks before the show their teacher approached me and asked if they had been practicing their lines. I sheepishly admitted that we haven't been practicing at all. After that we practiced several times a day. On the last class practice, their teacher again approached me and said not only did they know their lines, they knew other people's lines as well. Yay K and J !!! I am very proud of them.

The performance was awesome! Hey said their lines "loud and proud" and we had no difficulty hearing them. Not many people know the hard word that was put into it, but worked very very hard. I was grinning from ear to ear while watching. 

Again, the medal they received at the end was such a reward for them. Bravo!

recent pictures

Miss K with her new dress I made for her.

Daddy & Mini Me (Little M)

Daddy & 3 kids.

Little M was put on time out. "Again?," he asked. Yup. Again.

mortality and 5-year olds

Once in a while J is preoccupied with the subject of getting old and dying. She has equated old age to near dying, so she comes up to me and sometimes says, "Mommy, I don't want you to die." She really means to get old and die. I have explained to her that everyone dies, but she doesn't understand that yet and it doesn't help her. So I've gone to saying, "Mommy will live long so I can take care of you." That answer she is happy with.

Today, K same up to me after we were cleaning up our little craft. She looked at the big pack of crafting gems and said, "Mommy, when you die I want to keep these. You have a million of them!"

These girls are identical twins, yet so different from each other. They keep me on my toes.

Look out, world. The Collins brook is taking over!

I can hardly believe that 3 of my children are off to school. My girls in kindergarten, who would have thought. I remember the assembly-line process of changing and feeding them as infants, and now they are in school. I can't even remember the in-between.

K, Big M, J looking like rock stars! They were all excited.

We were outside waiting for the bus about 10 minutes before our scheduled pick-up. Of course we knew that buses would be late with parents trying to figure things out and taking pictures. Little M had to have a backpack too. What he didn't know was that he wasn't going in the bus, so it was a big tantrum. He "wand machu, dodo and tatie!" Then he cried and cried after Daddy left for work. After that he started asking for everyone, like his Nana!

Little M and I headed to school for the parent coffee, but we arrived there much earlier than the kids. I got to see K find her class. She saw me and waved with a big smile in her face.

Then I saw J. She is all smiles here but as they marched to their classroom, she wanted to make sure that I could pick her up from school. I had to remind her that she is riding the bus but that I would be waiting at the bus stop. She had the saddest look in her face after waiving goodbye but she marched on. She is wearing a picture necklace of her and me, and Daddy and her. I told her she could look at the pictures when she felt sad.

After running some errands, Little M and I had lunch together at a local restaurant. We had Bacon, scallion, spinach quiche and sweet potato soup. He loved the food. He was a handful, and it took a while for him to stop asking for everyone but we did enjoy our meal together.

spring garden

We are a little late with our flower garden this year. The kids planted some perennial flower seeds and hopefully this will be a success like last year. It was so successful last year that the marigold grew to 3 feet. I'm not well versed with plants, but I don't think marigolds are supposed to grow that big.

I also planted a couple of my Mother's Day roses that surprisingly started growing! It would be great if they flourished and make that special day even more memorable.

face painting at home

J and K loved their face paint so much, they kept asking me to check if it was still on or whether it has disappeared. After a billion times, I told them to check with each other instead.

The girls also asked me to paint another one on Little M after his was completely rubbed off. And this is what happened when I showed it to him for the first time.

Thank God for keeping us safe.

At around 11 today, I decided to try to fry wings which I have never done before. I even looked online on how to do it. On a small sauce pan with about 2 inches of oil, I started frying the first batch of wings....frozen. It wasn't a problem until I put in a 2nd batch and trouble started. It started bubbling and immediately ignited very high into the cabinets. I grabbed the pan out of stove but the fire continued. The fire was so big, I knew there was no way for me to put it out. But I still thought about it in the seconds the followed. I thought about wetting a rag and draping it over the fire, but just as instantly as the thought came, I knew not to use water on grease fire and electric fires.

In the instant that fire ignited, I must have yelled fire because my smart sweet daughter, K, opened the door and  went outside and behind her was J. While the fire alarm was yelling, "Fire, Fire, Fire!", I saw the flames get smaller and smaller until it was gone. I got my daughters back in, and then started running around opening windows. There happen to be gardeners right outside our window that were oblivious to the fire alarm until I opened the windows. They stared at me, so I yelled, "It's ok! I was cooking and fire ignited and now there's no fire but the alarm is going!"

When the alarm finally stopped, I checked my little 2-year old on the monitor still safely napping upstairs. I was ready to grab run up and grab him but thank goodness it didn't come to that.

I am so very proud of K leading the way to go outside. I didn't ask her to do it, but she did it. That on it's own probably lessened my panic a bit, since I only had to grab Little M if I had to. Thank goodness for the grease fire dying down on it's own. Thank God for keeping us safe.

With the adrenaline rush going down a little bit, I found myself shaking. I finally picked up my phone to call hubby (he took Big M to his soccer game). The problem was, my phone turned itself off and wouldn't turn back on. What an unreliable phone I had!! Not good, especially for not having a land line.

After reassuring me, hubby "scolded" me about frying something cold/wet. He reminded me that I had once told him not to ever do that, and then here I was doing the same thing. The problem was, I had let my guard down. After the first batch of wings without a problem, I didn't think that the oil was now much hotter.

Thank you, God! Thank you, God!

I have soot to clean out from the cabinets and the wall, but there isn't any damage. The fire was big, but it was so fast, and died fairly quickly.

I am so very proud of my daughters!!! We had only talked about what to do in case of fire probably two times, since we moved here 3 months ago, and yet that was enough.

baby, I think the kids grew

The high today was only 50 but we took the bikes out anyway. It's been a while, and obviously the kids have outgrown their bikes. Big M's bike is now the perfect size for J, and J's Barbie bike is actually perfect for Little M. Poor J was frustrated with her bike and cried and begged for us to buy her a new bike. Today. I told her we will probably buy her and her sister new bikes, before the weather gets warmer. But really, that means we need to buy 3 new bikes. Yikes.

my little beauties

Before we left Texas, we've already paid for their dance recital costumes and the recital fees. The girls' teachers were nice enough to ship the costumes to us to at least be able to play dress up with them. K and J are both bummed about not being able to dance at the "show". They both love dancing and have already asked me if I am looking for a new dance place for them.

away, evil germs!

With all the registration papers filled out, crib sheets and nap blankets all set to go for a start at a new preschool on Tuesday, we had to cancel because we were visited by evil germs. On Monday at about midnight, J called out saying her stomach hurts. I told her to go to the bathroom to go get a drink of water and go back to bed. Half an hour later I hear her scream that she had just thrown up. I tried to give her a bath and clean up her bed at the same time without waking Daddy up, but it wasn't possible. So I did wake him up and put him on bath duty. The man was gagging the entire time. I thought I would have to clean up after two pukers. Thank goodness he didn't.

An hour and a half later we're all back in our beds, but moments later I hear J vomiting again. So I set up a cot in the girls' room and slept there. Every hour or so, poor little Miss J vomited. So there was no sleep for either of us. Even K didn't sleep with all the excitement.

Fortunately by morning, J has stopped. She had a mild fever during the day but that was it. Today is Friday and noone else has been struck by the evil germs. Daddy and I were bracing for this bug to decimate our family, reminiscent of Christmas 2007. It also reminded us of our 2009 summer in NC when both K and J battled some sort of bug for weeks at a time for a period of 2 months. Thankfully this one doesn't seem to be any of the sort. Or did I just now jinxed my family? Oh, please. Stay away stomach bug!

Murphy Maize Days

We took the kids to a community festival, Murphy Maize Days, mainly because I LOVE corn and so we just HAVE to be there. I had a grand plan of eating anything and everything corn. Thankfully they also had a lot of fun stuff for the kids.

This was a fun shot with all the scarecrows. At the end of the shot, J and K went to inspect the old lady scarecrow (the one Big M is standing next to) and inspected it. J then started squeezing what would have been the boobies. I had no idea what she was doing and why. 

They also had fun inspecting the fire truck. (J is wearing a flower shirt).

Not too long ago, Big M was obsessed with fire trucks. While he still enjoys them, he couldn't answer me when I asked what kind of fire truck this was. I guess fire trucks are a thing of the past for him.

J heads up the trek all the way up this Gorilla bounce slide.

K screaming all the way down.

This is Little M attempting to climb this wall. He never really made it up but a few feet because he couldn't coordinate both his arms and legs to climb up. He was using his arms mainly which tired him out within minutes. K and J were in line at first too because they really wanted to climb. But after seeing a small girl being stuck because she couldn't climb up anymore and yet she was too light for the rope to get her down, I decided the girls shouldn't try this one at all.  

sewing for my girls

The girls are in a ballet/tap dance combination class and they love it. They need to take both shoes with them to class so they needed a little bag. I looked into some cheap bags but then I saw a pattern for a cinch bag that was so easy to make. So instead of buying them bags, I made one for them.  I also had to make one for Big M, but not too girly of course. For Big M I used a Navy military pattern fabric. That was a big hit.

J is on the left with the flower bag, and K is on the right.

Weeks later, I found a very simple skirt pattern online so I used the remaining fabric. So cute!

But then I had to make them a pair of shorts from a very thin liner fabric so that they didn't show their souls to everyone while wearing the skirts.

At the park

While it usually doesn't make a lot of sense to take more than two kids out at once by myself, sometimes the stars align so well that I attempt it. Foolishness? Sometimes more so than others. Today it was fun and everyone had fun.

first week of school

The first week of school has come and gone and everyone seems to be adjusting fairly well. Big M is tired, but he is controlling himself much better nowadays and can avoid a tantrum, or at least recover from a tantrum easily. Time and time again, I tell him that he must recognize that if he is having a tantrum often, that he is tired and must rest. But how can I expect him to learn something that even most adults haven't mastered. 

A few days he came home and said, "Mom, I only got a warning today!" He was very proud of the fact. I've contacted his teacher via email to see how is doing, and I'm told he is an excellent student. He is having fun at school with his friends and that has erased some of his apprehension that 1st Grade is hard. Everyday he has a reading homework. He must either read for at least 15 minutes, or be read to for the same amount of time. Most of the time, I make him read by himself. He has gotten quite good at it and only need help with very difficult words like "through". And there are days where we have asked him to read bed time story to his sisters. By my estimation, he reads in the 2nd grade level at the very least.

We have also curbed his TV time and computer playing time during the week. We did well in the first week, but I once said that he could go back to playing or watching TV once his homework was finished. I may have made a mistake on that one because his homework were fairly short to do. I will have to rethink that last policy.

J and K are also adjusting well. They have the same friends so it makes it easier. There are essentially 2 classes in one classroom and they are always separated. This is something I highly agree with. In fact, I think I may look into getting them separated in 2 different classrooms. The pre-school has essentially 2 pre-k classes, with 2 groups in one class. It may do them good to be in different pre-k classrooms so that they can get used to this. Daddy and I want them to be separated in Kindergarten to avoid competition and criticism.

Why Twins should never be in the same class.

I had the girls do some school work this weekend. K was cutting some pictures to paste onto a frozen pop stick, while J was coloring. J was eager to start cutting too so she colored quickly and sloppily. K looked at J across the table and said, "Jordan, don't scribble scrabble like that!"

This is only reinforcing our decision to go ahead and separate them when they start Kindergarten. I just can't imagine the competitiveness and the criticism (from each other) if they are in the same class!