Sunny California

We stayed nine days in Yorba Linda, CA with the girls' Leila and Pho-pho. The weather was absolutely wonderful. After the heat and humidity in Little Rock, it was so nice to spend time outside with the girls.

 

The girls went swimming in their first real pool.  These car floats are so great!  They get to kick their little legs around in the water and the canopies keep them mostly out of the sun.  The pool has a shelf area that is only around a foot deep so we were able to walk with them there.  They got to sit there and splash and touch the tile sea turtle embedded in the floor of the pool's shelf.  The girls love water!

Another fun thing to do outside at Leila and Pho-pho's was swinging.  They set these swings up in a covered gazebo area behind the pool and the girl had so much fun in them. We took them out there at least twice a day.  And they always had a big smile on their face.

 

One of the days Leila, aunt Lani, the girls and I went to the zoo.  I had never been to Santa Ana Zoo.  It is a small, inexpensive zoo with limited animals and is designed more for children.  It was perfect for the girls.  The zoo is not too large so we were able to see everything before the girls got too cranky.  Most of paths had lots of trees that provided shade so it was nice and cool.  The girls had a good time watching all the different animals but got scared by a sheep in the farmyard area.  We were up close to a sheep in the barn and it suddenly started bleating, very loudly.  Both girls were screaming and we had to take them out of the stroller and hold them to calm them down.  We felt badly of course but we were also cracking up.  Poor girls, afraid of a sheep.

We spent the following weekend at my sisters in Temecula.  Oma, aunt Emily, cousin Holden, the girls and I headed down to San Diego one of the days to go to the beach and meet up with friends of mine.  My friends brought their kids too and it would have been nice if they were all at a more social age so they could play together, but maybe next year. 

 

I was afraid the girls would be afraid of the water rushing at them but they loved it.  They wanted to go deeper and deeper in the surf and didn't mind the kelp strands getting caught on their legs.  They had so much fun.  I wish we lived closer to a beach.

 

They played in the sand a little.  Both girls sampled it, which I wasn't thrilled about, but that's what babies do. 

This was the scene at breakfast in the mornings. So glad I only had twins and not triplets.

Oma and her babies

For the last week of the trip we drove out to Morongo Valley, to the house I grew up in.  The girls had the run of the main rooms.  We borrowed cousin Holden's walkers and they were racing around the tile floors.  Unfortunatly by that point, the weather had gotten hot and little humid and being in the desert made it worse.  So we mostly stayed inside.

 

In the evening if it was cool enough we took the girls outside on the patio.  We mainly relaxed at home the whole week, playing in the kiddie pool once a day when it was hot and the girls need a distraction.  We had planned to go to the Children's Discovery Museum of the Desert in Rancho Mirage one day when my sister and Holden were out visiting but they don't allow strollers.  And when I explained that I have twins that don't really walk yet and can't do it without a stroller, the women basically said sorry, you're out of luck.  I'm still a bit miffed about that.  There are already a number of activities I can't do with the girls when I'm alone anyway, so it pisses me off that more activities are restricted because of stupid rules.

 

Anyway, at home a couple of friends were able to stop by who I hadn't seen in years.  It was nice to catch up.  The weekend before we returned to Arkansas, Leila and Pho-pho came out to the desert to spend one more day with the girls.  It was wonderful because by that point after spending a week in the house with the girls, Oma and I needed a break.

We had a great trip.  I wish my husband had been able to come with us.  At least, in January we will return to California for a week but with the whole family this time.

Birthday Party

First things first, before I get to the trip, I need to share some photos of the birthday party.  We had it a month after their birthday because that was when family from California came.  My husband's family, my mother, my sister and her son, who is only 8 months older than the girls, all flew in a week before we left for California. 

I learned never to invite house guests right before big trip.  I was exhausted from trying to get the house ready anytime the girls were busy playing or sleeping.  But it turned out well.  I was so busy during the party that I did not take a single picture.  So I am relying on pictures my father-in-law took.

"Under the Sea" was the theme using white, coral and turquoise for theme colors.  The girls wore onesies that I had added a ruffled bum and ruffled sleeves to.  D's had coral ruffles and a turquoise felt applique of a sea horse.  T's had turquoise ruffles and a coral starfish that you can see most of below.  Their Leila brought coordinating bows with seahorses and starfish.

I found great paper decorations of sea life at the dollar store.  I put them on the walls of the play room with green streamers that I taped up to look like kelp.  I did that little by little over the months leading up to the party while they girls played.  The morning of the party I threaded dark blue, light blue and  white balloons on fishing line and hung them across the playroom like ocean waves so we were really under the sea. 

I knitted five really cool looking jellyfish in the themes colors.  Beside being different color combinations, they were also very different because I wasn't always paying attention to what I was doing while knitting them.  One turned out really small because I didn't want to go back and correct a mistake I had made early on in the pattern.  My mistakes turned out well though; I like that they are so different and individual.
  

In the dining room I hung coral and white tissue poofs of different sizes from the light and in the corners.  I made a couple stuffed tropical fish and a star fish out of scrap material to hang around the coral "reef" of the poofs.

My sister-in-law cut great looking sea animals out of card stock to decorate the walls and even hang from some of the poofs.  Some of them were so detailed and looked great!

On the wall I hung two coral ribbons with picture from every month of the girls' lives from birth until their actual birthday.  Each photo was labeled with a starfish or seahorse that had how many months old they were.  I also printed out a sign with their name, birth date and time, how much the weigh and their length.  It is neat to see how they grew and changed during the course of their first year.

 I kept the decorations minimal in the hallway and living room because most of the action was happening in the other rooms.  Blue poofs with hanging sea life (don't you just love the octopus) and few bunches of balloons kept it festive but easy. 

 I made a great cake in the shape of a fish with a store bought mix for the head and tail and home-made low sugar sweet potato and banana muffins for the body.  Unfortunately, I don't think anyone got a picture of it.  The girls enjoyed it though.

 Here is T getting messy.  Their aunt brought them the matching birthday girl bibs that are now stained with icing.

D ate her whole muffin!  Then H came over to hang out with his little cousins.

The birthday party was a success and I couldn't have done it without my family helping get the house clean and decorated.  Thank you!

Back from California

The girls and I, with my mother's help, arrived safely home two days ago.  We flew out early from Palm Springs airport and had a very short layover in Denver.  The flight went reasonably well.  The people around us were understanding, friendly and helpful which really makes travelling with the girls much easier.  T napped for a bit on both flights giving Mom some time to read.  Except for the 15 minutes before landing in Denver when she screamed and writhed in pain from the change in pressure, D stayed entertained and happy. 

They have changed so much in the three weeks since we left Arkansas that the flight was a different experience this time.  Instead of grabbing, shaking and hitting the tray table and  irritating the man seated in front of us like she did before, D was more interested in how it worked.  She carefully pulled it down and lifted it back up, over and over and over again.   She also spent a long time playing with the cups I had gotten water in on the flight, stacking them together and pulling them apart again. 

We brought snacks for them, including the squeezable fruit purees, yogurt and applesauce.  Although exempt from the no liquids 3 oz and larger carry on flight rule, they still needed to be checked.  We had to open each of them a tiny bit so the TSA official could test them.  It was very annoying and took awhile to get through security.  Now I know to pack something else or at least fewer of anything over 3 oz. 

I will put up more posts about our trip over the next few days with pictures.

Growth Chart

I thought I would get this post up before all the craziness ensues.  Tomorrow evening Kevin's family, my mother, my sister and her little boy are flying in to have a birthday bash for the girls a month late.  Don't ask why; that is just how this whole crazy birthday party day evolved over the months.  Wish I knew then what I know now.  I would have planned it much better, but I'm sure it will all turn out fine nevertheless.

Then a week from today, the girls and I are flying to California for three weeks.  We will miss Daddy but it will give the girls time with their grandparents.  I need to start packing but I've been so busy getting the house ready for company and planning the birthday party that packing hasn't happened yet.  I did manage to pull out the suitcase today though, so that is a good start.

I have almost finished both growth charts.  I still need to embroider numbers on the ruler portion of both and sew something to hang both by.  I also need to finish the binding of T's.  It is about a quarter of the way stitched down and shouldn't take long.

D's growth chart

This was my first time machine appliqueing and it sure does make that part of the project come together quickly.  Mistakes come faster too though so concentration is a must.  I got the idea for this project and the patterns for the flowers from the Fons and Porter website.  I also made one for my nephew for Christmas that had only one flower, a caterpillar and a grasshopper.  I was so rushed to finish it in time that I did not get any good photos of it unfortunately.  But the grasshopper looked really cute.

For each growth chart, I painstakingly marked the ruler lines and then machine sewed each of them line by line with two strands of thread (pink/purple for D's and pink/orange for T's and dark green/bright green for cousin H's).  The ruler starts at 2 feet which is the level I will hang it at and goes to over 5 feet.  I plan to use a fine tipped sharpie to mark the girls' progress.

"3" for 3 years old or for 3 feet tall

I used felt for their names.  Had I planned ahead it would have been out of another colorful material, but I added their names much later (I've been working on these since last fall) and had felt on hand at the time. 

Labelled so there is no confusion.

My goal is to finish them and hang them before we leave for California in a week.  Having family around to watch the girls will hopefully give me time to work on them.  But I have a lot to do and not a lot of time.  I hope I make it.

New Sensory Experiences

I finally bought one of the little plastic kiddie pools.  I didn't even know that they made them in pink.  So now my girls have a girlie little pool.  One of these days we might actually fill it with water and use it as a pool.  But for now its sole purpose is to contain messes.

For example, keeping play dough off the carpet.  I found a quick and easy play dough recipe on Pinterest.  So I made them a batch of purple play dough, but I doubled it for obvious reasons.  

I'm trying to do more sensory experiences with them because of Tess' dislike of frosting and paint on her hands.  But she had no problem with the play dough.  I was hoping they would squish some in their hands and go all out.  Instead they mainly picked up a piece and then dropped, and then picked it up again and dropped it.  But they liked learning to crawl in and out of their new pink pool. 

For their next new thing a week later, I took a cue from a friend and let them play with flour.  I opted for them to be sans diapers since I didn't want flour all over the diaper covers.  But notice I was careful about object and hand placement so I could post them on here.  I did get a great double moon shot though that I can embarrass them with when they are teenagers.

They were a little concerned when I started sprinkling strange white stuff on their legs, but they quickly learned to ignore it while they played with all their new toys (i.e. Tupperware, wooden spoons, measuring cups and a basting brush).    They spread it around a little and dusted it off their legs.  They even tasted it and made faces.  I don't like the taste of raw flour either. 

They had fun.  It kept them busy and tired them out on a long day when Kevin was on-call.  And it wasn't really messy.  A quick rinse of their "toys", a spray out of their pool outside and a sweep in the kitchen was all it took.  Oh . . . and a bath for them, but it was bath day anyway. 

4th of July

Happy Independence Day!

We were hoping to BBQ and it would have been nice to see some fireworks but we are not doing either today.  So sad, I know.  Kevin should have had the day off since he is in the clinic this month but he got scheduled on-call.  He'll be back today at 7pm so BBQing is out.  Last year the girls were still in the hospital, but we had a great view from their room. We were able to see the fireworks over the capitol building.  The girls go to sleep at 7pm so no fireworks unless we can see them from our house.  Between the hills and the trees, I don't think that is likely.

So instead, to celebrate we've done the next best thing.  I dressed the girls up in their 4th of July outfits and took pictures. 

 I have learned to not wait for a good shot.  Usually I see a great shot where they are both looking at the camera or doing something cute and I press the button too late to get it.  So now I just take shot after shot after shot without waiting and hope that a few of them turn out okay.  I took 50 photos of them today.  About 5 turned out really well and another 8 were acceptable.  D's smile in the above photo was the only one I got. 

I almost got T to smile, almost but then she changed her mind.  Her expression in this one though is so adorable.  Just want to squish her chubby cheeks. 

The bows were gifts from the girls' Leila but the rest of their outfit I made.  I took two 18month onesies which ran really small in size . . . the girls stopped fitting into them lengthwise at 11 months.  I made ruffled the sleeves out of patriotic scrap material using this tutorial: Ruffled Sleeves Tutorial.  For the matching star applique, I used some techniques I learned with quilting.  I had to sew it on by hand since the onesie would have made turning around the edges difficult on the machine.  Perhaps next time I do an applique like that I will make a tutorial.   

D as a young Rosie the Riveter. 

 The skirt is a handkerchief cut down the middle and sewn up the sides (which I thought was very clever of me).  For each outfit, I cut a onesie in two horizontally right above the leg openings.  Then I gathered the handkerchief skirt in two spots, one at the top and one about 2 inches down.  The top gathering I sewed to the bottom snap portion of the onesie.  Then I sewed the next gathering to the shirt part of the onesie. This extended the onesie by a little over an inch.  I also didn't have to make diaper covers that matched because the onesie still snaps down. 

Since we are not going any where today, they will instead get to wear the outfits tomorrow and be very patriotic for story time.   I hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July.

Small Projects

I have been getting small projects finished although my larger projects have been either languishing (still need to resize the butterfly squares of baby quilt #2) or progressing very slowly (their growth charts are getting there and I will have photos soon). 

But in the mean time, here are the Father's Day gifts the girls and I made for their Daddy and their Pho Pho.  Scrub caps with the girls handprints and name (great gift for doctors that spend a lot of time in the OR).   I had planned to post these on Father's Day but got a bit overwhelmed with the girls birthday planning and photos. 



I thought taking their footprints was a messy process.  It doesn't even compare to handprints.  Dara managed to grab the strings of one of the caps while I was trying to get Tess' prints and got paint splotches everywhere. 

Tess didn't like the feel of the paint on her hands and started crying.  She is much more sensitive to sensory experiences than Dara is.  I think I need to start doing more sensory activities with them so she doesn't get upset so easily with the different textures. 

You can also see where Dara got some paint on her fingers of the hand I wasn't printing and started grabbing the scrub cap.  I touched up the handprints using a tooth pick with the white paint and tried to cover some of the wayward splotches with black paint.  But Dara's left handprint on my husband's cap was just too messy so I left the white splotches as is.  Their chubby little handprints still look cute, even if it they are messy. 

I saw this project on Pinterest and thought it would be a great idea for the girls' and my summer travels in CA.  I got a hand towel on sale at Target and made the tie out of the same material I'm using for the growth chart binding.  It was really fast to make; the tie took the longest but shoe laces or ribbon would be an easy no-sew alternative to the tie I made.  I have slots for our tooth brushes (even Kevin's for future trips), tooth paste, dental floss, my deoderant and then a large slot at the end for anything else I think I need.

Rolled up, it makes a nice and convenient bundle that protects your toothbrushes.

Got to love Pinterest!