6 am

She is blessing me with a little rub rub from her favorite corner of her blanket. Aren't I lucky?

clue

For mutual the other night my beehives wanted to have a clue night. We made dinner together and played clue and came dressed up like a character.

I think it was Col. Mustard in the kitchen with the knife.

(What you don't see... my yellow skirt and yellow shoes)

Our Free Weekend

FRIDAY NIGHT:

Long Beach Aquarium

Regular Day Admission Price for an Adult = $23.95, Children under three = FREE.

Shark Lagoon Nights (8 more free Fridays nights through November) = Free

I love Free, good friends, great music, and sharks.

Awesome night!

SATURDAY MORNING:

Saturday was the Free Museum day put on by Smithsonian.com. There were 60 museums in Southern California that were free yesterday.

We... well, I choose the San Juan Capistrano Mission. I have never been there, but I have wanted to take the kids pictures there for a long time!

Regular Adult Admission Price = $9.00

We got in for FREE!

They walked around the entire day holding hands.

The twins loved it! They walked around looking at the flowers and butterflies, while I documented there wonderful cuteness.

h.o.t

I now I shouldn't complain. I don't live in a REALLY hot place, but when it is 92 degrees by 10 am, and you don't have an air conditioner... you know it will be a hot day.

So instead of sweat our weight away indoors, we went with a friend to Mother's Beach.

Sitting in the shade, a little ocean breeze, and good conversation goes along way.

Refreshed!

Merrick

Merrick is a crazy little guy.

He definitely takes after his dad.

He gets in all kinds of mischief, and is a very accomplished climber.

He has the most incredible laugh.

He is a snuggle bug.

He likes having his blankets tucked around him and a song sung to him while you try and cram in his toddler bed with him.

He L-O-V-E-S pirates.

He loves swords.

He loves to EAT. The kid can pack it in!

He loves guns.

(I swear I didn't teach him this stuff.)

He loves to watch shows and is OBSESSED with Wall-E.

I used to like that movie...

He takes care of Berkleigh, and always acts the part of older brother. One day in the car, Berkleigh had had enough errand running. She was "fake" crying and calling my name. Merrick looked over at her and said, "Bertee stop crying, Mommy right der." She stopped, and I silently thanked him.

He can be very stubborn! He saw a witch hat at JoAnn's the other day, and my friend and I counted how many times he "fake" cried and said the word "witch hat". Drumroll... 78 times! It was utterly amazing... thats how I keep my self sane folk, you know, when naptime is upon us, and I need to get my errands done.

Merrick is a great brother, a great son, and a great friend.

Berkleigh (a year later)

A LOOOONG time ago, I wrote this post and this post about the twins...

I have been saving up ammo..

Are you ready?


Berkleigh has THE best facial expressions, she is very outgoing unless she doesn't know you very well, she laughs

at herself, is super quirky, she had a beautiful smile, she isn't adventurous as she used to be, and definitely not as coordinated as her brother.

She loves to be pampered.

She loves her "pretty toes", and loves her hair done.

She sings to herself in the mirror, and can't be even a couple minutes without her blanket.

She loves to snuggle, and loves to make others laugh.

If she could, she would watch Peter Pan ALL day.

She wants her purple pretty dress on all day, every day!

She sings, "Once Upon a Dream" song multiple times a day.

She loves her thumb. She tells me everyday, "Mom, I sut my fumb."

She is very social. She loves her friends and always wants to play with them. I catch her numerous times a day,

calling out the door for "Addison".

She is a great sister, a great daughter, and a good friend, oh, and a great babysitter for Dallin. She is to grown up!!!

Kerinas brevis

Thank you little dinoflagellate guy...

Because you and all your friends decided to make an appearance at the ocean shore, I got to see you glow when you were disrupted by the crashing waves of the ocean.

We had a fun little date night watching the red tide tonight with our neighbors. Nature is beautiful...and even magical!


Red by day and blue by night!

Monday, Sept. 14, 2009

was the twins first day of "school".

Here are the twins in their first day of school outfits...

Here are their classmates:

Saxon

Addison

and Not Pictured: Liberty (who is already on Independent study. :) )

I am REALLY excited about it. We have lots of fun things planned! Can't wait...

First day we...

learned how to act in our "classroom"

learned about each other

read books

learned the letter I

did an art project

danced

and played...

A great first day!

The next four classes, I will be their teacher. Then I am off for 6 weeks! I will get 4 hours a week to do whatever I want...

Build and Grow

Lowe's has a program on Saturday mornings where you can go and build things.

Looked fun..

and it was free.

If anything is Fun and Free.. .I am there.



The got:

safety goggles, an apron, a patch to sew on the apron, a hammer, and the kit... all for FREEE!

We made drums this week...


And because it was crazy with three toddlers and hammers, we took the other two home to make with daddy, who was sad he missed out on all the fun.

(Good thing Merrick had the safety goggles on, he kept hitting his eyes.)

I was so impressed with Merrick's skills. He hammered in every single one of his nails. He was really good at it. Great fine motor skills!


Berkleigh was more interested in hammin' it up for the camera



Then she got down to business..


And I took over the hammin':

And using the finished product...

They love the drums. They love that they made the drums, and I love that they are NOT loud!

Learning to Smile

My kids have great smiles. They smile all the time.

I get the camera out.

They don't smile.

So the other day, we had a lesson on smiling for the camera.

Not their best smiles.

A little cheesy.

But we are getting there.

Photosynthesis Photo Shoot

Remember this post?

Well, it grew with the nurturing care and green thumbs of the Scotts...

We took a little photo shoot last night. Here is our new snap dragon!

The last Hurrah of Summer

That is what Labor Day is to me...

And we celebrated by...

Lounging in the pool

BBQing and eating fresh fruits and corn on the cob

watching a movie in the middle of the day

having my awesome sister in law baby sit while we go see a movie

Teaching the twins the art of Pop Rocks

Running early in the morning when it is still dark outside

Labor Day was a blast.

Good bye summer.

See ya next year.