Thursday, April 29, 2010

My Little Runaway(s)

Neither twin had a tantrum. Neither slammed the door and stormed out. Neither declared their parental hatred paired with an avowed intent to never return. Truth told, neither twin was angry in the slightest.

No matter. Nothing is quite as enticing as "running away." The lure of independence. The lure of freedom. The lure of the great outdoors. The lure of spring weather before mosquitoes invade. Irresistible.


















They hauled out beloved toys.


















They filled water bottles and took out the Worst Case Scenario Survival Guide. (FYI: Be sure to run a zigzag path to escape backyard alligators.)


They searched for buried treasure.

They realized that be it ever so humble, there's no place like home...or the backyard---especially with a companion.
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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Way Back When-esday: Saucy!

More like "saucer"-y!

Dateline: Spring 2003
Twins' Age: 18 months

Pictures like this one bring back hysterical memories of a living room literally consumed by twin-tertainment devices! The two exersaucers---loaned to us by twins born almost exactly one year prior to our twins---were the source of fun (and photo ops!) galore.

Play along with Way Back When-esday!


What memorable image(s) makes your mid-week wonderful? Dive into those digital photos or scan a scrapbook find and play along with Way Back When-esday. Be sure and link back to participate in the web-wide reverie...and leave a comment when you do!




While you're looking "Way Back," if you're feeling "Wordful," join in with Angie at Seven Clown Circus!

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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

By the Numbers

Mommy: "How did your math benchmark tests go?"

Sarah (a la Tony the Tiger): "G-R-R-R-E-E-A-A-A-T-T!"

Darren (with conviction): "Afterward, I felt a big wave of confidence."
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Monday, April 26, 2010

Makes My Monday: Amblin' with the Ancestors

Nothing quite like a spring weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Lage. My in-laws Make My Monday.

New to Makes My Monday?


Share on your blog what warms your week's beginning: Post a picture and tell the tale. After you do, be sure to link back here to share in the web-wide Monday fun. Don't forget to leave a comment for others...comments are always Monday makers.

Everyone who comments or plays along today will receive a "Where Will Your Optimism Take You?" bookmark courtesy of Pepperidge Farm's FishfulThinking.com campaign (while supplies last). Hope your optimism takes you to amazing places this week! [For those who played along last week---and you know who you are---please email me a mailing address and your bookmark will go in this week's mail! Hit the "Contact" button above and email me anytime.]

Happy Monday, Mamas---and Daddies!





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Sunday, April 25, 2010

Saturday-Sunday Snapshot Spectrum


How's your weekend looking?

Post a picture...or two, or three...and share a peek!



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Friday, April 23, 2010

Bad Haiku Friday: Work?

Take your kids to work
True! It's a real holiday
Bet you didn't know...


Cupcakes, games galore
Not exactly a "work" day
Fun was had by all.

Not so typical
Rare is the day when Mom can
Get a She-Twin hug!
Play along with the lovely Laura at Catholic Teacher Musings' Bad Haiku Friday!
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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Way Back When-esday: Mini Museum Mates

Dateline: May 2007
Twins' Age: 5 Years Old

The Saturday morning before I learned of my pregnancy, I'd taken my bi-monthly tour group through the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Subsequent tours were led with the growing duo in-utero. Once they arrived, they were 100% comfortable in the museum...first in their Duo-Glider over the smooth marble floors, then as above, as excited art appreciators, asking to go there over more "traditional" toddler locales. For the past two years, our beloved museum has been in transition---the last year, closed entirely---for an amazing expansion project.

May 1? The doors re-open and we get to re-acquaint with long-missed works and explore all sorts of new acquisitions. We couldn't be more excited!

Play along with Way Back When-esday!

What memorable image(s) makes your mid-week wonderful? Dive into those digital photos or scan a scrapbook find and play along with Way Back When-esday. Be sure and link back to participate in the web-wide reverie...and leave a comment when you do!




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While you're looking "Way Back," if you're feeling "Wordful," join in with Angie at Seven Clown Circus!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Makes My Monday: Manicure a la Mommy

She-Twin's satisfaction with a dining room doled polish job Makes My Monday. [Our home-based salon offers milk free-of-charge with nail services rendered.]


New to Makes My Monday?


Share on your blog what warms your week's beginning: Post a picture and tell the tale. After you do, be sure to link back here to share in the web-wide Monday fun. Don't forget to leave a comment for others...comments are always Monday makers.

Everyone who comments or plays along today will receive a "Where Will Your Optimism Take You?" bookmark courtesy of Pepperidge Farm's FishfulThinking.com campaign (while supplies last). Hope your optimism takes you to amazing places this week!

Happy Monday, Mamas---and Daddies!






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Congrats to the winners of last week's giveaway---selected via the ever-helpful Random.org. Both will receive a copy of See Mom Run: Amanda of Twice the Love...Half the Sleep and Donna of Our Hearts' Journey!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Saturday Snapshots: Goodies, Gilda and Goodbye 'til Next Year

After a late night for me at work, the front end of a slumber party for Sarah (we aren't quite ready to grant that privilege yet), and a Daddy & Darren movie night seeing "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," this morning found us sharing delicious doughnuts and impressions of Gilda Radner characters from historic Saturday Night Live episodes. (Hulu has so many clips of the best ones; our two are particularly fond of Roseanne Rosanna Danna, The Judy Miller Show and Lisa Loopner.)

After the meal (and doughnuts are a meal!), Darren volunteered to solve the annual (and for spatially-challenged me, quite frustrating) puzzle of placing the porcelain bunnies in their specific-to-shape receptacles for storage 'til next Easter. Mission accomplished.

How's your weekend looking so far?

Post a picture...or two, or three...and share a peek!


Thursday, April 15, 2010

Different Things to Different People

As adults, we hear the phrase "Gentlemen's Club," and it means something distinctly different than a congregation of nattily dressed men---surely with English accents---enjoying civilized, good-natured company. For our eight-year-old twins, undoubtedly that visual's the first picture in their delightfully naive mind(s).

My daily parking spot (of my own choosing) for work is a few blocks from the office...flanking one such neon-labelled "Gentlemen's Club." The occasional syringe or prophylactic peppers the lot; but the monthly price is fair, and the short jaunt to and fro provides a mini-dose of much-needed exercise.

Last week, we took advantage of the pre-paid parking and met much-loved friends for a day stroll and dinner downtown. Upon departure early that Saturday evening, a couple of enthusiastic bikini-clad ladies (again, term applicability open for discussion) were actively enticing drivers-by to enjoy the "clubhouse" camaraderie.

Sarah (with incredulity): "That is so silly! Look at those girls in swimsuits goofing around and waving in front of a gentlemen's club!"

Thankfully, the magic-markered "Honk If You're Horny" posters were unseen---or illegible---to the four typically all-absorbing eyes in the backseat.

Wednesday night, Double Daddy dropped Sarah and Darren off at the office so I could wrap the night's business and he could go practice with the band. A temperate walk to the car was all that stood between the three of us and our regular rendezvous with the Friendly's Restaurant. Alas, the light went red (humming Roxanne now...) and to the starboard side of our Hyundai Santa Fe? Two suggestively adorned Hummers (no comment) with the "Club's" name and larger-than-life (in more ways than one) images of scantily-dressed girls seemingly enchanted with one another's attractiveness.

Sarah: "Pictures of young girls on the vans for a 'gentlemen's club!' Why do they even need vans?"

Darren (with worldliness): "Sarah, they are using the pictures of the girls to get the men's attention so they'll be interested in the club. When I get bigger, I'm going to join that club."
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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Way Back When-esday: Couple of Capers

Dateline: March 2007
Twins' Age: 5 Years Old

Sent a pair of "Little Capers" to review for BabyTV.com (now defunct) a few years ago, our kids ADORED them, and hammed it up for companionate photo shoot. The facial expressions in this shot weren't exactly right for the article, but they were just perfect for the family archives!

Play along with Way Back When-esday!

What memorable image(s) makes your mid-week wonderful? Dive into those digital photos or scan a scrapbook find and play along with Way Back When-esday. Be sure and link back to participate in the web-wide reverie...and leave a comment when you do!




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While you're looking "Way Back," if you're feeling "Wordful," join in with Angie at Seven Clown Circus!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Say What?!? Wednesday

Marvelous Missy of Two Little Monkeys hosts one of my two favorite Wednesday play-alongs*....Say What Wednesday! Finally, I remembered to document some of the "shockers" of the past few days and am happily playing along.  Be sure to pop over to Missy's and read the riotous kid-isms!

After getting an out-of-the-ordinary  "C"...
Sarah:
"To be honest, I was getting kind of tired of getting all 'A's."

After I described how Michael Jackson died from a propyphol overdose...
Darren: "You know it would be cool if we could get anesthesia whenever we know we're going to have to get a shot...."

Kids DO say the darnedest things! Be sure and go peek at other funnies at Two Little Monkeys!

(*Way Back When-esday will be going live here shortly...be sure to join in!)
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Monday, April 12, 2010

Makes My Monday: Bruised and Bloodied

...but unbowed.

My tough little two-wheelin' man's tenacity*---albeit with a few tears---Makes My Monday.

[*Double Daddy's does, too. We meet with our radiation oncologist Monday to strategize our cancer-killing plan of attack. Once again, I'll greedily ask you to keep us in thoughts and prayers.]

New to Makes My Monday?


Share on your blog what warms your week's beginning: Post a picture and tell the tale. After you do, be sure to link back here to share in the web-wide Monday fun. Don't forget to leave a comment for others...comments are always Monday makers.

Two commenters today will win a copy of the new hysterical anthology, See Mom Run, edited by RoleMommy herself, Beth Feldman! If you play along, you'll be entered twice...if you decide to follow Twinfatuation as well, thrice. (Just be sure to leave me a comment to let me know...)

Happy Monday, Mamas---and Daddies!




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Saturday, April 10, 2010

Saturday-Sunday Snapshot: Load Bearing

Oooof.

How's your weekend looking so far?

Post a picture...or two, or three...and share a peek!


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Friday, April 9, 2010

Bad Haiku Friday: Two-Wheelin'

Balance is tricky.
Not since learning how to walk,
A challenge like this...

Tenacity pays.
Each twin has their own skill set.
Mastery awaits!

Double Dad's patience
is surely unparalleled
Our kids benefit!

Be sure to visit Laura at Catholic Teacher Musings---back from Spain and a Lenten Haiku Hiatus!

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Petty Things

Spring break. The eased morning schedule allows for a little bit more "climb into Mom & Dad's bed after 7:00am" time. VH1 Classic occasionally provides the entertainment before rising for the day.

Earlier this week, while descending the stairs...

Darren
(with appropriate vocal 'strain'); "Well, I'm free-----free-fallin'..."

Sarah (appreciatively): "That's a really good song."

Darren (continuing): "Free-fall--in'...."

Sarah:
"That singer is good, but he really could use a haircut."

This from the girl who at age five had a picture of the lionine-era Roger Daltrey over her bed...

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Way Back When-esday: Tiny Tigers

Dateline: May 2007
Twins' Age: 5 Years Old

Dipping double toes into the extracurricular, Darren and Sarah both took tae kwon do--matriculating as "Little Tigers." Since that time, Sarah has since discovered she likes horseback riding---and has moved on. Darren, however, still enjoys tae kwon do, and has moved on---and up.

Sarah's new interest and Darren's renewed intensity brighten my Wednesday.

Play along with Way Back When-esday!

What memorable image(s) makes your mid-week wonderful? Dive into those digital photos or scan a scrapbook find and play along with Way Back When-esday. Be sure and link back to participate in the web-wide reverie...and leave a comment when you do!




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While you're looking "Way Back," if you're feeling "Wordful," join in with Angie at Seven Clown Circus!