Catch the Christmas Spirit

Trevor and Morgan took part in the "Catch the Christmas Spirit" concert at church last Sunday evening. They both had such a great time, and they did really well with the singing and motions! I was afraid Morgan would stand up there like a deer in headlights but she did very well! I have uploaded the videos of the 4 songs they did:

Mary Had A Baby Boy

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Away In A Manger

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We're Having a Good Time

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Jesus We Will Sing

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Then after the concert Santa dropped in for a quick visit. Trevor was excited to visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus:

But Morgan wanted nothing to do with it! This picture shows her back as she looks at Santa... that was as close as she would get!

Go Browns!

Go Browns! These two helped cheer them on to the OT victory today! Well Trevor did at least. He was so excited and pumped up about it. Every time they scored he wanted a high five. He gave us an update on the score about every 30 seconds. It really was an awesome win for the Browns. And in case anyone is wondering, when Trevor grows up he is going to be a football player for Ohio State, then the Browns, and then when he's done with that he will be a plumber.
Trick-or-treating was fun - for Trevor. Not so much for Morgan... we got off to a bad start when we walked onto the front porch and she was scared of the "punkins on fire" (the tealights inside the jack-o-lanterns). But Captain Hood (aka Brian) took them out trick or treating while I handed out treats. Morgan was not at all thrilled with anyone in a mask, any jack-o-lantern, or any Halloween decorations (let alone sounds). They made it about 1/3 the way around and Brian brought her home. Even at home she didn't want to sit on the porch - she was getting scared of the kids in costumes coming to our door. I said to her maybe she's to little. Her reply "I too wittle for twick-0-tweat"



And the babies had their first costumes on... Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Happy Halloween!!!

From Peter Pan and Tinkerbell:


We carved pumpkins last night. Of course in Morgan's eyes they were not pumpkins, they are actually huge orange bouncy balls. After we cut the tops off, we thought for sure the kids would just dive in and scoop the slimy stuff and seeds out. Trevor's teacher at school said he "dove right in" to scoop stuff out when the class carved a pumpkin. As you can imagine, things went in fact completely opposite of what the parent anticipated. Morgan was just too busy to help - playing with sticks, leaves, bricks from the landscaping. And Trevor said it was too slimy, and was begging for a real ball to play with. I did manage to get them to pose for pictures though:

Next post... Adventures in Trick-or-Treating!

We're BACK!!!!

OK - after a bogging sabbatical I am back! Lucky you!
We've been up to lots of fun things in the last few weeks - especially in all the nice weather!
Trevor started Pre-K! He is no longer in preschool, it is Pre-K. And in case you forget, he will politely correct you. Here is his first day:

And of course we did go apple picking at Miller's Apple Farm. We go there every year because they have SOOO many trees, a hay maze, farm animals, a pumpkin patch, and games for the kids. This year we went on a weekday that Brian and I were both off so we had virtually no crowd there whatsoever. Which was nice when we were trying to man the entrances and exits to the hay maze to make sure our kiddos didn't escape!Then on a trip to Mansfield to visit Brian's parents we went to another fall festival. This was like no other! Here we had a huge hay maze - and these people smart! The entrance and exit were right by each other and there was only 1 entrance and 1 exit! Novel concept when you are trying to keep track of your kids. AND they had a platform parents could go on (right next to the entrance and exit) so we could see over the hay to see where our little munchkins were! This was a free event, but man, I'd pay to go there from now on - much less mommy stress at the hay maze! They built slides out of these huge tubes and bails of hay, they had horse drawn wagon rides, bounce houses, face painting. But the HIGHLIGHT of the trip was to go on the "Tarzan" rope and swing into the hay. Trevor loved it. And after watching Trevor go on it a hundred few times, Morgan decided to get up the urge to try it too - and 1. she could actually do it and 2. she LOVED it. And of course Martha Stewart I decided to do a few crafts with the kids too - this afternoon.
In case you were thinking of doing this, let me let you in on a little secret:
Lots of little foam pieces + stickers + hot glue gun ≠ fun (for Mommy at least!)

But we tried. And the end results are pretty cute. Trevor picked out a pirate ship to make and Morgan decorated a tree.
OK, so thats our brief update... more on the pumpkins later.

TWINS!!!

We have twins! Our best friends Sonja and Vince had their twins this morning!
Introducing....

Ava Rose (5 pounds, 11 ounces)

Paige Addison (5 pounds, 3 ounces)

I can't believe she had 2 girls! We are so happy for them. I'm not sure if I have ever met a more proud daddy then Vince is today (except Brian, of course). And Sonja is just feeling so blessed. We are grateful that mom and both babies are doing amazingly well. 2 healthy babies... a perfect ending to the pregnancy, and a perfect start as they begin this new stage of their lives.

It was one of those days that I will always remember where I was when it happened. I had taken the day off to go downtown to give a deposition in a case in which I was serving as an expert witness. I was home with Brian that morning, still in pajamas watching the Today show. It wasn't long before virtually the entire city of Cleveland (and suburbs) had shut down. I think on that day, virually everyone in America felt vulnerable. Six years later, and on a Tuesday again, we remember.

Soccer Season Has Begun!

Well for the boys at least! Trevor's first soccer game on a U5 team was this weekend. This is the first time he is on a team that has practices and games! He is so excited and loved it! It really is all for fun - no goalies, no score-keeping. Brian's outdoor league started this weekend too (for him at least, really they started last weekend but work scheduled interfered). I took the kids to watch part of his game. Trevor watched and cheered daddy on, and Morgan - well - she provided lots of entertainment for the players not on the field - talking to them about Dora, singing Mary had a little lamb, explaining what you use an umbrella for.


Here he is getting in there to kick the ball! Toward the end of the game he really tried hard to go for the ball. (I am not sure why this picture is so dark!)











Here he is doing one of the throw-in. The coaches tell them to aim for the feet of their teammates... he didn't do too bad!














While sitting with Nana and Papa, Morgan patiently waits for her turn to play soccer. She doesn't have to wait long.... she is old enough to do tot soccer this season! It starts this Saturday. It's for 2 1/2 to young 4 year olds. They split them up by age, so her group is mostly 2 1/2 to young 3 year olds. I remember when Trevor started at this age... it is quite a site. The coach does a great job teaching the kids (and the parents) some beginning soccer skills for about 30 minutes. Then they split the kids up and do a "scrimmage" which is really funny... like an amoeba of kids moving around the field.

It will be neat to go to something of Morgan's though, and have Trevor watch her for once!

Splash Pad!

Well, I think (hope) today was the last of our 90+ degree summer days. Since I had the day off I took the kids to our city park, where they have recently opened a splash pad. I told them it was like sprinklers - and both said they wanted to do it. It was a lot of fun - for Trevor at least!







"I go in spwinkers" Morgan said. Yeah right. Given her last experience in our home sprinkler (http://2rosebuds.blogspot.com/2007/07/sprinkler-fun.html), I did not get my hopes up.


Here she is trying to escape!

"Thank you for me, thank you for my food."

As I did some work at the computer I noticed Morgan sitting on this train/catch-all toy table. Now normally I don't encourage them to sit on this table, in fact, we strongly discourage it. However out of her little mouth I heard "Thank you for me, thank you my food. Amen."
Thankfully I had my camera right there, so I asked her to say it again and she did repeat herself. Those were the sweetest words for me to hear... it made me feel like we are teaching them important things in life.

Safety Nets

So Morgan is doing great in her big girl bed. Surprisingly, she actually stays in it at naptime and bedtime. When we set up the bed we figured she definately needed the safety rail thing. It seemed like Trevor might be old enought to go without one, so we just took it off his bed and put in on hers.

Side note: He has only fallen off his bed once since we have done this, but that kid is such a heavy sleeper he didn't even wake up!


I guess its a good thing we put the rail on Morgan's bed. These are from tonite, 30 minutes after I put the her to bed:



Interestingly - her feet are inches from her pillow. I can't see how this is comfortable. I just hope that net is strong!

NOTE: About 2 hours later, Morgan managed to fall completely out of her bed, despite the safety net!

Summer Days

Well - not much going on around the Rose Household... we are just trying to enjoy the last of the summer days before the busy fall starts. In between the rainy days we have managed to take walks, ride bikes, and go swimming.

This will probably be the last summer for this pool. It certainly has served us well, but the kids are getting a little big for it.

We even ventured out for put-putting. The kids LOVED it. Trevor still needs to learn the difference between a golf club and hockey stick - but he did very well for his first time out!

Morgan enjoyed hitting the ball once with the club, then picking it up and bouncing it into the hole. In the end we all had fun!

Jodi's 3-day walk

Well - Jodi has completed her breast cancer 3-day walk. I can't believe she did it. She raised over $3000 dollars on her own. And she walked 60 miles over 3 days. Unbelievable! Considering a marathon is 26 miles - she walked over twice that distance! There is no way I could have the stamina or strength. So Jodi - THANK YOU for doing the walk. THANK YOU for doing what you did to help our generation and our future generations overcome this horrible disease.

The kids and I went to one of the cheering areas in Beachwood. Trevor helped me make a sign - its hard to tell but he wrote "GO GO GO" across the top part of the sign (if you click on the first picture you may be able to see it better). He was very proud of that sign, and once the walkers started coming by he held it proudly. We got there right at 9am because we didn't want to miss Jodi and her friend/teammate Dina. We saw a lot of strong men and women doing the walk. I have to say every time a group came by it was emotional for everyone. Trevor was so excited to cheer for everyone and give some of them High-fives. One of the teams was passing out balloons - Morgan got one of those and loved it! Jodi was able to stop for a few minutes to talk and hug the kids - which they loved. Both were happy to cheer her on with "Go Jodi Go!"

Seattle

We made it to Seattle, Washington yesterday after 5 hours of flying. It is beautiful here - mid 70's and sunny. We had lunch at the Space Needle (that is the picture above) and visited the Seattle Aquarium, took a cruise through the harbor in Elliot Bay, went to the Pike Place Market, and have done lots of walking around. We miss Trevor and Morgan! But it has been fun so far! We get on the ship tomorrow - Yeah!

Painting furniture

For the last 2 weeks, Morgan has been sleeping on the trundle pull out bed in Trevor's room with him. We have done this to get them both ready for their time at Nana and Papa's in which they will share a bedroom, and Morgan will not have a crib. (Side note - while Brian and I are on our Alaskan cruise, they will have 5 days at each set of grandparents.) They have the same set up there - a day bed with a pull out trundle bed. Morgan LOVES to sleep in the big bed. And at first Trevor enjoyed "showing her the ropes" so to speak. But for about the last 5 days, Trevor has all but begged for us to not have Morgan sleep in his room. Why you ask? Because she talks to much. That is exactly what he told me. While trying to contain my laughter, I explained to him that she is a girl, and after all, girls like to talk.

So when I suggested we get Morgan's big-girl room ready, Trevor was first in line to help me paint her bed. He did a great job, and only a got a few drops of paint on 1 shoe! She will have all white furniture, and after we order the bedding we will paint the walls in her room a new color.

Memphis Kiddie Park

This past Monday was an unusual day in that both Brian and I were both off work that day, and it was a decent day outside... so we took the kids to Memphis Kiddie Park! Its basically an amusement park for kids less than 50 inches tall. Its free to get in, then you buy tickets for the kids which they use to "pay" to get on the rides. It has about 11 or 12 rides all together, including the "Little Dipper" rollar coaster. Trevor could not get on the rides fast enough. Morgan was not too sure at first, but once she realized she could sit with Trevor on the rides it was great fun.

I was AMAZED that they both actually wanted to go on this little ferris wheel. There was a little boy probably Trevor's age who cried and screamed the whole time, and I thought for sure that would have been Morgan, but she LOVED it! They both did really.

This "horse-pull" ride was definately Morgan's favorite, even though you can't tell by the look on her face!

This car driving one was Trevor's favorite! He was quite proud of his orange car!

And here they are on the Little Dipper. Again, I thought for sure one of them would be scared on this one. I even contemplated going on the ride and sitting with Morgan (like the lady in this picture did with her daughter), but Brian convinced me that they would be fine. Despite the slight whiplash in Morgan, they had a GREAT time!


And I'll end this post with a nice picture of Trevor catching some yummy bugs in his mouth!

A Twin Baby Shower!

My friend Sonja is having twins this fall... and today we had a baby shower for her! It was so much fun, and such a joy to witness the the experience had by Sonja and Vince. Nobody deserved it more then they do.



Her friend Kelly helped plan the shower, and made an awesome diaper cake! And another friend - Diane - did a great job on food. She offered to take care of food, so I said to Diane, "OK - I'll get you the names and phone numbers of some caterers." Her reply "Oh no - I'll make the food!" Holy cow - she took a lot of time, and I felt like I was eating at a gourmet restaurant. The menu included spinach/smoked gouda fritatta, tropical chicken salad, tortellini spinach salad w/ lemon viniagrette, assorted muffins/croissants with lemon butter and cream cheese, mixed berry trifle with orange sauce, lemonade, peach tea, mimosas, and water. I have not eaten that good in a LONG time!



Sonja got a lot of really nice gifts, lots of useful things. She has some wonderful friends, but that is no surprise considering the friend she has been to all of us!



And can you believe it - she is not finding out the genders of the babies? Oh my gosh - I give her tons of credit. I can't imagine preparing for 2 and not knowing!