We Did It! Hooray!!!!

Hey y'all,

As of 2:50 pm this afternoon 9/20 we have completed 2 full weeks of school!!!! We survived back to school night, Myles is his class Mayor, Leah has a boyfriend (a boy that's a friend) and Erick has been wearing his glasses consistently and got an 85% on his first test AND he signed up to play the trumpet!!!!

To say it's been a whirlwind of activity in our house is an understatement. I am a lunch/snack packing pro now and have the cookie cutter sandwiches down to a science. I'm tired however of them eating salami sandwiches everyday so next week I think I'm going to shake their lunch bags up. Wondering how they'll do with some friend chicken, baby carrots etc. Not sure but the sandwiches can't continue into next week.

So grateful that we are in a great school system with small class sizes we are blessed. Hoping that your first couple weeks of school have been successful.

Until next time...
MUAH

National Sunglasses Day: June 27th

Hey Y'all,

In honor of National Sunglasses Day I share this picture of the 3 Little Brown's with you.

What do Chinese judges of the 12th century and modern poker players on TV have in common? Both groups have used sunglasses to hide the emotions in their eyes.

"For centuries, Chinese judges had routinely worn smoke-colored quartz lenses to conceal their eye expressions in court," according to Idea Finder. Sam Foster is credited with elevating sunglasses to their current status as a fashion accessory. He began selling his Foster Grant sunglasses in Atlantic City in 1929.

Today we use sunglasses to protect our eyes from harmful UV rays. We also wear them because they look cool. Various movie icons have relied on sunglasses to achieve their look. Consider Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," Tom Cruise in "Risky Business," and Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Terminator."
[Source:Yahoo!]

Until next time...
MUAH!

Throw Back Thursday: The twins

Hey Folks,

Just want to say thank you to who ever came up with posting pictures for Throwback Thursday's. As I searched my Facebook account I came across some great pictures of my children that reminded me how far we've come. The below picture is of the twins sitting in their infant carriers. I don't remember how my husband every carried both of them around but he did.


Now they are big 5 year olds. Time really flies when you are having fun.

Hope you are enjoying your day.
Until next time...
MUAH!

Happy 5th Birthday Leah & Myles

Hey Y'all,

When I found out on Oct 1, 2007 that I was pregnant with twins I think I was in shock for about a month. When I found out that one of them was a girl I was in shock and disbelief for the entire pregnancy. I remember asking the sonogram tech every time she did an exam if my girl was still a girl....  Today we celebrate 5 years of their life!
My babies are 5 yrs old.

They went from this...



To this...

















Then this..

And now this in what seems like a blink of the eye!


Happy 5th Birthday babies! This year you go to school and meet lots of new people. Please continue to be the funny, adventurous, engaging, beautiful children that you are today. We love you.

Until next time...
MUAH!

L.O.V.E. Is More Than a Four Letter Word

Hey Y'all,

Today has been such an amazing day. I watched the Second Inauguration of the first African American President of the United States of America on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the head of my household put our 8 year old in place.

Love in my family is more than a four letter word it stands for Living Overjoyed and Victorious Everyday... when I hear my husband speak to our children in love and in reprimand, I'm reminded of how very blessed I am to have a present father in the house with my children. Many fathers live with their children but aren't 'present' they are there physically but not emotionally. I'm so glad that I can say my husband is very present in our children's lives. He play fights with them one moment and the next he's teaching Erick and Myles what it means to be a man in the way he cares for my daughter and I. My husband is a REAL father. I do compare him to Dr. King and President Obama. He is the head of our family and he makes it clear to our children that they aren't in charge of any decision making but that we are. My husband wants to best for our children just like Dr. King did for his and my husband is teaching our family to embrace our challenges and make a change,  just like President Obama is for America.

Erick is 8 and VERY head strong. He can be argumentative and always want to have the last say (wonder where he gets that from). His father doesn't play the talking back, smart mouth etc. He's no joke... he doesn't yell but you can tell in the way that he speaks (especially when he uses their full name) that he's no longer playing but he's very serious. I didn't grow up with my dad in the house so seeing this side of my husband makes me  proud that I'm giving my children something I never had. A present father. I know that my boys are going to grow up knowing how to follow the rules and take heed to authority because they are experiencing it at home.

I L.O.V.E. my family and thank God he loaned these four people to me for a time.

Until next time...
MUAH!

Wordless Wednesday: Thanksgiving Past

Hey y'all,

I pulled these out from the Thanksgiving archives.

The twins first Thanksgiving

Hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving Day!!!

Selective Mutism Awareness Month

Hey Y'all,

I was doing some research on monthly awareness' and came across a few that made me raise an eyebrow. Like...Correct Posture Month (May) and Tickling Month (July) there are many that I looked at and laughed but one in October stood out to me, it's called Selective Mustism Awareness month. Now just by reading the name of it I knew that it had something to do with not wanting or being able to speak.

If you know me you know I always have to find answers to my questions. I don't let sleeping dogs lie (love that idiom). So I went on a search for information. According to SelectiveMutism.org Selective mutism (SM), formerly called elective mutism, is defined as a disorder of childhood characterized by an inability to speak in certain settings (e.g. at school, in public places) despite speaking in other settings (e.g. at home with family). SM is associated with anxiety and may be an extreme form of social phobia according to researchers and clinicians who are familiar with the disorder (Black & Uhde, 1995; Dow et al., 1995, Dummit et al., 1997, Kristensen, 2001; Leonard & Dow, 1995).

Wordless Wednesday: Coney Island

The 3 little Brown's on the beach.

Day out with Thomas 2012

Hey Y'all,

My boys heart Thomas The Tank Engine. Erick is 7 and still plays with his train table, creates Thomas stories and borrows only Thomas and Friends books from the library. Myles is following on his big brothers tracks and is a die hard Thomas fan as well. Erick was introduced to Thomas by his dad but I am by far the enabler. Proof positive is the fact that I always seem to find Thomas the Tank Engine where ever he is in the US. We have been passengers on Thomas' coaches three times in three different states! Our latest adventure was in Philisburg, NJ at The Delaware Railroad Excursions. We had a blast. It was as hot as Hades but Lord knows that I will do anything for my children including riding on an steaming steam engine for 25 minutes dripping sweat. The folks that pull off a Day out with Thomas should be commended; especially when the weather is inclement (to cold or to hot). This trips theme was Mystery on the Rails, we were 'tasked' with helping Thomas find a treasure (which ended up being a tacky glass 'diamond'). The $18 train ride was well worth it because there were plenty of freebies including Imagination Station with featured temporary tattoos, splatter painting, storytelling, live folk music and two bouncy houses. I highly recommend Day out with Thomas and plan to do it again in the future (until the kids tell me they are done).

Check out a  few of our pictures here...

Twin Tuesday: SCRIBBLES

Hey Y'all,

I hope that you are having a terrific summer thus far. It has been a whirlwind of activity for me. The kids keep me going and I love it. This has been the first summer of their lives that I've been with them 24/7. I try to keep them as busy as possible so we all sleep well at night. Our days start off with Mommy Summer School and branch off (depending on the day) to $1 movies, swimming, visiting museums and day trips. I have a calendar chuck full of summer fun, until they head off to Nana's (thank you JESUS).

This Twin Tuesday's post is dedicated to the twins' favorite "play mall" SCRIBBLES. SCRIBBLES is a fantastic interactive and educational store in the Menlo Park Mall that features personalized gifts for children & educational toys. We visit SCRIBBLES at least once a week and hang out there for about 2-3 hours (yes hours in one store). Typically we don't purchase a thing (unless it's a work book on sale) but the twins play HARD with everything that is out on display.

A couple weeks ago during our visit we had the pleasure of meeting the owner Mary Thomas, of course I went into blogger mode and asked if she wouldn't mind being featured in one of my posts. Thankfully she agreed and shared a little about herself and how she started SCRIBBLES.



MrsDeveter: Thanks again for agreeing to chat with me. Can you share a little bit of the history behind SCRIBBLES?

Mary Thomas: We started on a kiosks 13 years ago in the Menlo Park Mall. We were doing personalized piggy banks, rocking chairs, toy boxes all kinds of fun things for 10 years. Then it became a little bit to much so we closed. It was a boring staying at home so we opened the first store and expanded beyond the personalized items into toys and other cool things.

MrsDeveter: Like I told  you before we can come here and stay for hours. Why did you branch out into toys and make the store so interactive?

Mary Thomas: Because it's fun. In retail everyone does clothes, clothes aren't fun. Kids are easy. They love everything, they are happy and love to play. I've found that no matter who they are the kids get along especially at the Thomas table they love to play together. The children get along so well, it's the adults that need to learn that. Sometimes they don't share... but they play well together and it's fun.


MrsDeveter: What was your 9-5 before SCRIBBLES?


Mary Thomas: I had three kids. I worked in the city for a publishing company but it was hard to to go back and forth. My husband also worked in the city and said he'd prefer it if I worked closer to home. So I started working retail. He would work in the day and I would go out for a few hours at night.

MrsDeveter: What advise would you give to anyone looking to get into retail.

Mary Thomas: Everything chances. Before I opened everyone told me not to go into retail because I was going into business at the wrong time. In 2008 that's when the market crashed. Manufactures, friends everyone told me not to do it, but I said ... people buy toys. I had a wonderful location to start and it worked.

MrsDeveter: So your advice would be ... don't listen to anybody's advice.

Mary Thomas: (chucking) yes. You have to feel it inside and know what's right for you.

If you are ever in Edison NJ please stop by and visit Mary and the ladies at SCRIBBLES she is located in the Menlo Park Mall steps away from The Disney Store and Build a Bear on the lower level of the Nordstrom wing. If you are looking to order online please visit www.scribblesatmenlo.com for great personalized gifts for children.

Until next time...
MUAH!

Imagine That!!!!!

The twins and I went on an adventure today. My goal was to take them to the Zoo but 'mother nature' had another plan; it was POURING. There was no chance that I was going to take those two to the zoo in the rain. Although they really wanted to go... Leah even told me that they would be fine in the rain. Being the tech savvy mommy that I am, I parked in the zoo lot, pulled out my Galaxy and found another fun educational place to visit that was indoors. We found Imagine That! A children's museum of NJ. This place rocked. It is a huge warehouse cut up into different sections including, a train section, ballet room (with tap and ballet shoes), an anchors desk, veterinary, doctors and dentists office, a castle, transportation room, crafts area (which included cute smocks) and so much more. The price range was fair and the twins truly had a good time. My children are extremely friendly and met another set of twins from Florida and a little boy from either England or Ireland based on his accent.

Here are some pictures:


The only thing I would have done differently was to visit the museum after 1:00 pm because of the school groups. They children that were visiting the museum from schools were rather rumbustious to say the least. I would have also invited my cousin to join me because Myles wanted to hang out by the trains and Leah was more interested in the Shopping area (which was so cute). All in all we had a great day out and will visit Imagine That! again.

Until next time...
MUAH!

Twin Tuesday: Double Standard

Hey Y'all,

It has been ages since I've written a Twin Tuesday post.
I've been going through the blog and reading some of the past posts I've written about the twins and have smiled and teared up while reading them. Leah and Myles are now 4 years old and loving life. Leah is a dancer (her first recital is on Father's day) and Myles is a train/car aficionado. They are both growing up so nicely. Both funny and fun loving, however when it comes down to their father and I there is a double standard.

As you know I am currently a SAHM (are you hiring) and I've been with them 24/7 for the past four months. My husband  is self employed and is often home working in the office when he's not in the studio or traveling. We are making the best of this arrangement but... the twins have a double standard. When Daddy is on the phone everyone is quite and leaves him alone but when Mommy needs to make an important call I am needed. Doesn't matter if they want a drink, are done in the bathroom and needs assistance with wiping, wants a toy from the room I'm taking the call in etc. I am needed.

When a door is opened in our house it make a little ding sound to alert you that someone has gone out. Yesterday when I went into the garage to throw out some trash the alarm of course sounded. My daughter nearly had a breakdown (she wasn't by my side for the moment) "Daddy where is Mommy? Did she leave?" My son goes to the window to see if the car is gone. I went to sit in the dinning room and listened while they searched the house for me. Myles found me after about five minutes and accusued me of hiding from them. Now if my husband leaves the house they could care less. "Daddy's gone? Oh ok" and the questioning ends.  Sometimes it feels good and others it's quite overwhelming. Why can't Mommy have a moment, an uninterrupted moment of course?

Since I've been home Leah has been connected to me by the hip. When I move she moves. Doesn't matter if I'm going to brush my teeth or cook dinner she is right there by my side. They don't do this to their father. Maybe they did when I wasn't around but now it seems that Mommy is the parent of choice. I know I should enjoy this because soon they won't want anything to do with me but, good gracious sometimes I need to be alone.

Are there any stay at home parents out there that can give me some advice on managing these two?

Until next time...
MUAH!

Lessons of a "Stay at Home Mom"

Hey Y'all:

The saying is so true. You have to be careful what you ask for because you might just get it and everything that comes with the package. So before you put it out in the atmosphere make sure you are ready for it... I share this because around this time last year I wrote a post about my desire to be a stay at home mom. Little did I know that my wish would come true. After 3 yrs of blood (from paper cuts), sweat (the office could get a little hot) and tears (my colleagues/friends and I would laugh at the antics of upper management until we cried) my position was eliminated. So here I sit a month unemployed and a bonafided stay at home mom; honestly I don't know how I was doing all that I was doing while working. I must have been dead tired and didn't know it. I mean I was out of the house from 7:15 AM until 7:30 PM still helped with homework and projects, cooked dinner, washed clothes, blogged, played with the kiddies and completed my wifely duties (if you know what I mean). I say this because my days now are just as full! I am truly enjoying being at home with my kiddies (now) at first I gotta admit it was a bit of a struggle. You get so accustomed to having a out of home schedule that this staying at home stuff can wear you out. I'm sure many of you can relate.

Washing Machines are NOT for Cameras

Hey Folks:

I washed my camera.
No I didn't take a damp cloth and wipe of the smudges that Erick left behind after taking 50 pictures of his Thomas train tracks; no I put it in the washing machine and washed it! Not on purpose of course but 'tis my life. A couple of Saturday's ago I gathered up a bunch of clothes from the table to throw them in the wash before downloaded my latest flicks. Well guess what was in the bunch of clothes? Yup you got it my pink camera case, SD Reader and all. While the clothes were washing I kept hearing a thud in the machine while looking for my camera. I looked down at Myles my 3 yr old and said "I think mommy put her camera in the washing machine" he looked at me with his spectale'd face and said "oh no mommy, that's not good". I went into the laundry room, stopped the cycle and sloshed around in the cold water and pulled out my camera, almost cried.

My camera was a mother's day gift from my mom. It wasn't expensive but it was mine. It was ALWAYS with me. Whenever their was a random family gathering folks knew they could look to me to pull out my pink Sanyo and play paparazzi. My SD card has over 1000 pictures on it. Although I'm really good at uploading them to my computer I haven't emptied in the card in a while.  I was crushed. I let it dry out and tried to put new batteries in it but nothing. Then I tried to use my SD reader to see if my SD card was shot and nothing... then I did cry. All my pictures were gone... so I thought. I let the SD card rest over the weekend and took it to work with me on Monday. I asked the Director of Multimedia to see if he could retrieve my pictures and he did! My SD card didn't fail me woooooo hooooo. I couldn't be happier.

Lesson learned? Pay close attention to what you have in your hand before you put anything in the wash.

What strange things have you put in the wash?

Until next time...
MUAH!

The Brave & The Bold

Hey Y'all:

As you've read previously my family is full of super heroes. We love anything Justice League or DC Comics related. So I wasn't surprised when my children began singing a song from one of the shows called Batman: The Brave and The Bold. Although modern this animated series (recently canceled) has the old school Batman of the 1970's feel. My children adore music and this song is one of their favorites.


Here is the 3 little Brown's rendition of this tune.


Until next time...
MUAH!

Twin Tuesday: School

Hey Y'all;

It's been a while since I've written a Twin Tuesday; that doesn't mean that the twins having been up to a whole lot because lord knows they are B U S Y.

Thankfully Leah's hair is growing back after the "fun" hair cutting incident and she is having a blast in ballet school. Which leads me to the topic of the day. School.

Erick is in grade school
Leah is in dance school
And Myles is in Karate school ... well in his mind he is!

My brilliant little boy has made up imaginary classmates, lessons and teacher. Poor thing wants to be in karate school so bad that he's created the experience in his mind. When ever Erick is talking about his classmates or Leah is naming all the little girls in her class; Myles will say "my teacher told me to kick like this" or "my friend didn't listen to the teacher in class today" it's quite commical and rather sad that we haven't found a REAL school for my baby boy! I love however that he's so smart that he can create the entire experience in his mind and play it out for us.

Yesterday while driving home from church, Leah was talking about dance class and Myles of course chimmed in to talk about karate school; Erick had to shut him down by saying "Myles you don't go to karate school" being the great big brother he is though he didn't leave it at that, he encouraged him by saying... "maybe we can go to karate school with Richard". Well Richard is my God son who lives in Richmond, VA; so I had to shut that down and convince them that I would find a karate school with them.

Until next time...
MUAH!

Wordless Wednesday: From That To This...

Twin Tuesday: Fixin' It

Hey Folks:

My daughter has a head full of beautiful locks.
I love putting cute braids, beads, barrettes and bows in it.
It takes a while to do but it's always a joy.
I love doing her hair so I'm sure you could image the horror when she came home yesterday and I found her like this...

When she walked into the house the first thing I noticed was her hair or rather the lack thereof! Here's how the brief conversation went.

Me: Mama what happened to your hair????
Leah: MYLES CUT IT!
Me: WHAT??? Myles why did you cut your sister's hair???
Myles: I was fixing it!
Me: Leah were is your hair?

She goes to her room and pulls her two locks (with beads still attached) out of her dresser draw and presents them to me!

I am floored y'all, I cannot believe:

1. That he cut her hair
2. He had scissors that close to her face
3. She let him! 

As sassy and self assured as she is; how in the world did she allow him to do this to her beautiful locks. Who told him that her hair needed fixing and WHERE THE HECK WAS THEIR DAD????
I am  not sure how long it will take her hair to grow back and I don't know how long it will take me to get over this loss.
Who has a 3 yr old with bangs?
ME

This is truly the life of a twin mom! I love them but Lord knows they cause me to pause! Often.

Here is a picture of her full head of hair pre Myles the barber!

How would you handle this situation? I yelled at everyone (husband included), called my mother and told on them and almost cried.


Until next time...
MUAH!

The Battle of the Beds! Round 1

Hey Y'all:

I've talked about this on a few occasions but today I'm determined, to get my kids out of my bed. I am currently sitting at my desk with a Tiger Balm heat wrap around my neck because my three children insist upon sleeping with my husband and I.

This morning I woke up on the very edge of my queen sized bed with the twins between my husband and I. I'm done! I came to work today and my very smart, talented and efficient Mom friend informed me that I really need to get it together and put them back in the bed. Feeling incompetent with this darn thing on my neck, I agreed wholeheartedly. Beginning tonight I'm going to make them get back into their bed after our midnight or 3 AM trip to the bathroom.

I know that Leah will be the most difficult because she hunts me down in the house. If I'm in the bathroom and she can't find me she runs through the house calling my name "mommy where are you" and when she finally finds you I receive a huge hug and notification "mommy I was wooking all over for you". So the midnight madness is going to wear her out no doubt. She's going to scream and holler but I'm going to keep to my guns and put her back in her bed. Myles is also going to be difficult because he just wants to be close to me. Erick is continuting his pattern from birth (he was always in my bed!). I've tried to make their bedroom and cool experience but I guess I've not done well. They just don't like sleeping in their rooms! No more excuses though it's my goal to set bedtime in order.

Here is how it would work in my ideal world. I don't get home until 8:00 pm so please don't judge me for the times listed by each activity.

• Bath time - 9:00 p.m.
  
• Pajama time - 9:20 p.m.
  
• Story time - 9:30 p.m.
  
• Drink of water/milk - 9:45 p.m.
  
• Potty time - 9:50 p.m.
  
• Prayers - 9:55 p.m.
  
• SLEEP - 10:00 p.m.
  
• Midnight or 3:00 a.m. wake up for potty (this is typically when they end up in my bed)
  
• Back to their bed!

Round 1 starts tonight with hubby out of town. Hopefully the 'it takes 7 days to break a habit' thing works for this as well!

Please share your bedtime rules/checklists with me. I need HELP!
Until next time...
MUAH!

Related Posts:
Ode To My Bed
I Keep On Falling....

This and That

I know I know ... it's been forever. Well the summer is finally winding down and I can write.

Honey what a summer it has been. The children were gone for just about two months so the hubby and I have had the best quality time together. We truly enjoyed ourselves while the children where gone and had an opportunity to rediscover some thangs :-)

Now the three little ones are back and we are dealing with two fully potty trained two year olds and a five year old with his OWN mind.

When my babies left me they were talking but now they are TALKING holding full on conversations and being sassy! On our drive back to NY from NC my mom was repeating something Leah said in the car and this little girl said 'shut up Nana' just as clear as day! I thought for sure my mother was going to pull the car over on I-95 and give baby girl what for but she didn't (phew)! The boys are both super heroes running around the house with home made capes on! It's full on activity right now and I'm trying to get my mind right for back to school! I can't believe that Erick is heading to the first grade. Time truly flies when you are living life.

Well stop by this week I'll be posting ...

Until next time...
MUAH!