Project: Olive Garden, with two toddlers

When we go out to eat with the boys, we usually stick to fast or “faster” food restaurants for the most part. One Friday afternoon, we had nothing going on and we had a couple of Olive Garden gift cards that we received for Christmas gifts to use up – so we decided to try it out. Olive Garden was actually a perfect place to take our wiggly toddlers out to eat. My boys love pasta, the restaurant is fairly noisy to begin with (the added noise of 2 toddlers blends in well), they bring out breadsticks before the meal (which kept my boys occupied until our main course arrive) and they are fairly quick with delivering the main course food.

We chose to order one kids meal & split it between them – I gave the boys a choice between mac & cheese or pasta & sauce…they chose…mac & cheese, of course! The kitchen was nice enough to divide the boys’ meal into two bowls & it was the perfect amount for each of them. I was a little nervous seeing that they brought it out in glass bowls with large, soup spoons – but the boys did GREAT!! (Maybe I am totally under-estimating their eating capabilities…no wait, I know it would have went down differently with glass bowls had we been eating at home.)

Our meal out was actually enjoyable & the boys were fairly well behaved throughout the meal – a success (which anyone with toddlers knows is not always the case when taking them out to eat in public)!

Wyatt enjoying his mac 'n cheese.

Colton says his mac 'n cheese is yummy!

See my mac 'n cheese mommy?

Scoopin'

Summer camping weekend #4

Our fourth camping trip of the summer on the second weekend in August started out with rain. We left on Thursday afternoon, which was full of rain with only a couple breaks that allowed us to finish packing up the camper. By the time we reached the campground, the rain had stopped but the temps had cooled off in the high 60s/low 70s and everything was wet. Fortunately for us, that was the only rain of the weekend & the rest of the weekend we enjoyed beautiful weather…a bit cooler, in the 70s. That’s a little more like September weather than August & a little bit cool for my personal tastes but it was still enjoyable.

We enjoyed a full 3-day weekend of boating, fishing & relaxing. My dad had brought his bass boat instead of the pontoon this time and even though that gave the boys less room to run around while we were out fishing, they LOVED it! They wanted to help Papa drive the boat & wanted to go FAST!

We also enjoyed some more fresh sweet corn, which the boys gobbled down.

It was another fun camping weekend but the cooler weather reminds me that summer is coming to an end too quickly & that we may or may not get out again with the camper this year.

Wyatt helping Papa drive FAST!

Grandpa, Grandma & the boys.

Wyatt having a drink of mommy's water.
(They end up drinking my whole bottle
because apparently it tastes better than theirs!!)

Wyatt & daddy watching a water skier.

Colton, back at the campsite, doing one of his
favorite things lately - hitting the ball!!

On being a mom of twins…perfectly said!

I read this posting on another mom of multiples blog this morning & just had to re-post it!

Another first…Play-doh!

After going to the children’s museum in the morning & taking nice, long naps…the weather still didn’t improve. It was still cool & rainy outside.

The boys had received a few different Play-doh sets from my sisters this past Christmas but we had yet to open them up! (I don’t know why I hadn’t thought about taking it out earlier – I have a nice “rainy day” Rubbermaid tote with tons of craft-type stuff in, including the Play-doh, but it gets forgotten when it’s so neatly put away in the closet.)

They loved it and were cutting & rolling like “Play-doh pros” in no time! The “rainy day” box is definitely going to have to make more frequent appearances when the cool fall/winter weather forces us to stay indoors.

Play-doh fun!

Cutting & rolling...

Cutting, cutting, cutting.

Rolling, rolling, rollling.

Wyatt's "crafty" little fingers.

Colton's "crafty" little fingers.

Fun at the children’s museum!

The weather has been so great this summer that we’ve taken advantage of as many outdoor & water activities as we can, which has limited our time spent at our local children’s museum (which we have a yearly pass to). The day after we had our fun afternoon at the pool, it cooled down & was rainy. It was actually kind of perfect because Cory was gone all day to a good friend’s bachelor party that day, so the boys & I were looking for something fun to do. We ended up meeting my friend “S” & her little girl “K” (age: 3 ½) down at the local children’s museum. The boys had a blast & because there was a little summer festival going on downtown that day, the museum was not very busy at all. The boys had fun playing & also following “K” around.

It’s so much fun to see how the boys have developed more & more each time we visit the museum. I remember our first trip there, over a year ago, when they were merely crawling & couldn’t play with anything outside of the toddler area. Now, they still love the toddler area (& have mastered everything in it!) but they explore & play in every exhibit the museum has to offer.

I’m sure we’ll frequent the children’s museum more often this fall/winter when the weather’s too cold to be outside – it’s a great way to entertain two toddlers for a couple hours!

Snack time!

Ringing up groceries in the "grocery store".

Wyatt serving mommy a yummy meal in the "restaurant".

Wyatt & "K" in the car at the "drive-through bank".

Future electrician??

It's movie time!

All three having a water-fun filled time!

Colton squirting the water gun.

Another day at the pool!

My friend "D"'s nephew was in town from California for over a month this summer, spending time with family. We enjoyed an afternoon at the pool with him & his two brothers in late June. We wanted to do one more pool afternoon before he headed back home; the 1st Friday in August was a perfect day to spend at the pool.

I left work early & picked up the boys from daycare after their naps. They were so excited to meet up with Grandma & my friend “D” & her nephew “W” at the pool again! We lucked out & even though it was a gorgeous day – the pool was not overly crowded. Both boys had a good time & I’d have to say their favorite activity of the afternoon was throwing a light-weight football back & forth in the water.

Wyatt was splashing, swimming & dunking in no time, like he always does and Colton got to the same point too…it just takes him longer to warm up to having fun in the water. We had a couple life-guard breaks that were filled with yummy snacks to keep their mind off of not being able to be in the water.

I believe our local pool closes this week (why they close 2 weeks before school starts back up is beyond me??!) so that will probably end up being our last trip to the pool for this summer. We’ll have to see what weather we get in the next few weeks (we’ve recently had quite the cool down after spending all summer in the 90s!) – we might still have to hit up the local splash pad or another pool (a little farther away) yet this summer!

Wyatt splashing!

Colton going after the football.

Ready to throw!

Wyatt playing catch.

Water football fun.

Cool Colton!

Watering the flowers

One of the boys’ favorite activities (mostly because it involves water!) is helping mommy water her flowers. They each have a little watering can & follow me around, watering…or overwatering…each of my plants.

Their current unit at daycare is focusing on gardening – so our “homework” assignment was to capture in photos what gardening meant at our house – anywhere from working in a vegetable garden, to watering flowers to cutting the grass. The pictures are hung up on the wall in their classroom & they are both so proud to show me the picture of them “watering the flowers” every day!

Here are our “gardening” pictures:

Blooming flowers!

Wyatt helping mommy.

Colton helping mommy.

Corn on the cob!

After picking up the boys from daycare one day (Cory is the normal pick-up parent) the boys & I headed to a local farm store to get our first sweet corn of the year. I absolutely LOVE sweet corn. The boys like corn but had never tried eating it on the cob before – huge success!! They LOVED it as much as I do. It took them each a little bit to figure the whole process out but had it down in no time.

Colton's first corn on the cob.

Wyatt's first corn on the cob.

Summer camping weekend #3

We took our third camping trip of the summer in mid-July. We finally got a break from the heat & it ended up being in the mid-80s all weekend…much more comfortable than the mid-90s that was originally predicted!

We had a fun weekend of fishing, boating, swimming and enjoying the outdoors. Both of my sisters & my two little nephews were able to make it over for the day Saturday to visit – so that was nice to be able to see them.

We had a little better luck fishing this time, than last, and the boys couldn’t stop talking about the “whopper” that daddy caught! The boys really enjoy being on the boat & fishing…and when they start to get a little bored on the boat, there is plenty to keep them busy – snacks, getting waxies for anyone fishing, looking for ducks & birds on the water, pretending to drive the boat, etc.

One-side note: We bring our two pack ‘n plays along for the boys to sleep in. Last summer they laid down in them & went to sleep, without assistance – like at home, with no problem. This summer, something changed and I don’t know what it is. They will only fall asleep if either Cory or I stay in the camper with them & lay down on the couch, right next to their pack ‘n plays. They haven’t changed their sleeping habits at home, so we comply & lay with them until they are both asleep. I’m sure this is the last year we’ll be using the pack ‘n plays.

Daddy & Colton catching a fish.

Daddy & Wyatt catching another fish.
(Colton watching.)

Daddy showing Wyatt how to take
the fish off the hook.

Colton playing with the fake worms.

Daddy showing the boys the
"whopper" he caught!

Wyatt playing in the water.

Daddy & Colton splashing!

Colton helping build sand castles.

Daddy helping Wyatt swim!

The Fair!

Our local fair took place at the beginning of July. I always enter something in the fair because in exchange for your entries you get free admission, which is nice to help save a little bit of money when we usually head up to enjoy the fair a couple of nights. This year I entered both food & photography and, for the 1st time ever, won a couple ribbons! I won 4th place on my banana bread, 1st place on a black & white spider web photo and 3rd on a 3-picture photo collection of Wyatt.

We took the boys up on Friday afternoon/evening and had a blast. It was very hot & humid but we still enjoyed the evening. We looked at mommy’s award-winning fair entries, tested out the tractors & lawn mowers a local company had on display, visited all the animals in the barns (cows, steer, pigs, sheep, horses, ducks, chicken, etc.), had a yummy dinner, played some games & rode some rides.

I was so excited to take the boys this year because I knew they’d get to enjoy some of the “big” kid stuff they weren’t old enough for last year.

We let them play the fishing game, which was really just a magnet at the end of the fishing pole’s line, in which they had to “catch” 2 fish to win a prize. They had a blast with that & we ended up with two stuffed turtles (Wyatt actually picked out a big bouncy ball at first for his prize but when he saw that Colton had chosen a turtle, he had to have one too). We didn’t know how they would react to trying out some of the rides so we started out by taking them to ride the carousel before dinner – both of them absolutely loved it! After dinner (and a brief rain shower that cooled the temps down) we met up with Grandpa & Grandma, as well as Aunt “C”, Uncle “S”, & cousins “I” & “N”. The boys had been eyeing up the cars/trucks that ride around in a circle, so we loaded them up on the ride in a red Jeep with big cousin “I”. The three of them had such a blast – they would have stayed on there all night (too bad ride tickets weren’t a little cheaper, huh??!!). We also met up with one of our friends & their little girl “R” (who is 6 months older than the boys) who the boys had fun watching go on rides too. We all went on one last ride on the carousel before getting some mini donuts & heading home. It was a little past bedtime but the boys did great & were having a blast! We left just in time to miss another quick rain shower.

Colton driving the tractor!

Both boys going for a "ride".

Wyatt saying "Hi!" to the piglets.

Colton watching the piglets.

They LOVED the pigs.

Rosy cheeks & a snack break in the shade.

Watching before riding...

First carousel ride!

First carousel ride!

Fishin'

Colton caught one!

Cruisin' in the Jeep!
(Wyatt in back; Colton & cousin "I" in the front)

We had such a fun night – I can’t wait for more fair fun next year!

(Cory & I were able to head back up to enjoy a little country music & some kid-free time the following night while the boys had an overnight stay with Grandpa & Grandma. Let me tell you, that was a much needed full night of sleep!)