Fashion Challenge Friday

It's Fashion Challenge Friday again, time to see what happens when the three-year-olds choose the clothes. The first outfits the girls put together were in their signature colors of yellow (Ree) and pink (Ro). Kinda cute and sassy if you ask me. The outfit-selection process is speeding up, by the way. It used to take about 15 looooong minutes per girl, and now it's maybe 2 minutes. The new house rule is that the girls pick their own clothes on preschool days (3 times a week) and I pick the clothes on the other days. That way we all get to have fun. :-) The next set of outfits were fun to watch come together. Ro went for some bold colors and a lot of stripes, with polka-dot tights tied around her waist and Jelly shoes. For hair, she asked for rainbow ponies*. Ree went for a matchy look with purple halter tank top and crazy jacket and crazy shorts from the Children's Place. When I asked why she was wearing brown socks she said "Because deyz a yittle bit of brown in da jacket, right here." Danged if she wasn't right. Here they are trying to see who can kick higher. I think it might be a tie. All of Ro and Ree's past Fashion Challenge Friday outfits can be seen here. Now it's your turn! Share the grins and give us a link to an outfit that your kiddo put together! Fashion Challenge Friday is now a regular weekly feature, so grab your camera and turn those kids loose in the closet at least once a week. (There are no rules—pics can be old or new, taken on any day of the week, in a blog post on an image site.)

1. Buckeroomama 2. Leidy Journey Unscripted 3. 6daysweek 4. greyautumnrain 5. Wanda (At Last....) 6. Kathy

7. Doubly Blessed 8. Rylee For Life 9. Teresa 10. Michal 11. Hotomom 12. Cherith

13. Just the Three of Us 14. Sweet Potato Pi 15. LadyBug Journals 16. Journey to Anne Marie 17. Mexican Chopsticks

* To make Rainbow Ponies, wet the front of the hair with a spray bottle of water, then grab a two-inch-wide section on the top of the head, comb it straight back with a tiny-tooth comb, and secure with a colorful small elastic. Move down to the next two-inch section, comb back, and secure. Then, for the hair next to the ear, have your kiddo tilt her head sideways (so the other hair falls out of the way), comb it back, and secure. Repeat on the other side of the head. If you have trouble getting the hair to lie down smoothly while you're trying to secure the elastics, you might need to spray it a little more.

American Idol recap: the rat pack era

Ooo, Jamie Foxx as the mentor, love him. I didn't know he was so successful as a singer, by the way. I thought acting was his huge claim to fame. Man, I am almost criminally unhip. Kris: Kind of cheesy sounding. Hey, did anyone else think he looked a little Fred Flintstoney there in the beginning when they did the close-up? Hm, not his best performance if you ask me. Can't believe those judges are just raving about him. (TubaDad said "That was really good" at the end of his performance. So there you have it, a divided house...) Allison: Aw, she looks cute. Wow, she's not very good at public speaking, is she? That birthday story she told Ryan seemed forced, like she remembered that the judges told her to be more likable and was trying too hard. Woooo, that was some great singing though, I really liked it. And I was ready to give up on her last week, now she's back in my top two. (TubaDad said "Eh, wrong voice for that style.") Matt: I'm not a Matt fan but I really liked this one. I thought the restraint and control during the song sounded so nice. It could have been shrieky but wasn't at all, it was just a very pleasant-sounding song. (TubaDad said "That was ok.") Danny: Great job! Liked the vocals, liked the expressions on his face, liked the tempo, liked it all. I think this was my favorite Danny performance. (TubaDad said "It was surprisingly better than I thought it would be.") Adam: Laughing out loud about Jamie's comments to Adam in the coaching session. The timing seemed a little off during the beginning of this song. Ok, I am Adam's #1 fan, but this one seemed soooo showboaty to me for some reason. Yikes. Didn't love it, and I love everything he does. Actually liked the song better when he sang it in rehearsal (with Jamie). I think this week was a miss. (TubaDad said "It's kinda too theatrical, it doesn't fit the genre. He overdid it and the end was weak.") Ok, my ranking for this week: 1. Danny 2. Allison 3. Matt 4. Adam 5. Kris TubaDad's ranking for this week: 1. Danny 2. Adam 3. Kris 4. Matt 5. Allison What are your thoughts on the show? TubaDad and I are staying up LATE to watch this show tonight, it's almost midnight. The girls are having a sleepover at Wela and BobBob's and we are practically giddy at the thought that we get to sleep in tomorrow. Shoot, I might get all wild and crazy and stay up for another hour!

Mmm, now I think I'm hungry for marshmallows

How many pieces of pajamas do you think Ree and Ro like to wear at one time? Three? Four? How about 15?!! Actually it would have been more but I haven't done laundry in a few days (as usual) so the poor dears are down a few pairs. I left them alone for a few minutes this morning and they thought this was the thing to do, even squashing shoes over the winter footed pajamas so they could play outside: For heaven's sake. Is anyone else thinking Stay Puft Marshmallow man? Whatcha got under there, sweeties? I can't believe they crammed on all this stuff. It must have been a little arduous getting it all on. Imagine if they used that energy for something useful like cleaning up? (Ahhh, a girl can dream...) PS: Wela saw their video plea for summer pajamas and came through with a bunch of new pairs. You can see a couple of them sprinkled in amongst the winter PJs above. There are others, but they're in the dreaded laundry pile, which is calling my name even as I type.

A few random RoAndRee-isms

Passing the Pick-ups: We have a "one pick-up" rule when we're driving in the car. Basically Ro and Ree know that I'll twist around and pick up the first thing each girl drops, but the second (or third, or fourth, or 80th) things they each drop are just going to stay on that danged floor until we park. Anyhow, we started driving to preschool and Ree immediately dropped her bag of Cheerios. So I groped around and handed it back to her. Two seconds later she dropped her stuffed animal and freaked out knowing that she was SOL. Ro quickly said "Dat alright mama, you can get it, Ree can have my pickup." Awww. That is some serious sisterly love. They Don't Miss a Thing: The girls and I were having a really tough day and I heaved my tired body onto the couch, blew out a sigh of exasperation, and muttered "I seriously need some chocolate." Ree (who hadn't listened to a thing I said all day) instantly stopped playing and ran over. She smiled up at me, patted my knee, and said "I get you chockit, mama!" then ran off as I yelled "we don't have any in the house!" She was back a minute later with half of a Take 5 candy bar that I had hidden inside the mixing bowl in the back corner of the counter and then forgotten about long ago. Just killed me. I can't believe she knew that chocolate was there and never ate it. I wonder how long she'd been keeping tabs on it? (I did, of course, share it with them. I'm not completely heartless.) We Are Family: While repeatedly dunking her half-gnawed chicken nugget in sauce Ree yelled "You know why I can double dip, mama?" "Why?" I asked. "Because we is family!" she happily replied as she took another dripping mouthful. Ro nodded her head in agreement, slurping a little and concurring "Because we all have da same germs!" Yup. That's right my honeys. Love them. (Ro is in the pink and Ree is in the blue)

Fashion Challenge Friday

It's Fashion Challenge Friday, time for some more outfits the kiddos have assembled on their own. This week the girls were dying to wear dress-up clothes out of the house. TubaDad and I said "no way" as usual, but then held one of those mostly-silent-but-really-expressive secret conferences and realized we didn't have a good reason. They're just clothes, right? Whatever. So we gave them the green light and tiny shirts and underwear started flying. Ree chose her favorite purple tutu outfit, which is nearly in tatters it's so well-loved. Ro chose her new hot pink leotard and matching princess tutu. Love the adorable little belly poking out. For shoes, she really wanted her pink Jellies (which would have looked great) but we couldn't find them. (Side note: how much freaking time a week do you spend looking for kid shoes?! I'm guessing I spend at least an hour.) TubaDad took them to the grocery store in their fancy clothes and they were thrilled. He's a good sport, isn't he? The second set of outfits this week made me a little nervous (gotta admit that it is really hard for me to keep quiet while the girls are picking clothes, but I'm starting to unclench a little). Ree chose a long cream-colored sweater dress and a white summer skirt. I didn't really know how she was going to pull it off and what shoes could possibly go with that look, but then she made it all look cute. Ro chose capri-length light pink sweats and a light pink peace shirt, then decided it just wasn't enough and added a frilly hot-pink skirt and jellies. Fun. Both girls wanted a whole bunch of colorful barrettes and then made kissy faces at me: The last outfit just went to preschool this morning. The girls looked fairly similar (although they didn't see each other's outfits while picking). Ree went for a blue Mickey Mouse tank top, a bold striped sweater, pink cuffed pants that she pulled up into capris, blue Hello Kitty socks (she said they matched her tank top), and yellow Polliwalk shoes. Ro went for all hot pink, including the shirt underneath, and was pretty proud of herself. The pink socks were dirty, so she settled for yellow. She's wearing skintight leggings that are supposed to go under a dress, but whatever... Both girls wanted "rainbow ponies" as their hairstyle. All of the girls' past Fashion Challenge Friday outfits can be seen here. Now it's your turn! Share the grins and give us a link to an outfit that your kiddo put together this week! Fashion Challenge Friday is now a regular feature, so grab your camera and turn those kids loose in the closet at least once a week.

1. 6DaysWeek 2. Tonggu Momma 3. Wanda (At Last....) 4. Leidy Journey Unscripted 5. Moments with Maisie

6. Double Happiness 7. Spectacular S 8. Rylee For Life 9. greyautumnrain 10. hotomom

11. June 12. China's Blessing 13. When Chinese Eyes Are Smilin' 14. Mahmee

Questions and answers, part 2

The girls actually napped today (whoohooo!), so I had time to tackle the rest of the questions. Q: Emily said... That's so cute! Were their personalities like that at all in China? A: Their boisterousness and senses of humor were definitely already showing in China. I have vivid memories of them standing in adjacent cribs in the hotel room just cracking each other up. I wrote a personality post about the girls the first month that we were home and it's interesting to see how much of it is still true today. Q: Jenna said... I didn't know the girls were in gymnastics. Is this gymboree that they used to be in, or is it a gymnastics class they are in now? A: It's a regular gymnastics class. They've been taking it since last summer, but I don't think I've written anything about it. They're really strong, and it's a good way to get out some of their energy, but they definitely won't be in the 2016 Olympics or anything. ;-) Our weekends have freed up now that ice skating is over, and I think we'll try soccer next. Q: Mike and Terri Hamilton said... The girls seem so happy and well-adjusted. We are expecting a referral any time now and RQ has had a great post about attatchment. If it's not too personal, what issues have the girls had and what type of things did/do you guys do to promote bonding? A: They really are happy kids and always have been. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that there are two of them—no matter what happens or has happened, Ro and Ree are together. And that really affects their outlook on life. They were also living with a foster family, rather than in an orphanage, and were strongly attached to that family, which helped in the long run even though it made for some incredibly hard times in the beginning. We did all the standard bonding things when we first met Ro and Ree: we were the only ones who took care of them (no exceptions, not even once), we carried them everywhere in baby carriers or our arms rather than using strollers, we set up rigid schedules so the girls would always know exactly what to expect and when, we spent A LOT of time down on the floor with the girls (I don't think I've ever spent so much time on the ground in my life), and we didn't have visitors (except for my parents) or go out to crowded places for at least a month when we first got home. We just kind of chilled out and got to know each other as a family. Q: Jenny said... Do you have 2 of everything like we do? And if not, how do you deal with the girls and "sharing." We literally have to have 2 of everything and it is starting to be a bit MUCH. A: We don't start with two of anything unless it's a big-ticket item like a tricycle or babydoll stroller that I know they'll use at the same time. Everything else is either shared or marked with an M or an R—and it's The Law that you don't touch something with your sister's name on it. Our girls are pretty used to forced sharing by now. If they bicker (which is rare), I tell them the timer is set and the first girl gets it for two minutes, then the second girl gets it for two minutes. They usually lose interest after that. (Got that idea from fellow twin-mama K2). If they keep bickering for any reason, I take the item and put it in timeout. I'm mean, and it works for me. ;-) A: taran4ms said... Are you going to adopt in the future? LOVE your bento posts. Is that an everyday occurrence (bento lunches)? What happened to your referral youtube video? A: I think we're going to stay a family of four. Life is pretty dang good right now, and it's hard to imagine changing it. :-) The bento lunches used to be an everyday occurrence, but I've gotten a little lazy lately and don't do them as often anymore. I need to start doing them more often. I moved most of my YouTube stuff over to a different user name (my old account used my first name instead of M3) and just haven't uploaded the referral video yet. Q: Lillian said... Do you plan on working outside of the home once the girls are in school full time? A: Yes, but hopefully I won't go back into marketing and won't be managing huge teams. Even as I type that I'm thinking "never say never, haha." I would love to do something creative and I want to be an individual contributor. TubaDad thinks I should do something photography-related. Q: mexican chopsticks said... What do you do with all the clothes and shoes that no longer fit your little ones? A: I send TONS of stuff to charity, anything that's lost its mate or isn't in top condition (which ends up being a lot after going through the twin destroyers). When something gets too small for the girls now, they say "Can we give this to Charity?" They think Charity is the name of some little girl that lives nearby! Things that are still in great condition, and are still paired up, get shipped off to a friend who has twins about a year younger than Ro and Ree. Oh, and their Easter dresses go to my patient friend Catherine, who always helps me shop (and shop and shop) for the fancy Easter stuff. Q: Stacy said... How do you get your pics within your post to be the larger size they are? I choose the largest option when I upload them to blogger, but they are still considerably smaller then yours are! A: I upload all my pictures to Flickr. Then I go to a picture in Flickr, click "All Sizes," pick the 500-width one, copy the html code shown below the picture, and paste it into my blog post. Alrighty, I think I've answered all of the questions so far, except for the photography ones. I got so many of those that I'll answer them all in a separate post.

Questions and answers (part 1)

Thanks for all the great questions. The girls are napping right now, so I'll start typing away at the answers and get as far as I can before they wake up or my wrists get sore. Here's the first question: Q: You haven't commented in a while how the girls are different and similar. It is now possible, at least for me, to tell them apart (their smiles are different and a few other things that help me) but I have been curious if they have different or similar interests and things they like to do. Not developmental similarities and differences but how they distinguish themselves from one another. A: Alrighty here are a few random things, off the top of my head, I'll try to focus most on the differences, because I don't usually write about those: * COLORS: Ree likes a wide variety of colors and changes her preferences frequently — blue, purple, yellow, and white are today's favorites. Tomorrow will probably be different. Ro likes pink — period — it is absolutely her favorite color and always has been. * CREATIVE STUFF: When Ree draws lately, she's likely to draw a specific object and tell me what the object is and draw a whole bunch of items to go along with it. The other day she made a drawing and said "This is China" then pointed to a particular part of the drawing and said "This is the Great Wall." Ro is obsessed with drawing dots lately. She likes to draw a big circle on a piece of paper and then spend 30 minutes filling in the circle with as many different-colored dots as she can make. She also likes to fill an entire piece of paper with really dark blobs of color. When she's done you can't even see the original color of the paper. Both girls love anything artsy or crafty and can spend an hour (or more) playing at the art table. Ro has a real creative streak when it comes to problem solving. I've actually asked her advice the last few times I needed to buy presents for people and she came up with great suggestions, ones that I followed! * SWIMMING: Ree really likes to swim and play in the pool but is much more cautious than her sister. She wants to jump in from the side (over and over and over) as long as she knows you'll catch her, and sometimes she wants her water wings for a little extra bravery. If anyone (like, say, a twin sister) pushes her head under the water she freaks out. Ro LOVES to swim this year. She is like a little fish bobbing around in the water, jumping in from the side, submerging her whole head, and grinning the whole time. The girls have been so excited to go to the pool every day this week (it's been freaky hot) that I sucked it up and went bathing suit shopping so I could go in with them every time (insert huge applause and sympathy here, please!). * SLEEPING: Ree almost never falls asleep in the car, proclaiming loudly (and truthfully) that she prefers to sleep in her own bed. She likes to get a lot of sleep, usually takes a longer nap than her sister, falls asleep earlier at night, and sleeps later in the morning. Ro can't ride in the car for very long without falling asleep, and once she starts to nod off there is absolutely nothing you can do to keep her awake. Oh, and the girls have different sleep positions, too. Ro sleeps on her stomach, surrounded by so many "friends" (stuffed animals) that she only has a few inches of mattress to herself, while Ree sleeps on her back with arms flung wide and only one or two stuffed animals haphazardly tossed on the edge of the bed. * FOOD: Ro loves shrimp. She can't get enough and usually filches them from her sister (who is pretty indifferent to almost all protein). Both girls are obsessed with gum and all kinds of fruit, especially pineapple. We always have sugarless gum in a few different flavors, and a stick of gum or a piece of fruit is the highest bribe we can offer right now. They also die for artichoke dipped in "nah-naise." TubaDad won't eat the stuff (says it's too much work for too little food) but the girls and I could eat artichoke all day long. Mmmmmm. * VOICES: Ree's voice is higher. Ro's is a little deeper and sometimes kind of gravelly. When I'm driving the car I can always tell who's talking to me or singing without even looking. Ree sometimes switches to an annoying high-pitched "baby voice" lately, mostly when she's around TubaDad, so we're working on that right now. * RUNNING: Ro is always on the run lately. I swear she's going to be a marathon runner -- that girl can run really fast for the longest stretches. Her favorite running partner right now is my dad. She gets a huge grin on her face, grabs his hand, and off they go. I can't keep up, not even close. Ree does a funny little hop-run combo — she kind of looks like Tigger bouncing down the path. Both runs are adorable and I have no earthly idea why I've never videotaped them. (must remedy immediately) * HAIR: The girls like different hairstyles -- given the choice Ro will almost ask for braids, and Ree will ask for one big ponytail in the back. Their hair is a little different, by the way, Ro's is a bit thicker (I don't think it's noticeable to anyone but their hairdresser), and Ree's is a bit wilder and always comes loose from a ponytail or whatever style I put it in. Come to think of it, Ree's hair was wilder even when she was a baby. Does anyone remember me saying back on our China trip that you could tell them apart because no matter what I did Ree had "wild hedgehog hair" by the end of the day? Heh. * RULES: Ro is a rule-follower. If you ask her to do something, she does it happily. If you ask her to clean up, she finishes what she was doing and then she cleans. Ree, well, not so much. She would rather do anything in the world than clean up, and if she knows she's supposed to do something she will often do the opposite just to be mischievous. Whooeeee the girl is stubborn, almost as stubborn as I, which is saying A LOT. ;-) Both girls love to help. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, they're happiest if they're involved. * SCHOOL: Both girls like doing school-type things at home. They really get into all the learning activity books we get them, and pick up on new things amazingly fast (like counting syllables and adding and subtracting small numbers). Ro has a longer attention span for challenging activities and will often want to keep on going long after Ree has closed her book and moved on. Ability-wise they seem similar, so I wonder if Ree just gets bored? Ree likes going to preschool more than Ro, although both girls say they'd rather stay at home with me. Ree is more confident and outgoing at school than Ro, and when they're split into separate groups at preschool Ree does fine while Ro kind of pines for her sister. * DIRT: Both girls LOVE anything where they can get messy. Sand. dirt, paint, water, you name it. The dirtier and messier they are, the happier they are. * WHO'S IN CHARGE: Ree is kind of the little director when it comes to playtime. She invents all sorts of wild games and gets Ro to follow her lead (actually she ropes in any kid that's nearby, and they all seem play along). I don't mean to give the impression that Ro is passive, I think Ree just comes up with great ideas and Ro genuinely has fun playing along. However, Ro is actually more aggressive and she is also braver in new situations right now (they switch back and forth on this every few months). Ro will go on every single ride at an amusement park, Ree will hang back on a few, and Ro doesn't mind trying new things even if she has to do it by herself. * GYMNASTICS: Both girls like gymnastics, but they seem to excel at different things. Ree is really good at balance-type things (she's like a little cat) and Ro is great at strength things (she can pull herself up on the bar and do a flip all by herself). Neither one can concentrate worth a damn when her sister's around, so they're in separate classes right now. Sigh... * LOVEYNESS: Ree is a little more affectionate right now. She's the first one to say I love you and always gives incredibly exuberant hugs and lots of them (yay!). She's a sweetie to everyone, but is a daddy's girl at heart and lights up even more when he comes home. She loves to make people laugh, and she's so dang funny. Ro is incredibly loyal to everyone she loves and is sweet, sensitive, and tender. She doesn't like change (like her mama). When you get a hug from Ro she nearly squeezes the stuffing out of you — it is The Best. She is a mama's girl and always has been, and I can do no wrong in her eyes (little sweetie). Ro is also really dang funny. Both girls love to laugh, and they crack each other up. It's a good combo. Oh crap, they're both awake after an insanely short nap (booooo!), so I guess I'm only going to get to answer one question. Sorry the list was so random (and long), I thought I'd have way more time and could edit/rewrite it. More Q&A later.

Musing about American Idol tonight

First, before the show even starts, I just have to get that whole "judges save" debacle from last week off my chest. The way I see it, the judges knew they only had two weeks to use that save (last week and this week) and they figured if they didn't use it last week they would HAVE to use it this week and there wouldn't be an ounce of suspense in it because everyone would know in advance they were going to use it. Cheesy, if you ask me. Alrighty, on with the show! Oh wait, one more thing, TubaDad isn't here watching with me because he's out buying milk. Normally that wouldn't even merit a mention, except that he's buying NORMAL milk. That's right, our little girls have finally outgrown their hideous digestive issues and can now drink plain old milk, straight from a regular cow, with lactose and everything. Those of you who know what we've gone through with the insane toddler diarrhea, the endless rounds of GI testing, the goat's milk that was more expensive than liquid gold, and then the lactose-free milk that we could only get in certain stores, will understand why we are cheering like mad over here. Whoooohoooooo! Ok, now on with the show, for real this time. Lil: She seemed really old tonight. Did anyone else think that? Didn't really love anything about the song and haven't really loved anything she sang for 3 or 4 weeks now, and I was a huge Lil fan in the beginning. I think she's going home tomorrow... Kris: The guy really is quite personable and I like to watch him. He does choose interesting, uh, stage configurations. Not sure that's the right word — I'm talking about how he sang that one song a couple of weeks ago with all the girls crowded around him on stage and then this time he was front and center but the musicians were really prominent and right next to him. He doesn't blow my socks off (like Chris did last year), but I don't think he's going home tomorrow. Danny: Started off kind of singsongy or something, but around that "pop, pop, pop" part he kind of picked up energy and looked like he was having a fun time. He really is a nice guy, isn't he? That comes through when he sings. I don't think he'll make it to the finals, but I hope good things happen for him after this show. Oh hey, I just realized that all four judges are talking after each contestant again. Good! It pissed me off last week when they only had two judges talk each time. I wonder if other folks hated it too and they got negative feedback about it? Allison: Wow, that's really a hot outfit she's got on. Have the stylists toned down the Raggedy Ann red hair color a little bit or does it just look different with the curls? Hm, the song seems a little forced or something. Don't get me wrong, it's good, but she's not knocking me over. Dang, I want her to smoke it every week. I don't care, though, her voice is incredible and I'm still voting for her. I want the final to be an Allison-Adam showdown! Adam: Oh goodie, Adam's on! I can't wait to see what he does every week. Oh wow. Seriously wow. Good heavens that boy can sing. Give him a record deal right this second and send him out on tour, I guarantee he will sell out. Hey you know what would be really fun? Have an American Idol favorites singoff — put Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, and Adam Lambert in a playoff and see who wins. Oh man I would pay some serious money to see that!!! Matt: Didn't like him last week and still don't like him. Sorry to all the Matt fans out there. He's just not my cuppa tea. He can sing, but I think the American Idol winner needs to have something more that just makes me people stop in their tracks. I think he's going home this week along with Lil. Anoop: Whoa — what's with the mustache?! Eww. Like the suit and pink sweater though, it's a fun look. Ok, to be fair, I think Matt sang better than Anoop. Sigh... But he has a really nice voice. I'm rooting for him because I just plain like him. Ok, here's my ranking, I struggled a little with numbers 5 and 6. I think Lil and Matt are going home tomorrow (although it wouldn't surprise me if it was Lil and Anoop): 1. Adam 2. Allison 3. Kris 4. Danny 5. Anoop 6. Matt 7. Lil How do you guys think they should be ranked?

Sticks and stones

I don't know why we even bother to buy games and toys. Ro and Ree can play for hours with a little pile of rocks and sticks. Our birch tree has been dropping branches all week — the lawn is littered with twigs — and the girls are in hog heaven. It's in the smokin' hot nineties here today, so if anyone's looking for us, we'll be keeping cool at the pool. Cheers!

Poor little girls are squeezing their bodies into PJs that are too small

Perhaps this will help: "We need summer pajamas, Wela. Please. 4T." Heh heh. My folks are on an antique auto trip right now. Wonder if they have internet access? I guess we'll find out if they come home with a few pairs of pajamas stashed away in the rumbleseat...

Fashion Challenge Friday

It's fashion challenge friday — time for a couple more outfits the three-year-olds picked out themselves. The first outfits this week were pretty tame (well at least they were in the beginning). Ro went for her new fave yellow/pink combo, and Ree went for pink, orange, and white, even adding a cute little pair of orange Hawaiian shorts under the skirt. Not too bad, right? Then they wanted to go to the park, which always means lots of climbing and running, so I told them they needed close-toed shoes and sent them upstairs to grab socks. That's all, just socks. Well for some reason they must have thought this was the perfect chance to jazz up those outfits, because they came back downstairs looking like THIS: Oh my. Ro had added some pink polkadot legwarmers to her arms, tucked her shirt in, and selected mauve socks. Ree, our little wild spirit, was using her skirt as a hat, had added sock monkey legwarmers to her arms and bold striped legwarmers to bridge the gap between her shorts and her socks, found a hot pink rhinestone belt, and finished off the look with light pink socks and her yellow polkadot shoes. Wow. Do I get bonus points for taking them out of the house looking this way? The second outfits of the week were just as colorful. And they went to preschool looking like this. Ro (on the left) went for a pink and orange theme, complete with pink headband, polka-dot legwarmers, and her favorite pink frog Polliwalks shoes. Ree went for a blue, orange, and yellow theme, with lots of colorful dragonfly barrettes, starry legwarmers, and Polliwalks yellow duck shoes. Here they are chatting about who knows what: Now it's your turn: Share the grins and show us an outfit that your kiddo put together this week! Important: give us the permalink* for your fashion challenge post, not a link to your homepage, so people don't have to scroll around looking for the right post. Fashion Challenge Friday is now a regular feature, so grab your camera and turn those kids loose in the closet at least once a week.

1. Mahmee 2. Cherith 3. Wanda (At Last....) 4. Tonggu Momma 5. Lauren C. 6. Lauren C.

7. Lauren C. 8. Double Happiness 9. Hotomom 10. Leidy Journey Unscripted 11. Stephanie R. 12. Rylee For Life

13. The Shoe Princess - Correct Address 14. Kathy 15. June 16. LadyBug Journals 17. Moments with Maisie

I'm not the only forty-something person watching American Idol, am I?

Haven't written about American Idol yet this season, but I'm watching. Oh yes. I'm utterly and unabashedly addicted to trashy reality tv. Mmmmm. A few notes on tonight's performance (written in real-time, as the show is rolling): Ryan: Like his outfit tonight. Very snappy. I'm getting TubaDad one of those polka-dot ties for Father's Day. Quentin Tarantino: Wow. Cool. Allison: She's one of my two favorites this season. Love her. Really. But... didn't really love this performance. Not sure why. Maybe the song is just too tied to Tyler's voice? I kind of like it better when she takes a normal or plain song and "Allifies" it. Anyhow, she still gets my vote. Anoop: Nice singing. He sounded good. And I'm really glad he made it to the top 10 and will go on the AI tour, because he's personable and likable and all that. But there is no way he'll make it to the end. No way. At this point in the show I got annoyed that we only get to hear two judges talk about each singer. Because, frankly, I want to hear from Paula (comedic) and Simon (always right) every time and don't care what Randy or Kara think. Adam: Whoohoooooo! If he isn't in the finals, I'll give up chocolate for a month. The boy has talent. And he's riveting. I thought last week's performance was better than this one (it would be hard to top last week's in my opinion). But damn! Oh goodie, we get to hear Paula and Simon on this one. Matt: Yawners. This dude is just boring to me. Actually had to pause and rewind because I spaced out and started reading email. Oops. What is he singing? Eh. Back to e-mail for a few minutes. Danny: Is Quentin really tall or is Danny really short? Hate this Endless Love song, by the way. Curious to see what he does with it. Hm... Didn't love it, the last half was better than the first, though. Seemed like he was gulping for air during it, and maybe struggling for the lyrics or his gestures or something? Anyhow, I like him, he seems really genuine and a truly nice guy. And he's got a nice voice, but I don't think I'd fork over a bunch of money to see him in concert or anything. Chris: Wow, Quentin is WAY taller than he is. He's cute, in a puppyish kind of way. Sort of wholesome. Singing sounded good tonight, I thought. Lil: Wow, she looks great... but (Oops, now I'm giving out the back-handed Paula compliment.) Whoever is styling her seems to do better and better each week. I thought she sounded great in the very beginning of the season, and was really rooting for her. But the last three or so songs have just been okay for me. Not bad, but nothing to make my heart thrill (or, more importantly, to make my dialing fingers leap to action). Alright, off to go vote for Allison and Adam. Then it's off to bed. TubaDad's playing a symphony tonight, so he'll get home sometime around 1am. Eeesh. He's not going to get enough sleep tonight and he missed American Idol. Poor guy.

Dang, this Easter thing sure is fun

The girls have been reveling in the Easter carnage scattered around the house, and every day this week have asked "It still Easter, mama?" They're in for a serious letdown tomorrow when the answer is finally "nope!" Yikes. And the next cool kid holiday isn't until July, is it? We had a small Easter egg hunt at our house yesterday, dyed I-don't-even-know-how-many dozen eggs, woke up extra early to rifle through filled-to-bursting Easter baskets (double squeal), then took the family out for a fancy brunch this morning. Fun stuff. Really fun. I took way too many pictures, as usual. They're mostly snapshots -- pics taken while walking around, chatting and laughing, eating Apricot Dream Bars, and clicking away while holding the camera down by my hip. (View thumbnails, captioned pics, or slideshow, click "show info" for slideshow captions) After brunch (and after Ro and Ree finished grilling the Easter bunny about why he doesn't have a mouth), the girls and I went for a walk so everyone else could finish chowing. They were so cute hopping around like bunnies and twirling around in their spinny skirts in the bright sunshine: Happy Easter!

Happy Easter

Hope everyone has a wonderful day full of love, laughter, and chocolate. The plan was to take the girls' Easter portraits before they ate/slobbered/rolled in the dirt/dyed eggs in those pretty dresses. So TubaDad came home late Friday night with some fancy new strobe lights and we all sat there holding our props and dresses and watched while he got them set up. Nothing like a little pressure, huh? As soon as he had them about half figured out, we tossed the girls' Easter dresses on and snapped away. The pics aren't perfect, but hey they're not too bad for equipment that was about three minutes old and really hard to operate. Saturday we had an Easter egg hunt for the girls and a few of their friends, and then we ended the day with a little hair-cutting incident. Lovely. I'll have pictures tomorrow. Boy the girls have sure changed in two years! (Ree is on the left in the 2007 and 2008 photos, and Ro is on the left in the 2009 photo. But you knew that already, right?)

Fashion Challenge Friday

Here are the girls in outfits of their own design earlier this week. This post was prewritten (thank goodness, since yesterday was a little rough and I can't take time to be on the computer today). Ro is wearing the new Polliwalks shoes that she's worn almost constantly since they arrived. I got the pink frog ones for her and the yellow duck ones for Ree, but apparently it's even more fun to mix and match. These shoes are adorable -- check out the Polliwalks site and you'll fall in love. I've already got my eye on the army green Fish Lips pair for when they grow out of these two. The girls tied some tights around their waists for extra color. It was Ro's idea. The new orange background, for those who are curious, is just an old square 4-foot canvas that was hanging around the house. It was some project that never got finished. TubaDad even ran over it once in the garage so now it has tire tracks. I decided to paint it orange and have some fun with it. Now it's your turn: Share the grins and show us an outfit that your kiddo put together this week! Important: give us the permalink* for your fashion challenge post, not a link to your homepage, so people don't have to scroll around looking for the right post. Fashion Challenge Friday is now a regular feature, so grab your camera and turn those kids loose in the closet at least once a week.

1. Julie Anne 2. Leidy Journey Unscripted 3. Rylee For Life 4. Wanda 5. June

6. Tonggu Momma 7. Doubly Blessed 8. Lauren C. 9. Hotomom 10. Moments with Maisie

11. Double Happiness 12. Hope Marie 13. Sweet Potato Pi

Had a tough day with the girls today

It was just one of those days. You know, the kind where you sit down at the end of the day and you're frazzled, worn out, and disgusted with yourself? I stunk at the whole motherhood thing today. The girls were wild and out of control. But that's neither here nor there. The problem was in my reactions. I was snappy, loud, impatient, controlling, and angry. And the girls fed on it. They got more and more wound up and pushed more and more of my buttons until I finally just loaded them in the car and started driving. I knew that despite the rain we had to get out of the house and go do something, or else. Ree said we should go see the Easter Bunny, so I pointed the car toward a mall and that's just what we did. They were in awe of the bunny and on their best behavior. Cute, huh? But the good behavior ended when we pulled back into the garage. Once home, they were even more hyper than before. Screaming with laughter, ignoring everything I said, hanging on each other until they fell down, throwing clothes and toys all over the place. You name it. They had been singing a whole bunch of really cute songs about the rain on the drive home, so when we arrived, I whipped out the purse cam and tried to record them for my mom. Yeah, like that was going to happen. They were practically vibrating with energy. They just kept getting wilder, so I gave up on the video thing, and did the only thing that helps when they get like this. I separated them. Ro went into her room and Ree into hers and I told them to get ready for bed and stood in the hall until I was calmer. Then I walked back and forth between their rooms adjusting pajamas, brushing teeth, etc. I said goodnight to both and told them tomorrow would be a better day. And I know it will, for all of us. It's a new day, right? And no matter what happens, I will do better.

Yesterday hit 80 degrees, and today it's pouring rain

But a little rain doesn't stop the girls from putting on their swimsuits and dancing around the house. I got a new white photography background this weekend (the dream is that I'm going to shoot the girls' Easter photos instead of taking them to a camera-on-a-pole studio — yikes wish me luck!). So I promised the would-be swimmers a jellybean if they'd let me try the new background out on them. I haven't gotten any lighting yet, and it's pretty dark out today, so these photos don't look quite the way I'd like, but they still make me grin. Here are Ro (in pink) and Ree (in purple), wishing like heck for some sunshine: Little cuties. Now if only the weather would cooperate so the girls, and their new swimsuits, could plunge into the pool! PS: If anyone owns an Easter bunny suit, what would we have to bribe you with to don it and stop by for a little photo op? Ok, ok, more realistically, does anyone have any creative Easter picture ideas I can try? PSPS: I need to update the Random Questions in the sidebar, so if you've got a question, please ask it! If we end up with a bunch of questions, I'll just do a whole post of answers.

Lions and tigers and twins

All saddled up and ready to meet friends at the Oakland Zoo this weekend (it was so hot and the weatherman was SO wrong that we ditched the ill-advised long-sleeve shirts within minutes): This cool camel dude just cracked us up (TubaDad took this great pic of him): We always love the sweet elephants: A huge zoo to roam in and hundreds of neat animals to see, and all of the kids wanted to hang out in this field of flowers. They probably would have played on this hill all day: Thanks to my sweet friend Junebug for this family shot: The girls wanted a double shoulder ride, and the ascent was a little hairy: Who knew they had great kiddie rides at the zoo?: It was pretty funny when the girls tried to flap up into the sky: A few hours past naptime, we finally did the ole grab-and-go and raced to the car: Doesn't every good road trip end this way?: PS: Got to hang out with awesome blogger friends Michelle and Kayce today, and while we were chillin at the pool Michelle checked her phone and shrieked that Lisa (Tate R Bug) got her referral. Whoohoo!! I swear it was the cherry on top of a perfect day. Please head on over to Lisa's site and share the joy. Oh, and please ignore the fact that I look like a dork in the below photo -- Michelle and Kayce look great so I'm posting it anyhow.