Big fourth graders on their first day of school

Ro and Ree love school, but none of us were ready for summer to end this year. The girls say it was the best summer ever, and I have to agree.

Wishing everyone a great back-to-school experience.

PS: Just mentioned that the girls couldn't audition for the school play because it was the upper-grade play and Ree casually and without any thought for the extreme and immediate angst it would cause me replied "Uh, we ARE upper graders now." (sob!)

Twinvasion at the beach

Always a treat to see these four beautiful, unique girls together and I’m always thankful that our girls have friends whose stories start with the same words as theirs: “identical twins born in China...”

Happy summer to all, and a special thanks to D2, K2, H2, and S2 for visiting us at the beach. Mwah!

Weird cookie mix at Target

The girls couldn’t resist this funky-looking box of cookie mix on our last shopping trip, and today was the day to try it out. Pretty fun to make – felt a little like playing with homemade PlayDoh. Ree did them almost all by herself and Ro joined in when it was time to color the dough.

They taste great! And were good for an hour of quiet time. Win Win. Will definitely get these again.

PS: Two ways to tell the girls apart now – Ro has longer hair and Ree has bottom braces.

Not one but TWO golden anniversaries

My folks and TubaDad’s folks both* celebrated their 50th wedding anniversaries this month! Congratulations, that is an awesome milestone and a wonderful example. (*Our parents got married exactly one week apart from each other and then had TubaDad and I one day apart. Funny, huh?)

Ma and Pa were treated to an exciting weekend away with dinner at a fave restaurant and a night of NBA championship fun:

And BobBob and Wela were floored to walk outside and find their friends who had been in their wedding party back in the sixties.

Good times! Happy golden anniversaries to Ma and Pa and to BobBob and Wela!

Let the summer begin!

Summer officially starts in this house in 4 hours, and we are READY!

My job ends for the summer today (an awesome benefit of working in the same school district as Ro and Ree), the secret summer-kickoff buckets to surprise the girls when they come home have been assembled, the last school lunches for the year have been packed (thank heaven), the perfect-attendance certificates have been collected (these girls just don’t get sick), and they have taken their final walk to school for the year.

It’s been a great year (Ree left, Ro right in both pics):

• Ro and Ree’s styles have definitely changed this year. During third grade they gradually stopped wearing skirts and dresses and switched to jeans, t-shirts, shorts, and tennis shoes. Ree made the switch a few months before Ro.
• Both girls grew a whole bunch (both in height and in looks). They are now 50^1/4” – Ree might be a hair shorter but my measuring technique is sketchy.
• They still have separate bedrooms (although Ree thinks she’d like to share over the summer while Ro wants to keep her own room).
• They chose different haircuts, Ree’s is short, sassy, and cute and Ro’s is long and beautiful.
• They’re funnier than they were last year – something about their senses of humor (or maybe confidence) has blossomed this year and we regularly find overselves dying laughing over something one or the other says.

Bring on summer!!!

Waiting...

Pop-Tarts and Carcassonne games while we wait for news of Uncle Bobby's race and wait for TubaDad to get home from his latest incredibly loooong business trip (he went all the way around the world
in the last 10 days).

Temporary artwork (until the sprinklers come on)

Ro surprised me with her chalk art tonight. I haven’t seen her draw like this before.

“It is a normal human girl, who has just summoned a fairy. The fairy is making fireworks in the air. The girl is holding the fairy and is waiting for her to say something.” ~Ro

Ree’s was also cute.

“My picture is a cute little doggie who is wearing a fairy princess costume. I added little details on the feet and the tail. Also, I made a little flower on the doggie's clothes. I wanted to make it cute, so I had the doggie stick its tongue out.” ~Ree

Fun.

The long and the short of it

Walked out of the hair salon with two different looks. One wanted short and swingy, the other just wanted a trim since she wants to go even longer.

They’ve had different styles before, but always seem to gravitate back to matching hair.

Ro had bangs at the start of 1st grade (which she started growing out about 4 minutes after they were cut).

And Ree had shoulder-length hair for a little while during 2nd grade:

We’ll see how long this difference lasts. In the meantime, enjoy telling them apart easily. ;-)

Chocolate donut in hand, toes in the sand

That’s what I wanted for Mother’s Day, and it was just as nice as I thought it would be.

We like to visit this Little Free Library on the way to the beach. We save the girls’ used books for this place now:

Tidepools always have interesting surprises. The hermit crabs at this one are always so dang cute:

It was windy on Saturday, but couldn’t have been prettier on Sunday:

Ro made lots of sand tattoos, both girls designed a couple of sand princesses, Dusty was pretty chill under his mat/chair shade, and TubaDad napped on the beach with all parts covered (he was heading out on an intl bus trip and didn’t want to be sunburned). I plopped my toes in the sand and soaked it all in:

Can you read this tattoo?:

Beach living can make you very nappy:

We’ve decided that the restaurant with the best view in Monterey is the Fish Hopper. I don’t even know how many seals and otters cavorted by while we were dining. If you want to go, make sure to pop on OpenTable first and make reservations – then you can just breeze in ahead of the crowds:

Happy Mother’s Day!

PS: It wouldn’t be a typical day in *our* life without a little chaos. While TubaDad was out getting a haircut on Mother’s Day, one daughter overflowed the toilet and told me AFTER the water was already spreading across the bathroom floor.

27 school days till summer (yes I counted!)

Summer vacay (for Ro and Ree and for me since I work for their school district) is fast approaching. And we can’t wait. Science projects are D.O.N.E. and so is our summer schedule with camps, travel, and just the right amount of hang time.



Come on summer!