First All Club Meeting

Every month, the mom's club I'm in, holds a meeting at a local church. They have it in the nursery so all the kids can play and if there's anything to discuss, the moms can do that while the kids play. Afterwards, everybody eats pastries, bagels, muffins, cookies, etc that Panera donates to our club for our monthly meeting. When the boys were on two naps a day, this meeting was always during their first nap, so we never went. Now that the boys are on one afternoon nap a day and are old enough to walk into places without me having to get the stroller out, we decided to check it out. We were the first ones to arrive and I was shocked at how big the church was. I was even more shocked when I saw the nursery. It was amazing!! Since we were the first ones there, the boys had the entire place to themselves for about 5 minutes. It filled up quick and there were a ton of other kids and moms there. The boys had a blast and were really sweet with the younger kids. They also enjoyed the goodies afterwards, too. When we got home, they took an extra long nap, so we will defnitely try and go to this every month. ;)

I only got a couple of pictures of the boys before everybody showed up, they're kinda blurry, but I just wanted a couple to show how big the place was.

There's also a huge closet FULL of toys. Tons of toys. It was really nice.

After the boys long nap, Greg took them to the gym and I ran to an appointment. We bathed the boys, put them to bed and then relaxed. It has been a long day. Evan is getting another tooth and has been pretty fussy. The mornings are rough, but he's been really good when we're out doing things. I guess it helps take his mind off the pain. I'm really glad that we have things planned for every day this week, it makes things so much easier.

Playdates and Water Fun

Today was a great start to our week. The weather was beautiful. We had a multiples playdate in the morning and the boys were able to play outside and then after their nap, we let them play in the backyard with their water table and toys. I think we're all completely exhausted, but it was so nice to spend so much time outside. The high was 88 today, it's not supposed to get into the 80's the rest of the week, so we tried to take advantage of it.

Here is what life is like with two, mischievous boys. I go in the other room for less than 2 minutes and I come back to find them on top of the dining room table.

We went upstairs to get ready for our playdate and the boys climbed into the chair and started reading books. They love doing this every day now, and they always have to have their blankets. They only get their pacifiers in the crib and in the car, but when we spend time in their rooms (which is maybe 10 minutes a day) they go over to the crib and sneak them out.

When did they get so big?! They're such big boys all of a sudden. They just walk on down the stairs, it seems like just yesterday when I was having to hold their hands. :(

The mom that hosted this week has the most unbelievable backyard. I was so in love with her backyard! It was amazing. They have tons of outdoor toys, plenty of room to run around, nice big trees that provided plenty of shade, the best playground (I don't know what they're actually called) that I've ever seen, and a sand box. I'm sure I'm leaving out some things, but it was the best place for a group of kids. We had so much fun.

The boys off to explore the yard.

Isn't that playset thing amazing?! The boys that live here are fraternal twins just 3 months older than Evan and Carter.

The boys loved the sandbox, it was actually their first time ever playing with sand.

The boys swinging.

Haha, I don't know how Carter managed to get the host and her two boys to push him around the yard. Such a little stinker.

Of course with a yard that amazing, the boys managed to wander inside and get distracted by the toys in the playroom. I was like "let's go back outside!"

They love playing with basketball hoops anytime we go to a house that has them. Future basketball players, maybe? They'll definitely be tall enough.

Can't wait until you're older, Carter. You'll be doing this with a real lawn mower. ;)

Everybody haning out and playing. 4 moms and 9 kids.

Carter loves pushing things, he likes putting his monkey on his lawnmower at home and pushing it around. it's cute when he gets to actually use a stroller instead of his lawnmower.

After the boys naps, we changed them into their new bathing suits (which were a little big) and let them play in the back yard. We filled the water table up with water and when they got tired of that and wanted to go on the deck, we filled up some bowls, pitchers, and cups with water and let them splash around and get ever more wet.

We let the boys eat dinner outside on their picnic table.

Yep, Evan is stealing chicken nuggets off Carter's plate. When I said something to him about it, he replaced them with carrots. haha.

The boys were freezing when we brought them inside and dried them off and changed them into some dry clothes. We put them on the couch, turned on a cartoon and covered them up. They actually stayed like this for like, 5 minutes, which is FORVER for them. They must have been exhausted!!

So cute!

We had a great day today. We have a pretty busy week planned, there's several playdates and activities going on this week with the moms groups, so we should have plenty to keep us busy, which is the way I like it. ;)

Boys First Trip to the Zoo

I wanted to do this post separate from the weekend recap because there's so many pictures and I wanted it easy to find later when I'm looking back on old blog posts. We took the boys to the Reston Zoo on Sunday. It was a lot of fun. It was more of a HUGE petting zoo than a traditional zoo. It's owned by the same people who own the Virginia Safari Park, which we also wan to take the boys too when they're older. This zoo was so much better for the boys at this age than a traditional zoo. It was very hands on, and they were able to run around and really enjoy themselves. It was a little less than a 2 hour drive up there. We left about 8:30 and got there a little after 10:00. The boys usually do great in the car in the mornings, which was the case on Sunday--thankfully. We left around lunch time which is also their nap time so they could sleep on the way home. That didn't go as planned--Evan took a pretty good nap, but Carter's was super short. They were both really good while they were awake on the way back, though, It was a very fun trip, successful car ride, etc. I'm so glad we went.

This was the first animal we saw when we got there.

Then, we went through the barn and the boys fed the goats, lambs, etc. They also gave a baby lamb a bottle. It was impossible to get pictures of the boys looking at me. There was just too much fun stuff for them to bother with the camera.

Daddy and the boys feeding the animals.

You can kinda see in this picture how the allergies have affected Carter's eyes. They're red, puffy, itchy. It's so sad. They are just as bad inside as they are outside, so we're not keeping him cooped up, we're letting him still be a kid. We gave him benadryl before going, and afterwards, we wiped both boys down with baby wipes and changed them into clean clothes before driving home.

Evan looking at the ducks. The cage in this picture had monkeys in it. The boys weren't very interested in anything in a cage, which makes me glad that we chose this zoo over a more traditional one.

The boys LOVED feeding the ducks. The ducks do not play around though. They will stick their beaks through the fence and grab the food out of your hands. It didn't phase the boys in the least, they thought it was funny.

Llamas that came up to you and you could feed them. Carter actually crawled under this fence and got in there, but Greg got him before he even got on his feet. haha, never a dull moment.

There is an area where you can go in with bird seed on a stick and the birds will land on you and eat the bird feed. I was pretty sure that the boys would do fine, but heard lots of shrieks, so I started to get a little nervous. But, the boys did great. They had NO fear. This was my favorite part of the zoo. (you can still see Evan's poor nose where he got hit with the book)

This is blurry and not a good picture, but I wanted to post one to show how brave Carter was with the birds. He just reached over and pet them (he did try and pick them up, so we had to watch him) He wasn't scared at all.

Greg feeding the birds.

Evan squating down with the birds.

I'm so glad the boys aren't scared of the animals. It'd probably be good if they had a little fear, but if I had to choose being terrified of animals or having no fear, I'd rather them have no fear.

This was how it was a lot of the time. It was so open, we just let the boys roam around and we followed them. I think they loved not being cooped up in the stroller and getting to explore. It was the perfect activity for them.

They had a tractor pulled ride through a field where animals like camels, llamas, etc came up to you, but the boys were exhausted and we would have had to wait 45 minutes for the next ride, so we skipped it this time.

I'm so glad we went to this. We all really enjoyed it. It's so nice to do something different on the weekends. The boys love to run around and just be boys, so I love that the weather is getting warmer and we're able to do outdoor things like this. I have a few more things that other moms have suggested that I want to try out before it gets too hot. Although, this wasn't a traditional zoo, it is called the Reston Zoo, and they had monkeys, llamas, camels, etc. So, I'm counting this as their first trip to the zoo and I'm also marking off #16 on my 30 Before 30 list. ;)