The haircut

Yup... I finally did it!! I cut my hair!

It only took all summer... I really should have done it sooner. Here is the before pic....

And the after pics:

The ants

go marching 1 by 1...

Well, more like 100 by 100 around here! We have had some serious ant issues this summer but have found a solution.

REVENGE!!! No not revenge on the ants but a product called Revenge.

All you do is put a small drop of it on a pic of scrap card board and they line up for it. Let the feeding frenzy continue for a few days... and then they all disappear!!

Here they are circling the Revenge liquid!! Isn't that crazy???

We have a new....

TRAVEL TRAILER!!!
Yay!! We bought a travel trailer!! After looking around and trying to find just the right one for our family I came across one on Craigslist that was about 1 mile from our home...
Here's Bill bringing it home with our BiG Red Van.... Haley was really excited!!
Here is our "bedroom" - a queen sized bed in the front. Looking from front to back... sofa, kitchen, dinette... The kids 'room' - a twin over queen bunk. The bathroom...

The view from back to front.We can't wait to take her out camping!! :)

Atlantic City Airshow

What has 500,000 people, ear stinging noise, sweltering heat, and was about the coolest thing ever???

If you answered the Atlantic City Airshow, you are correct!!

Wow! It was amazing. Not just the planes, but the whole event. We left our home, running late as usual to drive down to Atlantic City for the "Free" airshow called "Thunder Over the Boardwalk". It is an annual event and draws huge crowds and features the USAF Thunderbird team. Well, traffic was a nightmare and parking, even worse!! About 3 times during the first hour in Atlantic City I seriously considered just turning around and going home thinking we had made a huge mistake in going. The weather was hot, humid and sunny... yup well over 90 degrees!! When we finally got to the beach I was absolutely stunned at what I saw. I have never seen so many people on the beach before in my life! They were literally blanket to blanket. Thankfully there was a roped off area for the Cub Scouts so we were able to sit there.

We missed some of the show with the traffic delay and the trouble finding parking - did I mention there were 1/2 a million people there??? - we finally found our spot and got in our beach attire. Yes, changing in a portapotty in the 90+degree heat is really fun - NOT! Oh and did I mention the screaming babies who were scared to death of the huge jets overhead and all the noise of the afterburners?? Yes, it was a rough start but after a dip in the ocean, things started to look up.

We cooled off and were able to watch the show from the water to.. Jets right over head!!

The afternoon ended with a wonderful performance of the Thunderbirds. Truely spectacular!!

Day Two

Well cloth diaper day two went even better than day one. The girls woke up with wet diapers but dry pjs - success!! The poos were pretty messy today and I has me re-thinking some of the foods they eat! Ha! I do need to make my fleece liners a bit bigger especially in the back. The covers and fitteds do seem to be ok. It is funny how differently they fit on each girl. Payton is in the size L diapers and Sydney in the M. I have been putting them both in the M covers which seem to fit them both pretty well. I even put on pfs with snappis under their lined bathing suits today. They stuck out of the side but seemed to work just s well as the little swimmers.

Payton and Sydney crawled all around the back yard and in and out of the baby pool before I took them in the bigger pool with the other kiddos. We all had a nice time swimming together. Colin was so cute swimming and playing Sydney while I swam with Payton. There is something so endearing and sweet about watching the bigger kids caring for and lovingly entertaining the little ones. :)

Cloth Diaper Day

Today has been cloth diaper day #1... So far so good.
I have managed to diaper my girls all day with no leaks!
I even survived the 3 poos... pretty messy but not too bad. I do think there might be a diaper sprayer in my future! LOL

I also got two more diaper packages in the mail... 10 litewrap covers and 2 Happy Heiny fitteds, 1 Little Beetle Fitted and a Liz Cloth fitted. Oh boy, more to try!! LOL

I am hoping to find dry and happy babies tomorrow morning... :)

Summer fun.

I just thought I would post some pics of our summer fun.... :)

Almost ready

Here are my diapers... almost ready for wear! Looks like fun, right???

I can't wait for the rest of it to come... yes, I think I might be addicted!! LOL I'm trying to stay away from DiaperSwappers until I actually try some of these out and decide what I like.

I have fleece ready to make into liners for both dryness and also to help with washing out the poo. I will keep you posted on how it all works out for me. :)

It's SOLD!!

OMGoodness! I just got off the phone... our camper is SOLD!! I can't believe it! The people with the poodles have decided to buy our rig. I don't know whether to cheer or cry!!

My Diapers are HERE!!

Yeah!! I got a package today full of fluffy fitted Swaddlebees diapers!! And the covers I ordered too! I am so excited and can't wait until the rest of my things come and I can get started cloth diapering.

Look how nice they are!! Yay!!

Last Day of Camp

Today was the last day of summer camp for the kids. It is hard to believe that summer is rolling along like it is and will soon be over. As has been the custom, I rode down to school with all the kids for the final drop-off and will go back in a while to get them again. It has been so nice to have a program for them all summer to get some time with their friends and take a little pressure off of me. I've quite enjoyed my quiet mornings with the kids at camp and the girls napping. It has allowed me to get some chores done or just catch up on my emails.

I am glad it will be over in a way too. The kids are tired out and having some time off to sleep in will do them good. They only have a week off before we start another VBS at a local church and then just another week off until school starts right after Labor Day.

I guess this means that we need to get in gear and make sure to do any of those things we had hoped to do this summer before time is up!

Our first Cloth butts

Here are Sydney and Payton trying out their first cloth diapers... I just used some old Gerber prefolds that I had used as burp cloths since Colin was a baby but these cover are new... aren't they cute!! Don't you just love those fluffy butts??

Potential buyers...

It is surprising but true, we have had a few potential buys come to look at our camper this week. I can't believe that all it took was putting a sign on it and parking it on the street!

So far I have had an aspiring musician and someone who shows dogs (poodles to be exact- you know the kind with all the fluffy puff balls shaved into their coats) look at our camper. Both just walked up to it on the street and knocked on our door to take a look. They each liked the rig and I guess could be the potential new owners, I guess time will tell if either is serious.

It is kind of sad in a way... I don't want to sell the old girl. I know that I can't get another camper until this one is sold but it is so hard to let go of something that holds so many wonderful memories.

Playdate for all

My twins club - Jersey Shore Mother's of Multiples or JSMOM for short - hosted a play date for all the families at The Little Gym. It was great fun! It was the first time that Payton and Sydney got together with other babies their own age. It was so cute! Two of my JSMOM friends with babies close in age to my girls brought their twins to the play date. It was so funny to see all 6 of the babies interacting and also not interacting. Each twin set had one outgoing baby and one shy baby. Sydney is my shy gal and Payton is the one that prefers to be the center of attention. Despite thier differnces, both of my girls had a great time crawling around and listening to the music and watching the other children play.

My 'big' kids had some organize activities to participate in too like walking the balance beam or doing turns on the uneven bars. There was musical play with balls and a parachute too!

Our next play date is scheduled for the 26th. I am sure we will be there again!

Colin and soccer

Big news!!
Colin had soccer practice tonight and he LOVED it!! This is big big news because Colin had a terrible soccer season last fall and is coming off of a very rough baseball season this spring.

Last year he was on a team with a whole lot of traveling members who were much better than he was and for some reason he was left off the roster despite our signing him up in the spring and joined the team late, after most of the instruction had been given. It just gave him a really rough start and he floundered for most of the fall.

Baseball was awful! They never held practice and Colin was hit in the ribs while at bat on the second game and spent the rest of the season scared of the ball.. His coaches never really coached, just supervised games. Overall, it was a very disappointing season for all of us.

Colin has a wonderful and seemingly dedicated coach - Coach MAC - who is super enthusiastic and really working hard with the boys to actually teach them techniques to improve their game. She is upbeat and encouraging. I just know that Colin is going to have a great season. It was so nice to pick him up from practice and see a smile on his face and his face all flushed from getting a good work out in.

I can't wait for the games to start!!

iBert Review

I wanted to post a quick review on the iBert bike seat that I purchased from Amazon a few weeks ago. My first attempt at biking with the twins failed horribly when I blew out my back bike tire... but what do you want from 20+year old tires??

Anyway, I love my new iBert!! It is so easy to use. Sydney has become my front of bike passenger and she just loves the view. I can pedal easily without the seat getting in my way or banging my knees into it. Getting her in and out is a breeze with the little lift up bar on the bike and the seat belts are just right to keep her in place but were super easy to adjust to keep her safe. It is so nice to be able to ride with Payton in the regular bike seat and Sydney up front. Now I can keep up with my other kids and we can all enjoy a nice bike ride! I definately recommend the iBert for twins or singletons!

Cloth Diapers

I have decided to give cloth diapering a shot. With twins, it seems that I am always running out of diapers. I head to walmart or target almost every week to pick up another case of diapers. I guess my girls are real poopers!! LOL In all seriousness, I have thought about cloth diapering for quite a while and wanted to try it when the twins were on the way but after they came, I am glad that I didnt start right away. I am just now starting to feel in control of our household and I know that extra laundry would have put me over the edge even just a few months ago.

A cloth diapering friend of mine turned me on to a site called DiaperSwappers. (Thanks Nicholle!!) And as the name says, it is an online community all about cloth diapering. I just love it! The Moms that are there are so helpful and friendly. I just love how welcoming they are to a newcomer. I have been able to purchase many different kinds of diapers to try with the girls but more than that, I found a place to ask the questions I have and get support as I try something new.

I have now purchased some Swaddlebees fitted diapers as well as a few Bummis and Thirsties covers. I can't wait until they get here!

Camper... FOR SALE

Well, time has come to sell our rig. Our cute little motorhome has served us well for the last 3 years but after the birth of the twins, we have been unable to use it. We simply have out-grown it!

Colin and I decided to take it out on our errand run this morning so we hung some signs on it. I guess we will see what happens next.

I have so many fond memories of the camper. Times spent as a family camping and traveling. Watching the kids play at the dinette while I played 'flight attendant' and served the food and drinks. The smell of cinnamon buns baking in the oven as we drive along or having pizza baking at 65mph! There were great trips to FL or SC and just local trips to some of our close campgrounds for a weekend getaway. Of course Bill and I had some great times alone in her too on trips to VT for the annual brewer's festival.

It is going to be really hard to let her go. I've become very attached to that rig... I just hope that who ever we find to buy her, will love her as much as we do.

We ROCK!

Yesterday a dump truck came and left 3 tons of Delaware River gravel in out driveway. It looks great but is a lot smaller of a pile than I expected. The kids thought it was the best thing they have seen! LOL The gravel fill our narrow side yard to form a walkway from the front to the back. It is a high traffic area and there is a lot of just clumps of grass and dirt.

Today was a hard day of work! We cleared out the side yard and unearthed the slate stepping stones that have been imbedded in the ground since we put them in 20 years ago. After leveling the area and laying ground cloth, we were able to start to lay the rock down. The kids were great helpers both shoveling rocks and using the steel rakes to spread the rocks around. It was a great family project.

After getting about 2 tons layed down, I layed each of the slates by hand. Here's the proof! Those are working woman's hand for sure! Incidentally I did quite a number on my wedding band and banged it up pretty good. I also ended up with cuts and bruises on my palms. I guess I should have use a rake to put the steps in!
After all were layed, we sprayed it down to wash the dirt away. I think it looks great!!

He's HOME!!

My boy is HOME!! My boy is HOME!! My BOY IS HOME!!!!

I'm so excited and happy to finally have Colin back from his wonderful trip to Oshkosh. He had a wonderful time but I could tell that he too was happy to be at home once again.

Yesterday Braden, Haley and I cleaned-up the boys' bedroom and got it all ready for his return. The kids and I even made a sign to hold to welcome him back.

What a wonderful sight it was to see that camper pull-up to the house and see my little boys jump out!! He seems to be a whole 3 inches taller!!

We all chatted a bit before he went to bed... Braden went to sleep with the biggest smile on his face. So did I. It was such a peaceful feeling to have all my children safely tucked into their beds for the night. When I got up to nurse the girls at 4:30, I was so pleased to see his little body back in his top bunk where it belonged.

This morning, it was a bit hard to get all the kids going because they were so busy playing and going right back to their normal pretending games. The van was loud in the back again too....

*sigh* All is right in my world again. :)

Are you my Coordinator??

Well, I got to VBS to 'help' with recreation and was greeted with the above question.

"Um, I'm here to help." I said.

"Oh, great! I will get you the book so you can figure out what games you can play with the kids to go with this week's theme."

So there you have it. I'm the VBS recreation coordinator for the week. It should prove to be pretty interesting!!

I was able to quickly come up with a running with water relay race to go with the "Peter walks on water" skit.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

More from Colin

I heard from Colin this morning... they are on the way home!!!

The long trip back across the country has begun and they will be home in just a few days. Today they are planning on stopping at the Cheese Castle and also going to see Lake Michigan too swim.

I am so excited that my Bug is now only a few days away!! Yay!!

VBS

So this week it is Vacation Bible School week....

The kids are at the local Methodist church in the Manasquan Ministirium's VBS. Our theme is Son Rock Kids Camp... all about Peter "the Rock".

The first day was lots of fun and I am sure they whole week will be a great time. I will be helping with recreation on Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday. Looks like a hot week so I am hoping there are good activities planned.

The Best Day.... Ever

Or so I'm told! LOL

We took a family trip to the local rock and sand yard to pick out some rocks to line a pathway to the back yard.

Braden and Haley had a ball climbing the rock piles and checking out all the different types of rocks that were available.

We picked out these 3/4 Delaware stones for the walk way. On Friday 3 tons of rock will arrive... should be a big pile, I'm sure that will be "the best day ever" too!