• Celebrating Valentine’s Day!

    Sphero, Valentines Day, Birthday, Brina, Karlie, Grandpa, Grandma, Celebration, Family,

    Heart cinnamon rolls to start off the Valentine’s Day weekend!  Friday’s breakfast!

    The girls did not have to go to school the Friday before Valentine’s Day which was really nice.  My parents were also visiting us from Kansas that weekend.  The first couple of days they stayed at my brother’s house and the last half of their stay at our house.  It was great spending time with family over the Valentine weekend.

    Sphero, Valentines Day, Birthday, Brina, Karlie, Grandpa, Grandma, Celebration, Family,

    Valentine goodies from Grandma Kay!

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    Opening their gift.  Lots of great school supplies and some sweet treats too!

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     Brina is ready to have some fun!

  • Teacher “Thank You” Gifts

    Thank You goodies for the girls teachers!

    For Thanksgiving the girls always enjoy bringing in a “thank you” note and a little surprise for their teacher.   Here is one where they put M&M’s in a mason jar, added a ribbon on top, and a little note.  The note said:

    Mrs. __________,

    We are a thankful for a Magnificent & Marvelous teacher this year!

    Happy Thanksgiving!

    Love,

    Brina & Karlie

    If you are looking for a simple and easy thank you gift for a teacher, friend, neighbor, or family member this is a great one to try!

  • 14 Gifts of Love

    Gifts & Goodies for Daddy!

    The girls and I are going on a trip over their Spring Break to visit family, however, Jake is staying home to work.  We will miss him greatly and even though he will probably enjoy his few days of peace and quiet we decided to wrap up some special surprises for him to enjoy while we are away.  We have a wrapped present for each of the days we are gone.  The wrapping paper I choose was a mix of happy smiles and hearts to show him how much he makes us smile and that we love him very much.  The presents are a variety of goodies that he likes (I cannot tell you exactly what they are yet because he may read this article).

    The girls have also put together several sweet notes for Daddy that they have hidden in various places all over the house for him to find.  On their easel is a huge heart that says “I love you Daddy” with a series of little hearts along the bottom.  Super cute!  They are excited to go on the trip but I am thankful they are thinking about their Daddy who will be staying here.  All of the notes they did on their own.  They had an idea that I was putting together a couple presents for when we were gone because they were with me on one of the adventures to pick up something for him, but the note idea the girls came up with on their own.  Hope he enjoys his special goodies while we are away.  What special things do you do for your husband / spouse when you have been apart?

  • Twice as Fun: A Visit From The Tooth Fairy

    My little Karlie is growing up!

    Karlie recently lost her first baby tooth which was an exciting day for the whole family.  It marked a new stage in her life which means my baby is growing up!  Although our girls know the “tooth fairy” really doesn’t exist it is fun to celebrate a new milestone in the lives of our kids.

    Brina was excited for Karlie too and shared in the celebrations but is now ready for her baby teeth to start falling out as well.  That is one hard part about having two at the same age, they are excited for each other but are ready for their turn too.  Each of us is made uniquely so we let Brina know she will have a chance to celebrate too when her big teeth come through.  I told her teeth will come in when it is perfect for her.  Those who know me realize that I have been dreading this stage of Motherhood because I just don’t like wiggly teeth.  I have to say it is amazing how much you can actually handle once you are going through it with your child.

    Here are some pictures from Karlie’s First Tooth Fairy Celebration:

     

    Karlie's Dollar from the "Tooth Fairy" for losing her first tooth!

    We put $1 Dollar in a butterfly Ziploc bag for Karlie losing her first tooth!  She was super excited to see cash under her pillow the next morning.  Karlie was up before the sun came up because she was so excited about losing her first tooth!

    A Special Note from the Tooth Fairy

    The front side of her present had a note from the Tooth Fairy that said – “Congratulations Karlie on getting your 1st big girl tooth!  Love, Tooth Fairy”   She thought it was super silly especially the “eyes” on the word tooth!

    A Note from the Tooth Fairy to Karlie!

    On the back side of her gift there was another note from the Tooth Fairy – “Karlie, Congratulations on losing your 1st baby tooth!  You are growing up to be a beautiful girl! Love, The Tooth Fairy”  Karlie thought it was great getting two special notes from the Tooth Fairy!

     

    Karlie's Tooth Fairy goodies - $1 Dollar and 1 Book!

    Karlie was super excited to find her treasure under her pillow the next morning.  I picked out shiny “star” wrapping paper for Karlie because she enjoys rockets, planets, and science.  She even kept the paper for several days after opening the gift!

     

    Karlie showing off her new book from the "Tooth Fairy"!

    Karlie was super excited to get a new book!  Both girls love horses so they had fun reading this book together several times over the last few days.

     

    Karlie's baby tooth in a little treasure chest!

    The dentist gave the Karlie a cute little yellow treasure chest to put her baby tooth in.  She was super excited about the mini treasure chest!

    It was a lot of fun celebrating the loss of Karlie’s first baby tooth.  Karlie knows that there is no such thing as “The Tooth Fairy” even though we call it the Tooth Fairy.  She was thrilled to get something special either way even if Mom and Dad are the Tooth Fairy.  As parents we feel like it is okay to celebrate the monumental moments with your kids, however, we chose let them know if something that we celebrate such as the “Tooth Fairy” is really imaginary.  We don’t want our kids growing up thinking we lied to them about something that isn’t even real.  Every family has to make a decision about what is best for their family.

    Please share with us your ideas on what you do to celebrate your children losing their teeth and what the “Tooth Fairy” brings for special goodies!

    Twice as Fun is a series on raising Twins and all the joy that comes with it.  We have been richly blessed to have twin daughters in our lives and want to share with you our thoughts, challenges, wisdom and love for raising multiples.  Our girls have different interests and hobbies but they both know how to add excitement to our lives and make us chuckle.

  • Candy Cane Smile Pancakes!

    Now that our Christmas festivities are done with family and friends I am trying to come up ways to use some of the extra goodies.  Somehow throughout the various Holiday celebrations we accumulated a stack of candy canes and as we begin the first quarter of 2011 we are having fun finding ways to use up the remaining ones.  Instead of sprinkles on the girls pancakes we decided to have candy cane smiles.  They loved having minty pancakes for breakfast and the smiles added extra cheer for everyone, smiles really do spread cheer!  Do you have a creative recipe or way of finishing up the last few candy canes around your house?

  • Gift Giving: Delivering Christmas Goodies to Neighbors

    Brina & Karlie Delivering Christmas Gifts to our Neighbors

    We had a blast on our Christmas Baking day last weekend but I think the biggest joy came when we delivered the goodies to our neighbors.  Once the girls realized that we were not giving every morsel of the baking goodies away they were excited to share.  I think they were worried that we did all the baking and they wouldn’t be able to taste any of it.  Although, they definitely got their share of sampling the day of the event.

    Sunday afternoon we put the baked items into gift bags, added a photo mug of the girls full of candy, put in a Christmas Card with the traditional annual picture we give to the neighbors, and tied the packages with ribbons to deliver.  The girls got bundled up in their coats and mittens to help me deliver the goodies.  We have 6 neighbors on our street.  Most of our neighbors are retired couples that enjoy seeing the girls and getting their annual card with a picture.  I found out the hard way the one year how much the yearly pictures meant to our neighbors when we didn’t give out Christmas pictures and one of our neighbors showed me her refrigerator with pictures of the girls from every Christmas.  Oops!

    Karlie carrying the next gift!
    Brina rang the doorbell!

    It was cold and windy day delivering the goodies but our street is pretty small and we were so excited about handing out the presents to those on our street.  Only 3 of the 6 neighbors were home or answering their doors on a Sunday afternoon.  We headed back out on Monday to hand deliver the rest of the goodies, but it wasn’t until later in the week we were able to successful hand deliver all our treats to the neighbors.

    The amazing blessing came when we delivered the presents.  Seeing the smiles, joy and gratefulness on the faces of our neighbors made it worth all the time and energy it took to put together the packages.  It is a wonderful blessing being able to share with others.  Not to mention it opens doors into the lives and hearts of those on the street near you.  We look forward to more opportunities to share with our neighbors.

  • Gift Giving: Christmas Baking Day

    I spent several hours on Saturday, December 11th doing a Christmas Baking Day with Ashley from Reflecting on the Simple Things in Life making treats to give to family, friends, and neighbors.  We started about 3:30 PM and were finished around 10:30 PM that night with another hour added for cleaning and packing up the goodies.  Ashley was kind enough to open her home up so we could get the baking done. The house smelled amazing with all the delicious treats we made throughout the evening.

    Ingredients Table
    (You can tell we shop some of the same sales based on our ingredients table)

    Ashley was organized with several tables full of specific items which helped us keep the clutter off the counter tops and island as we were each working on recipes:

    • Baking Ingredients Table for the recipes we had a picked out
    • Cooking Pans, Bowls, and Utensil Table for easy access to items we need
    • Cooling and Packaging Goodies Table
    • Finished Products Table which was full of treats by the end of the evening

    We would pick out ingredients and utensils as we needed them from the necessary tables.  The goodies got bagged in between baking items.  It was a very efficient system and we were able to accomplish a lot in a relatively short amount of time plus we were able to talk, laugh and enjoy each others company in the kitchen.

    Cooking Pans, Bowls, and Utensil Table

    The kids popped in and out, occasionally helping with recipes that intrigued them.  Our husbands had fun hanging out too.  They were kind enough to pick up the pizza for us and an extra bag of powder (or confectioner’s) sugar for us at the grocery store.  Thankfully that was the only ingredient that we really seemed to go through more than expected.  We were both prepared with the ingredients and items for the day which allowed the event to go smoothly.

    Cooling and Packaging Goodies Table
    Ashley packaging the Cinnamon Rolls! Yum!
    Her smashing sticker is compliments of my daughter, Brina.

    Honestly, despite it being really busy and standing on our feet for a long period of time everything went pretty smoothly. Only one minor casualty, my small Christmas Tree cookie cutter managed to work it’s way down to the garbage disposal.  It made a loud noise when it was turned on so nothing was broken and the tree was able to be bent back into a tree like shape.  The only thing that would have made it a little more efficient would be to have two ovens but since neither of us have that we were able to work everything out fairly well.  Her oven was probably ready for a break by the end of the evening, but I am sure it felt very loved.

    Baked Goods Table
    (Starting to fill up)

    It was our desire to accomplish as much as we could in the time table allotted and we did it.  We had up to 17 recipes prepared to make for the event.  We were able to complete 12 of the recipes which is pretty amazing especially since majority of the items were baking ones and we had only one oven. I will posting the recipes for the ones that we accomplished throughout our baking adventure throughout this week.

    The following are the recipes that we accomplished that evening:

    Below is a picture of all the goodies we were able to make over the course of just a few hours.  I am thankful for the opportunity to share in this event with Ashley.  It was a lot of fun, enjoyable and rewarding.  I look forward to doing it again!

    We DID IT!
    I think we were two very tired Momma’s by the end but we had a lot of fun!

    Table full of Baked Treats to Share with Others

    It was so full we almost didn’t have enough room to squeeze everything on it!

    The recipes that we didn’t get to during our baking day I plan to make over the Holidays as well since I have all the ingredients for them already in our kitchen.   I will be posting the following recipes for you next week:

    • Chocolate Crackle Tops
    • Oreo Truffles
    • Orange Dreamsicle Cookies
    • Berry Shortbread Dreams
    • Sugar Cookies/Bears

  • Gift Giving: Baking Christmas Goodies

    It has been a busy week!  Tomorrow I am very excited to have the opportunity to get together with Ashley from Reflecting on the Simple Things in Life and cook up some yummy recipes to share with friends, family and neighbors.  It should be a lot of fun and I am sure we’ll have some funny stories to tell and pictures to share.   I have all my recipes marked and a table full of ingredients to pack.  The girls are licking their lips thinking about all the amazing goodies that are going to be created tomorrow.  They have been asking for two weeks if the “baking” day was here yet.

    Here is what we are looking forward to baking tomorrow:

    Several of the recipes I have never tried, however, they all appear to be fairly easy to make.  It will be interesting to see what we can accomplish in a few hours and if we have any hiccups along the way. No matter what happens it will be a day full of fun and memories.  Since the oven will be full of baking goodies we decided to give ourselves a break from cooking a meal for everyone and will be ordering pizza for dinner.

    While we are busy in the kitchen cooking the men will be helping entertain the kids, enjoying some time gaming together among other tasks I am sure they will be delegated to do.  They don’t get together as often now with all the busy family schedules so they are looking forward to some fun time too.   The kids are really excited about having some time to play together while we cook.  Although I have been told from my girls that they want to taste every recipe to make sure it is good before we give it to anyone else.   So now I am off to pack up the ingredients, sprinkles and all, so we can eat dinner at the table tonight.  I look forward to sharing our adventures with you next week!

  • Counting Days on the Advent Calendar

    Several years ago my sister-in-law sent us an Advent Calendar.  The girls enjoy getting out all the Christmas decorations and hanging up the calendar.  Our calendar has a small pocket that fits two small pieces of candy  perfectly.  Every day, starting on December 1st through December 24th, the girls get a piece of hard candy from the Advent Calendar.  I pick up the candy when it is on sale or purchase with CVS or Walgreen rewards.  They are excited because they get to eat a piece of candy and can easily count the days until Christmas.  In addition to the candy I have been known to add a verse to read for the day.  It is important that the kids know the true meaning of Christmas especially in a society with so many other influences.

    It is a busy time of year and spreading the excitement throughout the month is a lot of fun.  It is an easy way to track the days leading up to Christmas.  The calendar would be fairly simple to make for someone who is crafty and can use a sewing machine.  How do you spread the excitement of Christmas over the whole month for your family?