It was a Hello Kitty birthday

It was the twins' birthday celebration yesterday. Hello Kitty was everywhere, including this cute cake their mom made (red velvet!). All the presents were Hello Kitty themed, including these, lol. Woo hoo! Big girl panties! Here was my present to them. Doesn't look that exciting, does it? A stack of paper.But it turns into this: The girls, their friend, and I played several rounds of the memory/match/concentration game. I didn't know that they already were familiar with the game, having played it on the computer. But I'll bet it wasn't Hello Kitty! I ended up giving one set to the girls and another set to their little friend. It was really difficult for her to understand that she could play with all the presents, but couldn't take anjavascript:void(0)y home. It was fun to make use of my scrap supplies; I did buy the Hello Kitty dies just to make stuff for the girls since I've outgrown Hello Kitty. (How's that for justification of my purchases?)

(I need add three 12x12 sheets used to my scrapbook accounting total)

The best Christmas present

(Sorry, I don't have a picture, but maybe I'll get one later. Besides, a photo will spoil the surprise.)

We spent Christmas eve at BIL's and had a delicious dinner (I need to get the soup recipe from my SIL). Afterward, we opened presents or rather, we tried to hold back the kids from opening presents until everyone got in the room. Little G got awesome presents from Nana and Papa. A little birdie must have told them about his love of Star Wars Legos since he received both the Wii game and pajamas. After that, he was glued to the Wii for the rest of the night. As for the girls, Nana and Papa gave them strollers for their Bitty Babies and matching PJs. The girls were so cute with their matching jammies and matching Bitty Babies.

But the best present? The one that actually made the girls gasp? I'll take credit for that gift thankyouverymuch! We gave them Hello Kitty and Ni Hao Kai Lan band aids. Yes, band aids. And even funnier was at dinner, Miss C was complaining about an owie and SIL said they were out of band aids. So after opening her present, Miss C had Nana help her put a band aid on the bruise her leg. Later, Miss E bumped her head, but managed to put a band aid on her forehead all by herself, which made it all better. They both proudly showed off their owies the rest of the night.

Photos 113-114/365 Hopscotch

Photos Naptime

This is what I wanted to do after we finished playing outside.

Blue dress, green dress

Yesterday, I was watching the kids play, kids being my five year old nephew-G, the twins (just over 2 years old), and their cousin, an 18-month old toddler. I had to keep glancing at G, who constantly shouted LOOK AT ME! And stop the toddler from going down the stairs (hey, everyone else was going up and down, why couldn't he??). And try to decipher what the twins wanted (unlike the five year old, lol). I'm not really used to three, much less four. The twins like to climb onto everything (just like their brother), but sometimes have a bit of trouble on the way up or down. One was on her hobby horse, wailing and the other jumping on the couch, squealing with joy (since she's not supposed to be jumping, but I hadn't gotten around to stopping her) when their Mom came upstairs. "What's all the shouting about???" Her son explained, "Blue dress wants off her horse, green dress is jumping on the couch." Now I don't feel so bad about not being able to tell the twins apart.

Photo 30/365 Twins

The girls are getting really good at using utensils.

Photo 28/365

Not a new interior design statement. It's to prevent the twins from climbing onto the counter.

Photo 24/365

Happy birthday girls! And it looks like G can't wait for cake either, lol.

The Great Escape

One of the fun things about babysitting is you get these great photos of the kids. I'm still trying to a confirmation from the parents as to which twin this is. Not that they can ID the kids from a butt shot; I do have photos from that day that show their faces.
Don't worry, she didn't get all the way out and in fact, once she hit the second flap of the doggie door, she lost all interest in further exploration.

Babysitting adventures

Last night, we babysat the twins while my BIL/SIL went to see my nephew's school performance. He's in preschool so they sure start young! It was a bit of a rush to get over there. Mr. Fix-it agreed to help babysit, so I had to leave work early to drive home, then drive over there. Thank goodness for the carpool lane.
My SIL seemed reluctant to have me (us) babysit so to encourage her, I gave them this for their anniversary. It is stack of 1 and 2 hour gift certificates for babysitting. The gift was really fun to make. I used a leftover Prima container (finally, I'm getting some use out of their excessive packaging) and backed the gift certificates with Bazzill Bling to give them a little extra oomph. Most of the ribbon came from my giveaway pile, so it felt good to use that up.

The girls kind of ignored me unless they wanted to be picked up; they were really interested in Mr. Fix-it. Maybe because they see him more often? Of course, he was responsible for playing with them and I was responsible for diaper changes. Little Miss C was an unhappy camper. Her mom said to let them cry it out when I put them down, but after 20 minutes of wailing, I figured something was wrong. (I can't believe her sister slept through that.) Turns out, she had a messy, very messy diaper. After a change and a bit more wailing, she went right to sleep, thank goodness.

After the musical, the family went out for ice cream. My BIL said my nephew really enjoyed his "alone" time with Mom and Dad. Poor little guy hasn't been getting as much attention since his sisters were born. I'm glad we were able to help.