The Clampetts

It will be 13 years next month since we moved into our house in the country.  We have neighbors who are doctors and college professors.  Neighbors who send their children to private schools and have hired gardeners that come every day to maintain their well  manicured lawns.  There are some really nice houses on our street and retired couples who take great pride in their homes and their lawns.  We love our house. And we do our very best to make sure the kids don't leave their bikes and toys strewn about the yard.  We also do our very best to keep our lawn mowed so we don't lose small children in it.

 

However, some of our neighbors have never (in 13 years!) spoken to us.   I think I finally figured out why:

This week is Spring Break.  For some people that means a trip to Myrtle Beach, but for me, that means spring cleaning!  I have spent a couple of days rummaging through closets and under beds getting rid of clothes that don't fit my children.  Play clothes that  have too many stains or too many rips and tears get bagged up and recycled.  I have tried desperately to get my sons to part with stuffed animals they never play with and that are missing eyes.  I have discovered who eats candy in their rooms and tosses wrappers behind their beds.  But I prefer to do this de-cluttering without the help of my children who tend to cry when I try to donate a favorite pair of purple shorts that haven't fit them in years. 

So, like a good mother, I send my kids outside to play while I try and make the inside of our home clean and beautiful. 

While I am neatly bagging up the excess of our lives:

 

And patting myself on the back for purging and cleaning up...

My kids are busy outside doing this:

And this:

In case you can't tell, that is a sled up in the tree, and a chair cushion on a boat float under it.  Yes it does look like a tornado hit here recently, but I'm afraid that would be my kids fort making skills instead.

The pink princess chair, the home depot bucket as a table, pool noodles to walk on to get to the fort and a rake to keep it all clean and orderly really made this fort attractive for all of our neighbors to enjoy when they strolled by our house.

Maybe if my children rummage around in the woods and dig in the dirt, one of them will strike oil and we can move to Beverly Hills.  I don't think our neighbors would miss us.

Empty Nests Suck

Stud Boy (far right) is off to visit colleges this weekend.  In just a few short months he will be moving out and living on campus, possibly in another state (gulp).  It's tough to think about not having him here, that "empty nest syndrome" I have witnessed my sister experience and heard about, is looming.  But what about the other two boys seated to the left in the picture?  I know they aren't really "mine", but they spend most weekends here, they eat here and they sleep here and they are so fun.  I love my house full of kids.  I will miss them next year as well.

In fact, even though Stud Boy isn't here this weekend, my little kids wonder why the "big boys" can't still come for the weekend to play basketball and eat Sunday breakfast. We probably won't need to grocery shop this weekend and the house will be too quiet.  My nest just went from six birdies to three birdies and I am not liking it much at all. 

Tongue-in-Cheek

For Thing 1 and Thing 2's birthday we took them to Chuck-E-Cheese.  The only way I can stomach the place is at 9 am on a Saturday morning when the place is empty!  Darling Daughter and Stud Boy came along too and played the many games there.  I took a ton of pictures.  After I uploaded them I was looking at them and noticed Stud Boy sticks his tongue out, or bites his lip, when he is concentrating.  He has always done this, even as a little boy putting together puzzles or playing chess.  So I googled it.  Because, after all, Dr. Google and Professor Google have all the answers.  And the answer is this:

"When you need to concentrate on something, like a crossword puzzle, you are using the hemisphere of the brain also used for processing motor input.  Many biologists believe that by biting your lip or sticking your tongue out, you are suspending motor activity and also keeping your head rigid, to minimize movement, and hence interference.  Large areas of the brain are devoted to control of the tongue and to the receipt of sensation from it. With the tongue held rigid against the teeth or lips, the activity of those areas is subdued, allowing delicate tasks like threading a needle to proceed with less interference."

  

 

 

So in studying these photos of Stud Boy it is very clear he is highly intelligent.  This must be why he was accepted into some very prestigious colleges this fall.  In fact, he could have probably just not bothered writing all of the college essays or filling out all the resumes and applications for school, but instead sent them this picture below:

After all, he's in excellent company:

10 Again!

Thing 1 and Thing 2 were born on Christmas Day.

Let me say that again, the twins were born on Christmas Day!

Yes, that day!  Not the 24th of December, or the 26th of December, but actually smack dab on December 25th.  Whenever I have to tell a doctor's office secretary or school official their birthday, these people tend to coo and sigh with that date, "oh how cute", they say.  "How wonderful to have twins born on Christmas", they exclaim.

What?!  Cute? Wonderful? ummm....NOT!  In fact what a drag!  It sucked the day they were born! Sorry, but it really did!  My two other kids were farmed out to family that year to celebrate the biggest present day ever...oh and the birth of Jesus too, of course. And I missed it entirely - Christmas and the birth of these babies!  I was out cold as the doctors delivered the hamsters boys who were 10 weeks early.  Anyway, the point to this little trip down memory lane is that today is April 1st.  April Fool's Day!  And today is the day we celebrate Thing 1 and Thing 2's birthday!

Hubby and I made the decision not to celebrate the boys birthday on or near Christmas after their first birthday party.  No way were these boys going to get birthday gifts wrapped in Christmas paper or worse, a combined Christmas/Birthday gift or even worse still a shared twin gift that was for Christmas and their Birthday too.  Talk about getting cheated out of presents!   Nope, they deserved a day not too close to any other major holiday to call their very own.  Okay, so not really their very own since they will always have to share it with their twin...but you get the picture.  We were not going to have it in December!  April 1st seemed like a great date.  The beginning of Spring and April Fool's Day!  Perfect for two boys who surprised us from conception to delivery! So we picked that date and ever since they were 2 years old we have celebrated their birthday on April Fool's day.


When they were little we would get them super cute gifts.  Here is a picture of the train table we made them:
 

These were the days they were excited about any gift they received.  They would have been thrilled with a refrigerator box!  And, notice Thing 1's hair?!  Talk about "bedhead"!  This was before he cared about how it looked.  Oh those carefree days!  How I miss them!

This year, when they are turning 10 again, the list of what they want for their birthday isn't long, but it's weird.  Really strange.  Allow me to hit the highlights for you:

1. waffle iron
2. medicine ball
3. camelbak hydration pack
4. slippers

For the record, this is not an April Fool's joke.  Thing 1 and Thing 2 truly want these items on the list.

Lucky for you, Wallyworld is open 24 hours!