Pupil becomes the teacher

Blythe and Joy were under the weather last week, so we had some extra time at home. Abby Jane chose to dress up the twins and teach ballet lessons one morning. Abby Jane played the part of Miss Rosemary, her teacher.

Title: "distracted ballerina"

In all seriousness, it's so fun to see Abby Jane want her sisters to learn and experience everything she does!

Mom Jeans

Do you remember seeing a pair of jeans and thinking, "oh those are mom jeans".  It was not a compliment to the jeans. Or the wearer.

I have a new definition.

I was talking to my big sis while I was folding laundry the other day and was horrified to discover that a pair of jeans I LOVE have a hole developing in the knee. These are not bum around jeans or hiking jeans. They're ballet flat jeans.  I bought them at the J.Crew outlet in Oxnard, just north of Malibu, on March 4, 2009.  I know the date because it was a spring shopping date with Jake and Abby Jane three days before we found out we were expecting Abby Jane's younger brother or sister. Which means I pretty much wore these jeans twice that spring before it was too warm for them and I started sprouting twins. Therefore I looked forward to wearing them for a long time. When I finally got to put them on, I appreciated them deeply. J.Crew called them "matchstick". Something about the word "stick" as a type of jeans was extra empowering to a postpartum lady who felt more "branch" or "tree trunk" at the time.

As I expressed my disbelief that good jeans would get a hole so easily, my wise sister said she knew exactly how it got there because the same thing happened to her.

When you're a mom, you spend a lot of time... A LOT OF TIME... on the floor and on your knees. It can put some strain on a poor pair of jeans when you're continuously getting up and down, kneeling with your kids, all day long. 

My sister suggested trying to fix the hole.  But now that she told me it's from my daily lifestyle on the floor with my kids, I see that hole in my knee as a badge of honor. I may still fix it, but for now, I take a little pride in that tiny yet growing hole.  It's evidence of life as I know it... in my mom jeans.

Card Shark

We like to play games, but we are on a whole new level seriousness lately. We play during the twins rest time if we're home for it, after naps, and before bed time. Our three card games of choice are currently Crazy 8's, Go Fish, and Old Maid.

Along with her new-found legitimate card-playing abilities came a little lesson from Daddy in smack talk.  As I shared on facebook today, the other day I was playing with her, and she said, "You're going down, Gross.  Down to Chinatown."

Sometimes she elaborates on this with, "You're going down, Mama/Daddy, and Mama/Daddy and I are going up!" Below is Exhibit A of the look on her face while she's giving these lines.

She picked out her outfit for this day, saying her flowers all matched. 

Tonight, my mom was over, and having heard the story of Abby Jane's recent new lines, she said to Abby Jane, "You're going down, Gross!" I was honestly leaning in to whisper to Abby Jane her line when Abby Jane beat me to it with, "You're going down, Elliott!"  AHHH it was hilarious.

Honestly, I can say this new era of game playing is honestly really fun for adults, too.  I like the age of four.

The Greatest Show on Earth

See this guy? He won a speed eating contest last month at the grand opening of our friend's new BBQ restaurant, Dickey's, and guess what his prize was? Four tickets to the circus!  Conundrum: we have three kids.  Thought process we briefly tossed around: one of them is afraid of elephants and loud noises.  Do we even buy that fifth ticket if the child will be traumatized continuously? Decision: we could not leave her out. Exhibit A below. Final conclusion: Fabulous decision. She was jumping up and down, laughing, thrilled throughout the entire show.

All three were mesmerized.  It was one of those sentinel parent moments that yes, we were successfully taking three kids to the circus, and they all loved it.

 

 

Jake even sprang for the $8 cotton candy.  No worries, I smuggled in a spread fit for a king in case they felt like they needed to eat continuously.  It's why moms have big purses.

The puffy air-spun quintessential artificially flavored sugar was a huge hit. I tried one bite, and it was nowhere near as magical as I remember it being as a child.  I didn't have any more so my association would not be permanently damaged.

 That bright light is a guy on fire flying through the air across the arena.

What would the circus be without the elephant conga line?

The wrap-up: Abby Jane's favorite was the clowns, Blythe and Joy's favorites were the elephants and horses, and Jake and I liked this thing I won't try to describe, but I'm not clear on how these two guys didn't fall off this balancing thing from 40 feet up in the air. Now we hear regularly from the girls that they would like to go back to the circus sometime.  Like it's the playground or zoo.  Jake better get on that speed-eating contest winning again.

Bonus round: One of Jake's and my first dates when we were long-distance dating was to the circus in Birmingham.  Afterwards, he broke a papazan in his apartment trying to re-enact a trick we saw that night. Before we went with the girls, I asked him to please not try anything at home that he saw that day.  But we did have a little sentimental moment when we saw them do that same trick 10 years later!

V-Day

Thanks to the PC/Dell situation, I'm a little slow on the draw for the Valentine's blog, but here it is!

Jake with three of his best of valentines...

Abby Jane asked for some pictures to be taken before school.

Blythe and Joy continued to craft while Abby Jane was at school.  Joy's cool shades were actually stolen from Abby Jane's bag of Valentine goodies. By day's end, there were valentines bedazzling our window, walls, and tables.

Speaking of school, Abby Jane had her Valentine's party that day, and it was such a sweet time! This picture is so classic of this age.  

We also had our first school Valentine's exchange. So fun!

Jake's and my fancy Valentine's tradition is to NOT go out, but to have a fabulous dinner on the china and silver that doesn't regularly make contact with our dinner table.  Most important, we do it AFTER the little ladies go to bed... so our sentences are completed and not punctuated by "your food stays in your mouth or on your plate but not on the floor" or "you can ask your next question after you eat a bite of dinner."  My favorite part of this year's dinner, other than my husband's stunning company, was pairing asiago cheese grits with our filets.

Like I mentioned in the post before, I spilled coffee on my laptop on Valentines, and that Jake Gross was so gracious about the whole thing. There are so many opportunities to react in different ways each day, and each reaction sets such a tone for the rest of the day.  Jake's grace and mercy on me, as opposed to other reactions that would have been justified, allowed our family to have a wonderful afternoon and evening.  Have I mentioned before that I'm so glad I married this guy?

Snobbery

On Valentine's Day, I spilled coffee on our Mac.  Thankfully the hard drive is fine, but the power shorts out, and we haven't gotten it fixed yet. I have a older model PC I have to use for my embroidery software, so that has been my main computer for the last week and a half.

It turns out I've become quite the snob.

I really don't love using this PC for anything other than my embroidery designing, especially anything to do with pictures.  Which includes the blog.  Thus the little hiatus.

Mac's not fixed yet, but I'm trying to get over myself and blog a bit anyways in the meantime.

Open House

I became partial to Valentine's when one of my kids decided to delay her arrival by two weeks, pushing her into a new month and less than a week from the day of love itself. I dig making valentines, eating valentines, talking about God's love, etc etc.  This year's Valentine's open house had some backstory to it that is not necessarily blogworthy, except to note that it was going to happen, then it wasn't, then it was, and by then the number of attendees had dwindled a bit. But the morning dawned in the 20's and 30's and I even saw some flurries when I went out to the mailbox to put out some balloons.  All the husbands were at a men's conference.  I could not think of a better way to spend a frigid dad/husband-less Saturday morning than with friends, valentines, coffee, and treats!

Below is exhibit A of recycled princess party decorations, plus some hearts.

Note: food was not recycled from the princess party.

 Half the kiddos were more interested in playing than valentining. I use Abby Jane's valentines as her thank-you notes from her birthday, so at some point pretty early on in the party, I gave up her personal valentine boot camp and let her do them later when she didn't have so many fun friends to play with!

 Beautiful Fallon came straight from her ballet class to join us!

I'm beginning to make it a tradition to stay in PJs for any party at our house that includes crafts.  Maybe this is lazy, but my kids dig the decision. 

 Joy + markers = trouble. Note the ever present Auburn shirt.  Thankfully we have two that I can rotate through the wash. 

 Miss Kristin brought cookies for decorating. This was my food-oriented children's favorite activity.

 Dylan found the "pour" hole in the sprinkles cap.

 

I looked back and realized this is our third Valentine's gathering of sorts.  This was our very first with a few dear friends and our itty bitties out in L.A. I didn't have enough friends for a party our first Valentine's in Atlanta.  Just kidding.  Not really. We'll blame it on three month old twins and Jake leaving me for a trip to Cambodia. Then last year's get-together had about as many moms and toddlers as you could cram in our shoebox at one time.  I like how these things evolve and change with each year.  Wonder what next year will hold? Maybe I won't be too lazy for the paint and glue I skipped this year! Joy will be three by then, after all. :)