Haysie on his big boy bed

Will pretending to be a doctor on a no-nap day

Mason and Chuck E. Cheese

Silly birthday boy

Looking all snazzy before Paige's fancy-pants graduation party

Well, my father in law pointed out last night that I'd basically abandoned my poor, lonely blog, and I felt guilty enough that I had to post! It's been basically two months since I've made it here, and plenty of things have happened. I've just been too lazy and facebook dependant to post about them! Okay, so we'll take it month by month.

May:

School ended- BOO!!!!! Mason was so incredibly sad. He seriously cried for close to an houthe last day. He kept telling me, "Mom, I'm going to miss school! I don't want kindergarten to be over. I love kindergarten. I'm going to miss Miss Kelli and Miss Beth and all my friends!" It was sort of hard to comfort him when I really wanted to cry too! I loved kindergarten as much as he did- he learned so much, and they kept him entertained and out of my hair 8 hours a day!!!

Matt turned 32 and we celebrated our 7th anniversary. Neither of those things were over-the-top exciting. We cooked steaks for Matt's birthday, woohoo, exciting. And for our anniversary, we got cheap tacos and margaritas at Taqueria Del Sol and went to see the new Sex and the City movie. It probably won't go down in history as the world's most thrilling anniversary celebration, but we had fun.

June:

Mason turned 6!!! Holy cow, 6. That doesn't seem possible. I have to admit, I was actually kind of depressed. Six seems so old. I was totally okay with five. Five is still a little kid age. But six seems to be the first step on the road to big kid, and I'm not sure I'm ready for that. Ready or not, the birthday happened and we celebrated in high style at Chuck E. Cheese. It was a zoo but the kids had a big time. And the grown-ups were happy because Chuck E. Cheese serves beer and wine. I will point out that my mother gave me a hard time about drinking wine at my own child's birthday party, so I did not partake of the crappy mouse wine. Instead, I had to make do with diet coke while my husband, father, sister and brother in law enjoyed mouse beer. (I do find it interesting that it was okay for Matt to have a beer, but not me. Hmmmmm)

Mason got more Bakugan than any one child ever should. Seriously, every gift but one was Bakugan. I guess his friends know him well. Of course, I'm sure the fact that he brought a Bakugan every week for show and tell kind of tipped them off.

After the birthday festivities, we settled into the long, hot, boring days of summer. It's averaged 10,000 degrees every afternoon, so we've been stuck inside waaaay too much. We've made it to my mom's pool a few times and the kids have had fun with that- even the water temperature is that of a warm bath. There has been lots of whining and fighting from the kids and plenty of yelling and threatening to run away from me. Luckily, we've had some visits from Aunt Ninny to distract us.

Mason had a week of bible school which provided not only spiritual enlightenment, but also a blissfull three hours of entertainment a day for an entire week. He's also been taking swimming lessons for the last two weeks, and he's really doing great with that. I mean, he's not Michael Phelps yet, but he can get partway across the pool without drowning, so yay!!

The twins made the switch to big-boy beds a couple of weeks ago, and that's been quite an adventure. They've actually done okay with it. There have been many times that they've played for an hour or more before finally giving up the good fight and going to sleep, and we've had to dole out a fair number of spankings and admonishments, but they're getting the hang of it. They're not getting out of their room- only because they can't since we've got a cover on the doorknob- but as long they're in their room, they're out of my hair.

I had a good time re-doing their room. It has a cowboy theme! I still have a couple of things to do to it, but maybe I'll post pictures when I'm finished. (I'm no longer making promises for future posts, because we have established that I'm lazy and unreliable)

But I will make a good effort to post again in no more than 2 1/2 weeks, because we're going to the beach!!!! Woohoo, St. Simons, here we come. And I know I'll have lots of tales and pictures to share with you, so check back soon.

So did y'all think I ran off to Asheville and never returned? No such luck. We had a fabulous time, but we did, alas, return to the cold harsh reality of three kids and a messy house. It was tons of fun and when I win the lottery, I'm definitely going to buy a log cabin on the side of a mountain complete with hot tub.
We haven't had any major milestone events since we returned. Well, Mason scored his first goal at this past Saturday's soccer game, so that was a milestone. I, unfortunately, missed said milestone because I was home sick with sick kids. Over the past two weeks we have hosted a revolving door of illnesses. It started with a sinus/ear infection for Will, followed by a wretched cold for Hays and pinkeye for Will, immediately followed by a wretched cold for Will and concluding (hopefully) with colds for mom and dad. Yay........
And today I finally got back to blogging because we're stuck inside due to torrential downpours. I currently have the twins parked in front of Barney and I refuse to feel guilt about that. I have already taken them outside in their rainboots to splash in puddles, and then I let them paint. And if you've ever allowed one toddler to paint, you know I damn near deserve a medal for letting two of them to go at it!! It was messy, but now we have some lovely art.
Speaking of art, I have to brag on my latest culinary accomplishment- I learned how to make bagels!!! Is that cool or what? Don't even try to tell me you're not impressed because even my husband was impressed, and it takes a lot to impress him!! Yeah, they're fabulous. The only downside is the carb-loading that comes from having fresh bagels at your disposal.
Oh, and one more big, fat brag. (I'm just full of myself today aren't I?) March of Dimes March for Babies was this past Friday and I raised......drumroll, please...........over one thousand dollars!!!!!! And that, my friends, is awesome. I walked with my Mothers of Multiples group and our team raised over $3000, so we were darn proud of ourselves.
And now we're plowing through the last three weeks of school. I'm looking towards the summer with a mix of excitement and dread. It's going to be awesome to sleep in, but summer afternoons can get awfully long. I'm trying to come up with a bit of a schedule so we don't all die of boredom. Plus, I've decided to embrace my white-trash side and buy a big ol' plastic pool for the backyard. It's one of those that's a step up from an inflatable pool, but not an actual permanent above-ground pool. It's tacky as hell, but if you've ever experienced summer in Georgia, you know it's impossible to get outside past 8:30 in the morning unless you're in a pool. And since 2 1/2 months of being stuck inside with three kids will certainly lead to matricide, white-trash pool it is!!!!
And one final note, a big happy birthday shout-out to my in-laws who share the same birthday. The Old Man is turning 60, which officially makes him the REALLY Old Man, but I guess that beats the alternative. So happy birthday, Pat and Ron, hope it's a good one!!!!

This was Mason's favorite egg. He called it the "Earth egg"

So here's some Easter goodness for you. It was fun, kind of exhausting, but fun! My mom's backyard isn't fenced and has some pretty precarious hills, so there was a lot of twin chasing. We hid eggs for the boys, but the twins didn't really get the hang of the hunting part. They'd pick up an egg, examine it briefly, toss it down and go running to the wagon or toy lawn mower! Eh, well, there's always next year. And speaking of the wagon, we did get to witness a rather impressive display of brute strength when Will lifted Hays out- by the neck. Funniest part was that Hays didn't even seem to mind!

Mason was definitely more into the egg hunt than his little brothers, largely due to the fact that he knew there was money in some of them! I tell you what, between Easter baskets from grandparents and this Easter egg hunt, that kid wound up with over $30!!!! Utterly ridiculous I tell you!

After everyone recovered from the Easter festivities with a nap, Matt and I took the boys up to the soccer fields and let them run around to their heart's content. Even though the twins took a late nap, they were ready for bed at 7:00 on the dot. I guess running around in the 88* sunshine (completely absurd for the first week of April!) tired them out!

It's such a beautiful day and we have great things on the horizon!!! 2:30 this afternoon officially marks the beginning of Spring Break and Mason is totally excited! (Though not as excited as his Aunt Bea who is a high school senior headed to Florida!) And Matt and I are only one week away from our first-ever in the seven year history of our marriage weekend getaway! WOOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!! We're leaving the kids in the capable hands of their grandparents (God bless 'em) and heading up to Asheville to a lovely log cabin on a mountain to do whatever we want for two whole days!!!!!! Not once will someone whine "maaaaaaamaaaaaaa" or ask me to get them a drink or a snack, or read a book, or play a game. Glorious!! And after a week with all three kids at home, God knows I'm going to need a break.
But this weekend we get to celebrate Easter in all its chocolate bunny, dyed-egg glory. Mason and I will be dying eggs tomorrow- the twins will not be assisting as that would lead to disasters of epic proportions. The eggs will be turned into deviled eggs faintly marbled with pink, blue and purple (don't you love those!) for Easter lunch at my mom's house. This year I'm making the ham using a selection of herbs from my herb garden (the ones that the twins haven't yet managed to destroy anyway) to try out Paula Deen's recipe for herb crusted ham. I'll also be making the most delightful spring dessert- it's a mandarin orange cake with a fluffy pineapple cheesecake frosting. It's a recipe from Matt's mom and it is sooooooo good. I can't wait to be with my family, eat lots of yummy food and watch my kids hunt Easter eggs in the backyard. I hope that all of you have a wonderful Easter weekend and eat all the jellybeans your heart desires!

It's 9:00 and the twins are still asleep. This is unheard of, and while I'm enjoying the quiet time, I'd prefer that they do their epic sleeping on the weekend. I think that they're making up for their 2 am shenanigans. Poor Will is coughing his brains out (this happens every spring) and some of his coughing fits are waking him up at night. That's what happened last night around 2:30. Normally Hays sleeps through it, but this time he woke up and couldn't find Stinky, his stuffed monkey. So Will's hacking up a lung and Hays is crying "Tinky...my Tinky..." in the most pitiful voice. Those lucky ducks are getting to sleep in, but not mommy!
I'm all kinds of gimpy and pitiful because I managed to almost break my toe in the driveway yesterday. I was walking down our rather steep driveway and slipped on a fallen petal from our Japanese magnolia. I pitched forward and caught myself before I fell, but managed to jam my toe so badly that I could barely walk! Is that a dorky injury or what? I had to call mAtt and say "Come home and help me, I'm hurt!" Luckily this happened around quarter to five, so he was able to home pretty quickly and save the day. I had to sit and ice my foot for an hour or so because it hurt too bad to stand on it! It's better today, but it's several lovely shades of purple, black and blue!
Mason has his very first soccer game tonight. He's excited even though he told me this morning, "Mom, I have no idea what I'm doing." I told him, "Don't worry about it, buddy. None of the other kids do either!" I'm sure it's going to be comical, but that's okay, we're not trying to train the next David Beckham here. He's going to have a heck of a cheering section. Matt and I will be there with the twins, my mom's coming and so are Matt's parents. Honestly, we'll probably need that many people just to keep the twins entertained so they don't try to join the game!

Just a Few Shots of the Best Looking Boys in the World

Oh my boys.........

I love this one. He's so sweet!

Happy Haysie

Diggin'

Beautiful Boy

I know I'm biased, but my God, is this child gorgeous or what?

I love him so!!

If this one doesn't capture the true essence of Mason, I don't know what does!

Danger Mouse looking for trouble, as usual

"There Goes My F-in' Parsley," or The Story Of Why We Can't Have Nice Things

In the past three days I have had 2/3 of my newly-planted herb garden uprooted, discovered a large tear in the chair cushion upholstery, had a load of laundry decorated with yellow wax from a crayon the twins thoughtfully added to the dryer, and found a trail of red paint running down the side of the house from a certain little boy's window. I have given up on keeping anything presentable, because I have my own in-house demolition team hell-bent on destroying everything in sight.
Matt makes fun of me because I'm cheap. I pay as little for stuff as I possibly can and he says that I buy "disposable" clothes, furniture, etc. It's not that I don't appreciate quality- I do, but I have accepted the fact that pretty much everything I own is going to be broken, stained, ruined or ripped, so why pay more?
We bought new furniture for the den a year ago. I bought a dark brown sofa and chair cheap as hell. Was it great quality stuff that would last forever? No. Was it in a color that I really loved? No. But since Will has dumped a bottle of chocolate syrup on the couch and made himself vomit on it in the past month, I'm quite glad that it hides a multitude of stains and that I didn't pay much for it.
My clothes petty much consist of a rainbow of cheap t-shirts and yoga pants from Walmart. I occasionally upgrade to Target- or when I'm feeling really fancy, Kohl's, but most of my stuff didn't cost more than $10. It's not that I don't care about my appearance, or that I enjoy being a sloppy hausfrau. It's just that I've given up. No matter what I wear, by the end of the day it's covered in a Rorschach pattern of stains- some dirt here, jelly there, a smattering of spaghetti sauce, perhaps a little snot or blood- so what the heck is the point of wearing anything nicer than a $5 t-shirt?
Sometimes I grab on to a small shred of hope that I can keep something intact- hence the herb garden I planted a few days ago. I had big dreams of pots of beautiful, fragrant herbs, but they will remain dreams if the twins have anything to do with it. The just can't understand why mommy seems so unhappy when they try to re-plant the rosemary upside down, pull out handfuls of chives, rip the thyme out by the roots, or just upend an entire pot of parsley. And all I can muster is a tired, "Well, there goes my f*&kin' parsley............"
Someday, I'll have decent stuff, pretty clothes, furniture in a color other than mud, a table that's not covered in marker and scratches. But until then, I'm going to embrace the chaos as much as possible. Not sweat the small stuff, ya' know? I figure it beats fighting a losing battle on a dailey (hourly) basis!