Day 6: HBD Aunt Hannah!

Today we celebrated Aunt Hannah's SWEET SIXTEENTH birthday!!!  Her birthday is really tomorrow but all the fun was today :)  We swam, had dinner, and finally enjoyed a Resse's ice cream cake.  Here's a sweet shot of the boys with the birthday girl!

Day 5: Homemade Drums

 This morning just goes to show you that sometimes fun can be very impromptu!  The boys usually get into our cups, pitchers and other cooking items that we have in the corner cabinet, about once a week.  They like to pretend to pour out our water bottles into the pitchers and they love to stack the cups up.  So, today, with the help of Daddy, they found a new use for the bowls.  Peter helped them turn them over, gave them wooden spoons, and let them drum away!  At one point he was the only person drumming...I think he was having more fun than they were!

 

It's all fun and games until someone gets hit with a wooden spoon!

Day 4: Nana's pool

Today we went for, what I assume will be many, trips to Nana's house to swim.  Aunt Hannah was there to join in the fun, too.  We went in the morning, around 11 a.m. so the water was still a little cool and the sun wasn't fully shining on the pool.  Regardless, the boys still had fun swimming!

Day 3: Movers and Shakers and Bicentennial Park

Today we were able to go back to our favorite library story time from last summer: Movers and Shakers at the Covedale Library.  We just adore Miss Colleen and she has a great way with the kids, and this time was no exception.  We sang several songs, including our favorite about riding the horse into town. The twins were feeling a little shy, this being their first time back in a year, but I'm hoping with regular weekly visits they will feel more comfortable. They were very good listeners!  Afterward, they loved going to the library to play puzzles and check out a few books.
After the library, we went to a new park in our area, Bicentennial Park off of Diehl Road in Green Township.  It's awesome! They have lots of shade, the crushed tire for falls, and lots of play equipment.  We will definitely go back again soon! Here's a few shots of the great equipment.  And a video of the awesome gross motor skills that we have in JT (and really Grant, too, just couldn't capture him because he didn't do it nearly as often)!

 Made me a little more than nervous when they climbed up to this slide, but they did a great job!

 I can't believe this child can climb like this and is still in diapers!

These boys will hug each other anywhere!

Day 2: Making popsicles

Today we stayed at home and made popsicles.  It's a recipe that I found on....yep, Pinterest.  It's super easy with only two ingredients: bananas and nutella (I added a small amount of milk because the blender was struggling)!  The boys helped break up the bananas and toss them in the blender and I added the nutella.  Then, they had fun pushing the buttons but I did the pouring into the Mickey popsicle molds, which we were dying to use!  After dinner we had a sweet treat to enjoy, complete with fun mess!  Here's some sweet shots of the yummy goodness!

 JT

 Grant

Yep, we doubled the fleet of cozy coupes thanks to a free one acquired by our sitter, Jess!

Summer Break Day 1: Cincinnati Zoo

Today was my first day of summer break!   We have a lot planned this summer (our "Summer Fun List") and I hope to document our fun with a picture each day and possibly a blog post. So, we decided to start off our fun with a trip to the zoo with Grammy.  We saw a lot of animals this time and had a first while there...our first time touching a tortoise.  It was a beautiful day.

Grammy and the boys

The new baby zebra, Savana

The boys were requesting to see the monkeys and luckily they were active!

Touching the tortoise...a new and very cool exhibit at the zoo

5 Months Old

We've entered a really fun stage with a lot of little milestones!  Summer is in full swing and we have been trying to enjoy ourselves despite the heat.  We celebrated Peter's first Father's Day-the boys got him a book about daddies and a very cool (manly) bracelet with a special inscription just for him.  We also celebrated our first Fourth of July with the boys by going to Nana and Pappy's house.  A few days before the fourth the we went to the Balloon Glow at Coney Island with Grammy.  It was really cool and we'll definitely go back again!
The biggest milestone this month is that the boys started eating their first solid, rice cereal.  It was really a very awful experience for all of us.  It was like feeding breastmilk on a spoon because it was so thin.  To add to that, the boys hated the spoons.  But, we'll just have to keep practicing and hopefully it won't always be this frustrating.
Here are the other updates for this month: Both boys reached for each others toy while in the Bumbo seat for the first time on 6/22.   Both boys are also laughing a lot, which is such a wonderful sound, possibly the best sound in the world!  Both boys also found their feet this week-big exciting find, where were they for the four months prior?!  It has always amazed me how babies can get their feet into their mouth so easily! It's hours of entertainment-and free!  The Five Little Ducks and The Five Green Speckled Frogs are two of the boys' absolute favorite songs and they really clam down Grant when he's upset.  Grant rolled over from his back to his belly for the "first" time since 5/12.  He seems to have figured out how to master this because he does it easily.  Grant isn't the only one learning new things, JT has now figured out how to make raspberry sounds and it is hilarious!

 The feeling about the rice cereal is mutual!

 Balloon Glow at Coney Island with Grammy

 First time at Newport Aquarium

 They loved watching the colorful fish

 First time in the Jumperoo (minus any actual jumping)

 We're 5 months old!