Zoe and Lucy's Baptism

The last weekend in January we had Zoe & Lucy's baptism. There were two other kids from our ward getting baptized at the same time; at first I was concerned that the day wouldn't seem as "special" as it had been for Noah's and Molly's but it was just as lovely.

We had a Saturday morning service followed by a brunch at our house, which I love doing and which we also did for the older kids' baptisms. Aaron's parents were in town and we had a lot of people there at the baptism and at the brunch to share in our excitement.

The next day the girls wore their pretty dresses to church (one is the "family" baptism dress and the other was borrowed from a friend) and I took these pictures of the girls after church.

I'm so proud of them; they were so excited to be baptized. Congratulations Zoe and Lucy!

Zoe & Lucy's birthday party

For Zoe & Lucy's 8th birthday they wanted to have a party at a fun (expensive) party place. We decided that since it's really pretty cost effective with two of them, plus the fact that with their birthday being right after Christmas they don't need much in the way of presents (less expense for us there), we would do it. They had their party at Amazing Jake's and had a fabulous time!

First they had pizza, cake (that I made), and presents in their "party room." The movie Tangled was playing (projected onto the wall) and all of the little girls were quoting and singing along with it; it was pretty cute.
Here's a better shot of the cakes if you're interested. I had fun with these. Unlimited pizza & pop! Opening presents. They got a lot really cute stuff; there were a few "craft" items that have been especially big hits.

After eating & opening presents it was time for the crazy free-for-all: Amazing Jake's is a combination indoor amusement park (small rides) and arcade. Like a Peter Piper Pizza on steroids. It's so much fun! It's also huge though, and I didn't know how we were going to keep track of the kids. We decided to have them divide into groups and that ended up working really well; we knew the basic location of each group at all times so it was easy to check on them as they went from ride to ride. Here's Lucy's group:

And Zoe's group:

Noah and Molly stuck together in their own group of two; they didn't want to hang out with the "little kids" as much anyway. Aaron and I wandered around checking on the groups throughout the evening. It was a pretty good system.

They climbed the rock wall, rode on the carousel, bumper cars, mini rollercoaster, teacups, played miniature golf, played arcade games, skeeball, ate more food... whew! It was a lot of fun; crazy, but the kids were old enough to be responsible and stay with their groups, so it ended up being a great success.

Zoe & Lucy turn 8!

I can't believe it's been EIGHT years since these little cuties were born. I've said it before and I'll say it again, twins are AWESOME!

It's been fun looking through some old pictures of them.... here they are at about 6 months: Here they're about 2 1/2:
And here they're 8!

I love you so much, my sweet girls.

Happy birthday Zoe! Happy birthday Lucy!

What a Week!

{No, we didn't go to the beach again... this picture's from June. I just like it.}{BRAGGING ALERT!}

The kids have each had a VERY good week. Molly had a couple of major projects due at school, which she completed on time (with a couple of late nights and plenty of stress on her part) and did a fantastic job on. She also did a super sweet thing; her writing teacher is leaving to have a baby at Christmastime and has decided not to come back to teaching so she can be home with her baby. So, Molly and a friend decided to make a going-away binder for her, from all the students in their 4th grade advanced writing class. The two of them gathered paper, clear sheets, stencils, markers, etc. from their homes, and during recess over the course of several days they had all the other kids make little scrapbook pages with messages & signatures for the binder. They presented it to their teacher earlier this week and succeeded in bringing her to tears; what a sweet thing.

Zoe is quite the little artist. She draws and draws... and is quite good at it. I really think she has inherited some of her dad's talent in this area. Something she made in art at school has been selected for display in the district offices for the next two months! We're excited to go see it together as as family. Zoe's doing so well in academics too; Aaron & I are blown away every time we get an email with her updated grades.

Lucy has made great strides this week. She started off the school year being a little chatterbox in class; apparently she just has too many friends in there to resist! After seeing that this was becoming too much her new norm, we got serious about it and also her teacher finally moved her to a different desk away from her friends... she has had a perfect behavior record all this week. Her grades, which were already pretty awesome, have reflected this improvement as well. Yay Lucy!

Noah had a school assignment to write a Thanksgiving card for his family and he did a pretty amazing job; he went through each family member and listed very specific reasons why he's thankful for each of us. It's very tender and he said the sweetest things, such as the following comment to his sisters, "I may have wanted a brother, but I'd never trade you for one."

And.... drumroll please... Noah was in the school spelling bee today! He was also in the school spelling bee in 3rd and 4th grade; both of those years we didn't do any studying/prep for it and he just did his best. He didn't get very far either year but that was okay. Well, this year he wanted to be more prepared. Over the past couple of weeks we'd mastered the entire 450-word study list he was given, which was about all we could handle.

(My mom was there with me today to watch him; I FORGOT MY CAMERA!! so she took a few far-away fuzzy pics with her cellphone... but better than nothing so thanks Mom!)

There were 36 kids at the beginning; 2 from each class from 3rd-6th grade.

We were in luck: they used only words from the study list for the first seven rounds... so Noah made it that far. By the end of the seventh round there were only six kids left on stage.

It was obvious when they started using words that were NOT on the list, because all these formerly-confident spellers were suddenly asking for word-repeats, definitions, sentences, and origins. By the 10th round, we were down to three kids....

and by the 18th round, we were STILL down to these same three kids! They went on and on, mostly missing words by this point; the pronouncer was throwing some real doozies at them. In round 13 both girls had missed their word but Noah got his right (gratis)... but, he had to spell a bonus word correctly to be declared the winner. He missed that one (dromedary) so they kept going on and on until finally after round 18 we were down to two. Starting with round 18, the pronouncer and judges realized that school would be dismissed in 15 minutes so they'd better wrap it up by giving the kids some words that they might actually have a chance of spelling correctly (not like "numismatics" and "eupepsia," Noah's words for rounds 16 and 17 - which he missed).

It was such a relief when they started giving the kids "normal" easier words again; Noah correctly spelled caravan, crystal, irrigate, bankruptcy, and chandelier...

AND HE WAS THE WINNER!!!! I have such a big regret for not having brought my camera; I would love to have gotten the final word & crowd eruption on video. It was quite a moment! My mom and I nearly burst into tears; Noah's friends and sister and cousins were all screaming; it was the biggest relief after nearly TWO HOURS of tension.

Here's Noah receiving his certificate and his prize of a $10 gift card to Barnes & Noble.

Since the Bee ran so late, the kids only had a couple minutes to return to their classrooms to pack up their backpacks before the dismissal bell. Noah told us later that as soon as he got to his classroom door, three of his buddies were waiting inside and they hoisted him up by his legs and carried him across the room to his desk in victory-carry style. How cute! He's definitely enjoying the attention today; it's been such a fun thing. I've spent the whole evening giving Aaron the play-by-play.

So next up is the District Bee, in mid-January. He was given a very thick packet of study words... I know we'll work on them but the competition will be so fierce at the district level; I almost don't want to try too hard and I would love to keep expectations low.

What a great week! Having the big projets & spelling bee behind us now, I'm looking forward to a semi-relaxing weekend.

End-of-School Stuff

We've been busy lately with all of the usual end-of-the-school-year events. Zoe and Lucy's first grade program was back in April; it was nearly identical to Noah's & Molly's first grade programs but I still think it's adorable and very enjoyable! The kids were allowed to dress up as a "storybook character" -- these may be stretch but Lucy is Super Girl and Zoe is dressed Cinderella-ish. Here they are with their teacher Mrs. Speer, who Noah and Molly also had as their first grade teacher.

Last week, the night after Pinewood Derby was Molly's 3rd grade program. The theme being "It's a Small World," the kids could dress up in International costumes if they wished, and Hawaiian was closest to "international" that we had on hand. So here's Hawaiian Molly, and of course, Lucy and Zoe are never known to pass up an opportunity to pose for the camera too. The kids played their recorders on a couple of songs, in addition to all the singing.
The night after that was Noah & Molly's cello concert. This year since Molly's in Beginning Orchestra and Noah's in Intermediate, they sit on complete opposite sides during concerts. For the Christmas concert we sat near Molly, so for this one we sat near Noah. Here he is in action: And, both Noah and Molly with their orchestra teacher Ms. Smith, who does a terrific job: They played some really fun songs at the concert and it was another good night.

The last big event of this type will be our piano recital; stay tuned for a report next week!

March swim!

I guess these girls didn't get the memo that it's still March! I believe this is officially the earliest in the year that our pool has been swam in. Boy that doesn't sound like good grammar does it. We've had a few extra-warm days lately, which I guess has been enough to kick up the pool temp above the too-cold point for kids (although it's definitely still too cold for me). Fortunately the weather is going to cool back down to normal next week, but in the meantime Zoe and Lucy (and Juno) are having fun in the pool!

Look how they both have the exact same jumping form; must be a twins thing!

Something cute about first graders

It'd been several months since the last Tooth Fairy visit around here, so this was pretty exciting for Zoe over the weekend. Isn't it amazing how a little hole changes her entire look? Such a cutie.

As I was getting ready to post this I remembered posting something similar about another first-grader, long long ago... when Noah had lost the same tooth, almost four years ago!

Christmas List

Zoe made this the other day.

Dear Santa,
May I please have a go kart and a watch and long hair, new church sandals, and a new church dress. Love, Zoe Ann P*.

We were talking about it after she showed me and I told her, "You know Zoe, I don't think Santa can give you long hair; it'll just have to grow out on its own."

She responded, a little sheepishly, "Oh. Well, you know, I was thinking that maybe it could get long by magic or something."


If only these cute kids would never grow up!

Speaking of being old...

The kids & I just came home from our Tuesday "Summer Movie." We've been enjoying a different movie every week, with two more to go. The last movie of the season is Muppets From Space, and I was explaining to Zoe that every summer they choose a blend of current movies with a few older movies mixed in; and that the Muppet movies were made when I was young. So then Zoe said,

"Oh! So they had movies in COLOR when you were a kid?"

Good grief, child!

Mommy Makeover

Every year at my kids' elementary school, the Kindergarteners have a special day for Moms, always the Friday before Mother's Day. All the Moms get to come to school and the kids sing us songs they've learned (some are real tear-jerkers about them growing up!) and each kid gets to put make-up on their Mom.

We were out of town that Friday, so I told my girls we could do the Makeover at home. Yesterday was the big day! Zoe and Lucy were SO excited and had looked forward to this for days. I had just gotten out of the shower and had a nice fresh blotchy face for them to work with. They took a long time covering blemishes and age spots with several concealers and foundations before moving on to cheeks, eyes, and lips. They each worked on one side of my face but they did coordinate so that the two sides matched.

Look at what trust I have in my daughters; they each did a set of top lashes all by themselves and didn't even poke my eyes out!
I didn't look in the mirror until they were completely finished; and boy was I impressed! I guess they've watched me do my makeup enough to know basically what to do. Listening to their back-and-forth during the procedure I was a little nervous ("Lucy, that color is WAY too dark!" "Wait, I think we need some MORE blush here...") but afterwards all I did to prepare for going to the grocery store was rub a little blush off and eye shadow on the side where it was purple all way up to my eyebrow.

It was pretty fun and they worked on me for at least half an hour. I think we'll do this again sometime in the summer when we're having a bored afternoon.
photos by Noah

And that ginormous forehead is the reason I will have bangs for the rest of my life.

Birthday Party Recap

Zoe and Lucy had their first "friend party" this year, and they agreed on a Hello Kitty theme.

So I was up til 2:30am making these little cuties (below) out of marshmallow rolled fondant (the discovery of which has changed my life... I'll never go back to regular fondant again!) Each cupcake, along with Zoe & Lucy's personal cakes, was topped with one of these Hello Kitty faces.

They invited seven friends and everybody came, which was great!

(the obligatory cake shot)
They blew out a total of 12 candles,

and to go with their cake and cupcakes they lapped up milk from bowls, since they were being kitties and all.

They played some games and ran some relay races, played outside on the swingset, and had a pinata.

Look at that cute little group of Hello Kitties!

It was a fun time; I always get stressed out about the kids' birthday parties so I'm glad we only do them every other year! Thanks so much to Jamie and Mom for your help. And thanks to everyone who came; I think the birthday girls had a great time.

Six!

I can't believe these two cuties are SIX years old today! But as sad as I am that they are growing up way too fast, they really are more and more fun every day. I'm so glad I get to be their Momma and still spend quite a bit of time with them, while they're in half-day Kindergarten this year. I will really miss them next year once they're in first grade!

These two are so different but the very best of friends. This is obvious any time they have a joint chore to do (like cleaning their room) ... it takes FOREVER to get done because they just have too much fun together. Just yesterday they were supposed to be unloading the dishwasher; I took a phonecall and the next thing I knew, they were wrestling and giggling on the floor (on the tile, next to the partially-unloaded dishwasher). Twins are so great; I never imagined I would ever have twins but it is just the best thing. Being able to watch their special bond and friendship, and being able to have two girls going through stages of life at the same time is just priceless.

Here are a few current facts about Zoe and Lucy:

Zoe has lost two teeth; Lucy hasn't lost any yet... Lucy remains several inches taller than Zoe and wears bigger clothes and shoes (even though Zoe is older by about one minute)... they both started piano lessons this week (with me) and even after one lesson I can already tell that their levels piano ability, motivation, and determination will be quite different... both are learning to read very well this year in Kindergarten... Zoe would prefer to hang out with one or two friends who she is comfortable with, while Lucy will walk up to any group of kids, of any age, and befriend them... they both love getting their nails painted and playing dress-up... but Lucy would prefer to ride bikes or scooters while Zoe prefers playing with dolls... Lucy is really really good at MarioKart and other Wii games while Zoe's interest is them is lackluster... both love drawing pictures all the time; Zoe is always leaving me special surprise notes on my bed or my desk... both are smart, sweet, and just plain cute.

I love you Zoe and Lucy; Happy Birthday!!