Our First Trip to DC

Drew & Jake experienced the Metro and downtown DC for the first time last weekend. We visited the National Air & Space museum and had a great time walking on the mall. It was a successful trip with very minimal complaints!
Drew said that the Washington Monument was "very very very very far away" and it was "very very very very tall".Their favorite part was this new fountain inside an outdoor sculpture/garden display near the Art Museum. Your are able to dip your feet in which was a very welcome perk considering how hot and sunny it was that day.

How to BEAT the HEAT!

When it gets too hot in these parts, I am a firm believer in the philosophy of "Let's get naked and play with the hose!".
Check our our latest last minute playgroup with our fellow 3 year old twins!

Mothers Day Photo Shoot

Here is our final product after just a few minutes attempt to take that "perfect" photo of the boys with Mommy for Mothers Day 2011:
And here is a glimpse of the process it took to arrive at this final product (even with it's flaws):

New Preschool for the BOYS!

Drew & Jake will be starting a new preschool next week and I will upload some photos once all the paperwork goes through because they will actually be riding a SCHOOL BUS to school! I am sure they will much more excited about that than the actual school day, but I know I want to get some photos!

They are doing SO WELL in their new school! The school is equipped to handle kids with as much energy that Drew & Jake have (apart and together). They are actually separated and have 2 different sets of classmates. This also prompted up to split them up and give them their very own bedrooms at home. They are happily talking about their teachers and classmates and activities on a regular basis and we are so pleased they are enrolled in this program. They will continue next school year and we are looking forward to more progress.

No posts since June 27th?

Really? Have I been THAT bad about posting on here. Yikes. With facebook and picasa albums, I have totally forgotten to post anything here. Sorry to those who have read information here, but here goes a summary of the last 6 months (oh my!):

1) Jake was potty-trained using the same 3-day method I used for Drew on August 15th. So we have been diaper free since then AND rarely any accidents EVEN at night! Actually Jake has never had a night-time or naptime accident!

2) We went to the Outerbanks again this year and had a fabulous time with the Starners and the Kiesgen's (Nana & Poppy). We still weren't too successful at "on the beach" photo time, but maybe next year we will have 2 happy boys!

3) The boys started a 2-year old preschool 2 half days a week and after a few rough days in the beginning, we think they are starting to enjoy themselves and even look forward to it. They may not take part in all the crafty activities, but they are all over any sort of running or moving game/activity.

4) We celebrated their 3rd birthday by going to see Disney On Ice Toy Story 3. They absolutely LOVED every minute of it. Many days after they were still asking to go see Disney On Ice whenever we got into the car... especially when Grandpa started coming over every Monday for a visit.

5) We went to Florida to visit our twin friends Alison & Chris, Grandpa & Iris, Uncle Edd, DISNEY WORLD and Granny & Pops. Unfortunately Pops was too sick for the boys to see him -- he was in a rehab facility and even hoped to see the boys himself. Unfortunately, as I am writing this now in March, Pops passed away on February 15th. He will be GREATLY missed but the boys will always remember when they saw him in 2009 and when we stayed at his house during this visit in December. They still talk about the loft stairs that are at the house and refer to them as "Pop's house stairs". Brings tears to my eyes since I can't explain to them that Pops is no longer with us. :(

Drew is PT-ed

So after about 2 months of almost ZERO poop in diapers (yes, he pooped only on the potty) and telling grandpa that he needed to go potty at his house, we decided Drew was ready for full potty training mode.
I started this Monday (a week ago) by putting him in underwear and telling him that we want to keep our underwear dry. He had a few accidents on Monday but all of them he caught before he was finished and told me "POTTY, MOMMY!". If we had a toilet in the basement, I am almost positive he would have been accident-free, but we can only run so fast up the stairs to the toilet. ha ha. He did REALLY well throughout the week with just a small handful of accidents. Probably the funniest occurrence was that he was having trouble distinguishing between needing to poop and needing to fart. There were a few times we went to the potty and all he did was fart. I had to hold back the laughter, especially after he says "Toot, Mommy. Excuse me".

So it is now a week later and I am hoping I am not jinxing myself, but I think I can officially say that Drew Steven Edwards IS potty trained and it was actually pretty easy because I think he really was ready... maybe he can convince his brother to follow his lead within the next month or so (?). :)

Batteries & Screwdrivers

The newest thing that is a constant around the house is that the boys think that batteries will fix absolutely ANYTHING. For example, at our gym there is a huge tube slide at the pool and the boys are too young/small to go on it. So when they ask about it, we tell them that it is broken or not working right now. Drew looked at me as serious as could be and said "Maybe it needs batteries. Mommy go get your screwdriver". It was hilarious and he has now repeated that statement many times for other "broken" items such as the TV & oven when we had a power failure, a climbing structure at a playground meant for older kids, and a nozzle for the hose that was removed to prevent them from squirting us. :)