Shauna's and new bath photos (not related)

Shauna invited us over for dinner last Sunday with a few of her friends that we had never met before.  She slaved over the stove all day (literally) to make us three different fabulous soups and some apple pie.  The food was SO yummy and not just because I didn't have to cook it.

Maddie was excited to see Daddy walking back from parking the car.  Shauna is a city dweller and has no parking at her apartment.  :-)

Jackson was just excited to sit on Shauna's motorcycle...

We had a great time with new people.  It's nice to have new people around so we can tell our stories to people who haven't heard them before.  As usual M&J trashed Shauna's place.  They were good as far as no crying but EVERYTHING they touched was something they shouldn't have.  We spent the whole evening making sure they didn't break anything.  Hopefully she'll invite us back sometime before they're 12.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's been a while since I've taken some bath photos.  Maybe I should talk about bath time too.  Bath time consists of M&J getting very excited to be allowed in the bathroom (we have it gated off because the stairs to the basement are in there and I don't want them flushing things down the toilet.  the door needs to stay open though so the cat can get to the basement to use the litter).  They eagerly allow me to take their clothes off even though they'd just as happily climb in fully dressed.  The next few minutes are spent taking all of our shampoo etc. off of the shelves and dropping them in the water one by one as I then take them OUT of the shower.  Once everything is out of reach, the splashing commences.  I then attempt to pour water over their heads to wet their hair.  The smiles quickly fade as they completely stiffen up, stand straight up, and cling to me for dear life like they're drowning.  They eventually get over it and play with their ducks.  I then shampoo their hair and wash their bodies which is relatively painless.  But the horror resumes when I have to pour the water over their heads again to rinse the shampoo.  I get it done as quickly as I can but they both HATE it.  Since Maddie's hair is so snarly in the back I have to also put conditioner in her hair which means another head rinse followed by brushing the knots out.  This leaves Maddie in complete hysterics and absolutely inconsolable.  She doesn't stop crying for a good 15 minutes after a bath.  The whole thing is so exhausting (physically and mentally...for all of us) it's no wonder I only bathe them every 4 or 5 days.

Pre rinse when all was right with the world

Maddie splashing

Halloween starts early!

Nana's school had a halloween party this morning.  Chris and I took the kids to show off how cute they were in their costumes.

The force is strong with him...

The twins, Luke and Leia

Maddie's costume came with a wig for the buns, but of course she didn't want it on.

I guess that Makes Chris Darth Vader aka Anakin

The park and Connors Farm

Yesterday we went to a new park in the area while we were out and about.  There was a big tall slide like they had never seen before.  Both of them loved to climb up the stairs but only Madison was brave enough to scoot herself to the edge and down.  The first time she did it I was at the top with them so she went flying off the end of the slide and landed on her butt.  She laughed, got up and ran back up the stairs.  All the while Jackson sat at the top and watched her.  I went down with him a few times and he loved it but he just didn't want to go down by himself.

After the park we drove to Topsfield to pick up my print from the fair and my ribbon.  On the way home we went to another farm in the area.  They had bouncy houses and we had one all to ourselves!  It was one of the ones that is an obstacle course.  We must have spent 45 minutes in there.

The ladder getting to the top was NOT easy to get up alone let alone pushing two toddlers up ahead of you.  And it was really high.  We went up it three times and each time I was so afraid we were all going to tumble back down to the bottom.  I don't think we would have gotten hurt but it would have been scary.

Maddie's hair was wild and crazy with static

Jackson as usual loved the tractor!

At one point Jackson went running toward that pond.  He had no intention of stopping at the edge.  I ran after as fast as I could and caught him literally as his front foot was about to step down the small embankment.  I was yelling to him too so when I finally grabbed him and yelled I ended up scaring the crap out of him and he cried for quite a while.

Hand Made Snowman Hat

Madison and Jackson each got a hat like this for Christmas last year from our dear friend Mrs. O.  Madison is quite fond of hers.

My article is online now too!

Saugus Paper

Getting political

With the election coming up, I am ever more confused as to who should get my vote. First of all I have no idea which candidate cares about the issues I care about because they both just talk in circles. Secondly there are the personal aspects of each candidate that scare me.

Living in Massachusetts it's probably assumed that I am a hard core democrat although my gut instinct is that I am republican. I went in search of a quiz to see where I really stand. Even though I am whole heartedly pro equal marriage rights for all consenting adults, I was very surprised to see that I fall on the democrat side of the graph! I fall right about in the same area as Ghandi.

If you click on the graph you can take the quiz too. See if you really know where you stand.

So, now that I know that I am on the democrat side, does that mean that I really should vote for Obama? If voting for Obama guaranteed that homosexual couples would get the same rights as Chris and I have, I would do it in a heartbeat but sadly I just don't see that happening. Obviously some States are heading in the right direction but does that have anything to do with who is president?

More from the 17th

Yesterday I went up to the Topsfield Fair grounds to pick up my photo.  I figured while we were there I'd be able to take some photos of the kids for their 19 month birthday post.  When I got there the office was closed for the day.  Grrr.  I had tried to call before I went but couldn't find a number anywhere.

But we were able to walk around the grounds and take some pictures.  Most of the booths were all still there but it was like a ghost town.

There was one cage of turkeys outside.  The kids kept going back to look at them whenever they'd gobble.

Back at home after nap...

Throwing a ball

When Chris came home they wanted to get in the car with him

Playground

One day last week we went to the playground.  A couple of new things hapened that I was surprised about...

Jackson climbed up on this all by himself!

On the swing

I think brown is Maddie's color!

The other thing that happened is that Jackson went down the slide by himself!  In the past I've put them at the top and pulled on them until they start to go down.  But that day  Jackson climbed  up the stairs, sat down at the top of the slide and inched his way forward until he went down.  I didn't actually see it the first time because I was pushing Maddie on the swing but I knew he had done it because I saw him at the bottom of the slide.

Eventually Maddie caught on too and the two of them went up and down on their own for a good 20 minutes.  They had so much fun!

Gap Casting Call

I think most people were confused about what the purpose of this event was. I really didn't care what the purpose was I just wanted to get some pictures of M&J in a professional setting. Nana and I got to the mall about an hour before it was going to start. We weren't too far back in the line and ended with numbers 23 and 24. Once people got their numbers they left the line. Once the start time came they came back and needed to squeeze back in line. There were many unhappy people. One woman behind me was so annoyed that she actually said "This isn't worth it. He's not THAT cute" talking about her own son!! I wanted to cry!

We had a pleasant experience. We kept M&J in the stroller and took turns walking them around the mall while the other one stayed in line.

Once we got in, they wanted nothing to do with sitting on a stool and smiling for the camera. Madison whined through the whole thing and Jackson was stone faced. Oh well, there goes their modeling career. It was fun anyway.

Oh, so it turns out the purpose of getting their pictures taken was so that you could use them to enter them into their online casting call. I had already done that anyway with my own photos.