The greatest thing about having 2 year olds is to see the world through their eyes. Everyday something they do makes me see something new. When was the last time I ever stopped to enjoy a ladybug? I mean really enjoy a ladybug with giggles and awe? Yeah, it’s been awhile.

Little lady had discovered that she just loves ladybugs. She has some amazing ladybug luck too! One came up on her bowl (in the house!!) of oatmeal and at first I thought she was just making it up. But no! There was a ladybug on her bowl! Our backyard, the park, walking to the store we find ladybugs. She has to try and get them on her finger and loves to watch them climb up her arm. Little man for some reason doesn’t have that same ladybug luck since they usually fly off him before they can crawl to his wrist.

These little tiny moments are so wonderful. I love the ladybug love that’s going on right now!

We have this cute little ladybug book that she loves to read right now too:

What is one thing that we miss most about our before twins life? Long showers. Alright, what’s the 2nd most missed thing? traveling! I know lots of people have more success with this, but for us it just hasn’t worked out. We attempted an overnight about a year ago and it was so awful that we’ve been avoiding anything overnight related. Well we decided to give it a little mini-try, and it was a success!

They had a separate room which is what I think is the most important part of traveling with twins that are used to sleeping in their own room. Mine kids do not know how to sleep with in bed with Mommy and Daddy so cosleeping or even them seeing us in the same room isn’t an option. Little man likes his room, and his bed. We were so pleased that little man really liked the idea of having his own “new bed” (aka, pack n play) that he had no problems going to sleep. It helped he was really tired too. When they woke up the next morning we let them watch cartoons and lay on the comfy daybed. We had a cute little cottage that had great history and charm and was a good size for the 4 of us.

If front of the cottage had some chairs and you could see the ocean from. Hubby and I really enjoyed putting them to bed at sitting out there enjoying some wine in the evening. Probably the most relaxing (and only relaxing part of our trip).

Food in Mendocino isn’t very kid friendly. However our hotel The Schoolhouse Creek was super kid friendly and provided an amazing breakfast that we could have in our room. Now, to make this wonderful little find just so SO much better: snickerdoodle muffins. Not sure if that’s what they call them, but that’s what I’ll call them. They are heaven! The best muffins I’ve ever had. I loved them so much that my hubs asked if they had any leftover if we could have them after breakfast. Check out the box we got to bring home:

Yeah, those muffins rocked! We had to stop off at this cute little shop in downtown Mendocino that only sells jams and preserves to go with the muffins. The raspberry jam we bought was so good that I am going to try and make my own jam during raspberry season and see if I can recreate the amazingness of homemade jam! So yum!

We really enjoyed our little trip and it was great to just spend time as a family without chores, bills, timeout chairs and cooking to get in the way. We loved seeing the lighthouse and enjoyed the good walk to get there. The kids still weeks later are bringing up the lighthouse and the cottage. They enjoyed it too.

The silly moments of the trip were little mans love of saying “No, I just want to be sad” so he would stop wherever he could find a step or a curb and be sad. Big bottom lip and all. Of course sister joins and does this adorable bottom lip sad smirk look. totally adorable but also very wearing on the patience. We were trying to find a place that was open for dinner and they got be all sad?

What we learned for our next vacation:
-separate rooms for them is a total must.
-movies on the kindle makes for a very enjoyable long roadtrip.
-plan out where to eat with kids in a near town, otherwise your options are limited. Or you may just be eating picnic style.
-Bring everything you think you need and then some. It’s amazing how loaded up the car was for just 2 nights.
-Go with the flow and dont have many expectations beyond enjoying family time. We don’t get that many weekends with our kids before they get too old to have fun with just mom and pops!

Insert Pinterest and a wonderful Pin I cam across on Suburbs Mama. She wrote the BEST tutorial on how to make a growth chart, and I thought hers looked amazing. I felt brave enough to give it a go thanks to her post you can read here.

I am the queen of excuses so even after gaining all this bravado to create this it still took me over a week to get me and of course the twins to Lowes to grab the supplies.
I bought:
- 6ftx10inx1in board of wood. I searched the pile for the “prettiest” piece. One without marks or scruffs and seemed smooth (so you can skip sanding) and had pretty design to the wood.
-miniwax stain in special walnut. Again, Suburbs Mama really did me good in directing me to this.
-semi-gloss polyurethane
-brush, of which I just went with the foam ones they sell right next to the stains.
My total was about $25.

During naptime I took my pretty piece of naked wood and set it up in the garage to stain. I was SHOCKED to find out how little stain you really need. I bought the smallest can of it and I only used about 4 dips, which means I have a pretty much full small can left. Yes, that would just means I need more projects to do with said stain (of which I’ve already planned a few). It couldn’t possibly be any easier, you just paint the wood and make sure to get the sides. I felt one coats made it pretty, but I bet 2 coats would be nice. I wanted some contrast between the wood and the numbers so I like it lighter.

Later that night I brought it in to make the measurement markings and numbers. Isn’t the stain color gorgeous?!! Love it.

I decided to try out using a black sharpie marker instead of a paint pen. Fail. It’s not nearly dark enough and it would require more work then necessary. I went out the next day to Joannes and grabbed a black paint pen and am much happier with how dark it is and how easy it was to use.

When I first make the inches I did it with pencil. Halfway thru I was feeling good about it and just went along the ruler to make my markings. You can get a feel for what works for you and how confident you feel in making the markings. It really is easy!!

The numbers were just a little more of an issue. I used Century Font in 250 size. Cut them out and then trace them where you want them (I used a level to make sure it was all even and they lined up perfectly (again, a bit anal about making sure things are in the right spot with something I plan to keep forever). I used a pen and pushed hard on the printed out number. You’ll see it on the wood and then just use your paint pen to go over what you traced. Easy peasy right? I also like how it dented the wood some so it almost looks engraved.

Once I was all done with the numbers I decided I wanted to add a little extra length to the half and quarter inches. Then a quick coat of polyurethane. Polyurethane has a strong smell so I did that back in the garage and let it stay there all weekend while we were away. Polyurethane is really easy to use, and its just a clear coat that seals in your work. I like the small shine that the semi-gloss makes.

I could not be more pleased with how this has turned out. It’s by far my favorite DIY I’ve ever done and I can’t wait to have hubby get the hardware on and hang it up. I’ve got all their heights in their scrapbook boxs (yea, baby books and twins? who has time for that?!)so I just need to go back and mark off their past heights. I think I’ll use either black sharpie or maybe a gold sharpie for that.

Hope you can make one for yourself! I’d LOVE to see your work when you’ve made one so please share!!

I’ve got a little car obsessed man and an art lovin gal so I whipped out the cars for car painting today! We’ve got loads of hotwheel like cars, so we grabbed the ones with the more interesting tires. They make wonderful tracks with paint.

My little gal loved it because she got to paint, but little man loved it just as much. It’s great way to let them do art without limits too. I wasn’t looking for anything that I wanted to hang on the wall or proclaim as a super masterpiece, I just wanted them to explore and be busy. Exposure to paint and its properties along with working on fine motor skills and using imagination was my basic goal with this activity.

Of course we got the cars so dirty so they needed a quick little car wash, that ended up being more fun then the actual painting (as far as time consumption).

This was a total fun, and quick activity for my 28 month old twin toddlers. Easy to just pull out what we need and head outside. Kept them very busy too.

If you happen to see this please go take a quick little vote for me. While there please check out some of the most amazing other twin Mommy blogs out there.

We recently found out about this most amazing little ride on toy. The Plasmacar can move without any pedals and is wonderful for little ones too since they can just use their feet. Little lady just adores it when we were attending a Mommy-and-me preschool like class and when I found it on a deal on Zulily we had to grab it. Apparently it is great for bigger kids since it will move and steer with just the handles. Total win in the toy department when the toy will last a few years.

So far they’ve had a blast with it. I’m not sure yet if it’s going to be one of those toys that we really will need 2 of them, but so far just the 1 is working out.

Easter being this weekend, my preschool activities this week have been centered around the holiday. One of the most common preschooler age songs for this time is “Little Bunny Foo Foo”. It is perhaps not the best song for teaching being nice and good manners, but it is very catchy and if explained correctly then I think it works well. Instead of “boppin’em on the head” being killing the mice I’ve explained that it more means they’ve pushed them. A good connection since they are learning that it is not nice to push others. The “goon” at the end is like a monster, which they find as silly.

I’ve let them watch this YouTube video on Litte Bunny Foo Foo by speakaboos. I thought it was more appropriate then some of the other videos I found. They really liked watching it and it helped them to see that I didn’t just make up the song.

After watching the video they were ready to help me make our bunny and mice. I just used felt and hot glue. That is what I love about the felt board, it’s so easy to make quick little characters to go along with stories and songs that I can have a lesson pulled together in just 15 minutes.

They both got really into hopping like a bunny and boppin the mice on the head. I think I make try and make a goodfairy too.

Little lady of course made the mice kiss all better when we were done.

We are on the tail end of yet another cold (it’s been like 6 weeks of constant colds with just a few healthy days thrown in there. So of course I’m all out of fun ideas for what to do when we are stuck at home and inside. It’s just lovely California weather so it really sucks to be inside on a day like today. But alas, when your kid has asthma you take any change in air as a serious issue that could change the progress of getting healthy.

I was so excited to stumble upon this terrific indoor play idea on Play Create Explore. She has an amazing list of activities to do with your toddler/ preschool and I was happy to have found some really great ideas!

Water, food coloring, dish soap and a straw. That’s all that is needed. Total Win!
I pulled them both up to the sink so that they could make a mess and I wouldn’t have much to worry about, let them pick out their colors and voila! It took them a minute to understand how they were going to blow bubbles, but once they figured it out they were all giggles. Little man only drank a small sip before he realized that it wasn’t such a good idea. They had a blast with this for a good half hour, and then we brought over some of their hotwheels cars and had a little car wash. This extended their bubble play for another half an hour. A while hour of toddler/preschooler activity for 2! Usually it seems one kid will loose interest but they both had such a blast.

Totally recommend trying this activity out the next time you are stuck inside too!

How cute is this one eyed monster? Super easy too! I took this idea from the September 2012 issue of Babytalk magazine. I thought it was a super cute monster for the kids table that added the element of texture and fun!

Take a guess as to what the monster is made from? A car wash mitt! I found them for only 1.99 each at Ross when we happened to go through there. The eye is just black and white felt glued together and then glued to the mitt. I love my glue gun!

Here is a picture of the kids table:

The coloring pages I downloaded for FREE from Better Homes and Garden/

Our tables and chairs are from IKEA. We actually really love these. I was searching everywhere for a plain white kids table that wouldn’t cost a lot. We choose to get 2 tables with 4 chairs so that when we have playdates all the kids could sit there, or when they just want to have tea with their dolls and stuffed animals they can do that too. They also have lots of personal space for crafts and coloring. We liked these so much that the Grandparents asked for their own set at their house. Which we barrow for parties !

Picture of Food Table:

Look for our Monster Food Menu coming soon!

These headbands were really easy to make. Just need a glue gun and some basic supplies:
-ribbon
-plain headbands
-white pom-poms
-googly eyes
-pipe cleaners

I used the ribbon to wrap around the headband and to secure the pipe cleaner that was attached to the headband (just twisted on).

Super easy, and was a great photo prop that also doubled as entertainment as so many of the little ones were staring at them!