13 Days Until Vacation

What a busy, but productive day it's been today! I've completed all of the clothes shopping for vacation, I think! Everyone has new shoes, socks, shirts, etc. To keep all of the kids stuff in they each have their own backpack. That way it will make finding everyone's clothing, toothbrushes, etc easier. Not to mention, that the backpacks can be slid under the seat to create extra room. Ben & Joe will use their backpacks for the upcoming school year. Not sure yet what the twins will use theirs for, but they sure do love wearing them as you can see in these pictures!








Can you guess which backpack belongs to which kiddo????

Also checked off of my list today is putting the mail service on hold during our vacation week, cleaning out and vacuuming the van, and I've started to come up with an itinerary (at least in my head). I've found our luggage and cooler. Of course all of this was done along with the usual meal preperation, clean up, diaper change, etc. Not bad for a day's work! I'm starting to think that a vacation can come together in 14 days!!!

14 Days Until Vacation!!!

Well, we finally decided where we are going on vacation...Gatlinburg, TN and we now only have 14 days to get ready!!! We haven't been down there since 2006..life before twins! Joe was not quite 18 months at the time and doesn't remember it! Here's a few pics of our cabin we will be staying in! It's adorable and we got a GREAT deal on it!!!

Pool Fun

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After swearing that I was not getting a pool this year, what did I do on Sunday but go out and buy a pool?? I hate dealing with the yucky mess of the pool and was not sure that four kids in the pool would not equal trouble.

However, I'm now glad that I did. The kids have been in it almost every day. They love it! And it doesn't hurt that I can use it for a bargaining chip to get chores done! (I never said I was above bribing my kids!) I hope you're all enjoying summer so far! As you can see from all the pics, we certainly are!

First Week of Summer 2009

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The First Week of Summer 2009

It's certainly been a busy week and a half since Ben got out of school last Wednesday! We've had a couple of movie nights. On Friday 6/12 we went to Touch a Truck in Sharonville. The kids were able to see, climb inside, and even blow the horn on all kinds of fire, construction, army, and farm trucks! Afterwards, we walked across the street to the park and had a snack & played.
On Monday, Joe had his first speech session. He did really well. He's working on c/k and g in the beginning of words!
Tuesday we had our first twins club playgroup at the Rainbow Room inside of KidsFirst Gym. It was a blast! There were all kinds of slides, swings, trampolines, and ride on toys to wear them out! Later that same day, we went to see Mark Wade: Creativity Gone Wild at the Fairfield Library.
On Wednesday, we visited the West Chester library to get some more movies for rainy days. We also signed up for their summer reading program! Afterwards, the kids got Whoppers from Burger King (2/$3.50 every Wednesday).
We rested on Thursday!
Friday we went to Parky's ark wet play area in Winton woods. The kids were able to get wet and stay cool on this very hot and humid day!
All in all, not a bad start to summer break if I say so myself!

Benjamin Elliott Rose 1st Grade 2008-2009

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It seems like only yesterday, Ben and I were walking into Mrs. Hoskinson's first grade class during open house for the first time. The start of first grade was a big change...a new building, lunch at school, and a full day of class for the first time. However, it didn't take long for Ben to get into the swing of things. Now as I look back, it's hard to believe that first grade is over and that we're parents to a 2nd grader! Ben has grown and achieved SO much in the past year...it's truly amazing!

When school first started, Ben could only read maybe 10 words. Now he can read Magic Treehouse Chapter books with me only helping on 1 or 2 words. At the end of the school year, he received an award for most improved reading skills! With his report card money, he even chose to buy 2 chapter books...instead of more toys! He loves books and reading!

Gone are the days of spelling things so that he wouldn't know what I was talking about. Now he knows what I'm spelling. He is an excellent speller and only missed one word on 2 of his spelling tests...the rest were all 100%.

He is a math whiz! 97% in math most of the time! He has consistently had A's all year long in most subjects. Reading was a B, but was raised to an A at the end of the year.

However, his biggest achievement has been that he is 100% completed with speech. After 4 long years of speech therapy, working with Ben at home, reading together, and practicing he has 100% completed all of his speech objectives and is being dismissed from the speech therapy program! All of his hard work has paid off!

I'm so proud of him for working hard and doing well in school and speech! He has had a great 1st grade year and I'm confident that he will have a wonderful 2nd grade year as well!

The Many Faces of Joseph Bradley Rose

Here's a p review of Joseph's JCPenney Portraits that he had made today. How big and cute is he!

Bath Time Fun

 

So I'm sure that when the twins are adults, they're going to want to wring my neck for posting bathtime pictures of them on the website.............but they're SO adorable splashing around that I couldn't resist sharing a few!