Bubbles

I am not quite sure what exactly it is about packing bubbles that make them so irresistable, not only to children, but also to their 30 something parents as well. When Chadd was unwrapping a new package, I glimsed the extra large puffs of popping delight and almost squealed out loud. My eyes lit up and I knew I had to unleash the kids and allow them to pop to their hearts content. It was inspiring to see all of the ways they decided to pop those bubbles and also to watch them enjoy something so completely simple and ordinary.

Bennett was a fan of the scrunch, twist and pop. It is also one of my fav's...more popping = more fun!

Bria's favorite was by far jumping to pop. She bounced up and down like a little Tigger for a good 5 minutes. She was squealing with delight, it was amazing to watch.

Avery loved to "hand pop" single ones. She didn't even want to do a sommersault on her section in fear of popping too many and not having any left to pop later.

Here, she had laid out her section next to Bria's, but she did not want Bria to step onto hers. So, we watched Breezy pop hers by jumping and running down the hallway over it.

Avery eventually had to "guard" her patch because she was the only one with an ample amount of bubbles left...of course. She laid down on it and pretended it was a bed.

Benny giving the mischevious eyes(that come so naturally to him) as he is about to scrunch, twist and pop.

Did you know that bubbles can be all sorts of thing? Jackets, cocoons, beds, clothes, etc...and you can do all sorts of things with them to pop them: jumping, cartwheeling, sommersaulting, scrunching, punching, biting(no one tried that tonight) and numerous other things I am sure.

So, the next time you get packing bubbles, I dare you to try and resist popping even one of those tiny little things...I bet you can't!

An Apple A Day keeps the Dentist away....

Wednesday was our trip to the Dentist day. Bennett and Bria have never been before...and Avery, well, lets just say that she is an old pro.

Avery is not at all nervous about the dentist, which is amazing considering she has had four crowns and 3 cavaties filled in her short 4 years of life. She was born with a condition called hypoplasia. In layman's terms: she was born without enamel on her teeth. Her teeth are unusually soft and therefore she is very prone to getting cavaties.

It was so sweet to watch her "volunteer" to go first so that B&B could watch all the action before it was their turn. She loved the shades and picked out her own Snow White tooth brush.

The Dentist commented on her beautiful silver teeth, exclaiming how cool it is that she has jewelry on her teeth. She checked out well and doesn't need another checkup for the standard 6 months.

This guy was my most skeptical of the process. He gripped my hand very tightly and almost threw a fit about getting into the chair. When he heard the hygenist ask if he likes the movie "Cars" (his favorite movie on the face of the earth...KACHOW!) he immediately sat down to choose between Chick Hicks, Lightening McQueen and Sally...Of course he chose Lightening McQueen and was all smiles from there on out.

Breezy was excited to pick Snow White as well, but got even more excited when we told her to pick something different than Avery and she saw Belle! She was ooohing and aaaahhhhing over her brand new very own tooth brush...with Belle on it.

She liked to "kiss" the suction and wear those shades. The Dentist commented on her beautiful shiny teeth and how she checked out perfectly as well...Whew! No follow up appt.'s once again.

Avery stood by Bennett to watch all of the action. He did very good and chose the Banana flavor flouride. He too enjoyed kissing the suction. He thought it was especially funny when the hygenist squirted water from her hose across the room.

The Dentist had some bad news for us while checking out his teeth. He has a cavity :( It is a surface one though, so he will not need novicane thank goodness. He grinds he teeth and clenches them so he has very deep grooves which make the perfect little hiding spots for germs and bacteria.

All in all the visit went great. We had no major fears and the twins think that the dentist is awesome. They cannot wait to go back to pick out their prizes. Let's hope they always feel this way :)

Cupcakes

The theme of our week centered around Cupcakes. In all sorts of shapes and sizes, metaphorical and real...the word cupcake was used and it was ohhh so sweet.

For Christmas Avery was given this amazing gift from her Grandma and Grandpa Fowble. It is a little kids cookbook that comes with 6 silicone cups in which you make many delightful little dishes. The kids picked out Banana Chocolate Chip muffins so we went to work.

Bennett had a great time mixing and mashing. He did a fantastic job smashing and smooshing as he called it.

Breezy loved the colored cups and kept repeating that the red one belongs to her.

These three little cupcakes decided to dress up and came downstairs to surprise me. The girls were given these traditional Indian clothes from our friends Sree and Sameer and Bennett was just clowning around.

This past week, Avery celebrated her half birthday at school. Since her birthday is in the summertime, her preschool celebrates it at the half so she was very excited about this. They say that if you want to bring a treat you can. We went to the store and I told her that she got to pick out the treat for her school friends. I wheeled her by the cupcakes and she said yeah, lets get those. So we packed them into the cart. I had a few more items to get so we tooled around the store for a bit. In the cold foods section we came across single gelatin cups which were apparently so appealing that she told me to get rid of the cupcakes...no wait, we can eat the cupcakes and give the kids at school the jello! So, for her 1/2 birthday, she brought Jello.

We were the topping on this cupcake. Our new chair...bought straight off of craigslist...with an interesting story that goes along with it. It fit perfectly in the spot that it was intended for and will unofficially be our new story time chair.

Bria calls it our "spinning couch." Which is so cute...but troublesome since the #1 rule is: No spinning the chair around. Try telling that to three kids who are super excited about this awesome new spinning couch!

Avery was invited to her dance friend, Keira's birthday party and it had a princess theme. I have never been to such a well thought out, creative, fantastic party. The adults were dressed in gowns with tiara's and glitter makeup, the kitchen was filled with pink balloon's, and each girl had their own place with a custom purse, gloves to be bedazzled, tiara and wand. It was truly a magical scene.

The four dance friends: Kamryn, Sophia, Avery and Keira. Strike a pose you darling princesses!

Cupcake: noun: A little cake baked in a cuplike mold.

Confined!

We have been stuck in the house for most of the last week because of the frigid Minnesota temperatures and nasty weather. The days do tend to get long and we find ourselves going stir crazy. With three kids, being stuck in the house for a week borders on insanity.

We do puzzles, play games, and watch movies. Not to mention everything else that you can think of to do while stuck indoors.

The kids got new sunglasses and they have been wearing them non-stop ever since. The suckers were for successfully going potty on the toilet that day. The twins are finally potty trained and have very few accidents which is wonderful for me since it was tough going there for a while with two kids making messes in their undies every day..multiple times a day!

I recently came across our magnetic fridge phonic's from Leap Frog and decided to put it on our front door. Our refrigerator is stainless steel

so nothing sticks to it. Bennett spends a lot of time each day singing "A" says "Ah" every letter makes a sound, "A" says "Ah". It is fun to watch him learn.

Our neighbor introduced me to a wonderful website called Starfall. Avery spends time on that site each day learning letter combinations and sounds in hopes to learn to read. She really enjoys the exercises and begs for my computer.

Bria loves reading. She always wants to read stories and do crafts. So, I can usually find ways

to entertain them....and when all else fails, there is the bouncy house!!! While it is a pain to set up in our basement, the kids truly have a blast and work out some major wiggles by jumping.

The biggest challenge is keeping the kids happy with eachother under such stress of not going anywhere. I took this picture on Saturday and the twins were loving on one another. It is so

sweet to hear Benny say, "I love you Beeah!"

A look back at 2009

This picture was taken in January. She had recently gotten a hair cut and was all about curly Sue. It is amazing to see the difference a single year can make in the face of a child. All of the pictures on this post start with one from Jan. 2009 and end with one taken at Christmas time.

Avery is our child wonder. Not a day goes by that I am not amazed by this child. She has a tender heart, she is kind, she is a quick wit and she can hold her own. She can put a smile on everyone's face and she will melt your heart with her quips and sentiments.

Avery turned 4 and had a Tinkerbell party at the Como Zoo in July. We had sub sandwiches, saw the Sparky the Sea lion show and Grandma Fish paid to have her face painted and her hair done all whacky and hot pink. It was truly the first highlight of her birthday which was soon followed up by the gift from Grandma and Grandpa Fowble which was her very own bounce house! The kids have enjoyed that gift almost as much as I have :)

This summer, Avery took swimming lessons at the Shakopee pool. She was awesome at it and had no fear. It was amazing to watch her swim under the water at only 4! She also learned to ride her bike without training wheels on her birthday. She picked it up very quickly and was off riding down the street with neighbor Brandon everyday.

We did gymnastics with her as well and I think that she really enjoyed it. But, when the summer was coming to an end I asked her to choose between Dance and Gymnastics and after a few back and forths she settled on dance. We signed her up and she started back at Studio 4 in the fall and she is absolutely loving it. Her BFF Sophia is in the class with her which is always a good thing and her new friends Kameryn and Keira from last year are there with her as well.

This summer, Avery, Bria and I took a trip to visit the Fowble's in Kansas City. The girls and I had a blast on our girls only trip and Avery loved her together time with Grandma Janet. It is amazing how the dynamic changes when there are only 2 kids involved.

Avery is in her last year of preschool at Shepherd of the Lake. We have truly enjoyed the program and Avery has excelled both socially and academically. The addition of faith to her learning has proven to be inspiring as both Chadd and I stare in awe as our 4 year old recites bible verses and dinnertime prayers. She will start Kindergarten in the fall in the new district that we moved into. We are still not sure whether or not we will do full day or half day but I am sure that we will do what is right for all of us as it somehow always turns out that way.

Bennett is our handsome little man who always seems to find himself in a heap of trouble because his curiousity takes a hold of him and there is no stopping that. He is bold and articulate and thinks about 90 miles an hour so his words come out at an octive higher than most. He enjoys boy things as he is a boy through and through.

Rarely can the girls build something that does not bear witness to the destruction of Benny J! It makes daily activites quite challenging and most of the time quite comical. It is so amazing to witness gender differences that are somehow just part of the fabric of an individual child.

Benny turned 2 this year complete with a Mickey and Minnie Mouse birthday party. He sure had a blast eating all of his cake and displaying it proudly on his face for all to see.

We put him in gymnastics with Bria to see if his energy could be put to good use in a place where virtually nothing or no one could get hurt. He excelled at the bars and really enjoyed going every week. They would put little cones in front of the rings and the kids would hang from the rings and use their legs to kick down the cones. It was really funny one day when we were out and Bennett saw a cone. He picked it up and exclaimed, "It's a kicker!" I love how his little mind works.

This summer, Bennett got to have his 2 week trip out west with Grandma and Grandpa Fish. They went hiking and camping all across the western United States. I'm not quite sure what if anything he remembers from the trip other than the one thing that is certain because you can catch him exclaiming it, "2 Weeks!"

Bria is our little sweet heart. She has many nicknames which I find odd because I never thought I would be one to dole them out. She goes by Bria, Bria Gia, Bria G, Peep, Tushy, Breez, Bri, Bee-ah and most commonly Breezy. She is bright and smart and an actress at heart. Her facial expressions alone are enough to charm any sucker who has a 2 second conversation with her. Watching her grow over this past year has truly been a delight.

Bria tried out Gymnastics this summer and she was pretty darn good at it. Her little body is more pliable than a gumby I swear and it is hilarious to watch her do the splits. She is tiny and compact and as flexible as they come.

She also decided to give dance a try this fall. The first few classes went well. But, by the third class she lost interest and it seemed that going potty and playing out of the studio with the older girls was more enticing. She exclaimed, "I don't want to go to dance EVER!" in her sassy little way complete with facial expressions of disgust, arms gestures and hip thrusts...okay okay Bria, we got the picture!

This year she will be heading on her trip with Grandma and Grandpa Fish on a train out to Washington D.C. She knows all about it and will tell anyone who wants to know that she is going on a train with her grandmother.

In the fall, she will start preschool. It will be wonderful for me to be able to spend some time with her and Bennett in a class room setting as our busy lives have not allowed for us to put them into any ECFE classes thus far.

Looking back at 2009, it seems to me that our theme was change. Each month had its own triumphs and challenges as I am sure most months do for anyone. We started off the new year with spirits high excited for what was to come. I was in my second month back at Ingenix working full time. Chadd had just been appointed project manager for a very large project that was slated to go live at the end of the year. The kids were dropped off each morning with Miss Mensen who adored our children as they adored her. With the economy in such a crunch we were excited to learn that his travel would be slim to none for the first part of the year. That sentiment actually remained true and his first work related trip did not happen until June. Before June however, he was able to travel in April to Las Vegas for one of his high school friends' bachelor party and we also traveled to Cleveland for the Wedding. Over the course of the year, he was able to travel to France twice, Tokyo and Melbourne Australia. His project went live in November and was deemed a success.

I was busy at work meeting new friends. Besides the bonus of having my very best friend, Sara, at work with me each and every day, I met two awesome women, Maria and Holly, who I have grown extremely close to and who I am so blessed to have in my life. I spent most of my time doing my job, working out and chatting with my 3 girlfriends at work. In hindsight, I had it made :)

Shortly before spring, our daycare lady Miss Mensen had had another baby and decided that she would not be offering a preschool curriculum at her daycare the following year. Since Chadd and I had talked about possibly moving towards Chanhassen or Minnetonka, we decided that a new daycare was in order. We found a wonderful daycare in Eden Prairie and our kids enjoyed the wide open spaces and daily trips that they experienced with Miss Theresa.

In July, we took a family trip to Wisconsin dells where we had one of the most fun times in recent Fowble Five History. I hope to make the Dells a yearly or at least every other year summer time trip.

Towards the end of the summer, after numerous "signs" that maybe I had come to the end of my journey with Ingenix, I decided to quit my job and head back home with the kids. I was fortunate to be able to get my old job back and I had a wonderful 8 month break from the 24/7 grind of being a stay at home mom.

After I had quit my job and we took the kids out of daycare, we decided that there just wasn't enough on our plate and we put our house up for sale. After an astonishing 5 days on the market, our house sold and we were in desperate need of a new place to call home. Chadd and I have very different search methods and our top 5 criteria were not matching in order of importance. We went over many options, scenario's, and about 45 home showings before we found "the one." We are excited to say that our new home in Carver feels like it was meant to be ours and that it was made for our family. The kids are enjoying the freedom that a cul-de-sac gives you(and so am I :)). We have trees in our backyard, the perfect amount of space for everyone and wonderful new neighbors who welcomed us immediately.

The move and the hustle and bustle of the Holidays made the end of our year fly by rather quickly. We are slowly furnishing the houseand trying to find a place for every little thing that had a place at the old house thanks to Chadd's expertise and 5 1/2 years.

I am looking forward to a slower pace this year. More time with my family and the kids before Avery will start Kindergarten in the fall. Enjoying the new house and all that this beautiful area has to offer. Simply a fresh start for our family. I hope that you all have thoughts on what this new year will bring and hopes to make this year exceptional and better than the last.

Cheers to you and yours as we embark upon 2010!