Jake & Lily

Jake just loves his sister and can't get enough of her. We were playing in the twins' bedroom after lunch today and so I brought Lily in there and propped her up on one of their pillows. Jake got down and started playing with her - it was too cute! I tried to snap some candid pics, but as soon as he saw the camera, he had to pose :-). Oh well, they're still cute together.

Backyard Fun

We LOVE our backyard and spend time out there everyday. I don't know what I'd do if we weren't lucky enough to have such a great set-up. We have to have several things set up to entertain these two, but they have a blast. Here's a few pics from a typical afternoon in the Thornell household.

Abby LOVES to dump water on Jake's head. Such a fun game and as you can tell, she's very proud of herself too.

Kicking - another all time favorite activity

We are all about jumping. And Abby got some major air! Notice Jake standing in the background, that's the "starting" point, they'd take off running towards the pool and jump in. Fun times!

We love our swing set, but the slide gets hot in the middle of the day, so I thought it would be a good idea to cool it off with the sprinkler and make a slip n slide. Good idea, but we need a landing pad at the bottom. The kids SHOOT off that thing at least 3 feet and hit the ground (in this case face first :-).
We jump off everything!

Awe - my sweetie

Leapin' Lily!

At our four month appointment, our pedi said we could bring out the jumpers, bumbos and excersaucers. John got everything out of the attic and I just now got the jumparoo all cleaned up for Lily. She fits a little better in it than the twins. I had to put 3 towels on the ground so their little legs wouldn't dangle, but she fits just perfectly. She'll be a little jumping bean in no time!

Not 'till your chores are done

Jake is my big helper around the house. I've found that it's actually better to let him help me, even if it takes an hour to do something with him vs. 15 minutes alone. Otherwise he's in trouble in no time flat and that's no fun for any of us.
Cooking is his favorite activity, but next to that is unloading the dishwasher. He's gotten pretty good at it and has learned that water sometimes collects in cups and bowls and it must be emptied in the sink before the item is put away. His job as you can see is to get the things out of the dishwasher, empty the water and then hand them to me to put away in the cabinets. He's a fast unloader though so you better be ready!

Recycled Crayons!

The twins are still into breaking and occasionally eating crayons so we have lots of little, bitty crayon pieces around. This past weekend I decided to recycle those pieces and make new crayons! I also decided to be really green and "cook" them outside with the sun. I had a lot of fun doing it, although next time I'll probably just cook them in the oven since my attention span is just as short as the kids :-).

First I covered a plate with foil and filled four cookie cutters with all the crayon pieces. Then I set it outside in a sunny spot for a few hours. Once they were melted I brought them inside to cool and just popped them out of the cookie cutters.

When the kids woke up from their nap I brought them out, but they thought they were stamps at first. They finally figured out they were regular crayons just a bit different than they were used to. Way cool!

Little Cookie Monsters

As promised, the kids and I made cookies this week. I opted to do it on Saturday so John could take pics this time. When the kids got up from their nap, I quickly made the dough and then set out bowls of sprinkles, cinnamon and sugar. Originally I was going to let them use cookie cutters, but I figured we'd just roll balls around this time.
Abby got a few sprinkles in her mouth and then she was ready to go. I'd hand her a ball and she'd roll it around and toss it on the cookie sheet. She was doing really well. She loved the red sprinkles and wanted all her cookies to be dipped in the red.
Jake couldn't get the balls on the cookie sheet. Instead he kept shoving the dough in his mouth. I think he ate three or four cookie balls before he finally decided he'd had enough. Then he was a cookie dipping machine! I'd give him a ball, then he'd dip in all three bowls, then put it on the cookie sheet. The kids and I made 3 dozen cookies in no time flat (about 15 minutes I think).
I just made simple sugar cookies so they cook up in just 8 minutes. Perfect for a toddlers attention span. Although by the time the cookies were done, the kids were full from the dough. Jake only at 1 cookie and never asked for another (HUGE!) and Abby just took one bite of her cookie.
Oh well, more for mommy!

He's eaten a little too much dough!

Notice the tongue...just like daddy. Love it!

After we finished the cookies, Abby decided to eat the leftover sprinkles :-)

The Piano Man's Song

My mom brought my old keyboard up this past week for the kids. I'm surprised she still had it, I think it's 20 years old! I had to clean out the batteries and replace them, but it still works great!
Jake is our piano man and I knew he'd love the keyboard. We set it up one afternoon and they had a blast on it. They loved pushing the buttons, keys, etc. We finally had to put it up though because they had a tough time sharing :-)