Meet Spike!

We're excited to announce the newest member of our family!
Yesterday, Daddy took us to the pet store and we picked out a fish to bring home. We named him Spike.
We have enjoyed watching him swim, and it's fun to watch him eat! It was a rainy weekend, so it was a good weekend to get to know our new fish. Of course, we still do our daily chore of feeding Cheyenne. We love our cuddly dog.
When we were watching Spike swim yesterday afternoon, we saw Mommy come home from her Moms of Multiples garage sale - she put a teeter totter in the backyard! We were excited for our new toy, so we put our shoes & coats on and tried it out! Of course, we just tried it out for a minute or two...then we decided to swing since the rain finally stopped for a short time and we were able to swing. We enjoyed being outside for just a short time, but didn't get to play with our teeter totter much. When Noah wanted to teeter totter, Hannah wanted to swing. When Hannah decided to teeter totter, Noah wanted to swing.
That night, we went to the grocery store to buy some bananas and got a super cool cart! It was a car. It was almost as cool as the store that has little carts. (The store with little carts is our favorite because we get to push our own carts through the store)
After we "drove" around the store, we went to see our friends Trevor & Dylan. We played & watched movies with them until it was time for us to go home and go to bed. What a day! We were worn out!
The past week has been fun. We had a lot of nice days, so we got to play outside at daycare every day. We love getting outside to play!
Tuesday was even so nice that Mommy put on roller blades and took us out in the stroller. When we got back, she turned on the sprinkler and we ran through it. We were wet, but it was so much fun! Then, we went in the house to find Daddy made our favorite meal - MOSTACCIOLI!
Have a great week. We'll keep busy and enjoy our lives!
Noah & Hannah

We can't believe it - our babies have done preschool screening!
They're growing up so fast.
This morning, we woke up to a lot of thunder & lightning - enough to knock out power for a few hours. Luckily, Noah & Hannah slept through it despite the fact that Cheyenne paced the floor wanting to be outside and check out the big booms. When the kids woke up, we told them that we were going to get ready and go to school. (Preschool Screening was held at the school we took ECFE classes at last year, so Noah & Hannah associated that school with their classes.) They were so excited! When it was finally time to go, Noah appeared in the ktichen with backpacks for each of them, so they strapped on their little backpacks (full of a coloring book, crayons and a container of Lucky Charms) and got in the car. We went into the school and found our room, and that's when Noah decided he was shy. He stood outside the door and wouldn't come in for a while, but after a trip to the bathroom, he decided it was OK to take off his coat and go play with Hannah. After a short playtime, two teachers came to talk to Mom, then took Noah & Hannah back to their offices to test them. I could hear them shouting out answers and getting excited when they completed a task successfully. It didn't take long for them to be done, and while I talked to the screeners, the kids enjoyed the toys in the waiting area. They started with the dollhouse, but ended up sharing the kitchen and cooking up a big feast!
Hannah did very well - she excelled at her tasks in comparison with children her age. Noah also did quite well, but since boys develop later, his fine motor skills, balance and attention span need a little more time to develop to the point where they can approve him for kindergarten. We'll go back next year to check his progress, but it's good to know both kids are doing well for 3 year olds.
The kids had a fun weekend. Saturday, we played inside and outside, including having to hurry out of the house to search for our dog who had gotten out of the fence! Noah & Hannah were very worried about her, but were helpful in searching. We found her 3 doors down after driving around a few blocks. After we found Cheyenne, Daddy came to pick us up and take us out to eat! Noah & Hannah got to eat with Mom & Dad's volleyball friends - they thought they were so cool sitting at the big table with tall chairs. After an afternoon visit from Daddy's cousin & aunt, Noah & Hannah got to go to the park to fly their kites. It was a beautiful day and they'd been wanting to fly their kites ever since they got them from their cousins at Easter. Of course, kites were nothing compared to the allure of the playground, so Mom conceded after a short round of kite flying (and after Noah let go of Hannah's kite and had to carefully reel it back in from a fenced off city garage property). The kids really enjoyed all the slides & climbers in the playground, and were much more independent than our last visit last year. Noah really loves slides. Hannah likes slides, but is much more cautious especially when the slide takes a turn or twist. She liked the monkey rings though - although Mom helped her, she held most of her weight by herself. Both kids used their time at the park wisely, going from slide to climber to sandbox - they didn't waste their time swinging, since we have a swing set at home!
Sunday, the kids were excited to go back to Sunday School - it's been a couple of weeks with Easter & Palm Sunday festivities taking up the Sunday School time for two weeks. After Sunday School, we took them to Ron & Carol's Sandbox for some sand volleyball. Last year, we didn't have very good luck being on the court at the same time, since one of the kids usually needed our attention. It's nice that they're more independent now. We were both able to play volleyball while Noah & Hannah played with all the other kids there (out of 9 kids there, there were 3 sets of twins!) They played tag, in the hammock, in the sandbox and in the treehouse, but when the adults stepped off the court, all the kids swarmed the court! They just wanted to play on the volleyball court, so they had fun.
After such a nice week of getting out to play while at daycare and over the weekend, Noah & Hannah have slept well at night! I think they're already beginning to appreciate spring in Minnesota.
Have a great week!
Go Twins. :-)
Mom (Shari)

Happy Easter!

That Easter Bunny sure was busy this weekend, and so were we!
We had a fun week - Wednesday at daycare we got to spend all day watching the house next door get knocked down by BIG tractors. How cool! We are just excited to get outside and play, but this was a great bonus to see the house demolition. We are tired of being cooped up inside. We take every opportunity at home and daycare to be outside.
We got new swings over the winter, and we're LOVING the big kid swings at home.
Friday, we got to drive to Grandma's house. It was a LONG drive, but we were excited to see Grandma, Angie & Grandpa when we got there. Grandma & Grandpa still have just a little bit of snow left in ditches & shady spots, but the flooding around them is amazing to see. We don't live near any rivers, but we drove past several that are really full and spilling right out of their banks! Dani, Jason, Lauren & Ben came to Grandma's later so we got to see them, too.
Saturday, we went into town to the park where the Easter bunny had hidden a whole bunch of eggs - we helped him collect them and got candy for our efforts. Then, Mom & Dad let us play at the playground. After that, we went to Great Grandma's for dinner, then the Easter Bunny hid MORE eggs for us. YEAH!
After we opened all our eggs and got all the fun toys & candy out of them, Mom took us for a walk to look at tractors. Most of the tractors were different than what was in our neighborhood to fix our roads last year, but they were still HUGE and COOL! But, that wore Noah out because he fell asleep on Great Grandma's couch after that. There were so many people there, he was really tired to sleep through all that!
When we went back to Grandma's we opened more presents from our aunts, uncle and grandma & grandpa. And were so tired, we fell asleep right away when Mom & Dad put us to bed.
This morning, Mom and Dad told us they heard the Easter Bunny INSIDE Grandma & Grandpa's house last night - he filled our Easter Buckets with more eggs, a puzzle, cool new toothbrush and new umbrella for each of us. That tricky Easter Bunny HID our stuff from us so we had to look behind chairs and inside grandma's tent to get our stuff.
Great Grandma, Cathy & Jim came over to eat dinner at Grandma's today, so we got to see them today. After dinner, Daddy left on his motorcycle. We were ready to go home after he left. But, we had to make sure Mommy remembered Cheyenne! We think she was just kidding when she said she was going to leave our puppy at Grandma's, but we helped call Cheyenne and remind Mommy to let Cheyenne in the car. It was a long drive, but we were happy to get home and happy to fall asleep in our own beds tonight.
Happy Easter!
Noah & Hannah