Haloween Fun

We had a very fun weekend.
Friday, we had a party at daycare with all our friends. We dressed up in our costumes, danced to Halloween songs and shared treats with friends. When we came home, we decorated pumpkins - we colored on ours, then helped Mommy carve a REALLY BIG pumpkin. (it was the first time Mommy had ever carved a pumpkin, so we helped her decide on what design to make. We told her we wanted it to have a silly face!)
Saturday at skating, we got to play with balloons! Noah got up and kicked his balloon and inched across the ice. Hannah was a little scared to join the class, but had a lot of fun when the teachers finally got her on the ice. She stood for a long time, though she's afraid to move her feet and walk.
After skating, we went to Cub for a Halloween party. When we walked in, we got to see our Sunday School teacher driving into the parking lot. He was excited to see us, and we were excited to see him. Cub had gift bags we could color with apples and candy, a bride painted jack-o-lanterns on our faces and we even got a cookie. Yum! After we got home, we played for a while then went to see our friends Anika, Piper and Deion. There were LOTS of kids there to play in their new home. We had a lot of fun and were sad to leave. But, when we got home, we did a kids bonfire!
Daddy made a bonfire just for us. Our neighbor Griffin came to join us shortly after we started it, and our neighbor even came over with her dog Lucy for a short time. We got to roast marshmallows and have Smores. It was so cool! We love bonfires!
This morning, we sang in church. After Sunday School, we stood in front of church and sang a song. We tried to follow the words, and did a nice job standing up in front of the church and being good singers (and looking cute). After church, we went to Menards, then came home to play with Griffin for a short time. After we played, we put on our costumes to trick or treat! YEAH! We went trick-or-treating with Griffin around 2 blocks this year (last year, we went around 1 block). Then we had supper and went to visit our friends Trevor & Dillon. We love to go play with them! We got to go trick-or-treating with them for a short time, but got cold and were very happy to go in and play with the boys.
We were very exhausted by the time we got home! We had a really fun weekend, though. This holiday is really becoming a cool thing - but we're looking forward to Thanksgiving and then OUR BIRTHDAYS as the next major holiday for us. We'll have so much fun on our birthdays, and lots of fun at Christmas time.
Have a great week!
Noah & Hannah

How they've grown

For the past 3 years, we've taken the kids to Apple Jack's Orchard to play, see the animals, ride the tractor ride and take a few pictures by the river. There is one tree that we perched the kids in the first year we went, thinking it was a cute picture. We put them in that same tree last year and this year, just to see how they've grown in comparison with the little tree. It's fun to see the progression of how fast they've grown since they were 22 months old to now, almost 4 years old!

You can also see the progression at our photo album:
http://stephenandshari.com/yr4/oct10/slides/hannah_tree_22oct.html
and
http://stephenandshari.com/yr4/oct10/slides/noah_tree_22oct.html

Happy Halloween

We're exhausted after a big week!
Monday night Mommy let us go through a toy catalog and write our names on everything we wanted! There is REALLY cool toys in stores - we hope we can have ALL the toys we want!
Friday Mommy & Daddy stayed home with us. We got ready to go to an apple orchard, ran a couple of errands, stopped to eat then drove to the orchard. We'd been there before, so we knew all the fun stuff they had - we slid down a haybale hill on slides, crawled through a hollow log, saw chickens, goats & horses and pretended to drive a car. We also got to go down by the river and mommy took our pictures. We had so much fun - we would have LOVED to stay longer, but we couldn't stay all day. We got to ride in a cow train then went and picked out a big pumpkin for Halloween.
On our way home, Daddy stopped at a park with a GIANT play area! There were slides, steps, a tire swing and a hug rope net area where we climbed for a long time. It was such a nice day, we didn't want to go home, but we had to.
Saturday morning, we had ice skating class. Daddy went to play volleyball while we skated. We got to see TWO garages in the rink - they had this big machine that Mommy called a Zamboni that made snow on the ice. It was very cool! Hannah didn't want to skate, but the teacher told her that she could just watch. One teacher helped her up and she stood a long time, though she was hesitant to follow the group when they were dancing. Noah tried to follow the group, but had a hard time getting back up when he fell. Both of us did a great job keeping up with the class. We're hoping to stand up on the ice soon so we can work on moving forward to skate.
After skating, we got to stop at volleyball to see Daddy. We were so happy to see him, though we also got to see Diva Carol, Diva Renee, Aaron, Ron and lots of other people we know. Then Mommy let us play on the playground for a while before we went home.
When Daddy got done with volleyball, we put on our Halloween Costumes and went trick or treating at the mall. There were so many people there and we got a lot of candy. Shortly after we got home and ate, we went to a party with other twins and their families. There was dancing, crafts, pizza, ring toss, face painting and pin the nose on the pumpkin. It was so much fun we were sad to go but we had to go grocery shopping.
Today, we got up and talked to Grandpa on the computer for a while, then drove to our Aunt Angela's place to celebrate Michael's birthday. We got to play with our cousins, watch Michael open gifts and have cake & ice cream. After our bath, we played a fun game of Hide & Seek with Mommy & Daddy before we went to bed. We were exhausted after such a busy weekend that we fell asleep quickly.
We're looking forward to trick or treating next weekend! Happy Halloween!
Noah & Hannah

Ice Skating

We started skating lessons this week!
Mommy bought us skates a few weeks ago, so we tried them on a few times at home. They were hard to stand up in.
Saturday morning, we got up and Mommy & Daddy told us we were going to get dressed and go ice skating. I looked out the window and said "But, it's not snowing Mommy!" Daddy took us to a building that had ice rinks in it. So, we got to put on our skates and get on the ice. It was slippery and still hard to stand, so we started off just sitting on the ice and watching our teachers skate. By the end of our class, we were able to stand up! We get to go back and practice next week.


After we got done with skating, we went to see Mommy play volleyball. It was fun - we got to see the Divas and play with some of our friends.
When Mommy got done, we went out to eat then to Menards. We looked at grills, then went to the Halloween stuff. There was a Pacman pumpkin that I loved and a scary skeleton with red eyes that talked and scared me, so we went to look at all the Christmas stuff because it wasn't scary. It was so cool! We are very excited about Halloween, but Christmas will be so much fun! Mom had a Christmas toy catalog and we wanted all of the stuff on the pages she looked at. I want to get Hannah a Minnie Mouse, and Hannah wants to get me Buzz Lightyear everything. Mommy promised that we could each look at the catalog and circle everything we wanted. Yeah!
I'm really trying to write my letters. At daycare, Sue helps me, but I've started to work on writing my own letters with no help. It's so hard to know how to start! Mommy bought me a Spiderman book to help me draw my letters, so it's a treat when I get to do my spiderman book. Hannah is working on her lower case letters, so Mom bought her a book to help her with her letters. Soon, we'll be able to write all the words we can spell!
Have a fun week! We hope to.
Noah

Fall Colors

Tuesday morning when I was getting in the car, I noticed the neighbor's trees were turning red and yellow. They were so pretty, so I told Mom to look at the pretty trees. They were green all summer! Mom said that trees turn colors in the fall when it gets colder out - so I will look for red, yellow, orange and purple trees. That is very cool! (yes that is my phrase when I like something!)
Thursday we had a fun bath - we used our foamy letters to spell all sorts of things like DINOSAUR, FINGER, RED, BLUE...we even saw how rhyming words worked with TRUCK, LUCK, PUCK and BUCK.
Friday Mom picked us up from daycare. She brought Cheyenne, but Cheyenne was so naughty for jumping out of the car and running in Sue's backyard! We left right away to get to Grandma's house. We drove a very long time, stopped at Subway to eat then we got to Grandma & Grandpa's when it was black dark out! Daddy had driven out in front of us on his motorcycle, so we were happy to see him after a long drive.
Saturday, we got up and got 4 wheeler rides from Aunt Angie. That was very cool. Noah helped Grandpa put the camper trailer away behind the shed. After we had dinner, we played with Lauren & Ben (our cousins) for a while. We took pictures with them, but we just wanted to play. We weren't really in the mood for pictures on such a hot day.
After Grandpa got home from work, he took us out to the field to ride in a combine! We drove on dirty roads and when we got there, we hopped in a tractor with Grandpa to take a grain cart across the field. When we got there, I went in the combine with Mommy's Uncle Roger and Lauren. That was so neat! While I rode in the combine, Mommy drove the tractor with Noah & Ben. Then, we switched spots so Noah could ride in the combine with Ben. While they rode in the tractor, Mommy let me climb the ladder on the grain cart and see all the soybeans that I helped to pick from the field. Then, Mommy & Grandma showed me the bean pods and how the beads were inside.
Grandpa came back to the field in a REALLY BIG truck and filled it with more beans, but not before letting me drive the tractor. Then I got to RIDE in the really big truck to take the beans to the elevator with Grandpa Lauren & Ben. Noah stayed behind for one more ride in the combine. When we were at the elevator, we got to lay in the beans and play.
Grandma met us on the road on our way back to the field. She took us home while Grandpa stayed and helped uncle Roger.
Today, we put on our Halloween costumes and trick or treated! We were just going to secretly dress up and knock on Grandma's door and trick or treat, but then we got in Grandma's truck and drove over to see our Great Grandmas, Aunt Cathy and Mom's Aunt Linda. I didn't have my Tinkerbell Wings and Noah didn't have his Doctor hat but we had fun anyway. We got some money for our bank account and some candy.
After a full weekend, we drove all the way home. We had a lot of fun combining beans, but we're happy to be home. We sure have something to talk about at daycare tomorrow!
Hannah

We had a big week.
Wednesday morning, we got to make our very first visit to the dentist. We were very good. Hannah was eager to please the dentist and her assistant, and Noah was very curious about how the magic chair worked. He even got to make it go up and down with his feet! We got to take pictures of the teeth UNDERNEATH our teeth (and we even saw them, although the pictures looked really funny!) and got toys, fun dinosaur flossers and new toothbrushes.
Friday, we were very good at daycare because we knew we got to go to the Barnyard Boogie Dance if we were good! We got to wear our Halloween costumes from last year, so Noah wore his Lightning McQueen Pit Crew outfit and Hannah wore her Cinderella dress and crown. We even got to take our Aunt Angie! She came to our house right before the dance so she came with us. That was so fun! We were worn out before the dance was over, though, despite the fact that we took naps at daycare
Angie had to go to school on Saturday, and Daddy went to play volleyball, so we went to the farmer's market to buy flowers, apples and pumpkins. Noah picked out apples and both of us picked out our own pumpkins. We also bought flowers for Grandma. When we got home, GRANDMA was walking down our sidewalk! So we could just give her the flowers we bought for her. She loved them and we were so excited to see her! She helped Mommy paint but also played with us a little bit. We showed off our Halloween costumes to her. :-)
Sunday, Grandma and Daddy took us to church and Sunday School. We made door signs in Sunday school and had so much fun with TJ and Miss Penny. When we got home, Angie was there, so she read to us. Then, we put on our Halloween costumes to "practice" trick-or-treating to Angie. She gave us a whole bunch of cool treats in our Halloween buckets!
We got to play with Angie all afternoon while Grandma helped mom finish painting. We were sad when they had to go home, but we had a really fun weekend with them!
Stay warm - it's starting to get chilly!
Noah & Hannah