Monday, Mommy put up our horsy swing. We've been looking forward to this for a long time, and now it is up in place of our tire swing. Yay! We were so excited to ride the horse.
It was a fun week - a week we looked forward to Grandma's visit. She came on Thursday night because Sue was closed on Friday. We were so excited to see her! Friday was a fun day, playing with Grandma. She took us to the park, then we had corndogs for lunch and swam in our pool in the afternoon. It was great. Then, Mommy & Daddy went out to dinner so she stayed with us all night and put us to bed, too.
Saturday, Grandma helped Mommy paint the deck and work on the garage all day. After lunch, we got to open half-birthday gifts. Grandma gave us new outfits and super soakers! We immediately put on our swimsuits and checked out our new supersoakers. We shot everything in the backyard with our super soakers. After that, Daddy had to go to a work party, so we helped Mommy paint the garage while Grandma finished the deck.
For helping, Mommy took us out to Perkins! Yummy! We wore our new outfits from Grandma & Grandpa. Daddy came home in time to kiss us goodnight Saturday night.
Sunday was an exciting day. We packed our bags to go spend a week with Grandma & Grandpa. We got our suitcases all packed and were excited to drive home with Grandma and see Grandpa!
We did call Mom & Dad to make sure they were OK when we got to Grandma's. Grandma & Grandpa took us to Dairy Queen for supper & treats. Mom & Dad must really be missing us by now.
We're looking forward to a fun week at Grandma's house!
We'll see if we can make it all week without needing to go home.
Noah & Hannah

Happy Father's Day! and Happy Half Birthday to us!

Happy Father's Day to an awesome father! We love our daddy!
Monday we got to stay home and hang out with Daddy. He had to work from home, so we tried to be good. It helped when we got to watch a movie and play games on our favorite website - pbskids.org! We even got to go to physical therapy with him. We played on his iPad and read books like good kids, though Noah got stuck in a chair and the therapist had to save him!
Wednesday, Daddy picked us up from daycare and made microwave meals for us so we could get going quickly. It was raining when we left home, but the rain cleared up by the time we got to the Golden Valley Fire Department open house. It was so cool - there were fire trucks, police cars (even their "old time" police car!), ambulances and a SWAT van. We got to play with the fire hoses and put out pretend fires. They also had a fire dog there (not a real one - he was just a fake dog. a guy in a costume) and a real police dog. (real like Cheyenne!) so we got to pet a police dog. We got to try to hold one of the SWAT vests - it was so heavy, we could hardly hold it between the two of us! it must be heavy because we're STRONG!
Thursday, our aunt Angela stopped by on her way through the cities. She went to pick up our cousin Alexander from Grandma Lois, so we got to see Angela & play with Alex for a short time. We had pizza with them and played in the sandbox with Alex.
Saturday morning, we got up and played for a while, until Mom & Dad decided to go to the Farmer's Market. We drove down and Daddy got AMAZING parking right alongside the people selling plants. There were lots of fruits, vegetables and flowers there. I loved the flowers! Daddy bought some bushes to put in our backyard. He loves bleeding heart bushes and said they like our backyard because it's so shady. Mommy bought strawberries & peas, which aren't my favorite, but Noah loved the berries! We also got cheese curds - we couldn't wait to dig into the cheese! Yummy!!
After that Daddy brought us up through Minneapolis to see where the tornado had been a few weeks ago, and then he took us to eat! I almost blew it - I said I wanted chicken nuggets & not Subway, so Daddy started to drive home. But, he decided to take us to the VFW. We love the VFW! We can color pictures, dance and eat! Unfortunately, there were no planes taking off or landing out the windows of the VFW, but it was still fun. Daddy even promised us Dairy Queen blizzards when we ate all our food!
When we got home, it was raining, so we laid down for quiet time (we played princesses in our room. Noah was the beast and the prince while I was the princesses). After quiet time, we had our snack and mommy took us to Kmart. I got a big girl car seat! Mommy was showing me car seats on the internet and I told her I wanted the pink one, and I got it! I wanted one like Noah's but she said I'm too small. She said I need to weigh more so I had to have this one. I still love it! I have a big girl booster seat now. She put it in when I was asleep Saturday night.
This morning, Noah got Daddy's father's day gifts for him right when Daddy got up. We remembered it was father's day! We made gifts for him at daycare. Our morning didn't go very well, though. Daddy & Mommy wanted so find books to return to the library and we couldn't find them. We looked everywhere and even had to clean up the house to try to find the books. We finally gave up, so Mommy said no more library books since we've lost 2 this month and lost another one about a year ago. Bummer. We love going to the library and checking out new books.
When we finally got to take a break from looking for books, we made pizza. we put lots of sauce and lots of cheese on it! Mommy didn't realize this meant we had pizza 4 of the past 5 days, now. Good thing we like pizza. After eating, Daddy and Mommy took us to the Airport for an open house. We got to look at airplanes, watch them take off and land, and even saw helicopters. After that, we went home and opened half birthday presents. Mommy & Daddy said they wanted us to feel special with presents since our birthdays fall so close to Christmas, so we celebrate our half birthday. We got some fun little stuff (look & find books, Thomas the train, Rapunzel lip gloss, coloring books, new pajamas and a slip & slide!)
We wanted Daddy to open his presents right after we opened ours. We couldn't wait! We made candy boxes (WITH CANDY INSIDE!) for him. He loved them. We both wrote "Happy Father's Day" on our cards all by ourselves - Sue didn't write it for us. Daddy was so proud of both of us for that. Mommy also helped us get him a new computer monitor, which he was very happy about!
We couldn't wait to use the slip & slide (though Mommy had to mow the lawn before we could use it.) It was pretty cool, but we didn't know you had to run & jump. Noah laid down on the slip & slide at first and didn't move. He said "It doesn't work. I don't slide!" Mommy showed us how she ran, jumped on her belly & slid down the slip & slide. We still didn't quite get the hang of it - Daddy had to push us, which was still fun. After playing on it for a while, Daddy got the pool out so we could fill up the pool. We enjoyed that for a long time before it was time to go in and eat and get ready for bed.
It was a very busy weekend with our half birthday and father's Day. It was a good weekend, but we're exhausted. I'm very excited that I get to wear my new circle dress tomorrow! Mommy made me a new dress (she said it's the 3rd try to make something to fit me - I've been too skinny for the other 2 dresses she made) and I'm very excited to wear it to daycare!
Have a good week!
Hannah

We got to go to Grandma's this weekend! We were so very excited!
It started out really hot - we helped Mommy water all the plants around the yard. We have strawberries, beans, peas, tomatos and peppers all in pots around the yard. We have a raspberry bush and a pumpkin planted in the ground, so we have to help water them all so they can grow!
Tuesday, Noah told daddy he was going to be sick when he got up. Daddy asked him what he could do to feel better, and Noah told him "I need a healfy snack!" He had his healthy snack of yogurt and went to Sue's, but when it was cleanup time, he started to cry and told Sue he was going to be sick. He let her take his temperature and it was 102.5! So, he slept while we had lunch and waited for Daddy to pick us up. He picked us both up and went home. Noah slept all afternoon while I helped Daddy.
He even had a temperature on Wednesday, so Mommy had to stay home with him. I went to daycare without him, so I missed him. I was happy to see that Noah came with Mommy to pick me up! I missed him so much that I played with him a lot when we got home!
By Wednesday and Thursday, it got cooler, but that meant we could go out to play at Sue's.
Friday, we got to stay home with Mommy because Sue was closed. We got to pack our bags because Mom & Dad told us we were going to go to Grandma's house! We also got to help Mommy pick out birthday gifts for Lauren & Ben and wrap them up. We only picked out small gifts because we also got them a fold-out camping bench seat like the one Mommy & Daddy got for us. We love our bench and are excited to give it to them.
On our way to Grandma's, we ran into a little rain but we lucked out and the luggage in the back of the truck didn't get too wet. The weather cleared just long enough for us to stop at the Pizza Ranch to eat some yummy pizza. Noah was so excited that he told 3 pre-teen girls all about how he's going to his Grandma's house. It was pizza buffet night, so they were busy. We got to pick out whatever pizza & salad we wanted. We even got to drink lemonade. What a yummy meal!
Saturday was a big day. First, Grandpa took us for a ride on his scissor lift. We rode up and down and up and down. We each got to run the controls to bring us HIGH in the air. It was soo cool! We could see above Grandpa's big shed and the trees around it!
After dinner, we played and painted, then Grandma, Grandpa & Angie went to Lauren's dance recital. Grandma bought flowers for Lauren at her recital, so she bought flowers for each of us, too.
But, when they got back, they brought Ben and Angie took us on a 4-wheeler ride. That was fun, too! She took us each for a ride down the road and back TWO TIMES! We picked out our favorite book (Mommy's pacman book) to read before bed and fell asleep quite quickly. It was a great day!
Today, we got up and showed Grandma & Grandpa around our favorite website - pbskids.org - when we got up. Then, we packed up and went to Lauren & Ben's birthday party. We had fun playing at their house. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay long and had to go home.
Mommy & Daddy are so random. We took a different way home, and they pulled over in some small town and asked us if we wanted to see the world's largest ball of twine. We don't even know what twine is - some type of string. So we got out to see the big ball of twine. It was cool, but the building it was by had lots of cool train signs. We had been sitting for a while, so it was good to run around, stretch our legs and see the big ball of string. We watched Cars on our way home, then fell asleep when it was over. It was such a fun weekend, we were just worn out!
When we got home, Noah asked Daddy to get out the baseball set we bought at Target on Thursday. Daddy showed us how to hit the ball off the tee a few times before we had to take a bath and go to bed. What a busy weekend! We're very excited to tell our friends all about our trip to Grandma's & Grandpa's house when we go to back to Sue's house.
Mom & Dad have been so impressed with us reading so many things around us. We read simple words in books, Noah read some words on TV at Pizza Ranch and he even read "Sunkist" from an upside down box at the party today. We're so hungry to learn!
Well, it's getting late. I'm good at stalling when it's bedtime, but I really have to get some sleep now. Happy Birthday to Lauren & Ben, and have a good week!
Hannah

Busy weekend, again.

What a busy weekend!
Monday was Memorial Day so we didn't go to Sue's house with our friends. Mommy & Daddy took us to Ron & Carol's for their big Memorial Day Party. Daddy couldn't play but he got to hang out and talk to a lot of friends. We were one of three sets of twins (there were 2 singleton kids and six twins there!) to play. We brought Ron & Carol a big volleyball! We all had fun playing with it. It was as big as Hannah!
Hannah hung out with the girls and played volleyball with them. I was disappointed when nobody wanted to play jump rope with me, but when I decided to play Hot Wheels, Deion played with me. That was fun.
It was a short week - before we knew it, it was Friday! It was a very hot day so Mommy filled up our swimming pool. We were so excited to put on our suits and jump in! I pulled the little orange slide over as soon as Mommy got the pool out. It was awesome. We even used our goggles for a short time.
Friday night, Daddy had a talk with us about the clock. He told us that when the clock had a "5" as the first number, it was too early to get out of bed. If the clock has a "6" as the first number, we can get up and play or read quietly in our room and if the clock has a "7" as the first number, we can get up.
Saturday, we both woke us at the exact same time - 7:45 - and we got cinnamon bites fresh from the oven for breakfast! Yum. They were soo good.
Saturday was very busy. Mommy washed the garage (so she can paint it) while we painted with watercolors in the kitchen, then we went to Target. After shopping at Target we went out to eat. We got out of our car and had a picnic right by the railroad tracks at a drive-in. We got yummy food and cool sunglasses that flip up to regular glasses! Then we went to Malmborgs, sweet-talked the ladies working to give us new lollipop credit cards (we forgot ours at home) and bought some more plants before coming home to eat noodles.
Today, Hannah got up early - before 7 o'clock. Mommy said she could play in the living room so she didn't wake me, but when I got up at 7:20, Hannah was asleep in the big chair! We both got up and played quietly in the living room while Mom & Dad got up and got ready to mow the lawn. We were having so much fun playing, we didn't even get dressed or eat breakfast until Daddy asked if we were hungry at 10! We got to play outside with Griffin while Mommy & Daddy washed the deck. We played giraff-a-laff and dressed up in Costumes! Griffin & I were firefighters while Hannah was princess Ariel.
After dinner, we had quiet time in our room until surprise guests came! Michael & Michelle came with their Dad to get our boat. Daddy said he doesn't have time to fix it, so he wants Michael & Michelle to help their dad fix it so they can go fishing in it. It was fun to play with Michael & Michelle. While Daddy helped their dad get the boat ready to go, Mommy painted the deck. And, they even stayed long enough to have a pizza party with us. What a special day!
By the end of the day we were so exhausted. It was a busy weekend - so busy, we didn't even get to take Cheyenne shopping. Maybe we can take her shopping tomorrow or next weekend.
Have a good week! Stay cool.
Noah

Happy Memorial Day!

What a fun week we had!
Monday was our last day of preschool. We got to make hats, then daddy came to watch us step up on a pedestal, get a certificate of completion for preschool, then we had icees and got to be picker-uppers. Our teachers were so sad that our class was all going on summer vacation, but we gave them big hugs and let them know that we'll be back in the fall.After that, we got to go home and play. Since we got home right after school, we got an extended playtime! We "painted" our clubhouse with water and played on the swings.
Wednesday, Daddy blew up the jumpoline. Grandma bought it for us for Christmas, so we've been asking to blow it up since then, but it's been too cold or rainy or whatever. Finally, it was nice enough for Daddy to blow it up. It was awesome! Brooke & Griffin came over to play with us. we all enjoyed the jumpoline.
Thursday, we woke up to Mommy & Daddy carrying us out to the truck at 5:15 in the morning. It was the day of Daddy's shoulder surgery. We were supposed to stay late at Sue's and have Megan watch us, but the surgeon moved Daddy's time so he had to be at the hospital at 6 in the morning. I was very excited to be the first one at Sue's house! She did open early for us. We were very good for her, despite our lack of sleep. We took a short nap at quiet time and were rested for a fun day playing with our friends. Daddy was hurting a lot. We tried to be quiet for him and help him out whenever he asked for help. We got him pillows, his iPad, drinks and kicked the chair legs out on his recliner so he could sleep. He even took sat outside and watched us play, so we had supper outside with him.
Friday, Mommy dropped off AND picked up. We were excited, especially Noah. Sometimes Daddy does both drop off and pick up, but we only remember Mommy doing it once. We like when Mommy picks us up - she doesn't know why. She thinks it's just because she doesn't do it as often as daddy. We were big helpers to Daddy again.
Saturday, Daddy was feeling better so we went to Acme tool to pick up Grandpa's ladder, then to the furniture store to look at clocks. Noah wanted to drive around in the racecar cart, but Daddy was starting to get tired, so we headed toward home. We had to bring back library books, so daddy & mommy let us go pick out new books, then we went to the fabric store because Daddy wanted his sling to be softer so he bought stuff for Mommy to make his sling softer. I also got to pick out fabric for a dress! But, Mom said she was going to make Noah Spiderman scrubs first. She's got a lot of work to do!
In the afternoon, Griffin came over to play with us. We jumped on the jumpoline, swang on the swings, read books and played at his place, too. It was a fun afternoon until raindrops hit us. They didn't last long, so Mommy took us to the garden store. We got to help pick out vegetables and best of all, we got lollipops from the manager! We were tired after a long day.
Today, we got to go to church. Casey helped us make tamborines while Mom & Dad were in church. Then we got chicken and ate it at home. I wanted to go into the restaurant, but Mom said Daddy was tired and wanted to go home. So, we had chicken and then quiet time so Daddy could take a nap.
After quiet time, we played computer games on our favorite website, pbskids.com, had a snack then went to Cub. We got a rocket cart with two seats, so we were very good! We love driving around the carts that look like rockets. When we got home, Mommy put away our food while Daddy played Candyland with us. I got a few lucky cards and won the game very quickly.
Daddy made hot dogs on the grill and Mommy cut a pineapple up. We even got to drink some leftover juice out of the pineapple shell. When we finished eating, we went to get gas so Mommy could mow the lawn. While she mowed, Daddy showed us that he got sparklers at the store! They were so cool!
Daddy told us to get our jammies on so we could have a bonfire! We love bonfires and have been hoping for one for weeks, but the rain hasn't cooperated. Finally, we got to sit around the fire (I got sent inside once because I was flipping my blanket and kicking at the firepit, so Daddy brought me inside and told me how dangerous fire is.). We made s'mores and drank milk, and when the fire died down, we did more sparklers. Yay! What a fun night.
Now we're hoping for a nice day tomorrow so we can go play with our friends at Ron & Carol's Sandbox tomorrow.
Happy Memorial Day!
Hannah

Tuesday, we got to bring our alphabet books home. We were very excited to show Mom & Dad. We had been working on them all year - we decorated and worked on a few new letters every week and this week, we finally got z and were done! We like to read our books, and it was very fun to show Mom & Dad how hard we'd worked on them all week.
Wednesday was field trip day at school! We got to go to the library. There was a castle (but no stairs in the castle to get to the second floor) and a BIG dragon at the library.
Thursday Mommy picked us up from Sue's, and after we got home, we replanted our Harry Heads. (At school, we planted grass in a cup, then drew a face on the cup so it looked like the grass was Harry's hair). We planted it in the yard - I planted mine in the middle of a dead spot in the grass. Hannah planted hers against the garage. We dug a hole, took the grass out of the cup, put it in the ground and watered it.
Friday, we got to bring home a bunch of papers, including our report cards. Mom and Dad said we did a good job - our teacher wrote notes as to what we like to do and that she's looking forward to having us in her class next year. Monday is out last day of school!
Saturday was a busy day with lots of running around!
Daddy had to study for a big test, so we got out of the house so he could have some quiet. Mom was going to take us to see fire trucks at a vehicle fair, but the place they were supposed to be in was empty. Bummer! So, we went to Target, Marshalls (I called it Martian's when I told Grandma where we went) and Michael's craft stores. We had our moments when we weren't good, but there were so many new things to see, it was hard to not touch things! When we got home, we had leftover pizza with Daddy to celebrate his passing one of his tests.
After lunch, Daddy gave us walkie talkies to play with. They were so cool! We could talk to each other in any area of the house. We even took them with us to run afternoon errands with Mom while Daddy did his last test.
We were talking to each other while driving in the car (yes, we were sitting next to each other) when some guy came on our walkie talkies. We thought it was Daddy, so we started saying "Daddy? Is that you?" "Daddy, talk to us!" Mom told us anybody who has the same walkie talkies as us can talk to us, so it wasn't Daddy. Even Griffin could talk to us if he had the same walkie talkie! So, Hannah pretended to be Griffin when talking to me. She's funny!
We got to bring our walkie talkies in the fabric store with us while Mom picked out some patterns and zippers. I talked on my walkie talkie twice, so Mommy turned mine off - she's serious when she says I can't talk on the walkie talkie in a store! It was a fun store, though. Hannah found feather boas, we played with pillows, sat in chairs and played with each other. I walked up to the sales lady when we were ready to check out and told her that I am Noah, my sister is Hannah and my Mom is Shari. I made her smile.
Daddy called to tell us he passed his test so we could come home and play with him, but Mom had to stop at 2 more stores - she wanted to go to the container store to buy something for daddy's truck, and Blick to buy big black boards for her work. Then we took an unfamiliar route home through neighborhoods before coming back to see Daddy.
After supper, we had to go to the basement because the weather got bad. We didn't stay down long before we had to put our pajamas on and go to bed. We heard thunderstorms overnight, but we're brave so neither of us got out of bed to sleep with Mom and Dad.
This morning we got to watch Madacascar when we got up. It's my new movie! I love it!
We had a low key day of dinner, quiet time and played with Hannah's princesses before the sirens started to go off. Daddy told us that we should run straight to the basement if we hear sirens, so we went straight to the basement. Hannah colored while I sat on Mom's lap and watched TV. There were a bunch of tornadoes around us, but our house was OK. We even played in the backyard after we got out of the basement!
We did get a lot of rain this weekend. We had a lot of storms with rain, thunder, lightning and even hail. But, we had a few peeks of sun, too, so we could enjoy ourselves outside.
Before we went to bed tonight, we got to play Lightning McQueen game with Mommy.
Tomorrow is our last day of school!
Have a good week!
Noah

Happy Birthday to Daddy!

It was kind of a rainy, chilly week. Especially for May!
Monday night, we came home and helped Mommy make beef stew. We helped add ingredients and stir it up. It was delicious! We don't normally like stew when Mom or Grandma makes it, but we ate it all up since we helped.
Tuesday, Mommy was gone so Daddy put us to bed. I was already asleep and Hannah was almost asleep when Daddy came and woke us up and told us to come in the basement. Daddy said the weather was bad and the sirens were going off, so he wanted us to go to the basement. We waited there for about 10 minutes before Daddy brought us upstairs to see the sky had cleared. We talked about severe weather (we had talked about severe weather at school & daycare, so we know what tormados are) (yes, I call them tormados-not tornados) and being safe before going back to bed.
Friday, Mommy picks us up. She brought us home to make birthday cards for Daddy! After we made cards and had a snack, we went to a surprise party for Juanita. We got to go jump on the trampoline with 4 other kids. It was so much fun! Mommy said we crashed into other kids and just laughed about it but when Hannah and I bumped into each other, we cried. When we came in to eat supper, I told Mommy "That was so much fun!" After supper, we played a little more before all the 4-year olds at the party put on jammies. After I put my jammies on, I sat with Daddy, Hannah and 2 other people at the campfire. I wanted to roast marshmallows, but before I could ask for some, I heard them singing to Juanita, so we went inside and had some delicious birthday cake before we went home to bed.
Saturday, we were very quiet so Daddy could sleep in. But, once he got up, it was a very busy day! We took Mommy's car to the mechanic (which upset me that we just left her car there) then we went to Menards. It was a fun trip - we got to go upstairs, take the elevator and check out grills. I even told the cashier it was Daddy's birthday, so she and the customer in front of us told him happy birthday. When we got home, we helped Mommy wrap Daddy's birthday gift and make dinner.
After dinner, we went back to get Mommy's car. The mechanic got her air conditioning to work again, so Daddy was very happy about that! We drove the car to Mommy's work to pick up a card she forgot, then we went to an art supply store. It was really a fun store. Our favorite part was the easels that we drew on with chalk. Daddy even bought us sketch pads to keep in the truck to draw on trips.
When we got home, we let Daddy open his cards and presents. I did a good job all day - only telling daddy he was getting a surprise. I didn't spill the beans about what he got until he said "Noah, I'll give you five bucks if you tell me what I got" Without hesitating, I said "Um, a chair!" He still owes me five bucks...
Daddy loved the chair! But, he had to fight Hannah for it - she jumped right on it. I was patient and didn't get a turn to sit in it until today.
It was a very good day!
Today, we let Mommy sleep in then went to church to help roll bandages. We ran around a lot because Mommy had to do a lot of set up to help us roll bandages. But, we helped so someone who is hurt in another country will have bandages because we helped. We lasted about halfway through church before going into the nursery where we were the only kids!
After church, we helped make white mac & cheese and had quiet time. After quiet time, we got to go outside and play. It was a nice sunny day, so we played on the swings and slide before getting our bikes out. We went for a ride around the block, and when we got back, daddy adjusted Hannah's bike and got me a new bike! (Daddy said it wasn't new, but it was new to me since I'd been riding a trike all day.) It's different to be on a 2-wheel bike that has brakes, but I'm getting used to it. I was a little upset because Mommy found a bell on a different bike that we outgrew before we could ride it. Hannah wanted the bell so Daddy put it on her bike. I want a bell, but we only had one. But, mom said we could either take turns or have no bell. I guess we'll just have to take turns.
After dinner at Subway, we took baths and then I wrote my letters using my stencil ruler until it was time to go to bed. It was a very busy weekend, so we were ready to crash. We hope Daddy had a very happy birthday.
We're looking forward to a field trip at school this week!
Noah