With Mother’s Day just over 2 weeks away, I have (finally) started thinking about what to get my mom. I’m probably a bit late in my planning, but I just have to get through the twins’ birthday before I can think about Mother’s Day. I decided I’d start with a search for the “hot” gifts of 2008. Surprisingly, that didn’t turn much up. Just the usual, flowers, chocolate, jewelry, and handbags…I guess the handbags are the hot item this year, since that was the only constant in each list I found. Then I decided to do a search for green Mother’s Day gifts. Boy, is there a lot of info on that! Alot of them are good ideas; organic perfume and makeup, fair trade organic coffee or tea, flowers from a local flower shop, soy and beeswax candles, and sponsorships or memberships. I guess if I had thought about it, I probably knew all of these things were green, as I’ve gotten my mom some of this in the past. I’m limited as to what I can do, though. No makeup or perfume for my mom, as she’s allergic to perfume and henseforth must be super selective in her makeup. My mom loves candles, so the soy candles are always a good choice. However, I think what I’m going to do is get her some vegetable and flower seeds. She and my step-dad are planning on planting a vegetable garden soon, and they always have nice flowers planted so those are two things that are sure to be a winner.

Now, if you’re not into buying anything green for your mom, why not make something for her? I may throw something like this in the mix, too (I’ll be seeing mom 2 weeks after Mother’s Day so I have an extra couple of weeks to put something together for her). These are an especially great way for kids to make mom a gift.

So, what are you going to give mom for Mother’s Day?

Family, Going green, Holidays, The Family, life | No Comments »

We’ve had such fantastic weather here (up ’til now, anyway). On Saturday, while it was still warm, we had some thunderstorms. In between the showers, I allowed the boys to run through the puddles out back with a few of their neighborhood friends. That was always one of my favorite things to do; run through puddles in the rain. I snapped a couple of pictures, as well as a couple of pics of Ryan and Zach.

Family, blogging, fun, life, pictures, the kids | No Comments »

Since I wasn’t able to get into my dashboard yesterday, I’m posting this a day late. It’s hard to believe that 7 years have passed since the birth of our twins. We’ve come a long way from the long, endless nights spent in the NICU. Every passing year reminds me of just how lucky we are that the boys have no lasting effects from their prematurity. Every birthday reminds me of how lucky we are, how lucky they are. Thank you, God, for giving us such healthy, happy babies.

We opted out of a party this year because of the whole moving thing. This way, they have time to build up friendships and we have time to build up our finances, lol. We did cake and presents yesterday and we have something special planned for them tomorrow evening. A special members only event for the new Berenstain Bears exhibit that opened at Strong this past weekend. Then, later this week, probably Friday evening when Brian doesn’t have to go to bed at 5, we’ll take them out to eat for their birthday. They chose Red Robin and we’ve never been there before, so it should be fun. Then they get to open presents again this weekend when Nana comes in town. They are looking forward to that.

Here are the pics I took of their birthday celebrations yesterday. Enjoy!

The birthday cake, in progression:

This gift was cool. Brian’s dad and step-mom are the artsy-type of people and always find something neat and obscure when it comes to birthday and Christmas gifts. This is the story that, apparently, the movie Shrek was based on (although loosely, I’d say). I haven’t read the other stories contained in this book, but the story of Shrek was neat.

And matching shirts to go with the book.

Mario Kart Wii…just what they had been hoping for.

2 steering wheels to go with it.

Zach playing Mario Kart Wii. (Ryan did not play yesterday because he received a grounding as punishment last week that didn’t end until today.)

It was make-your-own-pizza night, something we don’t do very often for them, but that they love.

Family, birthdays, life, the kids | No Comments »

I know that many of the March of Dimes Walk for Babies events have taken place, or will take place tomorrow, but there’s still time to donate if you haven’t yet. Brian, the boys and I will be walking in our even a week from tomorrow. If you’d like to donate, you can click on the banner in my sidebar.

Charities, March Of Dimes, Prematurity Awareness | No Comments »

Well, I wasn’t planning on blogging about Earth Day. It’s so cliche to that, really, when everyone else in the world is doing it, too. What more could I possibly add? Nothing, really. I’ll just leave you with this cartoon, courtesy thedailygreen.com. Oh, how I can relate to this….

(hat tip: Brian)

General, Science, blogging | 1 Comment »

It was bound to happen, and it has.

I’m not sure who was hurt worse, Ryan or the tree he ran into. And, no, he wasn’t riding a bike. He was running. With his head down. Not watching where he was going. The exact thing I’ve warned him about forever. Thank goodness we don’t have any school pictures in our immediate future, lol. Poor kid. I think he’s finally (*crosses fingers*) learned his lesson.

Update: It appears the tree won, by the looks of Ryan in the shower. There’s also some scraps along his chest and shoulder and arms and there’s a patch much like his face in his hairline that I did not first see. Ryan told me after his shower that it felt like he got punched in the stomach only it was in the head. Quite an analogy for an almost-7 year old.

Family, blogging, life, pictures, the kids | 4 Comments »

Yeah, it’s been spring officially for awhile. With all this warm weather lately, it’s almost as if we’ve skipped spring altogether and went straight for summer. Anyway, I noticed on my way in from the bus this morning that we have our firt tulip! I love tulips. They are my second favorite flower, behind daisies. It’s in a bit of a precarious place, appearing to be intertwined with the rose bush that’s planted out front. I took a couple of pics to share.

Weather, blogging, pictures | No Comments »

So, the twins will be 7 a week from tomorrow. It’s so hard to believe that they’re that old! I remember the day they were born. Well, in all fairness, I’ll never forget the first 6 weeks of their lives. You just don’t shake your NICU experience. I look at them today and see just how far they’ve come from that day, nearly 7 years ago. We had no idea what we would face in the future. I’m happy to say that we haven’t seen any lasting effects of their prematurity, other than being a bit underweight and a bit short (though I’m no Mendocino Tree, myself. I’m only 5 feet 1/2 inch tall).

We have opted out of a party this year. We have decided to no longer do a family party for any of them since our family never seems to make it (and some of them won’t be in the same room with each other unless they absolutely must…namely my parents). And since we only recently moved here, the boys have just started making friends at school. So, instead, we’ve decided to take them out to dinner at the restaurant of their choice. They want to go to Red Robin (don’t ask why). We’ve never lived in a place where there was a Red Robin, but they saw one here and that’s where they want to go. I also told them I’d bake them a cake of their choosing, but they’d have to agree on the same cake. They can’t decide on the same one. Zach wants a baseball field and Ryan wants a Football field. Since they can’t decide themselves, I’m making the decision. While perusing my cake books, I found this one and I think it’s perfect for them:

Family, birthdays, blogging, food, the kids | 3 Comments »

It has been b-e-a-utiful outside lately and I am loving it. It’s amazing how quiet the house gets when the weather gets warmer All the playing outside has been thoroughly wearing the boys out. Also something I love. We also got our first chance to see a ball game here. We took the boys to see the Red Wings Friday night and had a great time. I haven’t had much to say on here as of late, but I hope to have some more blogging ideas in the coming weeks. I certainly have lots of pictures to share. These are all the pics I’ve taken of the boys over the last week or so, including pics from the ball game Friday night. There’s a lot, so I’ll post them after the jump.

(more…)

blogging, pictures | No Comments »

I am very excited. Today, I met with the senior community director for New York State Chapter Genesee Valley/Finger Lakes Division of the March of Dimes. Darcy is wonderful! She asked me if I would be willing to be the co-chair for the divisions family mission teams! I gladly accepted, of course. They are so excited to have us on board and wanting to participate. It also appears the Brian and I will be the “face,” if you will, of their charity golf event in late July. That hasn’t been confirmed yet, but they’d really like us to be on board for that. I love that they are presenting us with opportunities to get involved. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a couple of years, but never really felt like there was an opportunity in the Erie office. I’m glad I have the opportunity here.

Charities, March Of Dimes, Prematurity Awareness, Rochester, community | No Comments »