- Dinners at the park.
Can’t beat leaving the mess there and built-in entertainment. We’ve been having picnic lunch or dinners weekly, either by ourselves or with friends, and I’m sure the girls would be okay with eating at the park every night if they had their way.
Playing crack the egg with the Erpeldings, who hosted taco night at the park.
Amelia, Grace and Samantha love to hang out together at the Coto park and play duck, duck goose. The girls’ version is a loose interpretation in which whoever is tagged as the “goose” runs around the entire park a few times before sitting down. Sometimes, both twins will get up and run around, even if only one twin is tagged. All rules are thrown out the window!
The girls climbed up the rock to get away from the “baby monster.”
More park fun: pushing Allie on the swings at Sendero.
2. Being Helper of the Day
The Helper of the Day at preschool is in charge of preparing the snack that day (i.e. MOM does it all) , raising the flag, selecting who gets to be dismissed for snack and playtime first, feeding the goldfish and birds, AND gets to sit next to the teacher during preschool. Obviously, this is a huge deal, and Samantha and Amelia ask me every preschool day if one of them is the helper that day, at which point they don’t just take my word for it, but have to look on my phone calendar to verify.
I also have to prepare for a massive meltdown in the morning for whoever is NOT the Helper of the Day. Amelia is assigned to be the helper at preschool about twice a month since she has less kids in her class, while Samantha is the helper every three weeks or so. We are 3/4 into the year, and neither of them have learned to tame their jealousy when it comes to the other twin being the helper. Samantha is the helper at the end of this week, and I’m already trying to think of ways to break the news gently to Amelia.
3. Tricks
Samantha and Amelia are constantly being jokers around the house, stuffing used food wrappers in our shoes, unrolling toilet paper, and hiding little toys in my makeup drawer. On April Fool’s, it was my turn for revenge!
I told the girls there were some brownies in the oven and asked if they could help me get them out. Brownies for breakfast!
They were confused when they found Brown E’s in the pan, and just kind of looked at me like, “What kind of person would do this???”
Still not really getting it…
Unperturbed, they were even more excited to find lollipops on their plates.
Broccoli lollipops, that is.
In a strategic bid to act like my tricks didn’t faze them, they actually ate the broccoli!
4. Tumblebees
This should actually be a favorite thing for Samantha, more than Amelia. The girls moved up to the Tumblebee Squad a few months ago and now get to be on a team, learning new moves on the high bars and balance beam in the big gym. Amelia has a hard time transitioning from place to place or activity to activity, and is often shy about entering class, but Samantha usually grabs her hand and leads her in. There’s been a few times where Samantha has completed class solo while Amelia sat out on the bench with me and Meredith, but Samantha has really shined, even without her sis in class.
5. Science Experiments
Many afternoons after naps, we’ve been busy exploring, investigating, experimenting and thinking up any excuse to put on lab goggles. Amelia’s favorite activity is coloring a tray of vinegar with food coloring and using a dropper to squirt the colored vinegar into a pan of baking soda and watching it bubble, foam, and create a rainbow.
Amelia is obsessed with bones and the human body. She’s always asking where things are in the body and what they do, followed by about a million BUT WHY’s????
The girls used a chisel and hammer to score the circumference of a geode and then crack it open to find beautiful crystals inside. This was one of their favorite activities of all time!
When no one was looking, Meredith absconded with the geodes. She wanted to be a part of the action too!
6. Honorable mention: I don’t have a picture for this one, but I had to add on another favorite thing– Moana. As the twins’ movie of choice for our weekly Family Movie Night for the past four weeks, Moana has officially surpassed Frozen as their favorite (angels SING!). They are constantly belting out “No one knoooooooooows; how far it gooooooooes!” and enjoy pretending to be that creepy, shiny crab. I was excited to watch their new favorite movie the first few weeks, but now it’s starting to get old, with no end in sight!
7. I just thought of another runner-up: the Frog and Toad book series. I don’t even know how many times I’ve had to explain which one is Frog and which one is Toad, even though the girls ask to read one of the series at least twice a day. The girls especially love the tale of “Cookies” and “Dragons and Giants,” and usually request a dramatic retelling of those stories at bedtime, in which they are the main characters.
There are so many other favorite things coming to mind, but I will have to save them for another post! Four is fun!
Lots of love,
