Family Birthday Party!!!

Jack and Bella will be 3 next Sunday, September 5th. Since it's right in the middle of the big holiday weekend we decided to have our family party for the kiddos today and then next Sunday they will have their friends over for a friends party.
Today was fabulous! It was a day for Cars and Princesses everywhere! From the Norgren side we had Grandma and Grandpa Norgren, Auntie Kara and Auntie Kaisha. From the Stavropoulos side we had Popi and Nana, Uncle Johnny and Aunt Tina and Uncle Dave. Most of them made a long drive to get here to share in the day and we are so thankful they did! Jack and Bella enjoyed BBQ brisket, cheesy potatoes, fruit and delicious cupcakes from a fancy cupcake shop by mommy's work. Delicious!! They also enjoyed some pinatas that carried the theme of the day as well, Lighning McQueen and Princess Castles. Enough talk! Here are some pictures!!!

Out of commission....

I am terrible. I know. It's been 2 1/2 months since my last post. It's been a crazy summer! Currently our camera is out of commission as well. We'll be purchasing a new one this weekend.
Jack and Isabella have had a wonderful summer so far. In June they spent one weekend in Iowa and one weekend in Holton. They love their visits to Grandma and Grandpa's and Popi and Nana's. In July Nathaniel and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary with a kid free weekend at Popi and Nana's new lake house. So relaxing. The kiddos headed up to Iowa for that and then at the end of the month to the lake house with Nana to spend time with our Ohio family while Nathaniel and I went on a float trip.
The twins have really been thriving and loving school. I can't believe how much they have changed in the last few months. They really are little people now. It's sinking in. *tear* They will be turning 3 in about a month so we're in birthday party planning mode in our house right now. Should be an exciting couple of weeks around the 5th!!
We're going to start working on potty training in the next couple of weeks too! Bella is very excited about it but for whatever reason is scared of actually going on the potty. We're getting there, slowly.
I would also like to say that whoever came up with the saying "terrible twos" never had a 3 year old (or two). Oh my! Opinions and sass abound! We're working on that. They really are so sweet but really have opinions of their own now (the nerve!).
In closing I am attaching a couple of pictures I have taken with my phone recently.
One is of them at the table with Bella feeding Jack melon. The kids are nuts for fruits and vegetables which thrills me to no end!! The second is a picture of the kids having a "pic-a-nic" on the living room floor with popcorn. They also love popcorn and watching Madagascar 2. It's on HBO right now. Thank you HBO. =)
More pictures to come soon. I am sure we will be trying out our new camera this weekend at some point!

Cooking with twins

Lately the twins have taken a big interest in cooking. They love making homemade pizza (so we have to at least once a week) and when I recently made a visit to Holton with them, they both helped Nana make her fabulous strawberry pies from scratch and the homemade whipped cream. Jack calls it "white cream" though. He LOVES it. Here are just come fun pictures we took recently when Popi and Nana came for one of their visits and dinner. They try and do visit once a week or once every other week and it's great!


Making "white cream"


Homemade pizza!


More homemade pizza! (Bella has a tiny obsession with her sunglasses right now)

Bella's First Haircut!

Bella got her first haircut a couple of weeks ago. We noticed that it is getting very long and we wanted to just even out the back. I finally made the call and we did it. She did really well and the stylist really only took about 1/2 inch off at the most maybe. She really just cleaned it up. I will say that since she's gotten the trim you can really see her curl a lot more now. It's beautiful big barrel curls. I am jealous of the curl. I think she gets it from me and somehow my curl just looks like a bad perm!! With the cut she got a certificate and we got to keep a tiny sample of her hair. It was the same package we did for Jack and a lot of fun. Bella loves bows and big fun things in her hair so we bought her a new purple bow for being such a good girl.

Easter: Part Deux

Here are the second half of our Easter pictures, finally. These are from Easter Sunday. Popi, Nana, Uncle Jason, Aunt Catie and baby Lily came to spend the day with us at our house. We had a lovely lunch, hunted Easter eggs in the back yard and played tsougrisma (which I will explain more a moment). The kids really enjoyed their day and have really been enjoying their toys they got. Jack still says "the Easter bunny came to my house and brought me Buzz."


He loves his Buzz!


Wearing one of her new pairs of shoes. They're everywhere. Clearly we didn't think this through!

In the afternoon we headed outside for the Easter Egg hunt. Jack and Bella were so excited about it and about helping their baby cousin, Lily. Lily just turned 1 in February so she wasn't quite ready to hunt on her own. Jack and Bella would go fill their baskets with eggs, bring them back and dump them in her basket for her to have. It was really very sweet. For the most part they are excellent at sharing (with a few exceptions) and I attribute that a lot to the whole "twin" factor. They don't have a choice!!


Before the hunt the twins enjoyed playing with Popi with their old swimming toys from last year!


You can see Jack being so helpful here with Lily and her egg hunt


Hunting


They kind of work as a team!

This brings us to the a game called tsougrisma. I didn't want to explain the game incorrectly so I have copied this from the internet. The point here is that Nana (my Mom) cheated and thought it was absolutely hilarious. She cracked my egg on the side so I was no longer able to participate. I would expect that from a stubborn Greek, not my sweet Mom! She laughed for at least 5 minutes about it because she knew it was so out of character for her!! Popi still ended up winning though. He always does!

The game:
Each player holds a red egg, and one taps the end of her/his egg lightly against the end of the other player's egg. The goal is to crack the opponent's egg. When one end is cracked, the winner uses the same end of her/his egg to try to crack the other end of the opponent's egg.

The player who successfully cracks the eggs of the other players is declared the winner and, it is said, will have good luck during the year.

There are no rules about which end of the egg to tap first, how to hold it, or how to tap - but I've never seen a "system" that works all the time!

The word tsougrisma means "clinking together" or "clashing." In Greek: τσούγκρισμα, pronounced


Our eggs

Happy Early Easter!

Today Grandma and Grandpa Norgren came down to visit us from Iowa! They brought Aunt Kara (Auntie Kay Kay) and Uncle Zach (Uncle Z). The day was beautiful! We grilled out some delicious burgers and steaks with fruit and veggies and Grandma Norgren made a delicious cheesecake. After lunch we all headed over to Zona Rosa because we heard the Easter Bunny was going to be stopping. Jack and Bella got to have their picture taken with the Easter Bunny and we got to do a little shopping and let Grandma and Grandpa Norgren spoil the twins with a couple new outfits for spring and (more exciting) new PJs! The kids were absolutely beat tonight when we got home and Jack was passed out before we even got him up to his bed. The Easter Bunny had already been here and dropped off Jack and Bella's presents and candy for tomorrow so I have taken a picture of that. Jack got a new Buzz Lightyear and Bella got new play shoes. She's been really into the shoes (much like her mother). We got them both Dragon Eggs and Dragon Gummies to share. Last weekend we went and saw How to Train Your Dragon making it Jack and Bella's second trip to the movies ("big TV"). They LOVE it. They were both so excited to see the dragons and all the action. They can't stop talking about it. We're looking forward to Shrek coming out in May!
Tomorrow Popi, Nana, Uncle Jason, Aunt Catie and Baby Lily will be visiting and we will be having an egg hunt in the yard (weather permitting). Stay tuned for more pictures tomorrow. (slowly I am getting better at the blogging again!!)



Jack and Bella opening their Easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa

There were chicks and baby ducks at Zona Rosa! The twins really enjoyed watching them.


Loving the chicks and ducks

Couldn't get them both to look at the same time. We'll take one!
Bella's first words to the Easter bunny were "I got new shoes!"


Easter set up from Mommy and Daddy!

"I wanna go to the dentist!!!!"

We never thought we would ever hear those words uttered from our children but this week it happened. Jack and Bella went for their first dentist visit on Monday March 29th. They were very excited about going (almost too excited). They love new things and talking about going to new places so this was a big deal when we started talking about it and telling them that the dentist was going to count their teeth and brush them for them. We got there and the kids got to play in the waiting area while we waited to be called back. When we did get called back they took us through a little area where the kids could pick out a new toothbrush (both got Spongebob). While we were there Bella noticed a sort of weird Nemo looking stuffed fish they had with teeth in it's mouth. She immediately went for it and took the giant toothbrush that went with it. She was happy to show everyone how to brush Nemo's teeth. Luckily there were 2 Nemo fish so Jack got to hold one too. The way the office is set up, the kids were laying down flat on their backs and there are TVs on the ceiling that they can watch while they get their teeth cleaned. Pretty cool. The dentist used cookie dough flavored paste which they thought was awesome. Bella was pretty nervous about the cleaning and since Jack was already done when hers started he was petting her foot and saying "It's ok Bella. It doesn't hurt. It tastes like cookies!"
The dentist was very complimentary of Jack and Bella's teeth. He said there was zero staining and nearly zero plaque. He said "I have no idea what you are doing to keep their teeth like this, but keep it up!" Yay us!
The best conversation of the day came after he counted both of their teeth. Bella is has always been a slow teether and does not have her 2 year molars yet....
Dentist: He has his 2 year molars but she doesn't. Is he older??
Me: A minute.
Dentist: Oh! Oh they are twins! Oh! I didn't realize. She seems so much bigger!

She is a tiny bit taller than Jack but we just thought it was pretty comical.



Waiting to go back to see the dentist! Jack loved the school bus and wanted to take it home.


Bella waiting to head back


Holding their Nemo fish


Bella laying back for her cleaning


"Say Ahhhhh"