Picture updates!

Some photo updates from recent happenings.

During a LONG wait for our table at the Nook. As usual, it was worth it!

Cookbook reading with Naomi

Mac and Cheese!

 

A few Quinn school-related pictures.

First, this is a letter he wrote for us:

It says:
Dear Mom and Dad
I want a party
I want to have fun
I want mom and dad to help me
I want to have cake
Sincerely, Quinn

Here are some of the math "fact triangles" he is working on

And here are his vocabulary words for the week. I snapped this picture when I happened to drop by the classroom. Scrumptious is a good one for Quinn, right?

Finally, here is Quinn with his first take-home school project.
He had to take or draw pictures of places in the community, and discuss how they contributed to the community.

Not surprisingly, he selected a food theme for his photos.

His places were:
Dunn Brothers (coffee shop)
Breadsmith (bakery)
food shelf
Mississippi market (grocery store)
Community garden
The nook (restaurant)
and, Pearson's candy factory


Aside from school, Quinn also had a big week because he had his adenoids removed! The surgery went smoothly, and we were in and out of the hospital in four hours. We are very hopeful that this will help with his constant cough, and drawn-out colds. Already, we've noticed that his snoring is totally gone which is pretty amazing because he was a loud snorer!

Here is Quinn spinning on a chair prior to check-in. The U of M Children's hospital takes care of every detail, so they knew to put spinning chairs in the waiting room to ease kids' worries.

Here are a couple pictures prior to the surgery starting. You can see that Quinn was watching TV right up until surgery time.

It took Quinn a few days to heal, but overall he did really well. He had two popsicles and two juices in the hospital as soon as he woke up. Then, the minute he got home he had chocolate pudding, mac and cheese, eggs, frozen yogurt with hot fudge, and a fudgecicle.
So, all in all I think he views the surgery as a pretty good deal.

These pictures are from the U of M Math and Science Fair

And, finally, these pictures are from a cool new place Quinn and I visited today called Leonardo's basement. It is a workshop for kids where they can build things out of lots of random materials. He loved it, and we may try to sign up for a camp there this summer.

The girls have REALLY been enjoying playing at home recently, and will construct elaborate play sessions that last for hours. You can see a clip of one here
My favorite part is when Zahra yells "Arriba! Arriba!" which is Spanish for "hurry up". The girl does love Dora!

A few more halloween pictures

These didn't make it in to the previous halloween post:

A few more of the neighborhood donut eating contest

Quinn entering the Bates Motel (from the Shining)

And, finally, the kids with Goldy Gopher (the U of M mascot) at the U of M Halloween party. As you can see, they were a little suspicious of Goldy's scary costume.

3

These big girls are THREE years old!
 

When I was pregnant with twins, every other twin parent I met said it got easier after age three. I think we're starting to see evidence of that being true.We still have some of those crazy "twin" moments where everything spins out of control, but a lot fewer than we used to.

The girls had a great day on their birthday. They went to the Children's Museum with WAPA, and in the afternoon they had a family party.
Zahra requested a monster's Inc cake, and Penelope requested a Dora cake. Moin made the cakes himself - didn't they turn out great?

They were thrilled

Zahra actually ate her cake. Penelope just fed hers to the Dora who was on the cake.

The girls got some great presents this year, and some wonderful cards from friends and family far away. They loved their necklaces and purses from Grandma Amy. For some reason, Penelope insisted on only wearing underwear for this portion of the party.

Zahra in particular really enjoyed the Dora plates and cups from WAPA.

They really loved their headlamps from Quinn.

Finally, the girls had their 3-year-old drs. check-up the day after their birthday. Here are their stats:

Penelope
Weight (28lbs, 3 oz; 23%tile)
Height ( 3'1", 43%tile)

Zahra
Weight (29lbs; 32 %tile)
Height (3' 1.25'; 49%tile)

From the eye exam, it appears that Penelope will need glasses soon, but their dr. said we could probably just wait until next year to do that. 

Happy birthday P & Z. We are so proud of you!

Happy Halloween!

We had a full week of Halloween celebrations around here.

It started with the girls getting their birthday presents from me and Moin early - their Dora costumes! It actually took them a while to understand what they were, but once they realized they were super-excited!

Don't they look good?

Quinn had a halloween piano recital, as well. The recital itself was for the teachers only, but I did snap a couple pictures of him before it started. In case you couldn't tell, he's a banana :)

The director of the studio had the recital in her home, and just the other kids and teachers watched. And afterwards they ate lots of sweets. It was a really sweet, no-pressure event, and Quinn had a great time.

You can see a video of him practicing for the recital here

Speaking of sweets, this week included a LOT of them.

Here is Quinn with a "bloody sundae" that we made from his Halloween cookbook.

And the girls after eating some halloween cookies with black frosting. It was not chocolate flavored - just sugar flavored!

We also finally decorated our house this year! See the scary faces in the window?

I didn't get any pictures of the kids trick-or-treating. The girls had an ok time - everyone gave them chocolate, which they were depressed about. Quinn had a blast, and spent quite a bit of time handing out candy to the early crowd.

Quinn loves sorting his halloween candy, and has carried his bag around with him for days. He also sleeps with it at night. This kid LOVES sweets!

Finally, here's Quinn participating in the annual donut-on-a-string-eating contest at the neighborhood halloween party. He didn't win, but it looks fun, right?