Painting the Town Red, and Blue, and Green, and Orange...

We finally got the boys some paints of their own. And it also finally dawned on me that we didn't need to buy that easel for them (for the moment anyway, Zach). The other day I tied a string up against our fence in the backyard, stripped down the boys (or I would have, if they had been wearing clothes at the time), and set them to painting.

Sam and Ben painting (almost) au naturale

I've only let the boys use paints twice before, but now that I've discovered this system, I'll probably let them loose more.

Ben's work in progress. He was talking a lot about waterfalls, whales, and swords while he painted this.
(note how he ended up holding his pie tin like a painter's pallet)

Sam's piece. He was talking a lot about sharks and whales while he painted this.

Ben's is on the left, Sam's is on the right

As you can see, despite the fact that they are twins, their artistic style is completely different.

And lest you think that this was a completely mess free event, I did get distracted for a few minutes and the boys did take that opportunity to grab three paint containers (mostly blue) and dump them into their pallets and then spill them on the ground and then run through them, and then run into the house. There were blue footprints all across the kitchen floor. But it came up pretty easily with the mop, so now worries.

And now, for your enjoyment, a movie.

Sam is on the left, Ben on the right.

how does my garden grow?

With lots of toddler interference. That's how.

I purchased two spray bottles to water the seeds that we planted (spray bottles are better for seeds because the fine spray doesn't jostle the seeds the way a strong stream of water from a watering can does. Just FYI). I only really needed one, but luckily, in a brief moment of complete lucidity, I bought two.

Because the boys LOVE them. Utterly and completely. The first day they spent over an hour outside playing with them. It started with helping me water the seeds. Then moved onto the well established plants (more on them later) and ended up with spraying each other, until their shirts were almost soaked. Then they came in, asked for their jackets, and went back outside to spray their jackets.

Sam (in black) and Ben (in gray) watering the plants.

While these shenanigans were going on outside I chatted with my Mom on the phone for a while and asked what the weather was like there. It was forty degrees and she said that was something of a warm spell. And there was snow and ice everywhere. Our weather was sunny and bright and in the sixties. That is why our rent is so much, people.

And because of this. I planted these at the end of January. And Voila! Tulips! Well, tulip leaves anyway. It'll be a few more weeks till we have flowers. And when you see them and you're completely jealous, just remember: that's why our rent is so high.

Seed starting
(these come inside at night, but I was giving them some sun today)

I got a bit of a late start with my seeds. I should have started them inside a month ago, but I just got them planted a couple weeks ago. I've never (successfully) started plants from seeds before. It'll be interesting to see how it goes. Also, which device starts better seeds: egg cartons or toilet paper tubes. I'm putting my money on the tubes. I already have a couple little thyme sprouts. Yay!

We also started radish, carrot and lettuce seeds outside. The radishes are already sending up sprouts. Hurray!

Radish Sprouts
(when I thin these, I'm going to put them in a salad. They are yummy. Just another FYI for you)

Ben watering tulip plants

Of course, when you allow rambunctious toddlers into your garden things are bound to go awry. Especially when you turn your back on them to make a delicious dinner to feed your starving family. The following is such an example:

These used to be robust lemon thyme and parsley plants, bursting with life and culinary possibility.

The boys ripped off most of the parsley's leaves, pulled up half of my green garlic, and my rosemary cutting. They striped half of the lemon thyme. Sadness. Despair.

I guess I need to get some new plants. There's really nothing else to be done about it.

Oh, and here's a little movie of the boy's playing with their water bottles. My favorite part is when Sam starts drinking it and looks at me to see if I'm going to stop him. Classic Sam.

Beach Movie

This past weekend Zach's family came in for a visit. It was tons of fun and we wish they could have stayed longer. While here, we went to Half Moon Bay. The following is a documentation of the good times had there.

In case you were wondering, there was enough sand in the boys diapers to build a small castle. Not that we tried.

jumping off...

In case you are wondering, Ben is the one in the diaper, and Sam is wearing the turtleneck. They are both pretending to be He-man.

Also, that's the Muppet Show in the background. Highly enjoyable.

The Parent Trap - a new perspective

The other night I somehow got to thinking about The Parent Trap, both the older and newer versions. I've always liked these movies, despite being a lil' silly, they are both fun and have awesome houses (the California houses in both movies are really neato). But as I was thinking about the whole scenario it suddenly dawned on me: these people are awful!



They get married, have twins, and then for reasons never truly addressed in the movies (and all the better for it) they decide they despise each other so, so much that they are willing to give up ever seeing one of their children again, just so so as to never see each other again! Now, in movie world, where we can throw around phrases like "suspending disbelief" and "it's only a movie" I know that we need to be presented with a problem so that we can follow along with the resolution of the problem, but if you just look at the bones of the story, the parents decided to never see one of their children again.

Now, here comes my new perspective: Ben and Sam. I honestly, truly cannot think of any (vaguely plausible) scenario where I would take Ben and leave Sam with Zach, planning on never seeing either of them again. And I imagine that most parents feel the same way. So, who are these people? Really! And how is it that they are so darn likable in these movies? And what would they have done if they only had one? And then they get married all over again in the end!! Ya, these are weird people.

I guess this is what it's like to have the wool pulled away from your eyes. Whatever that means.

Sam & Ben - irreplaceable

Some Animal Noises

Please enjoy this shamelessly adorable little video.

The boys are working on their animal noises. We haven't mastered it yet, but their enthusiasm more than makes up for one or two mistakes. We start with a duck, move onto a rooster, a cow and a bear. There may be a little monkey in there too. And yes, Ben does have his plate on his head. He likes to wear it like a hat.

Enjoy!

A Night on the Town...

We have been saying for weeks and weeks, bordering on months, that we should get a babysitter and have a date night. Well, we finally made it out last night. And it was awesome.

We dropped the boys off with our lovely neighbors and headed out to eat at a Mexican place called Andale. It was yummy. There is a theater near here that plays old movies in this amazing and gorgeous theater. We went and saw Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train. It was so awesome. I'm a pretty big fan of Mr. Hitchcock and this did not disappoint. It was a really interesting experience to be sitting in this packed theater watching a movie from 1951 and knowing that many of the people had seen it already. And yet, here we all were, wondering how on earth parallel editing between a tennis match and someone reaching into a sewer drain to pick something up that had fallen between the cracks could possibly be so, so, so suspenseful!? It's that lure of the theater; of being completely apart of the movie experience. It's so awesome.

You should see it. Really. Go. Now.

And bring someone sweet with you.

Some Enchanted Evening

Prepare yourself for a shock. We saw a movie last night. In a theater. With the boys.

Shocked? Amazed? Aghast?

So were we. The student council (or some group or other) here had a movie night last night. And they had free Krispy Kreme donuts before hand. That's what really got us there. As I have said before, I love free stuff. We really held out no hope of seeing more than fifteen minutes of the movie, Enchanted. The boys have not done to well in movies since they learned to move. So, armed with handfuls of sweet pastry, we settled into on of the last rows, fully expecting to make a quick exit. And then the lights when down and the movie came on. And they were hooked.

They sat there completely entranced by it. When songs started, they bobbed there heads from side to side. When the chipmunk did crazy things they pointed and laughed. When they saw the dragon they growled at it. And when the princess had true love's kiss, they clapped and laughed. They loved it!

And the whole walk home they chattered about it. Blabbering a few words and then growling, as if mimicking the dragon. It may just have been the most adorable thing ever!

Oh, and the movie was cute too.