I feel like I'm falling for FALL!

I am FALLing for this weather! I love afternoons to play outside and go acorn hunting.

I am FALLing for Football Games.

I am FALLing for pumpkins and the pumpkin patch.

I am FALLing for weekend trips to Sea World and San Antonio.

I am FALLing for all the yummies of the season.

Tried pumpkin cookies...FALLing in L-O-V-E

Something for you to FALL in love with:

Goblin's Orange Popcorn from Taste of Home

Ingredients:

4 qts of popped popcorn

1/2 c of butter cubed

1 c sugar

6 tbs light corn syrup

Dash of salt

1 ts vanilla extract

12 drops of yellow food coloring

4 drops of red food coloring

Place popcorn in a large bowl.

Melt butter in a small saucepan. Stir in sugar, corn syrup, and salt.

Cook and stir over med. heat until mixture comes to a boil.

Reduce to med-low heat and cook 5 min longer, stirring occasionally.


Remove from heat.

Stir in vanilla and food coloring.

Surprise! A beautiful shade of ORANGE!!

Pour over popcorn and toss to coat.

Place in a large baking pan coated with non-stick spray.

Bake @ 250 for 45 min, stirring every 15 min.

Spread on wax paper to cool.

Now...Go BOO your friends or enjoy yourself.

(Just don't tell your dentist! )

20-1=

19 Months!
The boys are now 19 months old! Really...they are big boys. Time for "What's Hot, What's Not!

What's Hot

* trucks, trains, cars*

Anything they can push and roll around the house, including the Fire Truck Nebulizer.

* Purple Grapes*

*Any kind of Beans, pretzels*

*Playing outside*

*the Cozy Coup*

*coloring*

*puzzles with interlocking pieces*

*climbing *

*Dog-Piling Daddy or the "Candy Man" at Church*

*lots of molars and lots of Tylenol*

*Being INDEPENDENT!

What's Not

*listening to Mommy or Daddy and sitting in Time Out*

* veggies-they used to love them. Now I am back to being sneaky chef!*

* Size 4 shoes-the toes are almost to the top of the shoe.*

*Stroller time-They really want to walk. Too bad they don't realize that they outnumber me and that isn't going to happen yet.*

Upcoming Trends

*Drinking from an open cup. This is a big treat right now*

*Speaking in small sentences. Dylan already says "Go Bye-Bye."*

*More Vocabulary. We are really working HARD!*

1st day of school

To celebrate the end of the 1st 6 wks of school, How about my back to school pics?

(ok...really I am just now getting around to it, but it is the end of the 1st 6 wks this coming Fri.)

My 1st day of school

2009

I was the first one back to school this year. Year 7 of teaching brings a new school and a new PART TIME position. I am a title 1 pull-out teacher. I still am working with the same age group (Pre-K/HeadStart) but I no longer have "teacher/classroom" responsibilities. This is a new found freedom! It is perfect for where I am at in life right now. However, I miss the classroom terribly and will return one day.

This is my teaching area. I am sharing a small space with another teacher that does what I do on a Full Time basis. She was a jungle themed gal' so I put away 6 years of western themed decor and embraced the jungle!

I made curtains to cover the bookshelves-my little area of storage. Don't ask to see my garage or attic. The rest of my classroom things are taking over!!!

Michael's 1st day of his LAST FALL SEMESTER!

I made him do this photo op...but after 7 years of schooling (while working full time) Michael is reaching the end of his 80+ hours Masters of Divinity Degree! YIPPEE!

He is always working for his job or studying away to the wee hours of the morning. I am so proud of him. I could never to do it! May 2010 brings the end of the degree and a brand new beginning.

Dylan's 1st day of school-Young 2's Class @ YCW

(Brody wasn't in the mood to take a picture that early. He is hiding in the background.)

Brody, Mom, Dylan

Dylan is excited to get to school!

Dylan is excited to find the truck-just like the one we have at home.

Brody found a place to play, too.

They love school. Always have. They try to jump out of their car seats as soon as we drive up.

They have already made a texture book and lots of pictures to go on the fridge.

Everyone is back in the routine!

Not me Mondays

* I am not sure why this is posting as Wed. I posted it today on a Monday.*

I would never ignore the terrible smell of a poopy diaper for 10 more minutes to make it to bath time and save a diaper.

I so did not "pretend" I didn't see the boys eat something off the floor.

It was not me. I would never completely dodge/ignore one of my former students in WalMart because I was not wearing any makeup, hadn't taken a shower, and had 2 children throwing big fits.

And I totally shower and get made up every day. I never look like I rolled out of bed. And I am always wearing real clothes. I don't do Elastic. Never.

I would never give a step by step description of Mommy going to the bathroom to help build the kids' vocabulary.

I would never totally give up on losing weight and eat myself sick in Goldfish and Chocolate Animal Crackers.

Not me. Never.

Wordless Wednesday

Word of the Week

is CUP.

I will take "up" or "jus" or "meelk."

Just not "ahhhhheeehhhhhaaaa"

Twins typically run a higher risk of needing speech therapy. Boy twins run even a higher risk of needing therapy. Ever since I read this right about the time they were born, I have been very observant and concerned about their speech development. (Well, really I have been concerned about all the stats since we were born a little petite...) Each time we visit the Dr. I ask about it.

This time we went for a visit he was finally concerned.He suggested we start with the really familiar words from day to day life starting with cup. I think next week we will choose a word with b,d,m,-earlier developed sounds.

So for the next few months we will continue Mommy's Language Lab. If things are still progressing at this speed we will begin therapy at 2. After many years in the education world, I know how important this is to their academic and social success. We will continue to be very proactive in our interventions and patient for the right time for these words to start flowing.

CUP MUCH?

* We have pics of their cups taped up around the house*

*Cups are integrated in all of our "centers." I hid them in the playroom, SOLO cups in the sand table and Bathtub, ect. *

*Lots of discussion of Mommy's cup, Daddy's cup, Dylan's cup, Brody's cup...*

*A special treat of Hot Wheels when the word is spoken!*

*Lots of playtime with our Big Kid friends!*

*What other suggestions do you have?

**************

Most importantly, they were made in HIS IMAGE

and are absolutely PERFECT in my eyes!

Funcation Pt. 2: San Antonio, watch out, Here we come!

VIVA SAN ANTONIO!

We had a wonderful time doing all things San Antonio!

We stayed at the Gunter Hotel right across from the Majestic Theatre. I was sad there wasn't anything playing right then. Everyone was EXTREMELY nice and helpful. We got an AWESOME corner room on the 11th floor. It was bigger (so there was lots of extra room for 2 pack and plays and room to play) and it was at the end of the hall so we didn't disturb too many folks. We looked right out to Houston St. and were in great walking distance to the Children's Museum, Riverwalk, and Alamo. Just Perfect!

We ate our way through the town...

We had breakfast at the Gunther House. Michael and I love the Gunther House! I wish I could have had lunch there, too. I love the Chicken Salad! We ate at one of Michael and I's other San Antonio favorites La Paloma Blanca . It has a fabulous tres' leche cake-Michael's FAVE! We met one of my dearest college friends, Jill and her hubby Justin at one of their local faves El Chaparral. So Yummy!!!! If you can't tell, we tried to eat Mexican at almost every meal. Hey, it is a FUNCATION. No waistline worries. We had a few more places we never made it too.

A Ride on the River

The Today show was filming down there the morning we rode. They had the boats decorated and we rode by the taping finishing. The slight hum of the boats had Brody out within 5 min and Dylan snoozed the last 15 min. The FUNCATION had worn them out!


The boys favorite thing we did outside of Sea World was the Children's Museum.

They had lots of fun being "independent" (That is a BIG deal for them right now.) and getting to explore the different exhibits. Their favorite stop (and mine when I was a kid) was the grocery store. STAY OUT of their way because nothing was going to stop their shopping carts.



We quickly shopped around at La Cantera and hopped back on the road. Mommy would have liked more time to look and shop, but the boys overruled. I did squeeze in some time at Sephora for some new makeup!

Great Funcation! Everyone had lots of fun and we are ready to go back again!