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Quite a Social Life!

We really try not to let the fact that we have twin babies keep us pinned indoors all the time. With the warmer weather we’ve been having, these babies are getting out of the house a lot! 2 weekends ago we were at a barbecue and ended up taking our twin babies into the pool. It wasn’t their first time (ok, it was their second time in the pool), but they handled it pretty well. I’ve been making the rounds locally visiting my friends and family, twins in tow of course. Last weekend we were on the go pretty much from Friday to Sunday evening. We didn’t really leave San Diego, but we got around a ton.

We took the babies to another barbecue. I’m feeling pretty popular as I write this but we really don’t have a ton of friends so don’t feel like you can’t invite us to your barbecue. We’re free next weekend.

The couple hosted the barbecue had a bounce house. This is what babies do in a bounce house.

They don’t bounce very much.
We spent half of Sunday at the lacrosse field watching my big boy tear it up.

This is how much stuff you have to take to spend the morning at the lacrosse field.
Our little town doesn’t have lacrosse so we have to drive 45 minutes to a city that has youth lacrosse programs. It’s a huge ordeal getting out of the house because once we leave, we’re not coming back for anything. You can’t see it, but Maddie’s holding the kitchen sink. Just kidding I’ve posted before about how being unprepared made for a bad shopping experience for us all… There must be a happy medium between bringing nothing with you and taking everything.

After that we headed to my fave spot-the Oceanside harbor. Such a gorgeous day! Another first~ish experience for the babies: First time eating in a restaurant! Now that I’m not breastfeeding anymore and we are feeding them more solid baby food, they are easier to travel with. The girls had a blast and got to try tortilla. I think it’s really important to get out and do stuff as a family, don’t you?

More than Mommies Mixer!

Well, Hiya! I am sooooooo excited to be the “Mixologist” for one of my fave-o-rite blog hops! I’m a brand new-ish blogger, and I just love the friends I’ve made through this blog hop. Mommies are awesome, so of course Mommy bloggers are bound to be wonderful people!

Things have been crazy busy around our little home. We finished up school and all of the awards ceremonies, science fair projects, and performances that occur post-testing. For me, the end of the school year means final assessments, report cards, end-of-year gifts for volunteers. Oh, and cleaning and boxing up my classroom. Uh, that’s kind of a work in progress, hopefully to be finished tomorrow! My big boy is looking forward to a summer of lacrosse clinics, followed immediately by football. Meanwhile, the babies have gotten to be real big eaters, which brought about the need to investigate about how on earth am I going to get them to drink more water?

Anyway, enough about me. Let’s get this party started! Oh, yeah!
Here are the “rules”
(Don’t make us post bouncers at the door.)
Follow your Hostesses – Christine and Janene from More Than Mommies
Follow our Co-Hostess – Meredith at The Mom of the year
Follow the Life of The Party – Facinations of a Vanilla Housewife – We will choose our Next LOTHP from those who link up their twitter handle. Use our hashtag #MTMmixer when tweeting so we can keep up with you there! We would still TOTALLY appreciate a shout out on Twitter if you don’t mind!
Follow our Mixologists – This week our Mixologist is The Rushed Mommy – Every week we will choose one participant to get our party started at the #4 slot. All you have to do is link up under the first Linky (and follow the “rules”) to be considered!
Follow the person directly BEFORE you on the hop!
Finally, we ask that you post one (or both!) of the following buttons in either a post or on your sidebar to let other people know where you are partying today!

Link up your Blogs Here:

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I’ve Been Nominated for a Liebster Award!

What is a Liebster, you ask? I’m not telling. Not until I write my official Liebster post (which may not be until my Spring Break, sorry!). Until then, stay tuned for your regularly scheduled programming… Beeeeeeeeeeeeep….

Tips to Save Time in the Kitchen

One of the excuses people use for not eating healthy, home-cooked meals is that it takes too long to prepare them and clean them up. But if your goal is to make healthier eating choices, you may find these tips to save time in the kitchen to be helpful.

Since I am always late for something, or trying to cram as much activity into the day as possible, I have found some shortcuts that help me to shave off precious time while in the kitchen preparing meals. We eat home-made for all but maybe 3 meals a month, so I’m in the kitchen a lot… Ok, I can’t take all the credit. My husband does some of the cooking, too. He’s a keeper 🙂 Being that I am always late for something, or trying to cram as much activity into the day as possible, I have found some shortcuts that help me to shave off precious time while in the kitchen preparing meals. We eat home-made for all but maybe 3 meals a month, so I’m in the kitchen a lot… Ok, I can’t take all the credit. My husband does some of the cooking, too. He’s a keeper 🙂

Tips to Save Time in the Kitchen

1. Save veggie and fruit scraps for one big dump at the end. Ok, I said it would shave off time, I wasn’t specific about how much time. But really, this helps. As I’m cutting the ends off of carrots and strawberries for lunches and snacks, I set them aside or in a bowl to toss in the general direction of “Mondo-Bunny” when I’m done. It saves time, really! Instead of cutting, throwing in trash, cutting, throwing in trash, etc…

2. Start with a clean work surface. You should have enough room to make the meal you are in the kitchen working on. If you have to clear the counter first, you should. Saying this, I feel like the assumption is that you have to clear a path through the filth in my kitchen to find the counter. That’s not the case, I promise! I just know that starting with a tidy work area makes a more productive environment, for any task.

3. Enlist little helpers (ahem, your kids). They could do #2 for you!

4. Read the recipe ahead of time. Prep as much as you can in the beginning. Dinner-making goes so much quicker when I have all the ingredients out and ready to be added. When I just barge into a recipe without checking through it first, I usually find myself surprised at needing something. Oh, and these times are usually when I realize that I don’t even have some of the recipe ingredients on hand!

So do you have any great kitchen time-saver tips you’d like to share? I’d love to read your comments in the section below!

Nikki

Weekend in Photos

I never do this, but this weekend (for fun) I made a photo diary of what we were up to.

Baby Einstein. Always on. We started the weekend by doing laundry. You’re jealous, I can tell.
AWANA Grand Prix at the church down the road. My kiddo’s car was a carrot. He took 2nd!
Babies on carpet. Mommy cleaning. Errands. Babies fell asleep.

Quick walk in the gorgeous hills by my mom’s house. I look like poo.

Home from errands. Locked out. Oops.

Saturday night: We know how to party! First solids for the girls. Mess-sy!

Big brother’s lacrosse game. They won!

It’s hard to see him, but my little stud is #10.

Best Things to Think About in the Tub

Here’s what happened. I was in the tub, trying to wash away all my stress and worries, and reminiscing about when I used to have time to go to yoga classes. The instructor would end our class with a quiet, relaxation/meditation session (might have helped on my insomnia night). It was the bomb. The key is to really visualize a place, including how it smells and feels. These are some of the things I think about to relax (it helps if you’re already in a tub working towards de-stressing).

Sitting on a train or ferry and looking out the window at puffy white clouds

Photo by slightlywinded

Lying on the beach watching the ocean or lake lap at the shore

Photo by Geoff Stearns

Reposing on the green, grassy hillside of a park, reading your favorite book

Photo by Horia Varlan

Getting a foot massage while in a massage chair (think spa pedicure)

Waiting patiently as someone combs and puts clips in your hair (I love having my hair played with!)

Photo by Nicole Sikora Heschong

Aren’t relaxation techniques the best? :smile:
Share how you relax, I love comments!

Wascally Wabbit

Let me tell you a story about our destructive bunny.

About 4 years ago we unwilingly inherited a very large rabbit. When my neighbors moved away and left it in their backyard, it burrowed under the fence and, voila! New pet for us. We named it Flopsie, but it’s pretty much without ‘flop’ of any kind.

Awww… Cute, huh? Let me tell you, the cuteness wore off pretty fast.

At first it lived in my living room. I don’t know why I thought this was a good idea. Guess what bunnies do? They chew on EVERTHING!! It ate a huge chunk out of the carpet in one corner.

Flopsie ate the carpet near the kitchen. We have to cover it with a rug so the metal doesn’t cut our feet. And apparently the chair legs are a great place to chew.

Then Flopsie was banished to out little yard. Don’t worry, Flopsie is safe from large predators because there’s a fance, and Flopsie is too fat to be picked up by birds or cats.

As the fall turned to winter, we realized we had a new problem. What to do with the animal during the cold nights or rain. It’s very fortunate for us (and Flopsie) that he (she? More on this later) appears to be potty trained. We leave a litter box in a corner of the dining room, set up a baby gate in the doorway, and Flopsie is out of the rain and frost, warm in the kitchen/dining area. But remember how bunnies chew on everything? Flopsie’s favorite chew ‘toys’ are the legs of my Ikea chairs. Darn bunny. Oh, and electrical cords. This rabbit has eaten through one computer mouse cord and gnawed almost through my laptop’s power cord and the vacuum power cord. It’s a miracle this animal hasn’t been electricuted! On the bright side, Flopsie is a really eco-friendly pet. I feed Flopsie buny food, plus any scraps of fruits and vegetables we may have. Apple cores, canteloupe centers, and parsley leftovers are his (her) favorite. He’s like our little composter. Except you don’t get any potting soil out of her.

It really is a sweet rabbit. It doesn’t bite or claw at you. It doesn’t need to be petted, but it loves its head to be scratched between its ears. Notice all the ‘it’s? We’ve always referred to Flopsie as a ‘she’. One day I was picking Flopsie up and noticed that, based on the stuff he has, she may actually be a he. But since Flopsie is such a royal pain in terms of munching on stuff, we still call him a ‘she’. It’s my little way at getting back at her (him?) for eating everything.

And, in the end, I really do like this big bunny. He (she?) is a pretty good pet after all.

Why Chocolate is Better than Gold

I love chocolate. So very, very much that it caused me to ponder: Which do I value more? Chocolate? Or gold? And the winner is… Chocolate! Here’s why:

10. It tastes better
9. No one likes gold chip cookies
8. A gold Hershey’s bar would cost too much
7. It has more variety- dark, milk, white… Gold is just regular and white (boring!)
6. It promotes peace-countries will go to war over gold but probably not over chocolate
5. Dark chocolate is an antioxidant. Gold is not
4. You get chocolate cravings, you don’t get gold cravings.
3. Chocolate makes you feel better
2. Unlike gold, chocolate is cheaper than therapy
1. In moderation, chocolate is good for your health! Top that, gold!

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