Happy New Year! I can’t believe it’s almost the middle of January. It feels like the last few months went by in a flash.

The girls have settled in to school nicely. They love their teachers, have made some good friends and are reading well now. They seem to really enjoy school and have come out of their shells a bit. Our school hands out “bucket filler” awards for excellent behavior, responsibility, leadership or kindness. They have both received several of these although Emi has a few more. But who’s counting (Taya’s definitely counting)? Whenever someone accomplishes something big or gets acknowledged for something good, they get to have dinner on this yellow plate with a big star on it that says “you are special!” I’ve had to wash that plate quite a few times this year. We had parent teacher conferences recently and aside from going over their academic progress, both teachers commented on the girls fashion sense. They still prefer to wear dresses to school but will now wear jeans but only bell bottoms. Nobody else in their school wears them, but they saw them on tv and begged me to get them some. Not just flared but as wide as they get. They are so tall and lean that they are part of the few people that look really good in them. Many mornings they want me to do a photo shoot at the bus stop because they are feeling themselves. Emi’s teacher had to move her seat away from the mirror on I day I her hair before school because she couldn’t stop looking at herself. We teach them that beauty comes from within, but they are definitely invested in what their “look” is. I have no idea where this comes from because I’m usually in jeans or sweatpants. It’s probably because of their artsy nature. Emi even had her artwork selected for the town fair.

For Halloween this year Taya really wanted them to be models, with high heels and slip dresses, but I dashed that dream and we settled on belly dancers. I bought them long ponytail clip-on wigs and let them wear fake eyelashes so they were happy with the end result. They had a couple of Halloween parties on top of their school celebration so they were eating Halloween candy almost til Christmas. Taya loves milk chocolate and caramel but hates dark chocolate. Emi likes chocolate as well but really loves licorice and AirHeads.

Emi, Taya

After Thanksgiving Tim took the girls on a daddy daughter date to a really fancy hotel in Richmond where they serve high tea. They all got dressed up and ate off of silver trays. They were less than impressed with the tea sandwiches but were big fans of the desserts. Taya, however, was blown away by the bathrooms. When they called me on the way home she kept talking about how fancy they were. It was actually pretty funny because Tim said she kept having to go and normally she freaks out about having to use public bathrooms.

Christmas was good this year. They are in a musical theater program so they got to do some holiday shows and march in a parade. We hosted a cookie decorating party with 6 of their friends and went to Christmas Town at Busch Gardens. We went to Iowa over the break. The first week we were there it was -30 and the second week we were there it was in the 40’s so they really didn’t get any good sledding in. We went roller skating and to the trampoline park a few times. Mainly we hung out with family and played games. Their cousins are all 20 or older, but they all take off time to hang with them and do activities with us. Every year Tim and my brother in law do gingerbread houses while my sisters and I go shopping. All of my nieces took off work because they don’t like missing or being late for gingerbread day. I’m really grateful that they take such a big interest in the kids when their is such a big age gap. The girls love it because they’re pretty much spoiled the whole time we’re there. This year they both asked Santa for American Girl dolls and an American Girl dollhouse. I had hoped we were going to avoid the American Girl Doll thing but they got a hold of a magazine and that was that. Luckily Santa had them on the good list so they got their wish. They also got the usual mess of Barbies, dress up clothes, LOLs and the like.

For their birthday we had originally thought of taking them tubing and teaching them how to ski/snowboard but the weather didn’t cooperate. We went to the indoor waterpark in Dubuque again and ate at their favorite restaurant—Pizza Ranch. They got Nintendo Switches for their birthday presents and that made the drive home a lot more entertaining for them. I have always heard of people born around Xmas saying they kinda felt shorted on their birthday and then being twins also can affect things, so I buy their birthday presents before I start Christmas shopping. I hope that by doing it that way, they don’t feel like their bday is just leftover Xmas stuff. Plus it’s nice that our whole extended family goes and it’s a party. I think they’ve pretty much outgrown that waterpark now and next year we’re all going to go to the Dells for a couple of days. My sister’s present to them was taking them to a braider, so they each got a fancy do that lasted them through the first week back to school. I’ve watched all the videos and understand the steps of how to do it, but my hands don’t work the way my brain tells them to. I’m going to have to find them one here because they were devestated when it was time to take them out.

Emi, Taya

So now we’re getting back into the groove of things here and the next few months until spring will be a little slower. I’m looking forward to it.