Happy New Year! It was nice to get your note on the girls’ birthday. Thanks for letting me know you appreciate the posts. You’re right, they really are gorgeous, but boy do they know it. I’m constantly trying to reinforce their character over their appearance but they do love a mirror. 

Emi in white, Taya in black

3rd grade has been a bit of a difficult transition for the girls. The work gets a lot harder and they have regular grades vs pass/fail. I feel bad for them that they started school during COVID so I don’t think they got the foundation they would have gotten if they hadn’t been doing virtual school. They do process information a little differently so the biggest challenge is math. I also struggled with math, so I’m not the best at helping them. The trick is trying to explain it in a way they understand which is not necessarily the way other kids learn it. Aside from that, they’re doing well and both of them often get special recognition for good behavior in school. Their favorite part of school is still picking out their outfit, although they have kind of veered away from dresses and are going more towards leggings and fancy tops. Apparently they each have a “crew” at school and that’s what the crew wears. Also Taya’s crew is more “sassy”than Emi’s crew. I guess that means they talk like 80’s valley girls because when she talks like that around me it just sounds annoying. When the girls are picking at each other they will threaten to tell their crew not to talk to the other one and it’s serious business. It’s so silly. When one of them is misbehaving in the morning I will punish her by making her wear plain leggings and a regular tshirt to class. No one would even think they look out of place but looking basic is like a fate worse than death to them.

Emi top, Taya bottom

Halloween was pretty great. The girls started getting into the creepy aspect of it this year and practiced doing their own makeup for a couple weeks before. They watched YouTube tutorials and even figured out how to use toilet paper and qtips to make scars and wounds.

Top row- Taya, Taya, Emi.  Bottom row – Emi, Taya and Emi

Thanksgiving is pretty uneventful for us because we do so much for Christmas. We started a tradition last year of baking cinnamon rolls to deliver neighbors and friends to show our gratitude for them in our lives. They also got to be in the Christmas parade for cheerleading. I bought them each a giant bag of candy from Costco to throw but Taya tried to save hers for herself and wouldn’t throw any. Finally her coaches noticed and made her spread it out to the crowd. We ended up with plenty of candy at home from Tas and Tim collecting, but I guess she didn’t trust them to share. 

Emi, Taya

Christmas was fun and busy and crazy. We did our cookie decorating party, gingerbread houses, and horseback riding. The girls are obsessed with American Girl Dolls and they each got one. They also got plenty of other dolls, hoverboards, games, makeup and dress up clothes. Emi specifically asked for “fashion” dress clothes, not princess clothes. Luckily I found a bunch of homecoming dresses on sale and because they’re so tall they can fit in them. They are also pretty heavy into slime and Squishmallows. We had to do some creative packing just to get it all home. I know we go a bit overboard at Xmas but I don’t really buy a bunch of stuff throughout the year and Christmas is my favorite time of year, so I have a hard time reigning myself in. I have great Christmas memories and I want them to have them too. 

Top – Taya in purple, Emi in white and Tas  Mid – Emi, Taya, Taya Bottom – Emi, Emi, Taya

This year for their birthday we went to the Wisconsin Dells for 2 nights. The girls were super excited because they got to do a water slide that they had seen on TV. I hated it because it felt like being in a washing machine, but they couldn’t get enough. They were also pretty excited to sleep in bunk beds. They played arcade games, swam and had pizza for lunch and dinner both days. The only disappointment was that there was no snow. We had planned to let them try snowboarding and go tubing one day but ended up having to do the waterpark 2 days. Overall it was a major success. I like that we all go somewhere for there birthday so it feels separate from Christmas. 

1st row – Emi, Taya, Emi. 2nd row – Emi, Taya, Taya

As much as I love the holidays, they are exhausting and it takes us a while to get back in the swing of regular life. I hope that this is the beginning of a great year for all of us. I’ll post again in May.