The Twins' 8th Birthday

The twins turned 8 yesterday. When we chose to adopt them, they were twenty-months-old. When we brought them home, they were less than four months from their 5th birthday.

We took the twins to Dominoes to use their free pizza cards they earned at school for reading.

We also got a sausage pizza and pepperoni pizza from Little Caesars and had a  pizza buffet.

Then they opened presents starting with these from Aunt Lou (my older sister)

And clothes and a book from us.

Money from Grandpa and Grandma (Rick's parents)

Veggie Tale Bibles from Grandma Sims (my mom)

Secret of the Wings play set and movie and Batman car and figure from Uncle Ken (my older brother)

Gift from the girls to Kayla. The girls bought for Kayla and the boys bought for Kaleb.

Build a Bear Dog Kennel from Tyler. Adam was supposed to be home at 5:30 but didn't show up until much later. (There were some other issues concerning electronics and honesty, so he will be having a quiet weekend)

Our gift to Kayla.

Our gift to Kaleb, which was quite a handful for him!

I don't know who was more excited about this gift--Kaleb, or Rick and Tyler.

The twins chose to play Just Dance 4 and Just Dance Disney.

Then we had cake and ice cream. Kaleb was having a little trouble waiting while Jessica lit the candles. Last year they each had a separate small cake. This year they shared a cake but each had a set of candles to blow out. So she had to light 16 candles.

More Just Dance

And they had some play time.

They are the best of friends--at times! And can bicker like crazy other times.

This was after all the other kids were in bed, and they were looking at stuff on Ty's iPad. 

Of course the post wouldn't be complete without some pet cuteness. Jessica's little girl did not stay very little! She's an armful.

Travis gives Kiara some love.

Jayden thinks we could do without all the dogs around. It looks to me like she's scowling.

But mostly she ignores them. Travis has taken to chasing her, but she jumps to the top of the cat tree and is out of reach.

I'm starting to wonder if he's going to be a little dog. He has grown, but not much. He's  about 2 1/2 mos old. He needs to get a bit bigger because he's easy to step on. He is really fast and energetic.

Jasmine is at a water park on a trip. It's the fourth and final incentive trip for the year. The school has them for the middle school, and you can't have more than 9 check marks total in the grading period. That includes when she doesn't give me her planner to sign. It also includes behavior checks, but she's only had about five all year, and it's always in resource room math because she's overwhelmed, so she starts talking non stop. It's one way she copes, and her teacher realizes it and tries to give her extra help.

Adam has an awards night tonight that is mandatory even though he's not getting any awards. They practice for it at school today.

Jessica has two classes on Thursdays now and then goes straight to work, so she leaves the house at 5:55 and returns near midnight.

Two Saturdays in a row we've wanted to go to the beach at the nearest state park, but it's rained. We did have an event this Saturday, but due to a poor attitude from a child about some things and the restrictions he received as a result, we are not going. So those who want to will be heading to that beach this Saturday. The forecast says 0% chance of rain! Let's hope that's right. Not everyone in our family loves the beach believe it or not. Ty and Rick are more into comic books and sci fi. Ty has fun when he does go, but often chooses not to. Jessica wants to work on some things underwater. The rest of us will hang out on top the water or on shore or the jetties. Jessica has moved up in scuba. I know she was at advanced, and then she passed her nitrox test so she has her science diving certification. She got one other one I can't remember. But she'll only be snorkeling this weekend.

Hope you all have a safe and fun filled weekend.