Slumber Party with twins

I spent a night with the twins and got to enjoy them the evening before and the next morning. I had a great time, and I think they did too!

I brought them early birthday presents, thinking that I would enjoy watching them open and play with them without the crowd of a birthday party to distract them. So late in the afternoon they walked me out to my car and I got out a toy broom for each of them. A broom, you say, aghast? But, being the wise JanMa that I am, I notice what they like to do, and both of them, especially Jake, love to play with the broom, dragging it all over the house and outside. So I got each of them a broom in their own size, and they had fun with them. Claire does more actual sweeping, Jake likes to hold it high and hit things with it.

Jake and cousin Travis

Jake and cousins Allison and Travis

Even though the kids had already eaten dinner, Jake and Claire shared quite a bit of my pizza! They do like pizza, with everything on it! After bathtime and a quick story, during which they both had nodding heads, bedtime was easy, both ready for it after a busy late afternoon. Wake up time was about 6:30 a.m., and I dumped them both back in my bed and told them we couldn't get out of bed til the sun was awake. So we talked and bounced and tickled on the bed waiting for sunrise to peek in from the window.
Breakfast was cranberry-orange muffins, a banana and milk. Claire kept calling her breakfast cupcakes, and I went along with it, she will always like JanMa's breakfasts! By 8:30 or so we were on our way to the park, me on the bike and the twins riding along behind.

Riding a bike with twins to playground.
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I had loaded up water and snacks for the playground. I took the lid off my sippy cup to drink, I couldn't figure out how that straw worked! Of course then Claire wanted to take the lid off her cup too. I finally did, then she insisted on hold it herself to take a drink. Well, instead of trying to drink from the lower rim of the cup opening, she tried to drink from the top. Water spilled over her chin and shirt. I showed her how to drink from the bottom of the opening, held it for her, and when she insisted on doing it herself, she did the same thing again. So the water was gone, she was wet, but it didn't seem to faze her in the least! Points for Claire.

Jake was showing me his "noh" . He can also show me his "ice" (eyes), mouf. ers, and says agua when he wants a drink! He is starting to talk in a language I can understand, not twinese.

Although they like climbing up and down the slide platform steps, they liked snacks and climbing on top of the picnic table just as well. Jake fell off the picnic bench seat once, Claire fell when running across the tall wet grass and Claire nearly toppled the bike on top of Jake, but I was already anticipating that and caught it just in time. By 9:45 other families started showing up, so we headed back to the house.

Back at the house, I opened my car trunk again for another birthday present, Claire immediately recognized Thomas the Train on the wrapping paper. She wanted to carry that present around and took it into the house. I made them go upstairs to open and play, so we wouldn't disturb sleeping Mommy and Daddy.

Claire opening Thomas the Train present

Once Claire saw Thomas the Train on the box inside the wrapping paper, she quickly figured out how to open it up.

Voila! Thomas the Train!
I got this present for them because I know they like Thomas, and John and Taylor have a similar tent-toy that is a fire engine, and they both love to play in it.

Looking down at twins inside Thomas the Train. Claire likes to sit inside and look out, Jake likes to crawl inside and knock it over. Hope they work it out between themselves!

Twins at play

A few cute pictures of the twins, it is not easy to get a picture of the two of them together!

Jake and JanMa

Claire and JanMa

Twins knocking down blocks.



Claire loves to talk on the cell phone. Here she is talking to Diane, who probably hangs up long before Claire does, then lets her baby doll talk on the phone.

William's First Birthday

William had his first birthday last weekend. Uncle Brent arrived from Dallas; there were several relatives from Louisiana, and friends with children. In honor of William's first birthday, it RAINED. Not just a little drizzle, but a hurricane force frog strangler, it was great! William showed off his new-found walking skills, and wasn't the least bit fazed by all the people, food, presents, and general commotion.

Three and 1/2 men, Schultze style!

Proud parents and CAKE!

Proud Mom Jaime made the cake herself, and had practiced over several months, much to the benefit of anyone who stopped by to visit! Bill and I both had samples from previous trials, all were good.

The cake - the whole thing, including the blue part, is cake!
A yellow airplane pulling a sign in a blue sky.

William enjoyed his first cake.
And opened lots of presents, with a little help from Mom, Dad, and Sammy the dog.
Grandpa Bill keeps the aviator theme going with one of his presents.
And an airplane piggy bank, that required some money from Grandpa!
William also has plenty of ground transportation, with a new Coupe Car.
Uncle Brent and friend Cindy both spent some time up close and personal with William.

Grandma Linda gets her turn with the boys.

It was a great birthday for a cute and well-loved 1 year old. A great memory for the adults in the family, and William will have plenty of pictures.

Biking twins to the park

I babysat the twins so Jeremy and Jennifer could go out and watch the UT game, my birthday present to him. But really it was a present for me, getting to spend that time with Claire and Jake. I had my back to them while wrestling with the TV remote, changing the channel for their dinnertime entertainment, and when I turned around, WOW... the twins had climbed up into their booster seats and were strapping themselves in! OMG, you can't take their eyes off them for a second.
After a supper of pizza, I put them in the bike trailer and off I pedaled to the playground. You might think the neighborhood is flat, but NO... there are long uphill slopes, barely noticeable unless you are pedaling a bike towing nearly 100 lbs. Good thing I carried bottles of water, blue for Jake, pink for Claire and red for me!! Sippy cups are quite easy to drink from!
Claire spent time climbing up and down the steps up to the slide, and Jake liked to climb up the hard way, whether on the slide or the bouncy seat. They did go down the slide a few times and bounced on bouncy and got to swing.


While Claire is more verbal right now, Jake definitely has a mechanical bent! He liked touching the bike and anything else that was man-made and moved.
Back at the house, I unloaded the kids and put the bike away, then it was bath time. Then upstairs, and thank goodness they can climb/walk themselves upstairs now! A few minutes of video and playtime and they were starting to fade.


In the video below, notice that Claire rocks strongly on the horse and says Yee Hi! She absorbs language like a sponge.


This is a picture taken a few weeks ago, they like going over the fence in the playroom and playing with stuff they don't usually get to play with, like the kids' kitchen.
After we brushed teeth, read a couple of stories, they hopped into their beds and snuggled up. I sat in the glider and rocked and waited while they settled down, Claire was asleep in less than 10 minutes, Jake took a bit longer. When I left the nursery, I had to negotiate the doorknob covers that keep the kids from getting out of their room. Nearly kept me in, too. But finally, I got downstairs, wrestled with the remote again to find the UT game, and watched them take the lead and go on to win. Another happy birthday present for Jeremy.
Here is the graphic I made to put on his birthday card. I was quite proud of it!

John is growing up!

I made a brief stop to visit John and Taylor and parents while in Dallas. John is really growing up, he is more verbal, and about 1/2 the time I understand him! He climbed up the slide to show me he now slides down sitting up, before he slid down on his tummy.



He can also hang from the rings now, and swing his legs up and back.
Taylor wasn't too sure of me when she first woke up from her nap....
But she quickly remembered JanMa and we had fun playing together.
John entertained Taylor with his "peek-a-boo" blanket routine.

John also enjoyed doing stuff while I video'd him and then watching it.


I have been giving John spare change whenever I come to visit, he puts it into his piggy bank and we count the number of coins he puts in. This time I gave him some, then gave Taylor some, but let John put it in her bank for her.



And of course, Daddy is a big hit when he gets home from work. Jason loves spending time with the kids, and I have a great time watching him play with them.

Trip to Asheville

Months ago, Diane, Mom and I had planned a trip for early September to a timeshare in Virginia. Then Mom was going to move to Texas, and the planned trip became a "help pack to move" trip, and timeshare was cancelled. Good thing, as an earthquake and hurricane Irene came along during the same planned week. Then Mom decided NOT to move to Texas, but since we already had airline tickets, we went to Asheville anyway. Good thing, since the triple digit temperatures in Texas were about to do me in, and Asheville had much cooler highs and lows than Texas, plus Asheville had RAIN! That alone was worth the trip, but we did so much more.

First we had Mom's birthday lunch at Pappa's and Beer, a Mexican restaurant (her choice).
They had a salsa bar, and I tried several, most were too hot for me, almost bitter.
Then we helped her buy a new TV (along with HD cable service). She also got to pick out some new beads for her bracelet, a gift from her friend VH.
The day after her birthday, we drove to a rental cabin just outside Blowing Rock, NC, about 3+ hours or so from Asheville on the Blue Ridge Parkway (40 mph speed limit).

The before picture, before we backed out of the garage.

An overlook view stop, just to see the mountain scenery.

Blowing Rock is even higher in elevation than Asheville, so cooler temps. The cabin was very nice, 3 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths, a front porch with rocking chairs, a side and back porch for outdoor cooking and eating and a hot tub.

My bedroom at the cabin... king size bed, love seat, TV, ipod dock and a Wii!

The cabin's resident chipmunk..
This turkey that came by each day also

We would go out for lunch each day, enjoy the scenery, and bring back something easy for dinner and breakfast.

Lunch at Christa's, just off Blue Ridge Parkway. We all had daily special, meatloaf, choice of 2 sides and a roll, and of course, dessert We also bought 3 cinnamon rolls to carry to cabin for breakfast next morning. Christa's was also a convenience store, gift shop and feed store as well as restaurant.

And Mom complains about the trucks in Texas....!

Another lunch was spent in Banner Elk, at the Banner Elk cafe, another rustic building with a nice outdoor eating area and home-style food. And then of course dessert! The flowers were in full bloom and just beautiful. I think they like cooler weather too.

Another lunch was at the Daniel Boone house in Boone, NC, a tradition of home-cooking served family style. We ate a lot, including dessert, then had to pool our cash to pay for the meal because they didn't take plastic. Prices have gone up a bit since Daniel Boone's time, and after paying off that event, we had a total of $10 in ones for the remainder of our trip. Good thing most places take plastic!

The last lunch was at the Mustard Seed Cafe in Sparta, NC, on the way back to Asheville. It was a surprisingly large boutique kind of store, with sporting goods in the basement, and a restaurant at the back. Salads, burgers and wraps were on the menu and the daily special was chicken salad on croissant, different fare from the previous days' lunches. Then we of course had to have dessert, this time chocolate milk shakes, which took 2 gals about 10 minutes to make. None of that quick mix shake stuff from fast food places.

The highlight of the trip for me was the zipline trek, 10 cables and a suspension bridge at Hawk's Nest resort, just a few minutes away from our cabin. We all did it, even Mom, setting the record for their oldest participant.


One problem we had to resolve before we left the cabin for Asheville... a flat tire.
AAA to the rescue, and Mom's car has a full-size spare tire, so we were able to make the trip back home. We tipped the guy $5 of our last $10! The car has since been to the dealership and now has 4 new tires.

The after we got back to Asheville, we fit in a movie, The Help, before Diane left that evening to make the UT-Rice game in Austin that weekend. Mom and I went to the Hendersonville Apple Festival over Labor Day weekend, because we had tickets to a play at the new Flatrock Playhouse in downtown Hendersonville. We stopped at an ATM at one of Mom's branch banks, it was the first time she had ever been to an ATM! She was quite impressed, and no longer feels tied to banker's hours when she needs cash.


It was probably the hottest day of the summer up there, and I was glad to get into the theater dimness and AC! This is the set of the play Shear Madness, the longest running non-musical off-broadway play in America. The rest of Labor Day weekend was spent buying a new computer, setting it up and getting Mom comfortable with her email and the new TV remote. The day I left Asheville was rainy and cool, I had to borrow a sweatshirt to wear for my early morning flight. I returned to cooler Texas weather, not like Asheville, but still a relief from the triple digits. I can certainly understand the appeal of a cooler climate for summertime, but Texas still is home to John, Claire, Jake, William and Taylor, so it will stay my home too.