It's all gouda: Fearlessly Fourteen Birthday Twins

Monday, September 7, 2009

Fearlessly Fourteen Birthday Twins

It completely blows my mind that I became a mother FOURTEEN years ago tonight! On September 7, 1995 at 8:21 pm and then again at 8:22 pm, my life forever changed for the better. Want to hear something twilight-zone-ish? Their original due date was MY birthday, but these two decided to fearlessly join the earth's population three weeks early.

Man, I love these kids. From the moment I found out I was pregnant with them, I was completely, hopelessly, and forever smitten. Even now, with their teenage bizarro-ness coupled with the fact that from a vertical standpoint, my daughter now sees eye to eye with me, and my son passed me in height inches and inches ago, they will forever and always be my babies!

Check out how the boy towers over his twin ... uh that would be the one on the far right, not the one in the middle. That’s no optical illusion. Check out the size of his mitts compared to his littlest sister’s. Don't you just love how my oldest girls eyes form that lovely crescent-moon shape when she smiles? Her eyelashes are about a mile long!

Happy 14th Birthday! May this year bring you endless joy and wonderful memories! Love ya, Mom

16 comments:

Mickle in NZ said...: Super Happy Birthday to your twins. Hope they have a brilliant day.

In future years their nieces will have no difficulty telling them apart. I have identical twin uncles, wasn't until I was at least 25 that I worked it out, lol.

Am very sure the Gouda Family celebrations will include scrummo food,

love and huggles, Michelle and pretend-sleeping Zebbycat, xxx and purrrrrrrrumbles; September 8, 2009 at 3:59 AM
Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...: Happy birthday to your twins. I think we all secretly or not so secretly we all longed to have a twin...they are lucky to have each other.; September 8, 2009 at 4:09 AM
Jennifer said...: Happy birthday, they are beautiful children and I think all but the littlest are taller than me!; September 8, 2009 at 7:14 AM
Anonymous said...: Nice looking bunch you've got there Paula! Happy Birthday to them now and YOU in three weeks!!; September 8, 2009 at 7:19 AM
Cathy said...: A big happy birthday to your twins, Paula. Your children are so very handsome. Have a grand celebration.; September 8, 2009 at 8:02 AM
DayPhoto said...: Oh! What FUN! To have twins! Wonderful!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KIDS!

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com; September 8, 2009 at 8:10 AM
Marjie said...: Happy Birthday to the twins! It's so nice that you were all able to take a long weekend to celebrate. Great picture of the 3 of them. Little miss needs to start packing on the height, there! Your 8th grade son and mine are both moose! How funny is that?; September 8, 2009 at 8:11 AM
The Blonde Duck said...: Happy birthday! What a wonderful early b-day gift!; September 8, 2009 at 9:38 AM
Robynn's Ravings said...: Happy Birthday, beautiful kids!!! Two 14-yr-olds. I think that's terrific. I have ONE and absolutely love this age. If anyone had told me (before kids) that I would SOOO enjoy being the mother of twins I would have suggested therapy. Aren't they great? Most of the time?! lol

Hope today is a hoot for all of you. :); September 8, 2009 at 9:42 AM
Pam said...: Happy b-day to the twins. They grow up way too fast.

I took my daughter to first grade today and cried all the way home - I can't believe she is such a big girl now.; September 8, 2009 at 9:56 AM
Jan said...: Many Happy Returns to your twins, I hope you all had a fabulous day.; September 8, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Paula said...: Thanks, everyone, for the birthday wishes! Do you remember being 14? :-)

Mickle: They did have a great day!

Bellini Valli: It seems like I always knew I'd have twins!

Cheryl: The boy towers over all the women in this family!

Prairierunner: Yeah, I'll keep them!

Cathy: Thanks! They're great kids!

Day Photo: The first month or two was a blur of diapers and feedings, but after that ... fun city!

Marjie: The boy keeps growing! He's getting taller and thinner. Just bought him a pair of size 15 shoes! Our boys would have sooo much fun together, and we'd get stiff necks from peering upwards all the time! :-)

Duckie: I was sooo very, very happy that birthday!

Robyyn: They really are great kids, even with their teenage brains! They keep me hopping, that's for sure!

Pam: Oh, I remember that drive home after dropping my kids off for the first time! I arrived really EARLY for pick up time! Hope she had a great first day!

Jan: We had a great day. Actually, we tend to stretch out the celebration, so it's been a fun couple of days!; September 8, 2009 at 8:37 PM
pam said...: Wow! He's going to be a big one, isn't he??!!; September 9, 2009 at 2:03 PM
inadvertent farmer said...: LOL...if you love 'em at 14 then you're home free!!! Happy Birthday, Kim; September 11, 2009 at 6:41 PM
Proud Italian Cook said...: happy belated birthday to your beautiful kids Paula. What a sweet post, I got all teary eyed!!; September 11, 2009 at 8:46 PM
Maria Verivaki said...: i wish you many years of happiness watching your lovelies growing!; September 12, 2009 at 8:34 AM

Homeschool Tips and Tools: 2010

Bananagrams! Not too long ago, my kids and I discovered a great new game called Bananagrams. Far more fast paced and loads easier to play than Scrabble, this game requires only a table top and kids to get the fun underway. Better yet, adults and kids of all ages can play together. The playing pieces come packaged in a delightful, banana colored and shaped, zippered cloth pouch. It's free formed fun, and great entertainment for the entire family.

From a homeschooling perspective, it's a great tool to segue into creative writing or story telling. My kids create their own Bananagram "puzzle" and then use the words they created to write or tell an impromptu story. Silly or serious, all type of stories are encouraged!

The book titled English from the Roots Up by Joegil K. Kundquist has rapidly become one of my favorite resources for building a strong vocabulary base for my children. This spiral bound book provides both Latin and Greek word roots that provides students with tools to help them determine word meanings. I absolutely love it, and the rapid results that I see in my children are amazing. This is way better than a spelling program; by studying word roots, my children are gaining a much broader understanding of language and the power of words. The lessons are very easy to administer, short in duration, and my kids enjoyed them.

On the writing frontier, there is a book called Story Starters, Helping Children Write Like They've Never Written Before by Karen Andreola that provides writing prompts in the form of partially written stories for children to complete. While I found the book to be just ok, my children love it. I read the partially written story aloud, and they write the rest. The kids really enjoyed doing this as each of them looked forward to hearing the other's completed versions. This ended up being a great experience as the kids really wanted to impress their siblings with their version, and thus put more effort into their writing.

And for the grammar enthusiast lurking inside your student, here's a great book that explains how to diagram sentences. Diagraming Sentences by Deborah White Broadwater is a 46 page workbook complete with an answer key, and is perfect for your middle schooler.

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Lapbooking and Notebooking are buzz words in the homeschool community. Here are two great resources for incorporating those strategies into your learning curriculum. Big Book of Books by Dinah Zike and The Ultimate Lap Book Handbook by Tammy Duby and Cyndy Regeling helped me enhance our homeschooling experience using lapbooks. The content found in these books enabled me to teach a group of homeschool mom's how to incorporate lapbooking into their curriculums. You'll want to laminate your copies as they will get pulled off the shelf over and over again.