Twins Tribute...

This past week, our precious Kaleb and Kali turned seven!  Woo hoo.  They were so excited about their birthday and couldn't wait to celebrate.  For a little over a week, every night as I was tucking them into bed, they asked how many more days it was until the big day!   The countdown...so very sweet!

I never thought about having twins...it didn't run in our family or anything, so it never crossed my mind.  But now, I'm so happy I have them -- it is SO MUCH FUN!!   Who knew?   And I love the way they are with each other.  Kaleb is very protective of Kali and Kali is very patient with him -- more so (for both) than with any of the other kids.  It's endearing.  Even if they get mad at each other, they are so quick to apologize and equally as quick to forgive.  I love their relationship.

So, we celebrated their birth at Chuck E. Cheese's.  I had forgotten how fun that place is.  Seriously, we had a blast!!   They both invited two friends and then we had some extra family and friends there as well.  It was a Thursday night and it wasn't crowded at all.  They loved playing all the games - Kaleb especially loved the shooting ones, and Kali loved climbing in the tubes with her friend, Dakota.   We all managed to fly through our tokens and work up a bit of a sweat.  ha!   We had just enough pizza and just enough cake and it worked out perfectly.

Both kids got in the Ticket Blaster at the end of the night - and that was hysterical.  It looks so easy from the outside, but it boggled Kaleb's mind.  ha!!   Every time he'd catch a ticket, he'd then open up his hand to catch another one and lose the one in his hand.  I think he made it out with one ticket.  LOL   But the manager guy was super sweet and gave him a few.  (:    However, Kali had been given a tutu from Ms. Lana, which she put on immediately, and good thing, too, cause it came in VERY handy in the blaster.   There were tons of tickets getting stuck in the tutu -- we were cracking up.  But then, as she was coming out the door at the end, she was dusting herself off and knocking all the tickets back down to the blaster floor. ha!!!  Ok, so some of the objective of the blaster was lost in translation.  LOL    But, that girl walked away with a TON of tickets -- and you guessed it, she gave about half of them to her brother.  Did I mention I love them!!  (:

They were given so many wonderful gifts (thank you, friends!).   I'd have to say that Kaleb's favorite thing is the big Nerf gun he got from the Hetrick family and Kali's favorite thing is the little baby doll she got from Gatlin (that pee pees, thank you very much), followed closely by the tutu.  BUT, they love ALL the gifts they got and have been busy playing with them.   OH, Kaleb did have to fight for the Nerf guns when we got home because Brian, Cooper and Jon Mark (cousin/nephew) were in a heated battle.  I guess I know what to get Brian and Cooper for Christmas.  LOL

It was super sweet to have my sister, Jenni, here all the way from Thailand.  She and her daughter, Hannah, and her son, Jon Mark, spent a few days with us and it was wonderful.  Hannah had met the new kids before (cause she's in the states for college) but this was the first time for Jenni and Jon Mark to meet them.  They left early this morning to head over to Oklahoma to spend more time with my Mom and my sister, Debbi's, family there.

SO - that's about it for this post...oh, but I always have to leave with some thought-provoking tidbit...so here's this one.  Did you know that in some parts of Ethiopia it is considered such bad luck to have twins that the children are actually killed right after birth?  That is the sad reality.  It's called Mingi.  Can I tell you how extremely thankful I am that my sweet babies were not born in a region of Ethiopia that practices Mingi.   Let's remember to pray for all the children of the world...red, yellow, black and white...   I am forever grateful that God brought these precious, amazing, wonderful, beautiful twins to me.

Ok, wait...I MUST tell you this Kali story.  So, she was wearing a Hello Kitty t-shirt the other day and she pointed to the word "Hello" and said, "Mom, what is this?" and I said, "Hello Kitty."  She replied, "Well, I need to get a bra for my Hello Kitties".  ba ha ha ha ha ha ha   So, yes, the word "Hello" was right across her chest -- thus, I just thought she was talking about the word.  LOL    Oh my gosh....I laughed my head off!!!    Ya know, we have some good stories that involve Hello Kitty.  Just sayin'.   (: