Ella's favorite colors

Ella woke up one morning and listed off her favorite colors.... and I can't stop laughing that glitter is one of her favorites... and that she somehow managed to turn it into such a long and southern word... gleeeda

Educating, loving, and raising twins

Raising twins is probably the coolest and most unique thing ever.  Watching two humans, who were grown in the same womb, flourish and grow together and separate is like one big giant science experiment.

For some reason, the world tries its hardest to separate multiples.  Dress them differently, put them in different classes, make sure they are individuals.  Here's the thing about twins: part of their identity is the fact that they are twins. 

As a parent of multiples, it's our job to protect their identity.  We need to partner with and educate the educators, and remind them that we need to follow Ella and Sydney's lead on when they need to be together and when they need to be separate.  Their bond is this magical thing that's beyond anyone's control.  So I've decided to write a letter to their teachers as they entered a "preschool" classroom.  Now that Ella and Sydney are more communicative, and teachers verbalize what they "think" is best for them, I thought it was best to lay the groundwork for teaching and loving good humans, since they are such an integral part of their lives.  And my plan is to amend this letter each year for new teachers and classrooms and their situation (together or separate).

Father's Day Star Wars painting

I had an idea for a gift for Daniel for Father's Day.  I know, I know, it's November and I'm finally making this post... but here it is!

We have a Darth Vader head, and I knew Derek had Storm Trooper, and we had the same tutu dresses in black and white.  So I had to sneak and take a picture.... with a little help from our neighbors.

 And for as simple as this picture might seem, we had to take about 100....

And a twin-mom friend of mine did some editing and turned it into a "painting".  I had it printed on canvas, and it lives in Daniel's office.  I think it's pretty awesome, and such a neat keepsake for our Star Wars fan.

finished product - so, so cool

Pintail Landing Pl

I've always wanted a painting of our house.  At first, I wanted a picture of our "first house", and whenever we moved, I would take it with us to show to our kids and a "remember when...".

But the house we bought when we were planning a wedding, completely naïve and assuming we would move onto something bigger and better, has turned into our forever home. 

Could we use more space?  Sure!  Do we need more storage?  Absolutely.  Would building something brand new, our "dream house", be awesome?  Heck yeah.  But - WE.LOVE.OUR.HOME.  It has truly turned into a house that we've "built" together.  We've personalized each and every room.  We've added on a back porch, which we absolutely love.  We've picked out paint colors, have a swing set in the backyard, and carefully hung pictures on the walls.  Our home isn't tiny, but it's also not huge, but for us - it's perfect.  We have neighbors who we simply adore, they look out for us, and they make our days better.  For now, we couldn't imagine moving.

So I decided to treat myself, and I commissioned the same person who painted a picture of the girls for me a while back to do one of our home + family.  And I simply love it.  There are so many elements about it that mean so much to us - Ella is on the left (her side) wearing pink (her color).  Sydney is on the right (her side) wearing purple (her color).  When I was pregnant with them, we weren't sure if they'd be identical, so we assigned them "sides" (to mirror womb placement) and colors, and despite them being VERY fraternal, those things stuck!  Their fair wings capture the essence of them and the sweet age of 3.  Their outfits are rainbow colored to represent them being our double-rainbows-after-the-storm.  On the steps, you'll find two people who love each other fiercely and adore their sweet, incredible girls.  On the right is our Baby Sink tree (which, sadly after attempt #2, has died).  All four of our hydrangea bushes are pictured - the left two we planted years ago because I love hydrangeas, the far right bush was a gift from the Couringtons the day the girls were born, and the middle left bush was the plant we had at Daniel's dad's funeral. 

We never dreamed when we picked this place to plant our roots that it would be so perfect and happy as this.

#sinksinthesand2018

 

A few years ago, we were craving time away as just a family of 4.  We love vacationing with our family, but you've gotta make sure to spend time with just the small few closest to you.  So two years ago we decided to take a fall trip away to Massanutten.  We loved it, so we did it again last year.  Earlier this year, Georgia decided we weren't doing a big beach Sink vacation, so I decided our fall trip would be to the beach.  Last year when we went to Corolla with the Trevillians/Overstreets, it was a bit chilly and we couldn't even play in the pool or ocean... so I figured, what's the difference in going in October when it's chilly anyway? 

I searched high and low for the perfect house right on the ocean.  Since we were going in the off-season, we were able to afford something close to the sand and waves.  Not only did we book something oceanfront, but when we arrived, we immediately heard the waves from INSIDE the house.  I had the feeling our week was going to be exactly what we needed.

Saturday

made it to the OBX and just finished up lunch, burning off 3 year old energy

....still killing time at the Super Wings

this photo is titled "The moment Ella fell right into the Atlantic Ocean"
Don't worry, not to be outdone... Sydney did it about 37 seconds later

and this is our view for the next week... just perfect and so relaxing

Sunday

I peeked out of our bedroom door when I woke up and saw this gorgeous sunrise

We didn't bring many groceries with us, but we made sure to bring coffee.  So Daniel made us coffee, and we drank it on the ocean and let the girls run around before heading out for breakfast and groceries

E L L A

S Y D N E Y

Big chair
Two little girls
What's a better way to kick off vacation than with hot, fresh Duck Donuts!?

Sydney

Ella is in donut heaven

We went for a walk to find seashells, and loved finding these "pools"

what a gorgeous emerald ocean... and it was this color most of the week

ahhh... it was naptime, so I grabbed a glass of wine, opened up the door to hear the ocean, and worked on updating this bad boy (which I'm ALWAYS behind on!)

hanging out in the hot tub

The weather was so, so perfect.  For our morning coffee, we did leggings and tees.  During the day we were comfortable in bathing suits.  And each evening, we threw on sweatshirts.  I don't think we'll ever get so lucky again, so we soaked it all up!

running off some energy after dinner before ice cream and the sun set

my people

my main squeeze

gorgeous, gorgeous

doesn't get any more perfect than this

Monday

ready for a fun day

#doublesinks

Running away from waves
Jumping over waves
Building sand castles
Finding seashells
The world's largest sandbox
=Pure bliss for our sweet girls

Ella wanted to jump over waves over and over

ran down to fill up their buckets

waiting for the waves to roll in

running away from waves with my girl E

Syd's turn

snack break

really enjoyed bundling up during naptime with this cutie

wave runners

E

S

me and my girls

just look at that amazing sunset sky

salty kisses and starfish wishes

A local photographer was offering sessions under the Milky Way.  Apparently it's rare, so we decided - why not??  We headed out Coquina Beach at 8pm when it was super dark.  We had to wait our turn with sleepy girls, but they did great.  It was a really neat experience, and I'm glad we did it :)

After we came back from the Milky Way pictures, we tucked the girls in and grabbed a blanket and headed out to the sand to look at the stars and listen to the waves <3

Tuesday

Jeanette's Pier after a delicious breakfast at Sam and Omie's

yup

making a mer-man

Syd's turn

and finally Ella

rinsed off all that sand and had lunch
STOP!  All the heart eyes!

my best guy

We got all cleaned up and headed to the Black Pelican for a really, really delicious seafood dinner.  The girls were delighted they had their dinner served on frisbees.

sweet crabby girls

waiting for our table

After dinner and ice cream, we headed back to search for crabs on the beach

"yook, syd! a trab!" -Ella

Wednesday
We took a short break from the sand and sun to visit the aquarium in Manteo.
It was awesome.  We arrived right after they opened, and there weren't many people there.  It was perfect because the girls had some freedom and got to roam around, while Daniel and I were able to really see some of the exhibits.  Since going out is so stressful, this was such a nice treat!

hanging out with the alligators

happy, happy, happy

trying to reach the sting rays

Momma's favorite: the jellyfish

scuba divers doing a Q&A in the Shark Tank

After we finished up at the aquarium, we tried out an open-air restaurant on the S Nags Head Pier called Fish Heads.  Not only was the atmosphere awesome, but the food was delicious.

yup, there's the ocean, right behind us

shrimp boil date night with my boo

Thursday

heading out for coffee for adults and frolicking for littles

chasing seagulls

when you're on vacation, you eat corndogs and ice cream for lunch

mermaid naptime

Ella has really gorgeous curly hair, but a lot of the time it's a mess
But this week with the salty air, her curls were on point

"Ruuuunnn!"

just soooo pretty!

dining al fresco

stayed up too late to do sparklers

Friday

another Sam and Omie's breakfast

Sam and Omie's throwback - August 2016

soaking up this view

one more peaceful beach naptime

snacktime



gorgeous Ella Grace



sweet Sydney Ann

two perfect pairs of sweet sandy feet

and that's a wrap for Fall at the Beach with these two pumpkins

one last breakfast with pretty ocean views before we headed back to VA

And that's a wrap.  What a perfect week - 6 weeks later and I'm still grinning!!