Well, now this sounded like a good time!

Here you go, the final card. When I saw that picture, I knew I had to use it. The faces are too perfect. Rebecca all cheesy, Daniel with his mouth wide open (the boy can’t keep it closed!). A fun moment.  Happy Holidays, whatever your celebration of choice may be!

I ordered the cards from Shutterfly and they came very quickly. Names removed in post-production, of course.

Welcome to Thursday Theater, everyone!  This week’s optional theme was: Giggles.  What got the giggles out for you this week?  Play along with Mr. Linky below…

I had some ideas when I set this theme, of things I could do to get my kids to laugh.  Turns out I didn’t need anything contrived, and the giggles presented themselves to me quite easily.  Why?  Because Gramps was here.  My dad is really great with my kids, and loves to do any number of things that make them laugh.  Here’s just a couple of examples…

Giggling with Gramps from Goddess in Progress on Vimeo.

Next week I’m setting another editing challenge: Short and Sweet. How much of a story can you convey in 30 seconds or less?  That’s right, half a minute.  Pick one small point/story/theme, and get out those virtual scissors and be ruthless in your editing.

OK, yeah.  You could just take a super short video clip, too.  And I won’t call you a cheater. At least, not to your face.

I feel like I’m in a major blog slump right now. Maybe it’s the whole toddlers-kicking-my-ass thing, maybe it’s seasonal, maybe it’s just one of those things where you kind of run out of things to say.

And, so, I’m turning to you guys and repeating a call for questions!  I loved it last time, and there are still some lingering questions unanswered from the first go around.  So, please, ask me some questions and give me a nudge for something to write about!  Anything about me or the kids or anything else you’ve wanted to know or want to hear my take on?  Ask away.

- – -

OK, in truth, I’ve been doing a little bit of writing, just not here.  I’ve kind of been obsessing on the sewing front, and instead of totally changing the focus of this blog, I started a separate one just for craftiness.  If you feel like geeking out with me, do come on over to www.teenytinyquilts.com.  But if quilting ain’t your thing, I won’t take it personally.  It’s only less than a week old at this point, but it’s another outlet for a different side of me.  Got to reclaim some non-mommy aspects, right?

Playing along, for the first time, with Bad Haiku Friday!  Hosted by Laura at Catholic Teacher Musings.  You’ll understand why I was no poetry major in college.  Behold, my Friday morning, in Haiku:

Some clocks blinking twelve
Guess we lost power last night?
I blame new Fios.

I don’t remember
turning off my computer.
Now it won’t turn on.

Photos! Videos!
Nothing is backed up, ‘cept blog.
Kicking myself. Hard.

Apple guy tells me
Trick to reset the power.
Magic solution.

Backup in progress.
One-hundred-forty-nine gigs
Takes a long damn time.

Say what you will about the Massachusetts demographics that contributed to this phenomenon, but there are a fair number of bloggers in my local Moms of Twins club.  For a while, we’ve talked about trying to get together for a night out, and last night was the time!

So, with representation from seven mama blogs, we met up at Applebee’s and enjoyed cheap drinks and apps.  And while my stomach is regretting my food and beverage choices, I had a great time meeting up with my fellow twin-mom-bloggers.  In attendence were the moms from The Finbergs, Mommy, Esq., Snickollet, Sotoriffic Twins, What A Card, and The Zimmer Zoo.

It was a fun gathering.  While different combinations of us have met in real life, not everyone had.  And yet, there was an ease.  For one thing, many of us keep up with each other’s blogs, so we already know roughly what everyone’s up to.  Plus, there was no self-conscious pretending that we hadn’t seen the most recent pictures of each other’s kids or read a recent struggle.  Hi, we were all there because we blog, so it’s not like we were going to act as though we didn’t.  Plus, of course, we all had the twin mom thing in common, and traveled in overlapping circles.

Anyways, we had lots of fun, we had a few drinks, and I hope we do it again soon.  Oh, and yes… I did bring my camera.  But the picture turned out terribly, so I’ll just have to hope Nancy’s was better than mine…

Right.  Posting may be a bit slow this week, lots of real-life stuff to deal with.  Including, but not limited to, the fact that my MOT club is having its sale this weekend and I have tons and tons of stuff to sort through and price.  Yipes!

I did want to make sure I throw out the optional theme for this week’s Thursday Theater: O.M.G.  That’s right, anything that made you say, “OMG, I have to get this on video.”  Whether unbearable cuteness, ungodly messes, a clever new trick, or something that just screams “document me!”  Don’t forget last week’s challenge: see if you can edit yourself and keep things short and sweet.

In the meantime, I feel just a little bit off.  So, apparently, does Rebecca.

My good friend, Random.org, has picked lucky number 19 as the winner…

Congrats to Laura!  She’ll be getting a LeapFrog reader plus three books, including the Cat in the Hat!

Just a heads-up for those who would like to participate in this week’s Thursday Theater…

This week’s optional theme: Food!  Anything food-related.

And, for this week, your first challenge: make the clip under one minute long.  Use the editing software that came with your camera, use iMovie on your Mac, use online tools like One True Media.  Use whatever suits you, but get out those virtual scissors and EDIT!

See you then…

And now, for something completely different!

I’ve gotten such a cool opportunity for a giveaway, I’m all excited to share it with you.  You see, it’s National Reading Month, and I’m not sure there are many causes more worthy of celebration.  M and I were both big readers growing up, wasting pair after pair of batteries in our flashlights, reading entirely too late into the night.  We can only hope to inspire the same willful disobedience in our kids, who seem to be getting a good start as they ask for more and more stories every night (and morning, and afternoon).  For as tiring as two toddlers can be, I can never turn down a request to read a book.

Well, the folks at LeapFrog are all over this.  Head over to their National Reading Month page and you can pledge to read a certain number of hours with your kids this month.  And to celebrate, they’re letting little ol’ me give away one of their Tag Readers.  It comes bundled with three books, including The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs & Ham.  How cool!  I think it’s great to have more ways for different kids to interact with books, and this is a nifty tool to help encourage independence in young readers. (Not to mention like a $75 value……)

Here’s the rules for the giveaway. First, check out Christy’s review at About.com’s Family Computing site.  Leave a comment below between now and Sunday, March 22 at 5pM Eastern, telling me one thing you learned about the Tag Reader from that review that you didn’t know before, and also what book you most hope they have included in their library.

For additional entries, you can tweet all about it (just don’t forget to include me: @etowndz), and/or write your own blog post and be sure to link back here.  Just leave an additional comment for each additional entry (no more than one Twitter entry per person, per day, please).

Remember, this ends next Sunday!  Good luck!

Also, be sure to check out Christy’s Family Computing blog for lots of super info and reviews on technology and kids.  And, check out the other mom blogs featured that will be participating in this giveaway!

3 Carnations
So Much More Than a Mom
What about Mom?
Parenting by Trial & Error
My Sweet Baboo
Verbatim
Miss Britt
Stop, Drop and Blog
Callapidder Days

I was going to write a post today.  Really, I was.  But you all know how it goes.  The day gets way from you.

Anyways, I wanted to thank everyone so much for their feedback on my swimming post.  I’ll be stopping by the Y tomorrow to fill out the withdrawal form, and we’ll just stick with open family swim for now.  I feel really good about that decision, and it was great to have you guys out there, validating me.

In the meantime, don’t forget about Thursday Theater!  This week’s optional theme is: SONG.  Interpret however you want.  But be prepared to put your speakers on mute, as my entry may very well involve a few verses of “Wheels on the Bus.”  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.