Happy Mothers Day gift from Elijah

I love getting homemade gifts from the kids for Mothers Day.  I especially love when you can tell that the kids have put lots and lots of work into the gift.  Elijah is in third grade and her teacher and her art teacher have worked all year long to put together an awesome Mothers Day book..  They took several photos of Elijah throughout the year, he made art projects to go with the photo.  The book was so nicely wrapped and Elijah put it on my pillow before I awoke on Mothers Day.... how sweet!!!!

I wanted to take photos to share and to keep.  I store away things like this and never seem to see them again, but this is why I love my blog, I can look it up whenever I want :)

I had a very nice mothers day this year and thank my hubby and kids for a wonderful day!!!!

Elijah is a baseball player

His class

Fingerprint turkey, each level used a different finger

I love you because; you help me when I'm sick and you feed me and
you spend money on me and you help me stay alive.

I am lucky because....I have you for a mother and you take care of me
and help me and put clothing on my back

Thanks buddy!!!!

Camille's first Chorus Fest

Tonight we enjoyed going out to watch the District 3 PEMA Elementary Chorus Fest at the Brockway Area Middle School..  Camille was able to participate in the fun filled day practicing with a total of 21 school districts all day to put on their performance tonight.. They did a fantastic job and Camille, of course, was right in the front row and easy to watch.

Camille said she had alot of fun and enjoyed meeting new kids.  She said she is going to try really hard to get in again for next year.  You have to try out to participate.  This year she was selected as an alternate, but was excited to be told she was going.  There were 9 students from her elementary school that attended.

Tristin surprised her with these beautiful flowers at the end and Camille was thrilled... Congrats honey.. you looked and sung great!!

What can words do?? (Part One)

I have had a VERY EMOTIONAL roller coaster over the past two weeks.  I have had something happen to me that has been so personally emotionally draining that I am still not sure how I can fully recover.  I will think on how to write about it after everything passes.  So words can HURT very badly and words can identify something in a way that is completely untrue and make someone out to be someone or something that they are not.

Then today I receive an email from someone who I have never met.  Someone that I talked to on the phone for work recently and felt really bad once I hung up because I had such a hard time hearing her due to the twins demanding my time to put on a tv show or give them a cracker or just the usual..mommies on the phone, so lets cling on her and hum and fuss to get her off the phone..

See I have said a hundred times before, I LOVE that I have been blessed to find a position with an organization that allows me to work from home.  Its the only way that I could work while raising five children.. all with their own needs, but especially my twins with PDD Autism and Down Syndrome.  Often I find myself apologizing to the person on the other end of the phone because of the noises happening on my end of the receiver.  I am often left wondering what in the world that person I was just talking to thought of our phone conversation..

Today I got the NICEST email from this person.  So today I am happy to say that words can UPLIFT a person in so many ways.  Here is the email (with person's permission)

I have to tell you that I was so inspired by you that I went online yesterday searching the Today show website trying to find an e-mail address for them to see if there was a way to get your story out there for Mother of the year nominations and I thought "this is it!" it said you had to nominate someone you knew and write an essay, I thought I don't know her, but I can do this, and my essay was going to be about how a woman I never met inspired me, how I only had 2 interactions involving this woman, one was a phone conversation in which I could hear a baby crying, and your explanation that you had identical twin boys, and how I immediately identified with that situation of trying to have a phone conversation when my boys were young, as I also have identical twin boys, whom I feel so blessed to have.  Buth then you went on to tell me that your boys have autism and kept you very busy.  You said it with joy in your voice, not with the sound of a stressed out mom, and I hung up the phone, thinking wow, she has such a positive attitude.  The other interaction was when I was on your website trying to find an application for the summer camp program you hold, and I came across your blog.  You described yourself as a mother of 5, and told of your 1 in a million twins who were identical, had downs syndrome, and autism, and how lucky you were to have them, and they changed your life.  I thought this story would inspire many......So, anyways, as I read on about the contest, the entry date had passed, and it was too late to nominate you--but next year, if I come across such a contest again-I think you would be the winner HANDS DOWN!  So, whatever it's worth from a lady you don't know---Happy Mothers Day!!

This email brought tears to my eyes and actually pulled me out of a funk that I have been in for a week now from the hurtful words that were presented to me last week.  I try my hardest to always speak in positive ways.  I try my hardest to never speak unkindly of someone even if I am thinking that they should have some unkind words spoken to them.  I pray for wisdom for my tongue and mind all the time.  I don't claim to be the perfect mom; I don't say that I know exactly what I am doing; I will not intentionally do or say anything to harm my children.  I appreciate this email from someone whom I have never met before more than she could ever begin to understand..  She was the angel God sent me today to cheer me up :)

More to come soon..........

Note to Self...

When one twin is in the tub getting cleaned up from a diaper mess, ALWAYS be sure to put the other one in the tub too, especially if you step away to get some clean towels..

2012 Tax Widow Status is over!!

Traditional celebration dinner took place tonight at the Hanzely household for the last day of tax season..  Kids waited patiently on Tom's arrival at home, which was supposed to occur at 5:30pm.... and at 6:30 he walked through the door to hungry grumpy kids who had been looking at the food sitting on the table for almost an hour.. Poor Daddy.. wasn't as chipper a homecoming this year.

But the food was delicious and the conversation was good.. We are just glad to be able to eat dinner with Tom again.

Can't make this stuff up :)

Today being the last day of tax season we have a "traditional celebration meal" for Tom when he gets home from working as a CPA.  The kids always do something fun like decorate the table nicely, make some cards or banners to hang around the house, or jump out and yell SURPRISE when daddy walks in the door.

As I was outside preparing the grill for our goodies I look up and find this......

What in the world is my son Isaac's clothing laying all over the play ground area for???

Ohhhhhh this is why:

After some persuading I finally get him to sit at the top of the slide so that I can try to get him down and get him dressed again:

Today's weather in PA was not the warmest, only about 60 degrees and windy... burrrrrr not the kinda weather I would want to be out in my birthday suit in..

And to top off the story of my son's naked adventure on his playset... we are trying really hard to get both boys potty trained before they start kindergarten in the fall.  Caleb seems to be doing a little better job of peeing in the potty..  Isaac hasn't really showed off his skills... UNTIL TODAY!!

He was thrilled to see his pee go down the slide...LOL!!!! Maybe we can ask for the schools to provide an adapted toilet for Isaac that includes a slide down to the water bowl??? 

Loving my SmartAppsForKids

Injini: Child Development Game Suite GIVEAWAY! (a $50 app!)

We were saddened recently to find out that Project Injini, the makers of some terrific education apps, had come to an end after three years. The project was sponosored by developer NCSoft as a way to answer the question "What impact can game designers make in the lives of children with special needs?"

If you've tried any of Project Injini's apps, as well as those from a number of other developers, you know the answer to that question is that apps can be life-changing for children with special needs. You can read all the info about the project here.

To celebrate the amazing work of Project Injini, today we're starting a giveaway for THREE copies of their $50 Injini: Child Development Game Suite (which is currently on sale for $30).

We reviewed this app and gave it four stars because we felt the price tag was too high, but that's obviously not a problem if you win the app for free or buy it while it is on sale! We have also included free trial links below.

From our review:

A suite of well-done games that targets a whole host of developmental skills in a fun way. Impressive but very expensive.

 Injini: Child Development Game Suite can successfully be used with typically-developing children but it was specifically designed for, and tested with, children affected by autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome and other developmental delays.

Injini is a “Suite” because it is actually 10 learning games in one app: puzzles (90 of them), a balloon game, which helps develop awareness of colors and shapes, eight mini farm-based games, a Find-It activity which works on discrimination skills, Feed the Frog, which is great for developing the fine motor skills, a letters game, and games that focus on matching, patterns, squares and tracing. Most of the games have nine levels, and there are several screens within each level.

There is a wealth of content here...

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You can enter to win using the Rafflecopter box below. For full rules and instructions, please click here. Winning entries are all verified.

You can guarantee yourself a 100 percent chance of having the app by buying it now from the App Store!

iPad ($29.99 for a limited time):     U.S.     Canada     U.K.     Australia

iPad Lite (FREE):     U.S.     Canada     U.K.     Australia