On Sunday we went along to the Fareham and Gosport Twin Club annual bbq. This is the highlight of my summer event calendar. Somehow it’s always gloriously sunny and so many families turn out to make it a really memorable occasion where we celebrate the trials, tribulations and good fortune we all share by being parents of twins.
We hold the event at the Royal Victoria Country Park near Southampton, where for a small fee we get a large grassy pitch surrounded by trees, perfect for climbing and losing toddlers in (as we found out many times).
We dump a selection of toys in the middle of the pitch then have fun watching the kids run wild with the footballs and (luckily plastic) cricket sets until they get bored and start eating sticks.
T1 and T2 setting up for cricket
As the bbq heats up the mums catch up on gossip while constantly scanning the scene for two children wearing turquoise or pink (a sneaky trick I learnt from another twin club mum – dress them in the same bright colour so you can always pick them both out of a crowd) and we watch the dads throw their toddlers around to the sound of excited giggles.
It didn’t matter that we forgot the beer. It’s days like this that I realise how grateful I am to have such a beautiful family, and how lucky I’ve been to link up with such a lovely, supportive bunch of people. Joined by a common twist of fate and nothing more, we’ve now become friends who rely on one another and are there whether times are good or bad.
Twin club members tend to move on when their kids reach school age so we’ve probably only got a couple more summer bbqs to look forward to, but it’s lovely to think that as my children grow, they’ve got their twin club friends to grow with and I hope we all keep in touch.
If you have young twins or are expecting twins, get online and search out your local twin club. If you can start going when you’re pregnant you’ll find it gives you more support than your midwife, books and the internet put together.
Hubby holding the heavy little monkeys
I have twin nieces, this looks like great fun. Hope you have many more to come. x
Twins or babies?! It is hard work but we’d definitely like more. A singleton would feel like a breeze after these two. x