Photos: Chuck B

Lynn Epps and Tina Armour may have seemed an unlikely pair when they met. They first encountered one another at a line dancing gathering. Neither of them actually danced, so they started talking.

Lynn eventually invited Tina to a football party, but Tina, not a fan of competitive sports, declined. Two weeks later, at the same dancing gathering, Lynn invited Tina again. Tina gave in this time (and Lynn says she loved watching the game!).

That was almost 11 years ago.

The two women had talked about how much they loved children that first night. So it was inevitable they would become a family.

Lynn lived in Avondale Estates and Tina was a Midtown girl. Tina wasn’t thrilled about the possibility of moving to the ‘burbs, but changed her mind when she realized the neighborhood was perfect with great neighbors.

The couple lived in Avondale Estates for a couple of years with their first daughter, Aidan, but before their second daughter was born, Lynn and Tina decided they needed more space. “Now we have more house and more yard than we can care for,” Tina says. “We enjoy the deers, turtles and frogs, especially the tree frogs in the summer.”

But Tina and Lynn are hoping to move back to the Decatur area, so they can be within walking distance of the Waldorf School of Atlanta, where Aidan attends.

“Lynn and I never realized just how demanding having a family can be,” Tina says. “We still try to have fun together – occasional dinners, plays and concerts – but we still long for more time together.

“We feel our dreams are coming true every day.”

Parents’ names, ages, occupations?
Lynn Epps, 42, regional director for anesthesia practice; Tina Armour, 37, mother and social worker

Childrens’ names, ages?
Aidan Sarah Armour-Epps, 6.5, and Avery Lucille Armour-Epps, 3

Neighborhood you live in?
Smokerise subdivision in Tucker/Stone Mountain

What type of cars do you drive?
Saturn wagon and Jeep Cherokee

How did you and your partner conceive?
Anonymous donors working with the Feminist Women’s Health Center (Gail is the best)

How do your daughters distinguish between the two of you as mommies? Do they have a different name for each of you?
The girls refer to Tina as mommy and to Lynn as Mommick. Aidan created this name when she was 2 years old.

How would you describe your parenting style?
Loving and using some attachment parenting, spiritual parenting. I love to refer to two books: You Are Your Child’s First Teacher by Rahima Baldwin Dancy and The 7 O’Clock Bedtime by Inda Schaenen.

How are you different from other parents?
Besides the obvious, we are all more alike than we think. I like to think we are one big family supporting each other through it all.

How are you the same?
Two parents, two children, two dogs, one cat, one rabbit, one worm bin, house in ’burbs with a two-car garage, grandparents and aunts and uncles for celebrating all the special occasions.

Most surprising thing that “cookie cutter” people have said or done to you?
Lynn and I are constantly asked, “Are you two sisters? Are you sure?” and “Which one of you is the mom?”

What do you do for fun with the whole family?
We love to hike, hang out with friends, spend time in our back yard.

What do you do for fun individually?
Tina: mediate
Lynn: first and foremost play in the yard and then djembe drumming
Aidan: ballet, sewing, jumping rope, monkey bars
Avery: dance to Mommick’s drumming

Favorite rainy day activity?
Baking breads and desserts, building fires, home projects

Favorite playground?
The Oakhurst Community Garden — bees, vegetables, mudhouse, chickens.

Favorite event of the year?
The girls’ birthday celebrations; having the girls describe the cake and Tina trying to create it with family and friends in our back yard

Favorite dinner?
Mexican with a giant size bowl of cheese dip. We love the Taqueria Los Hermanos in Tucker and Taqueria del Sol in Decatur.

Favorite kid-friendly restaurant?
We eat out far too often. We like Enzo’s Pizzeria in Tucker for the patio fireplace and water fountain, MoJo Pizzeria in Oakhurst for the board games and stage-like space for the girls to play and El Tesoro in Decatur for the seating outside; children can run around in grassed areas.

Favorite family board game?
I Spy Bingo, Twister and dancing to music as loud as we can stand.

Children’s favorite CD/music?
Aidan is obsessed with The Magic Tree House book series on audio CDs, but she allows other music we listen to. Gunnar Madsen’s I’m Growing and soundtracks from Annie and The Sound of Music.

Children’s superhero abilities?
Both are intuitive and we all believe in fairies and gnomes. We are still getting to understand and know Avery as she just turned 3. Aidan can read minds. We always say about her “she knows things.” She often predicts things like what her future teachers will be like.

If you were a book, what is the one thing you wouldn’t guess from your cover?
Tina: I get lots of parenting strategies from a psychic named Abraham. My favorite quote from her is “Relative to our children or any children with whom we would interact, our dominant intention would be to give them a conscious understanding of how powerful and important and valuable and perfect they are. Every word that would come out of our mouths would be a word that would be offered with the desire to help this individual know that they are powerful. It would be a word of empowerment. We would set the tone for upliftment and understand that everyone will gravitate to that tone if we would maintain it consistently.”
Lynn: She is fearful of worms.