Hunting for Pioneer "Treasure"

Lucy is a big fan of treasure hunts. Remember the Easter one? Loved it. So, when I saw this Family Home Evening idea for a Pioneer Day Treasure Hunt, I was all over it. Print, cut, and hide... wallah... great game for Lucy!

Wake up babies!

This is one of my favorite parts of the day... going in to see happy babies after their naps. Sometimes Lucy will come in with me and it is pretty cute to see them laugh at her and then laugh at each other.

Although Lucy loves to dress up, she's usually not this fancy. Earlier that day she went to a fairy birthday party at her buddy Elina's house. Click here for some fun pics and videos of Lucy at the party.

Slimer

Yesterday we made slime. Great fun!

I used a recipe from my sis in law. Here goes:

Gooey Gunk
Solution A
1 c water
1 c white glue
2 Tbsp liquid tempera paint or 7-10 drops food coloring

Solution B
1 1/3 c warm water
4 tsp borax laundry booster (you can have some from me... it comes in a big box)

Directions:
1. Mix ingredients in solution A together in a medium bowl.
2. In a second medium bowl, mix the ingredients in solution B together until the borax is completely dissolved.
3. Slowly pour solution A into solution B (Do not mix! This is my favorite "science experiment type" part. so cool...)
4. Roll solution A around in solution B 4-5 times.
5. Lift solution A out of solution B and kneed for 2-3 minutes (The above photo demonstrates this step.)

6. Play with the stuff for an hour (making "swingy swongs", "noodle hair", "jumping frogs," etc.) while your mother tries to clean the kitchen, de-junk the junk drawer, and make "to-do" lists for the upcoming vacation.

Store in airtight container or Ziploc bag.

Happy Birthday to Addy!

Apparently, it was Addy's birthday last week. Who is Addy, you might ask? Addy joined the family on Lucy's first birthday. She didn't have a name for the first year of life and then Lucy named her after my cousin's little girl. She has been well loved for sure, so I guess it was time we had a day to honor her. Lucy said she was celebrating her 18th birthday and then decided it was her 18 month birthday.

Preparations for the big celebration took most of the day. Lucy made invitations for Addy's friends and decorated her room with the "Happy Birthday" sign. I saw some cute doll cakes on this fun blog (and I had leftover oreos) so we made those. Ours weren't quite so fancy. It is two oreos on top of each other with frosting and candy... basically, oreos with MORE sugar. Lucy loved DUMPING sprinkles (notice the big piles).

I love this video because this is a typical conversation around here... Lucy telling me what an appropriate response to her comments would be.
Future cake decorator....check out the concentration.

I could never get this video to download in blogger... not sure why. Struggling operator or struggling computer/internet?

By the time all the preparations were done (and tending babies in between) it was time for Geo to be home and join in the party. Eight matches later, the candle was lit and we sang a rousing "Happy Birthday".

We even had live entertainment.

One happy "piano man"

Lucy and Elise posing with the party guests. As stated in the video, that day it was Nina, Honda, and Onda. These babies get new names quite regularly (sometimes a few times a day). Its nice Addy could celebrate with her friends (human and stuffed).

Fun at Sea World

Who is happy to be at Sea World?

Can you blame her for being a bit solemn? It feels like 110 degrees.

Here they are in the pool... now there's a smile!
(Lucy is showing her prune foot.)

One of Elise's current favorite things is to find clips in hairdos and pull them out. It really bugs Lucy... quite funny.

The whole crew... thanks for a fun morning, friends!

Letters and Pictures

One of Lucy's latest favorite pastimes is writing letters to her friends and drawing or coloring pictures. This is a picture of her creations ready to be "mailed" or hand-delivered. If they get moved to the recycle bin (heaven forbid), they are immediately retrieved and put back in the pile. When I mention we are going over to someone's house, she immediately draws them a picture. While I think it is sweet, I'm going to have to buy a regular supply of envelopes.

A sample of the contents of an envelope:

And here is the inspiration for the drawing:

Annabelle, Lucy, Megan, Kyla, Emily, Elina

"Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls; for, thus friends absent speak." ~John Donne

4th of July fun

I must admit, the 4th of July is one of my very favorite holidays. There are many reasons for this. I took a trip to Valley Forge my junior year of HS (part of the Freedoms Foundation program) and I think my patriotism was flamed there. Another reason going up was all the fun traditions in a small town... queen contests, all-night tennis tournaments & pancake "breakfast", flag raising ceremony, 5k run (I only ran in that twice... but still... the other years I cheered from the sidelines :), parade, races/carnival at the city park, races at grandma Marjies, and homemade ice cream during the fireworks at grandma Barbara's. What fun times! I miss it. Now that I live in San Antonio, my gratitude that I live in this country has grown. It is common to see folks at the grocery store in camo (and my husband comes home from work in camo every day). It's a daily reminder of the sacrifices people make so we can enjoy our freedom. Several of my friends have been on the "supporting at home" end while their husbands were in Iraq or Afghanistan and I am very grateful for their sacrifice as well.

Here's the low-down on our 4th of July activities... warning: There are more pictures in this post than the Christmas one. Ok... we can proceed...

The day started off with red and blue toaster strudel (from the grocery freezer section). Seriously, what kid doesn't love blue icing?
Then Lucy and I decorated her bike and the wagon for a little neighborhood bike parade. She loves doing stuff like this and I love doing it with her. I think she actually liked that better than the parade part. A whole roll of tape later... we were finished.
Here's a few pics of the actual parade/gathering afterwards:

The parade started at 9am and here is the whole crew hot and sweaty by 9:20. Every pic of Lucy has at least one popsicle. And here she is with the double whammy.

Cute hairdos for the weekend are courtesy of Lacey.

The rest of the day was filled with game playing and relaxing and trying to get the kids to take naps so they wouldn't be grumpy for the fireworks later. Lucy worked on a little craft (her favorite thing to do) while the rest of us had lunch.

But she did stop for some homemade sour cream raspberry/blueberry ice cream.

Last 4th of July we made the big announcement that Austin was on his way. Its hard to top that!

Austin loves the camera. When I pull it out, he just grins. Its so cute! I tried to capture this on film, but you might enjoy the video more if you focus on Geo. Earlier he told Austin that his big camera grins were not the "Tripp man way"... is this? If so... I'm nervous.

Oh, I wish I could strip down to a diaper and get some relief from the heat. (All Lucy would contribute to the family photo is a "hand.")

After treats, we painted toenails. We tried to paint a firework, but that didn't go so well. Lucy's looked pretty good, but mine and Lacey's looked like paint blobs.

We finished off the day with a picnic at the park on the Air Force base before the firework show.

Thanks Tews for making the trip out to SA!

Thanks for the grandmas for providing the cute outfits!

Pre-Fourth fun

This week I've been trying to think some fun red, white and blue things to do so our 4th of July celebration was still fun and not too busy or over planned (tricky sometimes but key to enjoyment with little kids). On the 1st, Lucy went to a little "Stars and Stripes" half-day thing at a preschool. She told me her favorite part was "making stuff" and this was "not Santa Clause even though it had a white beard."

Aunt Lacey and Uncle Mark decided they were going to make the trek from Texarkana to celebrate with us. In preparation for that, we made some star-shaped gingersnaps and added some Texas ones too. I told Lacey I only had time to bake or clean the house, so I chose the former. And who in their right mind would choose "clean"? Just wondering... does anyone question if I ever clean my house? Ummmm... sometimes. I did wash the sheets and clean the bathroom for Lacey and Mark. Just thought I'd throw that in there in case anyone wants to visit. And what do we do with our visitors when they come? Put them to work, of course! Does anyone still want to come?

We did allow some relaxing in the pool...
...and finished off the day with the summer night shows at Sea World. Our friends, the Kim's, joined in the fun. It was hot and muggy, but we still enjoyed ourselves (if you throw out the pirates plunder show... lame! Every show I've seen in the Nautilus theatre has been dumb. I think it is cursed.) We finished off the night with "Shamu rocks Texas." We were really sweaty so Lucy and I decided to moved down to the splash zone. We did get splashed but more from the trainers throwing buckets of water on us than Shamu's actual tail flippings. The kids were past their limit so packed up and watched the Sea World fireworks from our front porch. Lucy watched for a bit and then asked Lacey if she would go inside with her and read books. Hmmm...glad we kept her up for them.

This is my prize for living through residency
... and staying married.

Yay!