Sunday, July 29, 2012

Happy Birthday!

Today our girls turn 33!  How can that be?

We returned last night from our 35th anniversary trip, just in time to celebrate with our girls today. 

Jessica and her boys~ 




Laura and her kids~




Jackson is enjoying his ice cream.  He ate every bite of dinner and the huge bowl of ice cream and then I saw him raise the bowl.  Do you see the melted ice cream running out of the bowl?  What a sweet mess that boy is!



We missed these little monkeys while we were gone.  I'll be blogging about our trip as I sort through the photos and try to figure out my pictures.  


We had a marvelous time but we are so glad to be home and sleeping in our own bed.  There is nothing like HOME! 

 Today it was wonderful to spend time with our girls and their families ~ we are so proud of them and the families they are raising.  We love you Laura and Jessica!

{ and lest I forget, my brother and sister, also twins, were born on this day 46 years ago ~ Happy Birthday Ross and Amy! }









Sunday, July 8, 2012

Red, White, and BOOM!

I am a little late to all of the parties ~ July 8, instead of the 4th.  But as a grandma I have to share my grands, and  our daughter Jessica spent the week in Kansas and just returned yesterday.

So we celebrated as a family today with a little red, white and BOOM!  
{if I knew how to edit, I would remove the pile of "real life" from the high chair.  That is where I pile stuff in anticipation of my girls coming over.  Little things they have forgotten or things I am trying to unload give them.}


A setting for a "big" kid.


And one for  a little.




Yummy


Greeting our cousins we haven't seen in awhile.


Aren't these the cutest little nut cups?  I am so happy I found red white and blue gummies.  Because I really am not interested in gummy candy they keep really well at my house.  My grands love them and so do my son in laws.



You've got to have red, white and blue drinks too!


We were going to grill, but I forgot I had bought red, white, and blue pasta {no picture ~ but CUTE from Costco} so, the menu was changed to pasta and meatballs.

We still had to eat our chips and cheese.  Those are cute little chip holders from World Market.


I was going to make the fruit skewers that were all over Pinterest, but I only had the short skewers.  This is called improvise, but I think it turned out cute.





And for our art project, the kids stamped white stars on blue paper and Elizabeth cut out all of the steamers and we just stapled the whole thing together to make our patriotic windsocks.

I did not have one patriotic book to read.  Gasp!  I had given the book The Star Spangled Banner and a book about George Washington that I purchased at Mount Vernon to the kids earlier this summer.  Hopefully the moms will read them to them. 



The kids have all reached the 100 book mark, so we will celebrate this week with lunch out and a trip to the TOY store.  Fun for all I'm sure.

Here is my list thus far ...

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
2.  Corduroy
3.  The Story of Ferdinand
4.  The Runaway Bunny
5.  Make Way for Ducklings
6.  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
7.  If You Give A Mouse A Cookie
8.  Doctor De Soto
9.  Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
10.  Goodnight Moon
11.  Alpha Oops! The Day Z Went First
12.  Pretty Salma, A Little Red Riding Hood Story from Africa
13.  Madeline
14.  Thunder Cake
15.  On A Summer Day
16.  Swimmy
17.  Caps For Sale
18.  Tikki Tikki Tembo
                          19. Zomo The Rabbit, A Trickster Tale from West Africa
 20.  The Snowy Day
  21.  Chicken Little
22.  The Three Bears

look here, here, and here for Grandma's Camp Read A Lot posts.

I have got to get reading to the kids to even come close to their records.  I was hoping for 50 books, but I guess we'll see.

We are kind of in the midst of a whole house overhaul ~ it's kind of like "If you give a mouse a cookie" style of decorating.  The new floors required new baseboards in some rooms, and a whole house cleaning of some serious dust.  Then perhaps some new accessories and on and on.  You get the picture.  I hope to start to post some pictures of the spic and span spaces soon.  I'd like to get back into regular posting.  

For now, I'm off to enjoy the rest of my day, and I hope you all will have a great week!