Play Dough

Easy entertainment and CHEAP!

I can remember my mom making play dough for us as kids. We always had fun playing at the kitchen table with the play dough and kitchen utensils.

Play Dough for Children- recipe from Dining With Pioneers

1 c. flour
1 c. water
1/2 c. salt
1 Tbsp. cooking oil
2 tsp. cream of tartar
Few drops of food coloring

In a heavy aluminum saucepan, mix dry ingredients. Add oil, water and food coloring. Cook 3 minutes or until mixture pulls away from side of pan; knead slightly. Store in an airtight container.

Tripod!

Lillie and Elliott are making their first attempts at sitting up! Lillie does pretty good in the tripod position and will actually push herself to sit up for a few seconds, then falls over. Elliott is still trying to figure out the tripod position, he is more likely to fall forward instead of backwards.

The Terrace at The American Museum of Natural History

We went to the American Museum of Natural History today and went up on The Terrace where there are water fountains for the kids to play in. We went there one day last week and Jack LOVED it, so we had play group there today. It's a great place. It's on the roof of part of the museum, so you're above the noise on the streets. It has great green grass and so far there are very few people up there. It's a great "private" place to play and its free! Some pictures are a little blurry because I took them with the zoom as far out as I could get it on my camera. I was at one end with Lillie and Elliott and Jack was all over the place.

Carey kissing on Elliott, he just laughed. She is a week younger than the twins.

Jack loves kicking around on his belly.
Lunch time. Jack dumped all his chips in Ezra's bucket... gross! This is a shot of the Planetarium on the other side of the glass wall.

The crew playing together.

"This is AWESOME!"
Lillie played with her friends, but she fell asleep before I got the camera out.

Elliott and his buddy Jonah.

There are several boys and girls around Jacks age that he really enjoys playing with. There is a little boy a month younger than Elliott and a little girl a week younger than Lillie. I'm so thankful they have friends their age to grow up with.

A Miracle, Really?

I just got home from CVS (bought a fan that clips onto our stroller and one for Jack to hold that sprays mist) . A lady in the store looked at me without even a grin and said, "that you even made it out of the house is a miracle" and walked away.

On the other hand. We were out a lot today and on our way home from The Terrace at The American Museum of Natural History (pictures coming later) a lady stopped me and said, "40 years ago I had a 20 month old and then twins, boy and a girl, I would have killed for a stroller like that."

I told Freddy T. the other day that just once I want to go somewhere without hearing all sorts of comments about our stroller and getting stared at as I walk by. I could never be a celebrity, I also could not go anywhere without my stroller!

Shaving Cream Anyone?

What do you do when Daddy goes out of town and Mommy is home with babies all day...

SHAVING CREAM!!!

(the unexpected progression)

he was very pleased with the way he looked!

until next time!

That Looks Fun

Elliott decided sometime this week that it seemed that Lillie was having a lot of fun hanging out on her tummy all the time.

So even though he has rolled over before we're just now starting to find him on his tummy more often.

And they also lay on their backs holding their feet a lot now... that's the new trick for the week. I'll have to get a picture of Lillie later.

Jack and His Guitar

Today was the perfect day for Jack's guitar to come in the mail. I checked the status around lunch time and saw that it had been delivered, so I loaded Lillie and Elliott in their stroller and with Jack we headed down to the lobby. I told Jack we needed to check if there were any packages and he looked at me and very excitedly said "It's my GUITAR!" He knew it was coming this week and has been waiting. He loves it and has played with it all day. I does have music and Jack likes it loud! It's still a praise of mine that the neighbor to our left is elderly and probably can't hear anything going on over here.

He's in the middle of a song here.

Rainy Days

If you've ever wondered what we might be doing on a rainy day here in our small apartment...

now you know!

He told me he was building a garage(hammer in hand).

Jack's been standing up on the ottoman and jumping into the pillows. Before he jumps down he yells out "here goes nuffin!" I don't know where he got that from.

Brooklyn Bridge

The Springers, my Sunday School teachers in Clarksville, have been in town for a few days and last night they graciously offered to come over and keep our kids so we could go out ALONE! What servants hearts to take a whole evening out of your vacation to babysit.

I've been wanting to go over to Brooklyn to eat pizza at Grimaldi's , then have ice cream at a little parlor a block away(don't know the name), and finally walk back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge. I've been on the bridge before, but only a little ways out and only in December or January when it was freezing, but never on the Brooklyn side. So that's what we did last night. It was chilly here, upper 50's, so a little cooler than I had in mind, but we had a great time. It was very nice to have a few hours to our self.

I like this shot, I'm no photographer but thought this was cool.

Lower Manhattan

In this picture you can see the Empire State Building(tall one with the needle on top). See that shorter building in front of it lit up at the top. The SALT Art Space (where the Gallery Church offices are) is between these two buildings. So that's where Freddy T. goes to work each day.

This is a little fuzzy... looks like we are dressed for early spring, not mid June.

I still have a hard time realizing that when we have a date night we have it in New York City. I think for the rest of our lives we could do something different every time we go out.

Random Pictures From The Past Week

Lillie wearing her first skirt

Jack put his sunglasses on Lillie

and Elliott

and telling me not to take his picture with his glasses on

The other night Jack went to bed around 8:00 and minutes later Aaron, Carmen, and Ezra showed up at our place to get some things Freddy had of Aaron's. Jack had already been put back to bed twice before they got here and told not to get out of the bed again. I'm sure he could hear us all talking and a minute or two after they got here Jack was calling for his Daddy to come in his room. Seconds later they both came out. Jack got to stay up later, eat ice cream, and play with Ezra... all after he was told not to get back out of bed! We kept telling him "this is just a special treat."

Lillie and Jack playing on our bed

The Boys

Jack and Elliott playing in Elliott's bed

Lillie trying to figure out whats going on in Elliott's bed

Saturday night we had family movie night and pulled out the sofa bed to lay/play on. Jack quickly discovered that he could get under the couch from behind the pulled out bed. I don't really know how to explain it. We used to do this with my cousins when we'd visit them and thought it was so cool. So this is Jack from what we could see through the crack between the back of the couch and the pulled out bed.

Sweet Lillie

Jack playing with his buddy in our Tuesday playgroup