While the Cat's Away..

Tripp is finally home from Portland, but today, he's at the fire station, so we are still really missing him around here. But I wanted to post some pictures and videos of some of the fun things we did while he was gone. I tried to make the 5 days pass quickly by doing some fun and special things.

This first video is of Lucy PLAYING! Our mellow and timid dog has never shown an interest in playing, but we discovered that she will go crazy for the toy lawn mower! I let the video go on for too long (something I'm known for, but can't seem to learn when to shut it off!).

These next pictures I took when Emily was giving out free hugs. She is so sweet. Usually her hugs are accompanied by a kiss as well.

This was a sweet scene with Casey laying on the floor by the dog, petting her head then Emily came and sat on his back. I couldn't get to my camera in time, before the dog got up. But I got Casey and Em. Then they started a piggy back ride fest!

One of the nights, I let the boys sleep in my bed with me. This particular night, we had a big monsoon blow through. So I let them sleep with me so that I wasn't scared they weren't scared. First, though, we had to tell some knock, knock jokes:

One night, Casey and Emily were playing on my bed. I kept hearing Emily do this belly laugh! I captured a bit of it on video.

After a while, I didn't hear them anymore, so I went to find them. It was really quiet, so I was very concerned! I went all the way back into my closet and saw these little feet peeking out.

Why is mom's closet always such a fun place to hide? Tripp remembers hiding in his mom's closet when he was little too!

I just love how Casey and Emily play together lately. She calls for him, "DeeDee! Mon!" Casey, come on! And he responds, "okay, Em, Em!"

We also did some baking, but I didn't get pictures of that. I made granola bars, but wasn't impressed with the recipe I tried. I also made no-bake cookies. Unfortunately, none of the kids liked them. Oh well. They still had fun pouring and mixing!

Though this was a long 5 days, I truly enjoyed my kids! We swam almost everyday and I didn't worry about getting my "mom hair" wet. I didn't try to get too much done around the house (Tripp is saying, "what's new?") :-) I just had fun playing with my chit-lins! Sure love these guys!!