Everybody Is Invited To My July 4th Party?

There is going to be a teeny, tiny party on July 4th at Papa and Nana's house.

Would you like to Come to a Happy Birthday America Party?

We have Happy Birthday USA hats.
We have flag shirts for kids and grownups.
Red for females and blue for males.

And can you guess, we will take photos of you dressed up in your happy birthday USA shirts.

Then there are glow sticks and bubbles.

And we have a big box of 750 Party Popping snappers and poppers.
They are not the dangerous fireworks, just the little popper kind.


Then there are tote bags for Grand kids only Club. Bright Colored ones for the girls and army green beach bags for the boys.



And if you have not yet received a swim suit this year from Nana, there is a swim suit for you.


There are a couple small slip and slides to put over on the hill to cool off.
There will be hot dogs and drinks and watermelon.

Ava and Carson will be arriving on this day and they may be very tired from the long trip so the party won't last a long time. July 4th is on a Saturday. For some, it is a church night. For others you will want to go to the Rhema fireworks when it gets dark. But you can decided what you want to do.

Just come for the food and get together time and then you can leave for church or fireworks shows. Ooops, I just heard on the TV that the Rhema fireworks is this Sunday evening the 28th. Guess you won't be going there on July 4th.

We've Got a Baby

I'm looking at these pictures more closely and I am wondering if it was not the larger spotted egg that hatched out and the shell of the egg is laying over the smaller blue egg. Maybe the two blue eggs are the ones yet to hatch. What you think?

Still No Baby Birds

We could have birdies chirping any day now. Momma bird still guarding them.
See how the elephant ears are growing big. These are the baby bulbs we left in the ground over the winter.
And the bees are pollinating the cone flowers. Can you see the bees?
Papa took these photos on Father's Day of our garden.

Sydny's 2-Minute Bed Time Story

There was this Bear that could not see, so He put on his see-er goggles and he could see better.

Then the sun came up and tore at the monster. Then they saw a monster bear that could bite and bite and bite and bite

Trying to get those little baby bears ... but the little bears were hiding.

So the monster bear stomped on the little bears house.
The monster bear tried but instead he fell into the sinker. The sinker sink ed up his whole body, his head, legs and ears the whole way down.
He was dying there and he was very sad. Yes, he was dying.
Baby bear said yeah, yeah, yeah, our trap worked!
Then Mommie Brown Bear came and saved the little baby bears
That had come into their little bear cub house and then

They lived happily ever after.


The End by Sydney Scrivner, age 5
June 21, 2009 Happy Father's Day
Photography by Sydney Scrivner
Of my Daddy and For My Daddy

This is One of You

Can you guess which cousin it is. This baby is one day old.

Smokie Talks About Money

The money in Europe is not the same as the American Dollar.
European money is caller Euros.
The paper Euros are very colorful and each measurement of bill is a little different in size. That way you do not confuse your bills like we sometimes do with the American Dollars.
Here you see 50 Euros, 20 Euros, 10 Euros and 5 Euros.
Then there is a 2 'dollar' Euro which is a coin. You don't really call it a dollar, you call it two Euros.

The value of the money is not equal to our money. While we were there, when we exchanged our money it took about $133 American dollars to get $100 Euros. Bummer. That meant our money did not go as far. When we paid 10 Euros for our fish and chips, we actually were paying about $13.30 for our food.

Something Strange in European Bathrooms

There were lots of fancy things in the hotel bathroom.
Smokey is very curious as things seem to look
different. Below I am going to show you something
that you don't see in America very much.
This thing is not a sink or water fountain.
Take a look at the bottom
picture.




Smokey noticed something very different in European Bathrooms. First of all the smell is different in bathrooms in Europe.
And then the way you flush the toilet is different.
There is no handle. There is simply a button you push on the
top of the tank.



But then next to the toilet is this thing. Smokey can not figure it out. Do you have any ideas what this other thing is?
I will tell you, but first, do you want to guess?
I will give you a hint:
It is low to the floor.
Google the word Bidet.

Look What Papa Found

You know the big Boston Fern that is hanging on our front porch?

Well, yesterday, Papa took it down to water it and discovered something very special inside the fern pot.

A perfectly formed little birds nest.

And three eggs in the nest.

But wait a minute there are two different kinds of eggs in there.

Do you have any idea how that could happen?

We did not touch the nest or eggs but hung it back up and the momma bird is back sitting on the nest.

You can click once on the eggs and see them larger. Can you identify what kind of bird eggs they are? Two are blue and one is larger and spotted.

Smokey Talks about Long Airplane Flights

When you buy your ticket to fly on the airplane, you need to check and see how many times you might have to change planes and how long the flight might take. My flight to Europe required flying to Houston, Texas, then to Newark, New Jersey and finally we flew all night and arrived in Barcelona the next day. Three different planes! It was 18 hours long.

It is very important to take lots of fun things to do on the plane because you are stuck and can not always get up and move around a lot. You can look out the window but after a while the beautiful clouds don't seem so great to a kid dog like me. On a long flight that goes across the ocean, there will be movies to watch and they give you earphones to plug into your ears because the person next to you may want to watch a different movie. Everyone has a little TV screen in front of them. Also on that screen are some games to play if you want to play.
They bring you drinks and snacks and that makes you have to get up and go to the bathroom .... which is very tiny. Because I flew overnight, I tried very hard to get some sleep. They brought me a pillow and blanket and that helped.
The crazy part was after we arrived in Spain, I had to find the train to get to my hotel. It took two different trains to get to a place to put my suitcase and lay down and rest. It was more fun after I had some rest.

Things that Happen on A Cruise Ship by Smokey

A cruise ship is like a vacation resort floating on the ocean....maybe like an island at sea. The Cruise cost a lot of money but when you pay for the vacation, that includes all your food and your fun and where you sleep while you are on vacation. Some days the ship is just sailing all day long and on those days they have games and workshops, playthings and of course swimming and all kinds of eating. Other days, the ship will dock at a port and you can get off and see the sights of that village or country.
But before the ship can ever leave the dock, you have to practice a safety drill. A Cruise ship is very fancy like this ostrich that I was riding on. He was shiny golden. If you click to make him bigger, you will see he is ready for a vacation with sunglasses and toothbrush and travel things.

And as you can see in the last photo, at night they would have special singers and dancers for us to enjoy. There are also several dance floors on the ship with bands playing and you can dance the night away.
You can learn a lot on a Cruise Ship about other countries and the people and how they live. I hope some day you can take a Cruise .... maybe yours will be a Disney Cruise!

Another Lesson From Smokey About Europe

In the hotel room there was a small refrigerator. Inside were 2 bottles of water, a 'lite coke' and an orange looking drink.

I called the Spanishbark dog downstairs to ask if the drinks were extra charge if I drank them. She barked back, 'no, they are a gift for sleeping in my hotel.'

So I drank them all up. But look at this other thing. What do you think it is?



I'm going to tell you, but first do you want to guess?

Remember I said I brought you Chocolates?

Remember that I said I had brought you some Chocolates from Europe? And I said you have to come and see me and ask for your Chocolates?
Well, no one has come and asked about my Chocolates so Papa is eating them all up. If you want a Chocolate, you had better remember to ask me. They might be all gone before you know what happened.

Smokey is Going to Teach You Some Things About Europe

Hello, my name is Smokey. You have played with me many times when you have been at Nana and Papa's house. I went to Europe with them in April.

I learned a lot. Now I am going to teach you a few things that I learned about Europe. First of all, not too many people over there could speak my dog talk --- theirs had a different sound. I had to work very hard to understand what they were saying. This is a telephone in the hotel room. It has a different look about it. When I picked it up to call, the dog on the other end was barking in Spanishbark.

The windows actually opened up and you could sit on the ledge, even if you were up high. here were no screens, no bars to protect you from falling over and nothing was locked. Can you see what I see down there on the sidewalk by the playground? It looks like Duke. But when I barked at him "hello Dukie" she barked back in a language I did not understand. Bummer, it was another little dogie that looked like my friend back in Oklahoma.

That is all for today, but every few days I will show you something new and different that I learned while I was in Europe.

Rosie's is our Hero

See how long Rosie's hair is on the left. It was all the way down past her waist. But she always hated getting it brushed so she wanted it cut.

Rosie donated her 11 inch braid to LOCKS OF LOVE. It is a place that takes your hair and makes it into a wig for children sick with cancer and have lost all their hair because of the radiation given them to save their lives. Isn't Rosie brave to get her beautiful dark brown hair cut off and then give it to a little child who is fighting for her life.

Ava and Carson are Coming to Oklahoma

The plan is that they will leave on July 3rd, Friday afternoon and arrive on Saturday, July 4th. I wonder if they will be too tired to do fireworks or have a USA Birthday Party. I've got flags and hats!

And you had better know that I probably will take 2 million photos because I don't have but about three since Nans and Pops were there last fall. I have a lot of catching up to do. Get ready, Ava and Carson! We are going to have fun and I am going to have the camera in my hand all the time .... just ask Sydney, she knows it is true.

This looks like a fun website, check it out

http://www.nestlefamily.com/signup/

Do Daddies Spose to Jump on their Little Girls?

What is Uncle Joel doing?

The Tulsa Zoo

The girls rode the carousel while Elijah made some exchanges in the Nature Center. Then Pops arrived and we took the train to the top. After seeing a few creatures, everyone was hot and hungry so we ate lunch. Then Sydney was too exhausted (too much party fun the night before) so we headed home with the promise we would return another day.

This African Primate is a Diana Gaenon from the rainforest. Because of illegal hunters, it may be extinct by 2020.

The Caribbean Flamingo is the most colorful of all flamingos. However, in captivity, the coloring fades, so ground carrots and pigment must be added to their diet to help them keep their color. I think they lay their eggs in this mud.