My 4th Birthday Party

Although snowing a few days ago, the weather was picture perfect for my 4th birthday party at Fire Station #31 and County Line BBQ for lunch afterwards. I got to climb on the fire trucks, turn on the lights and sirens, check out all of the equipment and even spray the fire hose! The firemen talked to us about fire safety and demonstrated all of the fireman gear they have to wear when fighting a fire. Since I was the birthday boy, I got to try on the fireman gear, too! After we finished at the fire station, we walked next door to County Line on the Lake for a BBQ lunch and cupcakes for dessert. It might have been my best birthday yet - although I've only had 4

He looks normal here.......

But look how high he is!

I look good as a fireman

Me with my school friends in front of engine #31

Fireman Tripp in the driver's seat

Checking out all of the controls

This is how we put out the fires

Birthday Boy!

The Austin Blizzard of 2010

Well, it wasn't really a blizzard but it was snow.....and a lot of it for Austin. Mommy missed it because she is still out of town but we got to play in it for a little bit and loved every minute of it! Miss Connie took us to play with Victoria and we went to see the big snowman they made. Impressive, hu? Even my Grammy - who lives in Wyoming with LOTS of snow - was impressed. Mommy had to steal this picture from Gaby's blog because she wasn't here to actually document the big snow day by taking any of her own snow pictures.

Home on the Range

Mommy left today for a real estate convention in New Orleans for 5 days and daddy is in charge. What did that mean? Daddy packed us up and we headed to College Station for reinforcement for the weekend. I love going to College Station and my baby is a big fan now that she's a little bigger. Here are some pictures showing the fun we had.

Hey moo-moos. What'cha eating?

Sitting on a hay bail with the wind blowing through our hair

Lovin' the life of a cowboy.

Happy Birthday to my Little Guy!

Today is my 4th birthday! I woke up to mommy and daddy singing happy birthday and then I got to open one of my presents. I got a new baseball bat and balls - which I really wanted! At school, my friends sang happy birthday, while we enjoyed the snickerdoodles I made, and Emmylou brought me balloons and a fireman's hat! After my nap, I got to open a few more presents and then mommy said we were going to a surprise place that night. Guess where we went? SESAME STREET LIVE! It was so much fun and I loved watching Elmo and some of my other favorite characters up close and personal. What a great 4th birthday!

Nothing like a frozen cup of sugar to get the night started

Dancing and singing with Elmo and friends

Nothing better than a $10 Elmo balloon and soft pretzel covered with rock salt

Superstar week

Since I'm the superstar this week, I got to bring in something special to share with my friends. I couldn't decide on just one thing so mommy let me bring 2 special things - blue bear (of course) and my Papa's navy wings. After the superstar song, I got up and showed everyone my Papa's wings and told them that he used to fly airplanes in the navy. I was so proud. I then showed blue bear to everyone and even let them pet him!

After my 'presentation', I wanted to sing a special song for my friends and my teachers said ok. Mommy didn't know what I had planned but was so proud when I stood up and started singing the 'Aggie War Hymn' from beginning to end - including the 'saw varsity's horns off' part. I think it was pretty brave considering I was surrounded by longhorns. In fact, my teacher sent my mommy and email and this is what it said:

"Priceless!!!!! Andrew Mason, who is our died hard Longhorn - he draws pictures of Memorial Stadium almost daily and writes Texas Longhorns on it.... Well today he made 2 pictures of memorial stadium - he wrote these words down the page...:

Texas Longhorns
Texas A and M
Texas Football
Texas A and M at home 2000 10 !

I guess he's trying to psych himself out after Tripp "sawed off his horns today!" I asked him what he thought about Tripp's song and he says.... "I thought he sang it good, but I didn't like what they did to the horns" I LOVE My Job!!!!!!!"

Birthday Cookies

Since it's my superstar week AND birthday, I get to bring a sweet surprise to class on Friday. Mommy and I decided to make snickerdoodles for all of my friends! I love helping mommy in the kitchen and am a pretty good 'cooker' and 'taster', if I do say so myself. I can't wait to share my kitchen masterpiece on Friday!

Tripp Riley - Superstar!

Each week at school, someone in the class is the 'Superstar'. When it's our week, we have to create a 'Superstar' poster and bring in special things for show and tell. This is my week and here is the poster I made over the weekend with mommy and daddy. First, mommy and I went on the computer and I picked out all of the pictures and then went to pick them up at the 1 hour lab. When we got home, daddy and I cut out the colored paper and then we arranged everything just right. After we glued everything down, I got to decorate even more with puffy glitter paint! I think I will make a poster every week - superstar or not.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tate has been sick the last 3 days with a high fever and so we have been around the house all weekend. We made Valentines and had fun as a family doing projects and staying in our pjs all day...ok, all weekend. This morning, we woke mommy up with beautiful roses (we had to be sneaky and had them hidden) and we surprised daddy with Valentine's from each of us. I even wrote my name by myself FOR THE FIRST TIME (in front of mommy anyway) in my daddy's Valentine's card! Mommy gave me the card and I just wrote my name - easy as that. We watched Valentine's movies and made a special Valentine's Dinner with chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. It was a great family day Valentine's Day and happy Valentine's Day to all of you!

Is today my birthday?

No! But it was supposed to be. My due date was originally February 11, 2006 but I decided to take my sweet time and show up 8 days later.

Mommy is an Asian

Mommy asked me if I thought she worked and I said yes. She then asked me what I thought she did......

Tripp: Mommy, I know what you are! You're an Asian!
Mommy: No baby, mommy is an agent.

A little later in the afternoon:
Tripp: Mommy, I don't want you to be an asian, I want you to be my mommy!

Valentine's Day Party

Since Valentine's Day is this weekend AND we don't have school Thursday or Friday because of parent teacher conferences (ouch!), our classroom celebrated Valentine's Day with a party for our parents and friends. We had pizza and grapes and Valentine's cookies, of course. We also passed out Valentine's to each of our friends and this year I gave everyone Spiderman with a Spiderman pencil. I contemplated long and hard in Target over which Valentine would be perfect and after a little prodding from mom (she said taking 10 minutes to pick out Valentine's was too long. She doesn't get it), I made my perfect pick.

The Princess and the Frog

Mommy and daddy went to a movie this past weekend and I couldn't go but mommy promised to take me this week. Today we went to see "Princess & the Frog" with Emmylou and her mommy and had popcorn, sprite and skittles. What a treat and what a fun time at the movie!

Girl Scout for a Day

As most of you know, mommy is a real estate agent and likes to do fun, different things for her contacts and clients. One of the things she does each year is buys lots and lots of girl scout cookies (and doesn't let me have any!) and drives all over town delivering a box to each person. This takes a looooooooonnnnnnnnngggggggggg time and just yesterday, it took us over an hour to deliver 3 boxes! She makes it fun by letting me help and when we get to the house, I get to get out and put the cookies on the door. I like helping mommy and she says I'm a good realtor in training.

Tate's Child Dedication

This morning, we had Tate's Child Dedication at Hill Country Bible Church (I was dedicated at Buckhead Church in Atlanta, GA when I was 11 days old). It was a very special day for us and some of our very special friends came to the service to support us. As a family, we went on stage and the pastor prayed with and for us.

My parents have a big job to do because we are a gift from God and He will hold my parents accountable for our spiritual growth in Christ. They promised to pray for and with us and to instruct us in the things of God, to teach us to read God's Word, and they will give us every opportunity and encouragement to bring us a knowledge of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
Thank you to those who were able to be there for us that day. It means more to us than we can express.

Tate's First Haircut

It's time! Daddy wants my baby's hair to grow and grow and grow (think Crystal Gale), but mommy was tired of her looking like a shaggy dog so off we went to 'Hair It Is' for Tatie's first hair cut. My baby loves Miss Leti and Miss Shehnila but wasn't all that interested in getting hair cut. After a lot of distractions and even some bribery (Miss Shehnila had girl scout cookies), my baby's hair was all cleaned up.

First official snip

Even though she's finished, she's still having a fit!

Welcome Home, Daddy!

Daddy travels a lot but this week he was gone the whole week! We sure missed him and wanted to do something special so we made 'Welcome Home Daddy' signs and greeted him at the airport as he was coming down the escalator. Emmylou's daddy was on the same flight so she made a special sign for her daddy, too. We love you daddy and I'm so happy when you're home.

Garden Club

I love the outdoors and am always exploring, digging, gathering and everything else you're supposed to do outdoors. My school has a butterfly garden area and in the spring, the butterflies love to visit. To prepare for their arrival, the Garden Club has to rake the leaves, trim the bushes and clean up the area and I get to be a part of it this year! Even though it was cold, we had so much fun raking and trimming that we didn't want to go home when the hour was over. Look for fun photos next time I have Garden Club.

Charlie and Kate

Charlie and Kate's daddy travels about as much as my daddy does so tonight, they came over for playtime and dinner. Charlie and I are the same age and Kate and Tate are the same age so it seems to work well - except that my baby is in the 'I'm not sharing' stage and wasn't very nice to her girlfriend. Mommy tried time out but she just said 'no' and would run off. Mommy's in for a lot of trouble I think. After dinner (and ice cream cones!) all 4 of us jumped into a big bubble bath and then got our jammies on. Charlie and I had the same jammies! We had a lot of fun with them and I'll be excited for them to come over again soon sometime.