Interviews with the Kids

One of the blogs I follow, Havin' Fun Yet, posted an interview with her son yesterday. I thought it was so cute to read his answers, and was inspired to do the same with my kids. Evan answered all questions for both parents...Gracie got tired of answering after the mommy questions, so there are only a few questions about daddy answered by her. :) To make sure they gave original answers, I asked Gracie while Evan was at school, and then asked Evan when he came home.

(keep in mind all answers are direct quotes!)

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Evan's answer(E): be good
Gracie's answer(G): um, I don't know

What is something dad always says to you?
E: be good

2. What makes mom happy?
E: when i do chores
G: pee-pee in the potty

What makes dad happy?
E: taking a shower
G: pee-pee in the potty

3. What makes mom sad?
E: not obeying
G: pee-pee in my pants

What makes dad sad?
E: not obeying
G: say "I don't love him" (it's a game they play, & daddy fake cries)

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
E: being funny
G: tickle me

How does your dad make you laugh?
E: tickle me because he tickles me all the time and it's funny and makes me laugh

5. What was your mom like as a child?
E: she was bad

What was your dad like as a child?
E: he was good

6. How old is your mom?
E: 47 (we're 27...)
G: um, 3

How old is your dad?
E: 47, the same as mommy

7. How tall is your mom?
E: large to the ceiling
G: this tall (stretching her arm as high as she can)

How tall is your dad?
E: a little bit close to the ceiling
me: so mommy's taller than daddy?
E: yep

8. What is mommy's favorite thing to do?
E: clean up the house

What is dad's favorite thing to do?
E: clean up all of the places in the house and daddy likes to vacuum

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
E: do computer
G: um, I don't know

What does your dad do when you're not around?
E: clean up the house

10. What is your mom really good at?
E: playing computer
G: at my matching game

What is your dad really good at?
E: playing outside

11. What is your mom not very good at?
E: swinging outside
G: i don't know

What is your dad not very good at?
E: sliding on the slide

12. What does your mom do for her job?
E: cook supper
G: work at home on this computer (pointing to the computer)

What does your dad do for his job?
E: cbp, officer
G: officer

13. What is your mom's favorite food?
E: chicken nuggets
G: pork chops, but I don't know what the rest are

What is your dad's favorite food?
E: corn off the cob

14. What makes you proud of your mom?
E: playing at the park
G: play my games much,I'm so proud of you do that. do you wanna play my games much?

What makes you proud of your dad?
E: playing at the park

15. What do you and your mom do together?
E: play games on the wii
G: play my game, go at the stores together (shopping)

What do you and your dad do together?
E: play wii games, bowling and lego batman

16. How are you and your mom the same?
E: smile like her
G: just talk alike, i look like mommy with no sunglasses (meaning my glasses)

How are you and your dad the same?
E: we have short hair

17. How are you and your mom different?
E: because i'm short and she's tall
G: um, sunglasses

How are you and your dad different?
E: because i'm short and he's tall

18. How do you know your mom loves you?
E: because she hugs me and kisses me
G: hugs me, kiss me

How do you know your dad loves you?
E: because he hugs me and kisses me on the cheek and the nose

19. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
E: mark's feed store
G: um, at the store shopping, and see santa claus

Where is your daddy's favorite place to go?
E: to the theater

Evan's Basketball Season is Over... :(

Well, I can't say I'm super sad, but I am a little sad. I've coached his team for two years now, and although I can't promise that any kids know a whole lot more about basketball, we've all had a lot of fun. I get attached to the kids and am sad when I won't get to see them anymore. I finally remembered to take my camera with me the last game! Here are some pics of our team playing their last game.
Getting ready to play defense

Playing defense

Evan taking the ball away from the opponent-I'm so proud!

Pics from the awards ceremony:

Here's most of our team...from left: Coach Nick, Ha'lle, Devon, Jason, Addisyn, Luke, Kaylee, Kaitlyn, Evan. Not pictured is Keelan and Tyler.

Here's our whole team-

We sure are one good-looking team!! :)

My Little Miss Priss

The scenario at Grammy & Papaw's house the other night when Gracie was staying the night:

Since it was bedtime before Papaw got home, Gracie was told that Papaw would come up and kiss her goodnight as soon as he got home. It hadn't been too long after she went to bed when Papaw went up to kiss her. She was still awake, watching her movie (one of the privileges of staying the night at the grandparents!). Anyway, she didn't act very interested in Papaw wanting to kiss her goodnight; she actually wouldn't kiss him and told him not to kiss her. Papaw said "Well, can I at least kiss your hand?" To which she responded "only one time." He got the same response when he asked if he could kiss her forehead. It was very unusual for her to act like that, and of course, Papaw Phil was heartbroken.



The next day, after hearing the story, I asked Gracie "Why wouldn't you kiss Papaw Phil night-night last night?" To which she responded "I didn't want him to mess up my lipstick"!

I had put lip gloss on her before school that morning, and more than 12 hours later she didn't want him to mess it up...



After telling Dad (Papaw) that story, he responded, "we need to let her keep that up, especially when she wants to start dating"-I TOTALLY agree!!!

Another Field Trip

This time we got to go to the KY Derby Museum!

I was in charge of Evan & his classmate, Jonah for the day. While at the museum, we got to go on a tour of the track, rome around the museum and see all the exhibits, watch a movie about the derby, and learn about jockey silks. It was a lot of fun!

Here are some of our pictures from the day.
Evan & Jonah learning about the parts of the horse

Here the boys are listening to a race

We were standing in the Winner's Circle (for every race except the actual Derby race)

Evan got to "ride a horse during a race"-the race is played, from the jockey's point of view on a TV screen in front of the horse

This is Evan and Jonah with Evan's friend Abigail (he specially requested to get is picture with Abigail, and was nice enough to let Jonah be in it with them!)

Gracie Beautiful

Here are some pictures of my beautiful Gracie!! Being at home with her all day everyday has given me plenty of opportunities take pics of her having fun around the house. Thought I'd share some (okay, maybe a little more than some).

Dusting the living room for mommy

I can't say "with mommy" because she took over & didn't want me to do any of it. I actually had to stand on top of the chair holding her while she dusted the top of the entertainment center! I know this love for cleaning won't last forever, so figured I'd make the most of it and just let her do it.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

For Nick's birthday, the kids made "Happy Birthday" signs for him.
Here is Evan's sign

Here is Gracie's sign

She colored the letters that I told her to color, but got bored with it before we were done

Here's the back of Gracie's She wrote her name all by herself! :)

This is the 1st time she has written her name more than "G"-She watched me write the letters on another piece of paper and then wrote them on her paper.

I am so proud of both of them!!

Oh, and Daddy loved his posters!

The Circus

We went to the circus Sunday night. Evan had seen the commercials and wanted to go, especially since Spiderman was going to be there. We waited til almost time to leave before telling the kids where we were going, just to surprise them. They were so excited!

Evan got to meet Spiderman during intermission. The funniest thing was that he asked before meeting him "Mommy, is that really just a adult dressed up in a costume?" He's getting so big! I didn't lie and told him that it was. You'd think that would have made him a little less excited, but nope. He was thrilled to get up there and get his picture taken.

We all had so much fun. It was a great "Rice Family Fun Night"!

Good idea Nick and Evan!

Ice Storm

Well, I am a little behind on this post, but still wanted to share my pictures from our recent ice storm. Here's the scoop: We got several inches of snow/sleet on Monday (1/26) followed by about 4-6 inches of ice on Tuesday and then snow all day on Wednesday. We lost power Wednesday around noon. Luckily, Pam, my mother-in-law, had power and allowed us to stay at her house the rest of Wednesday afternoon, overnight, and all day Thursday. Many, many thanks to her!

Since we were leaving from mom's house Friday morning for our annual family trip to Gatlinburg, and since she had got her power back Wednesday night, we spent the night with my parents Thursday night. Many thanks to them too!

Above is a pic of my little tree in the front yard with about 4 inches of ice on it. It really was beautiful.

Here is our mailbox and deck, covered in snow and ice.

Here are the kids playing in the snow and the amazing icicles hanging on my mother-in-law's house. The longest one was at least 3 foot long!!! I don't think I've ever seen icicles that long before!

Fun with Pipe Cleaners

After having wreaked havoc the last time I tried to do crafts with the kids, I decided that we would be on the safe side this time...nothing to do with microwaves or ovens allowed!

Here are our creations.

A flower

A boy and a girl

A dog

Crafts & Chaos

So, I got this great idea from one of the blogs I follow, Flip Flops and Applesauce, to make some clay-dough type crafts with the kids. View her recipe and pictures here.

That being said, here's the Rice version. Stay with me now, it's kinda long, but well worth it!

I microwaved each plate for 2 minutes, decided they weren't ready yet, and did another minute each, and then another minute each (total of 4 minutes).

After they had cooled off, I let the kiddos each pick a paint color and start painting.

Evan opted for pink

Gracie, since Evan stole the pink, chose red

(they had decided that they couldn't have the same color stars)

Now for the fun part of the story.

While they were painting I decided to make a couple of stars with the leftover dough for myself.

As I was making my stars, I noticed that something was stinking up the kitchen. Being the great detective I am, I figured out that my sweet little daughter, who refuses to use the potty, had done a #2 in her pull-up.
Before changing her, I placed the 2 stars I had made on a plate, stuck it in the microwave and hit 4 (for 4 minutes, remember how it took 4 minutes total for the first two batches?), so they could cook while I changed her diaper.

Sooo....before actually getting the chance to complete the changing process, I smelled yet another terrible smell. My thought process-"What is that? Smells AWFUL. Smells like, like, OH NO! Smoke!!!" I hopped up off the floor, ran into the kitchen, which was quickly filling with smoke, and over to the microwave. I opened the door, expecting it to be filled with fire. Thank God there was only more smoke. Oh, and two burnt clay-dough stars, and a melted plate.

Being the smart cookie that I am, I had put my two stars on a plastic plate.

And now for the zoomed out version:

Yes, it is sitting on my deck in the snow...where else was I going to put a melted, smoking, burning plate???

Good one, huh? Sometimes I wonder where my brain went...

Gracie Can Read...

...Well, not actually, but don't tell her that! (She doesn't take it well) She was "reading" Bubby a couple of books the other day and it was so cute to hear her version of the pictures! So cute that I grabbed the laptop and started typing what she said.

Here is (verbatim) her version of "What's Wrong, Little Pookie?":

Piggy was crying in the morning on his bed
Mommy said you can come down from your bed
He was crying and mommy said you don't be crying in the bed
You can get out your bed
You just come down Mommy said you can't come down off your bed
Hippo is this a shoes on your bed Hippo?
Froggies was a little boy and the girls

You can off your girls and boys and girls and boys
Cookies was a little cookie and a big cookie was a little boy and a girl
Elephant at the zoo
You can come down off your bed and read your
you can get in your bed and read your books
you can read disciples and the road of the mommy and the girl

-----------------------------------------------------------

I know, I know...it makes no sense, but it is soooo priceless!!! And it kinda makes sense if you are looking at the pictures.

Updates

Since I last blogged, Nick started 3rd shift, Evan & I went back to school, and our basketball season at Valley View (Nick, dad, & I coach Evan's team in the 4&5 yr old division) has started. We've had two practices and games start this Friday.

Here are some of the highlights of our past few weeks.

12/26-12/27-Nick & I went to Lexington to see the cats play

We had friends over for New Year's Eve

And, we've had lots of fun just playing around the house:

Playing Pretty Pretty Princess as a family

Evan running from the camera

My precious kids

The Lego house and cars that Gracie and I made

Gracie watching Dora with her sunglasses on and pants off! (This one was too cute to not put on here)