Monday, July 21, 2008

Wipeout!!!

Jaime and I stumbled onto a new tv show a couple of weeks back. It is called Wipeout. For those of you who haven't seen it, it is basically an obstacle course made up of giant oversized inflatable objects. They start with 24 contestants and cut the field in half after each round until there is 4 contestants left. Then the fastest one through the final course wins. In actuality, the show is a competitive version of America's Funniest Home Videos. The contestants slip, crash, and fall throughout the whole show. We laughed and laughed the first time that we seen it and thought that the kids would enjoy the show.

Last week, we all sat down together to watch it. The kids didn't know what to think at first, but as they seen person after person slip and fall into the water and get punched by the punching wall into the mud pit, they thought it was hilarious.

As the game went on, Andrew and Daniel began to act out the games on the show. Every time someone attempted to jump over or across something, Andrew and Daniel would jump off of the couch. They also ran into the couch and pretended to splash in the water. Of course, they would laugh as hard as they could after attempting their own obstacles and expected us to laugh too, which we did. The only thing funnier than watching unknown people fall off of objects into water is watching your own kids act out falling off of objects into water.

Later in the game, I started yelling, "SPLASH!!!!" every time that someone fell in the water. After a couple times of this, all six of us were yelling, "SPLASH!!!!!" and laughing as hard as we could at the poor saps that just couldn't make the jump. It was probably the most fun of television that I have seen and the main event was in my living room. After all, you know what they say. The family that laughs at people slipping on giant inflatable red balls and falling into water. . . , well, they really don't say that. (But they should.)

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The House of Flying Pancakes

This past Monday, Blake and Hallie spent the night with their Uncle Brian and Aunt Dawn and Jaime had gone to bible study. That left me with the twins for the evening.

On the way home from school, I had asked Andrew and Daniel what they wanted to eat. Daniel said spaghetti, which was immediately shot down since we ate that recently and also since we had pizza a couple nights previous. Andrew asked for strawberry pancakes. Since we didn't have any strawberries at home and since I don't have any idea how to make strawberry pancakes, we opted for the original version of pancakes. You know, Bisquick.

When it was time to start cooking, the boys wanted to help. They sat on the counter and helped me count out the ingredients. Using a 1/4 cup, we counted out the amount of Bisquick and milk. When I went to get the two eggs, I found that the eggs were stuck in the carton. I stood in the middle of the kitchen, pulling and squeezing the eggs to get them out of the carton until I finally squeezed too hard and SPLAT!!!!! Egg all over my face, glasses, clothes, floor, etc. For that second that I stood in disbelief at what had just happened, I hear two boys laughing as loud as they could. I look up at them, with egg all over my face, and start laughing. Then Daniel says, "Again Daddy. Do it again." Eventually, I stopped laughing long enough to get everything cleaned up so we can get back to making our pancakes. Not wanting to repeat the egg explosion, I end up cutting the next two eggs out of the carton and adding them into the batter. Then, we cook up the pancakes.

When the first batch was ready to come out of the skillet, I took the first pancake, flipped it up in the air, and caught it on a plate. The boys cheered and said, "Again." Immediately recognizing that I had a captive audience, I flip the next pancake, catch it, and they cheer again. Then I went into Japanese steakhouse chef mode. The more they cheered, the better my tricks got. I started flipping them higher and higher. I even done a couple of no look catches. Next thing I knew, I was in a stance, exactly like a baseball player who is about to steal second base. I flip a pancake as high as I can across the whole kitchen and chase it with the plate. I caught several like this and Andrew and Daniel loved it. Although, I performed these feats with skill that few have ever seen, I did drop a couple onto the floor. When that happened, they laughed like I had smashed an egg on my face or something. It was awesome and hilarious. The only thing that stopped me from doing this all night was I eventually ran out of pancake batter. After that, we sat down to eat.

While we were eating, Andrew began to get a piece of pancake on his fork, go through the flipping motion, and act like he was catching it in his mouth. Me and Daniel would laugh so he kept doing it. Like father like son, right?

The next morning, Daniel was talking to Jaime about eating pancakes the night before and I heard him say, "Daddy pitched them in the sky". I think I may have started a trend. I may have to work costumes into my show for the next time.

Monday, July 14, 2008

A Great Weekend

It started with yet another birthday party for Blake. He wanted to have 4 friends over to spend the night Friday night. They ate pizza, ice cream, cake, cookies, and played more Fusion Frenzy than I thought any 5 kids (and 2 adults sometimes) could play. Sallie kept Hallie at her house, with the girls, otherwise she would have driven Blake crazy!!! Thank you Sallie. They slept really well, and didn't wake up until after 7:30. I was really impressed. Thank you boys for helping Blake have a great birthday.

Andrew and Daniel got to spend Saturday afternoon at Grandma and Grandpas while I went to a baby shower and the rest of the family recovered from the sleep overs. They had a great time as always and Saturday night was early to bed.

Sunday, after church, the kids played with water balloons, washed the cars with Chad and had a great time playing outside. Then, we got everyone dressed and went to the $1 movies to see Horton Hears A Hoo. We had lots of fun. Andrew and Daniel did really well, this was their first movie. We were able to get 1 large popcorn and 3 drinks and everyone was happy. We refilled the popcorn once and the kids ate and ate and ate. I had some cookies in my purse, so for $16 we had dinner and a movie. (If you consider Sprite, popcorn and cookies dinner!!) It was a really good weekend.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLAKE!

Happy Birthday Blake. It is hard to believe you are turning 9 today. Time has gone by so fast. It seems like you should still be a baby. I remember your first birthday party. We had it at Poppa and Bidee's house, we had just moved back to Birmingham from Atlanta and we were living in an apartment. We had a Sesame Street Elmo party for you. Mommy worked really hard on your cake, Bidee had to help and show me how to do it. You were unsure about getting your hands dirty in the cake, but you finally started eating it. There were so many people there that day. Uncle Jeremy made you a banner to hang in front of the house, so everyone knew it was your birthday.

You opened presents for about 30 minutes and had so much fun. It was a great day.

Daddy and I are so proud of you. We are proud of the boy you are becoming. You have grown so much this year. You do a great job helping us, you help with the boys, you clean up all the time and you love to help in the kitchen. I love that you still love Veggie Tales. I love that you have grown up and love Star Wars and Indiana Jones. I love that you love to read.
Daddy and I love you so much and hope you have a wonderful birthday!!
Mommy and Blake at 9 months.
Blake at 1 year