Friday, December 12, 2008

For Your Viewing Pleasure

It's been a really stressful week both at home and work, so I decided to post a really funny picture of Will to amuse you (and myself.)


Thursday, December 11, 2008

A Camera for Kaity

Kaity is in love with my hand-me-down camera that I got from Alli. She's getting a kid digital camera for Christmas, but in the mean time I'll share some of the pictures she's taken. Some relatively good, others not so much.







The Way of Gainesville

Living in Gainesville really makes you appreciate good friends. Since Gville is a college town, it's notorious that as soon as you make a good friend, they move away (or in some cases never, ever leave). We've soon lots and lots of good friends come and go over the years. But, this time it's different. Kaity has been in class with two other little girls at preschool since she was six months old. They do everything together and have their own little clique. I knew this day would come eventually, but was hoping they would at least make it until they started into elementary school. Kaity's school is very international because of it's proximity to the university. Hannasha is Belgian and Marina is Russian. These girls have been absolutely the best of friends for almost three and a half years. Considering the oldest of them turns four this month, that's pretty incredible. Marina is the first of the group to leave. They're moving to Georgia (the country, not the state as a I originally thought). Marina is very, very sweet and we'll miss her tremendously. Especially Kaity once she figures out what it means for Marina to move away. She doesn't really understand at this point. I took this picture at their Thanksgiving lunch recently. Hannasha is on the left, Marina in the middle and Kaity on the right. They're so cute.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Alli: the "semi-professional" photographer

Alli takes a lot of our family photos for us. I'm not sure what we'll do when she moves to DC. She's going to take our Christmas portrait this year, but we're (okay, me) is just really late in scheduling a good time. She does take pretty good photos. Check out these from last year of me and Kaity. Boy, has Kaity grown! When we actually get our photo taken this year, I'll be sure to post some.

Busy Bees

We've been busy bees lately around our house. It's one of the busiest times of the year on the farm. John's working every day feeding cows, selling Christmas trees, and building fence. I've got lots of big projects going on at work. And, then we have lots of family and friends we want to visit with. Oh, and did I mention I'm trying to make Christmas presents for everybody (except the kids - they don't appreciate it as much at this age)? So, all of this is my excuse for not blogging even though I have things to blog about.

But, if you would like to see some busy bees, check out Will's new knowledge.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The Best Birthday Party Ever

Will and I went to a birthday party for his new school best friend, Chance. Chance lives in downtown Micanopy in one of the beautiful historic houses. I didn't think to take a picture of it, but you can see it at the end of the Cholokka Blvd. They've lived in the house about 10 years and done lots of remodeling to it. Will is probably going to spend a lot of time there in the next couple of years. Chance's mom also has a really cute hair salon in the back of the house that I might just have to try sometime.

Chance's parents apparently throw really good parties. This was one of the best kid birthday parties that I've ever been to. The whole thing was Star Wars themed which Will loved. They had finger foods like Wookie Cookies, Padawan Pizza, Darth Vader Dip. They did a Jedi training obstacle course, light sabers, and had a big blow up slide thing. Will had a great time and I got to meet some of the other moms from Will's class.

Will wanted to look really nice for the party, so he wore his cool cap. It was a good thing he did cause it started getting colder and probably kept his head pretty warm.

This was the blow up thing. We've never been to a party with one. There were only about 15 kids there, so they didn't have to wait in line and got to play on it a lot.




They also had a Millenium Falcon set up which the kids played with for a long time. John had one of these as a kid and still talks about it regularly. We might have to get one for Will (and John).


Another party highlight was a visit from Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper (aka uncles). They were good sports.


I hope Will doesn't expect anything like for this party. I don't think I could top it (or would want to).

Pardon this Kitty Interruption

We've been experiencing a lot of kitty cuteness at our house lately, so I thought I'd share. Smokey is currently very feisty and fuzzy.





My Bunsies are Burning!

We've been having fires in the fire place for the last couple nights. Will and Kaity are very used to this and usually follow all the rules around fires. I'm not sure where their brains were last night, but after dinner as John and I are cleaning up, they decided to play on the hearth and see how close they could get before it got too warm. They're old enough now that I shouldn't have to watch them all the time - I mean they're almost 4 and 6 and they're in the house and understand the rules! But, I guess I shouldn't make that assumption especially with Kaity.

Anyways, they're playing this game and I'm not paying attention to them when Kaity starts screaming bloody murder and running through the house. Apparently, she'd backed up against the screen or stood there too long and burned her leg and bottom. She was wearing jeans and didn't have any marks on the fabric, but when I pulled them off her leg was all red. John ran her to the sink, while firmly lecturing her on fires, to run cold water on her leg. I got an ice pack out and we put that on her leg for a couple of hours. After awhile, the redness had gone down and she was fine. Good thing she was wearing jeans. I think she's learned her lesson (for once!) and won't be doing that again any time soon.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

56-6

Does anything more need to be said? It was a blowout and a pretty amazing on at that. They didn't even get a touchdown. Way to go Gators!

We had a great time attending TailGator (the alumni event) and the game yesterday. The game is never as enjoyable for me as it is for John. I can't see since I'm so short plus it was cold and rainy. We did stay through the third quarter. And, then headed home with pizza.

TailGator was nice. Erin and Alli both came and then took the kids home with them. The kids had a blast. Kaity LOVED the baby gators and they actually had to ask her to stop petting them so other people could. Will spent most of his time in front of the live bee hive. Ask him some time where honey comes from. He now knows.

Before we left the house, Erin took a picture of us while everyone was still fairly clean.


It's not often that all three of us are together in one place.


This is my boss, Dr. Nell. He's great. He came and supported me at TailGator. This is the "tall and short of it" picture. He's 6'7" or so and I'm 4'10" - we look pretty funny going to meetings.


The kids met Alberta and, of course, loved her. Who doesn't love a 5 foot gator wearing lipstick?




Kaity's been fascinated with cheerleaders since football season started. She has these great moves that she does and really cheeses it up. Once our new Y opens, I think I'll have to enroll her in cheering or at least gymnastics. Here's a series of photos of her "moves."






We have a ton of these photos where we're trying to get a good family picture. This was after the awards part and after the kids have had quite a bit of frosting and cake. Most of the photos are terrible. They shoot finally ended with Kaity crawling through Daddy's legs - which Alli actually captured.


Here's the one good photo we got of us.


John got some great pictures of the field (since I couldn't see it.) It was fun and I've been to my annual game. That's enough for me till next year.




After we got home, our friend Cathy came over and Scot and several of his friends. We ended up staying up to watch the Kentucky/Alabama game and the kids didn't go to bed till 11 or so. They were tired this morning.

*********
Okay, several corrections - first we watched the Kentucky and Alabama games. Two separate games apparently. I don't know - they kept flipping back and forth.

Second - Jen kindly pointed out that I didn't say what the plaque was for. I received the CALS Alumni Horizon Award which is for successful alumni who have graduated in the last 10 years. Dr. Nell came and supported me at the big TailGator event. John had never met Dr. Nell until this weekend (he kept saying that he didn't exist), so he made sure to get a picture of us to preserve that he's a real person.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

A Night on the Town

I was recently awarded with the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Horizon Alumni Award. I get recognized at TailGator this year and we get tickets to the game today (UF vs. South Carolina). Last night, we had a special dinner for award winners at Amelia's Restaurant downtown with all the deans and so on. It was really nice. John and I got dressed up and left the kids with the Nana and Papa. The plans was for the kids to stay the night.

Larry took a picture of us before we left.


This is after dinner. It's my Jackie O dress that Alli helped me pick out. I meant to take the picture beforehand, but forgot, so I look pretty tired here.


Our plan of having the kids spend the night didn't work out so well. Kaity ended up not wanting to spend the night, so we picked her up and she came home. Will did spend the night.


We realized that once we got home that we could have gone out downtown. Maybe to Market Street or something. But, we didn't cause we're fuddy duddies and forgot.

Handmade for the Holidays

This year, I'm working on a bunch of handmade holiday gifts. As always, I've started a little late, so a lot of people will probably receive IOUs. I'll make the IOUs pretty, don't worry. But, I do have a few started.

Since Alli is moving to DC in the middle of January (crazy girl!), I should be remaking her a hat. I gave her a crocheted hat last year, but somehow I crocheted it for a gorilla head size (or maybe she just looks like she has a big head). Anyways, it was about three sizes too big. So, I should be doing another one of those. Instead, I'm making her an apron...because that will be so much more useful in DC. She picked out the fabric and pattern, so she's seen all her stuff. Everyone else won't be as priviledged, so I won't be posting during construction on the blog. Anyways, back to the apron. My grandma apparently had saved yards and yards of feed sack fabric which my mom now has. When I was last home, I went through it and picked out some pretty stuff with the intention of making aprons, tablelcoths, dish cloths, etc. from it for everyone. Alli got first choice and here's the fabric she picked.




I also finally finished Will's fall apron. It turned out pretty nice for not having an apron. Posing with him is Princess Pink in the skirt/dress that Aunt Erin made her for Christmas last year.


The future chef/BBQ master.


Here's Princess Cinderella in dress up clothes that Aunt Alli got her lat year for Christmas.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Growing Up (with a little trickery)

We've been trying to wean Kaity off of her baby (sippy) cups. She's very, very attached to them. She also knows she can carry them around the house even though she's not supposed to.

So, I came up with a new plan. Will has been making monthly calendars at school and we cross off and count to a special day (Halloween, Thanksgiving). I showed Kaity the calendar and we talked about how Thanksgiving would be the last day for baby cups.

She really hasn't been getting it, so today on the way home we talked about how Santa won't know whether to get her baby or big girl toys because she still drinks from baby cups. She really wants big girl toys, so she told me that Santa would come on Thanksgiving to get her baby cups. We're going to put the cups near the fireplace and "Santa" will come get all the baby cups. I think he'll bring a cool big girl cup for her in their place.

Hopefully, this works this time. We're tired of washing all the pieces that go with sippy cups.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Perhaps he went on holiday?

Last weekend, we babysat Will's new banty chick. "Chicken Little" spent the weekend with us and then went back on Monday. She came back home today to stay permanently at our house. She'll live in a box with a lamp until she feathers out some more and then will move into the chicken tractor.

Kaity was so anxious to hold her. I was afraid she was going to squish Chicken Little.




Will has been wanting to hold him everyday at school. He's doing great with the chick and it's turning into a pretty good 4-H project for him.




Penelope has stopped laying for now with the shorter days and cooler nights. She should start again in the spring and hopefully Henrietta joins her this time. John says Henrietta reminds him of the fat hen from Chicken Run who's constantly knitting (Babs). Babs is really fat, isn't very smart, and doesn't lay any eggs. Sounds a lot like Henrietta. So here are a couple of Babs/Henrietta quote for you:

"Chicken seed, my favourite!"

"Is he on holiday?"

Pumpkins and Costumes

The week leading up to Halloween was incredibly busy. Luckily Papa (or Poppy as Kaity is now calling him) brought over a pumpkin and carved it with the kids. Otherwise, they might not have had a jack-o-lantern this year. Just call me a super busy mom who forgot to find the pumpkin patch!


The kids were fairly creative this year. Will went as a Ninja this year (because he got to wear swords) and Kaity went as Batgirl. Kaity was the only little girl under 5 that I saw not dressed as a princess, mermaid, or Southern belle. She was quite the rebel.

I spent all day Friday volunteering in Will's classroom. It was exhausting! I don't know how the teacher does it. But, the kids all got to dress in costume, they had a parade around the school, a Halloween luncheon, and trick-or-treated from classroom to classroom. It was quite the day. I hoped we were done for the day, but alas, there was still more trick-or-treating to be done.

Since we live on a farm, we've got to go into town to trick-or-treat. For the last couple of years, we've done this with friends that have little girls Will and Kaity's age. They're very sweet and we don't hang out with them enough.


Great family picture of us.


This was our trick-or-treating group - parents and everything.


Here are all the kids. How many princesses do you see? And, how many non-princesses? Just my rebel, Batgirl. Although, she did give in and do a little beauty parlor with her friends. Batgirl's got to have her glitter sparkle, too.


I love the little Nemo in this picture. BTW, anyone seen our Finding Nemo movie since Scot borrowed it way back when?

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

You Might Be a ...

Tonight, we're eating pizzas at the in-laws, watching Presidential election results, and the guys are cleaning guns.

So, fill in the blank. You might be a _____________ (Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, etc.) if you clean guns while watching the Presidential election.

I voted early and actually took Kaity with me. It was really easy and painless. Alachua County is pretty efficient with this kind of stuff (plus about 50,000+ residents of the county don't actually claim this county as their residence). John voted today in Micanopy - again very easy. On the other hand, my parents in Tampa waited 2 hours to vote early at 7 am! I'm so encouraged by the number of people turning out to vote this year. It's fantastic!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Car Talk and Eggs

Kaity tells some interesting stories to herself when we're riding in the car and she thinks no one is listening. Here is an example from today. She was playing some sort of mommy/baby game in the backseat.

Kaity/baby: "Can I bring baby food to Mr. Ryan's house?"
Kaity/mommy: (in a mean, monster voice) NNNOOO!!

Repeat six times.

Then, she broke into a song about losers which is the new "bad" word in the three old class. I wonder what these things portray about me and my mothering skills.

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On another note, Will's banty egg hatched in the incubator last night. He's so excited. Let me back up and tell the whole story.

Several weeks ago, Will came home saying Mrs. Varady (his kindergarten teacher) needed eggs for an egg thing (aka - incubator). He wanted to take one of his banty eggs. I told him I needed to check with her and we'd see.

Later that week, Will collected an egg from outside, washed it off (which you're not supposed to do if you're trying to hatch it), packed it in a box and told me he was taking it to school. I told him I'd email Mrs. Varady and he could take it tomorrow if she said okay.

I emailed her about the egg about 10:30 and she said that Will had already brought it in. (I guess John is more of a softy than I am and let him take it.) She did say not to let him bring any more eggs. She already had a parent bring a dozen.

So, anyways, he's been watching his banty egg next to the big eggs for three weeks. And, saying it's going to hatch and I've been saying don't get your hopes up. He came home yesterday and told me it had cracks and was getting ready. I was thinking no, it's just getting hard boiled. But, it hatched over night and we'll get to bring home a banty chick in a couple weeks.

I love the hands-on learning experience this is providing for the kindergartners. And, we get to add to our flock.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Smokey the Kitten

I've been talking about getting another kitten or cat for a couple of months now. CT passed away in July and we've been without an inside kitty for more than a year. I was kind of waiting for a little later in the fall, but Kathleen came home with a tiny runaway barn kitten yesterday. She called to ask if she could tell the kids about it, and of course, they wanted to bring it home without even seeing it. I worked from home today and John brought her over about 10:30. She's probably 3 or 4 weeks old and came from the barn. She ran away from the barn and is now at our house. She's extremely noisy and likes to cuddle. I think she (we think she) likes Will a lot. He named her Smokey. She's not going out the dog side of the house at the moment (Tebow has accidentally killed a few kittens in the past by wanting to play a little rough). I think we'll keep her for now.




 

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