Kate on Current Events

If you remember back about 2 weeks ago I asked Kate some rather simple questions, getting some simple answers from her.  If you wanna check it out again click here.  In this post, I asked her some very serious questions about life and our economy only to get some very serious answers!  Check them out!  I think she might be able to save the world!

1) Last Monday was Presidents Day and you have been learning all about the presidents of the United States, tell me what you have learned this week at pre-school?

·         You can find George Washington on money

·         (As she screams!!!!)I know who was our first president! George Washington!!!

·         It was Eva’s special day (Lets stay on track Kate)

·         You can sort money and see the presidents faces, cuz they are all washed, wanna see a penny?

·         George Washington is on the BIG one and it says 5 bubblegums

2) During the next presidential election, who would you like to see run for the position?

Ummm, George Washington

3) What do you think the President of the United States has to do, for part of his job?

He has to be busy doing something, I don’t know what he’s busy doing, maybe writing and he just sits at his desk.

4) What do you think is the best course of action to repair the economy in America?

Aaaa, I bet Handy Manny could fix it, cuz he has tools.

5) How do you feel about gas prices reaching $3.45 a gallon and it costing over $80 to fill up my Mommy van today?

OH MY! You went to the wrong place, your supposed to go to the rainbow place. (I am not aware of a place with a rainbow to get gas, but I would love to find the pot of gold near the end of the rainbow.)

6) What do you think about Lady Gaga’s appearance at the 2011 Grammy’s arriving in a womb?

She just hatches like birdies, I holded a birdy and it flapped out of my hands.

7) How do you feel about the violence in Libya?

I just tell’em don’t do it again.  Cuz when Nicky stands on the train table I just tell him don’t do it again and he gets down.

8) When do you believe the real estate market will stabilize and secure?

Maybe next time when I go to dance, we do balance beam at dance. (I think she made a connection with the word stabalize and balance beam here.)

9) I know you to believe in aliens. What do you think they look like? 

They are grey and skinney and not as fat as you.

 10) What further actions do you think we need to make in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Just Handy Manny fixes it.

11) How do you think the people of the world could be more happy? 

They just need to try their best, just like I tried my best at preschool.  Maybe you could just play peek-a-boo, Nicky laughs when I say peek-a-boo.

12) How should we feed the hungry? 

Just give’em your money so they can buy food. (Duh Mom)

13) Do you think children of today are less responsible than children from generations past?

Kids today because I take care of my Barbie. Sometimes I wash my Barbies hair and put her hair in a ponytail for pretend school.

14) Do you think breastfeeding is essential for babies?

Yes, just like me and Nicky because some people are babies and they need to drink just plain milk.  I drink outta a big girl sippy cup, just like Daddy drinks out of his Big girl sippy cup. (see pic, it's Daddy's real mug.LOL)

If you could do one thing to make the world better what would it be?

Um, I would grab my Mommy’s hand when we are at the store so I won’t get lost.

Have a great Monday!

Five Question Friday

1. Can you drive a stick shift?
Mike taught me how to drive a stick shift back in 1999 on his 1995 green S-10 pick-up in downtown Ann Arbor after a Michigan Football game. The experience was certainly one of my most terrifying moments of my life, I thought I would either crash or break the truck. Eventually, with a lot of practice, I did learn how to drive it pretty well. I would need a quick lesson if I was expected to drive a stick now, its been a long time.


2. What are two foods you just can't eat?
Mushrooms and Olives, YUCK!!!


3. Do you buy Girl Scout Cookies? What is your favorite kind?
I don’t place an order with a specific Girl Scout, but I always pick up 5 or 6 boxes in the parking lot at Wal-Mart each year. I would say the thin mints are my favorite!




4. How do you pamper yourself?
I splurge on Vera Bradley bags, I just LOVE them! I buy about 4 new bags a year, one each season.


5. What is your nickname and how did you get it?
Poopy Patty! I think my dad gave it to me when I was a baby.

20 reasons why I love Red Robin, YUMMMM!!!

1. It's a kid friendly restaurant!!!!!!!!!

2. Most of the time it is loud enough in there that when your kid screams or laughs loud it's not that big of a deal.

3. The Banzai Burger (My favorite, my mouth is watering as I type)

4. Prices are reasonable

5. Unlimited refills on their delicious strawberry lemonade

6. Bottomless french fries

7. The back of the booths have a place for Nick to make a railroad track to play choo-choo with his train, which allows Mike and I to eat our meals.

          

8. The kids menu has lots of activities on it to occupy Kate, which allows Mike and I to eat our meals.

9. The waitstaff are quick!!! (When you have kids, you really appriciate that.)
10. I love their take out boxes and bags (I ordered an extra burger for a friend who also loves Red Robin!! I did a suprise delivery at her house that night, she loved it!!)
11. The bathrooms are big, clean and smell good.
12. When you ask for a lot of Ranch dressing, you really get a lot of Ranch dressing, instead of getting a tiny plastic dipping bowl.
13. Their burgers are wrapped in paper when you get them, so you don't drip everywhere.
14. The kids meals include a stick on most everything (ie. chicken on a stick, corndogs or fruit kabobs).  My experience is that everything tastes better on a stick, especially for kids.
15. When you leave, the kids always get a helium balloon that offers hours and hours of at home entertainment...until the balloon pops, then it's tragic (that just happened)

16. They have a very catchy slogan! Yummm!
17. You get a free burger on your birthday.
18. The employees are all friendly and welcoming, based on my experience.
19. There is fun and interesting photographs and art covering the walls
20. (Kate's) The fan blades look like french fries!

If you are looking to try a new restaurant check out Red Robins, you won't be disappointed. (No, they did not pay me to say that.) It's just a good restaurant!

Sunday Senses

Thanks Unexplained X2 for this idea.

 

Sight...A TV that is on, kids and I are watching Wonder Pets on Nick Jr.  It is Nicks most recent favorite tv show.  When requesting it, he says in the sweetest voice, "petz peez, petz peez" as he hands me the Comcast remote.

 

About 5 inches of snow in the past 3 hours, everything is covered in a beautiful coat of white in "The Mitten State".

 

Taste...Just ate left over $5 pizza from Little Ceasars, it was better the first time around.  I'm kinda craving a delicious grilled cheeseburger from the "Grill Master" himself!

 

Smell...Pizza, from warming it up in the microwave.

 

Touch...The extra warm furnace.

 

Hear...Kate just got done telling me (well kinda yelling at me), "No!!! You do it, cuz your the MOM!" after I told her that she could clean out her Valentine's Day cup with the swirling straw from Aunt Ria herself if she wanted it cleaned right now or she could wait until I get up and I would do it then.

 

She ended up cleaning it out herself and refilling all by herself...WOW!!! I think my parental duties are done here, she can fill up her own glass (10 times a day!) now!

 

My cuddle bugs early, early, early in the morning!

I am wondering when they are going to sleep in, just a tad.  I would love to wake-up one morning and not see a 6 at the beginning of the time on the clock.

They both go to bed in their own bed at night, but at about 6am both kids wonder there way into my bed.  At least they snuggle with eachother...sometimes.

For breakfast I got them both cereal and it was quickly passed up.  Neither of the kids would eat their corn puffs and instead both wanted dippable eggs, which takes a bit more tired mama brain cells at 6:13 in the morning then cereal does.

 I think I have created breakfast snobs!

Good morning all you early risers out there!



Five Question Friday

Thanks Danna at 3 Pink Cupcakes for the idea.  It gave me something to write about today.

1. Have you worn the same outfit more than one day in a row?

Yes, yes and yes!!! Sad to say maybe more than 2 days in a row and maybe even at night, yes I sometimes just sleep in my clothes, not good, but then I don’t have to get dressed in the morning! (cuz that takes so much time) 

Ask me that question back when I was a junior in high school(1997) I would say, “NO WAY, WHO WOULD DO THAT?”  I remember one of my very best girlfriends and I sitting in Pre-Calc together and discussing peoples outfits (other classmates and teachers).  We would talk about the brand, where they got it from and when they wore it last!  Yes, somehow we would remember how often some kids and teachers would wear the same outfit and make mention, “oh my gosh!! Did you see that Laura wore those jeans yesterday!”  I would never be caught dead wearing the same shirt or pants in the same 2 week rotation. 

Oh, how times have changed…

Now, I think I have 2 pairs of jeans (that fit) and I might wear them for a week straight! (EEK) 

2. If you had to choose any LARGE city to live in, which would it be?

Before about a week ago, I would say Boston, Mass. It’s on the ocean, has lots of cheap family fun and most importantly my husbands’ brother, SIL and my favorite niece (who is almost 2) live there.  Now I would say New Haven, Connecticut because my brilliant SIL just got accepted to work for Yale University and they are moving to New Haven in a few months! I am super excited for her and her family and I would love to move out there with them so the cousins could grow up together.  Right now we are a 13 hour drive away from New Haven.

3. Fly or drive with the kids on vacation?

I dream of taking a nice big family vacation all the time, but $$$$$ inhibits us from doing so.  Someplace fun, like Disney World (Hi mom and dad who are there right now!)  or an all-inclusive family cruise. Yes, I would prefer to fly anywhere.  I was extremely anxious flying with Kate the first time when she was 18 months old, but I got all worked up for nothing, it was a breeze!  I stocked up on suckers, books, games  and lots milk for the trip and she was fine.

4. What is your idea of "spring cleaning"?

I don’t really “plan” a specific day for spring cleaning.  I will wake up one morning (when it’s still kinda cool and the sun is shining) and I will open all the windows and CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN.  I clean everything from the garage, to the bathrooms, to behind the washer and dryer. 

5. What is the best book you have ever read?

I tend to read magazines more than books, but I never miss a book written by Nicholas Sparks.  My favorite is most definitely The Notebook.

Kate has life all figured out.

I asked Kate a few questions tonight, check out her answers.

Kate, how old are you? 4
When is your birthday? June 6th
What type of birthday party do you want? A princess birthday
What is your favorite dinner? Broccoli soup and hot red soup (tomato soup).
What do you want to be when you grow up? A soccer player because I wanna kick the ball. I’m fast and I’m chicken and I kick really hard.
What’s one rule in the house that Mommy doesn’t let you do? Watch Sponge Bob, but Daddy does let me.

Where do we live? In the mitten, in Michigan
What is America? The Grand ole flag is America
Why do you think people get married? So they can have a baby.
So what do you do once you are married? You have a baby.
Why does Daddy have have to go to work? So he can pay the bills and pay the money.
What does Daddy do at work? He does, he goes on the fire fighter truck and he goes on the ambliance and helps sick people make them better.
What does mommy do? You clean up after me and Daddy and Nick and you.

How old you you think I am? 60. You think I’m 60, really? Yea cuz you have an iphone and you have be 60 to get an iphone.
How tall do you think I am? 7 inches
At what age is a person an adult? Ummmm I think maybe 6

Why do you think the sky is blue? Cuz cuz that’s a part of nature, cuz cuz Mother nature colors the sky.
I see your eating peanut butter on a spoon, how do you think that peanut butter was made?
I know! peanuts, they scrutch it up and that makes peanut butter. Who is they? The makers.
How do you think tv shows get on tv? The Comcast guy comes and make them all get on like Berenstein Bears.



Happy Valentine's Day from my kids to yours!

              



Sunday Senses

Thanks Unexplained X2 for this idea, kinda fun.

 

Sight...A TV that is off, a clean livingroom and Valentine's Day decorations.

 

Taste...Fried Ice Cream flavored ice cream from QD (Quality Dairy) Yum-O, it's so delicious.  I got a pint of it free tonight since I filled up my QD punch card from purchasing milk.

 

Smell...Irish Springs Body wash from the kids taking a bath. (I love that smell)

 

Touch...A cool breeze from the fan above me.  I am already cold enough, why is that darn van even on?

 

Hear...I hear both of the kids downstairs in the bath splashing, laughing and a strange banging sound (Don't worry, Mike is with them). Oh, also I hear the humidifier humming.

 

 

My Day in Numbers

• Woke up at 6:03
• Made 4 eggs (dipable please) and 4 pieces of toast for breakfast at kids request
• Changed 4 diapers (Mike did the rest)
• Bought 2 tickets to the Vera Bradley Discount Sale that is held in Fort Wayne Indiana April 13-17th for $18.25 (I am SUPER excited to go to this!)
• Blew up 120 helium balloons to make 1 BIG balloon arch and 2 smaller arches
• Trimmed 20 tiny finger nails
• Trimmed 20 tiny toe nails
• Spent $225 at Target for Valentine's Day supplies, 2 birthday gifts, groceries, house hold supplies, and a 92 pack of diapers, HOLY CRAP!
• Bought 2- $5 pizza's for lunch
• Sent 17 text messages
• Recieved 21 text messages
• Called 4 people
• Drove 36 miles
• Filled 8 sippy cups
• Unloaded 1 load of dishes
• Watched 2 hour of TV.....so far
• Read 56 tweets....so far
• Looked at 11 of the Mommy Blogs that I follow
• 3 kisses for Kate
• 7 kisses for Nick
• 2 kisses for Mike
• Prepared 16 snacks for Kate to take to Preschool for her special day
• Wrote a check for $175 for Kate's Preschool tuition for March (Yes, I'm 17 days early.)
• Worked 5 hours
• Read 2 children's books to the kids
• Ate 4 chocolate hearts
• Drank 2 Diet Cokes
• Stuck in the show on a sheet of ice in my mommy van on the road in front of my house for 9 minutes before my superhero "unstuck" me
• Did ZERO laundry
• Wrote 1 blog entry!

We have had a new Man Hang'n around our house!

Kate just loves playing outside in the snow. She loves to go sledding, make snow angels and of course build SNOWMEN!!! Take a look at the snowman that Kate and her friend Mackenzie made the other day.

I have a feeling the new Man around my house is gonna be here a while, the winchill was 0 degrees today, Brrrrrrrrrr!



Creme Horns

I spent about 4 hours last night making the most delicious Creme Horns EVER for Valentine's Day! I sent a huge batch with Mike this morning to take to all the guys at the fire department.  I hope that they will enjoy them!

Superbowl XLV

Last night we had an impromptu Superbowl gathering, I won't even call it a party it was so low key, but a lot of fun!  We had about 6 guests over, had great food, played nickle-dime-quarter poker and watched the Superbowl.  The "boys" or should we say Men+Maria played poker downstairs and watched the game.  Andrea and I decided to plant ourselves in front of the livingroom TV to watch the big game and have a little girl talk all while filling our faces with nachos, delicious homemade sausage bean dip and addicting chocolate carmel chex mix that you must try!  As the game started, Andrea and I quickly learned how little we knew about this game. 

Take a look at parts of our conversation regarding the first quarter of the game.

P=Convo from Patty, A=Convo from Andrea



Game Comments during 1^st quarter

P-Who are you rooting for?

A-I’ll go with Green Bay, I know more people who like Green Bay.

P-Ok, I’ll go with the Steelers, they are from Pittsburg right? Mike has an uncle that lives in Pittsburg, so we’ll go with them.

P-Look they both have yellow pants on, how are we supposed to tell’em a part?

A-Well yellow doesn’t go with much (Meaning clothes)

A-Ok, when are the ads coming on?

A-What are those band things they wear around there elbow, they look tight?

P-I have no clue, but sometimes they wear’em under their knee, maybe to keep the knee cap up.

P-Did you know those lines aren’t painted on the field? (Talking about line of scrimmage and 1^st down lines, I think)

P-I don’t know how they know where to stand on the field without the lines.

A-They have those chains they look for, my dad did the chains.

P-Oh he was part of the chain gang? At high school or for the Lions?

A-Come on! At home

A-I don’t understand football

A- Damn, can any of these people catch a ball? I thought they were supposed to be good at this level.

P-What number Superbowl is this? Whats XLV?

A-I don’t know

P-(We asked the boys and found out it was Superbowl 45)

A-Is that Green Bay? Oh, I thought they changed their shirts.

*OK, so the conversation seemed funnier last night, then it does today, but oh well.*

After 1^st quarter we lost interest in the game, but still had it on to view commercials and started finding apps and playing games for our phones.

Commercials 

Favorite- E-Trade commercial with Peppers the cat.

Most Anticipated-Shape Ups with Kim Kardashian

Easy to relate to-I don't know what the ad was for but it was the ad that had the two men sitting at a desk and one emailed the other, then the other man 'reply all' instead of just reply.  Haven't we all done that?

Not impressed-Budweiser (the first ad)

We had a fun night, and the kids loved it too!

I Work.......as a SAHM

If you ask me what I do for a living I will tell you that I am a hard working SAHM of 2, well maybe 3 if you count Mike, haha (Love ya babe!).  What is a SAHM?  SAHM  is an acronym for a "Stay At Home Mom" or, as I perfer to be called a "Sexy And Hot Mama" LOL, yea right, I wish I was SEXY and HOT!   Anyway, I enjoy staying at home with the kids. I am able to keep them on the schedule that I want them to be on,  feed them the food that I want them to eat, and discipline them the way I want them to be disciplined.  But...sometimes...just sometimes I need a break!  Lucky for me, I have found a fun and fabulous way to enjoy my break away from the house.  It takes me back to the days of High School when I was involved with Student Council, Prom Committe and National Honors Society organizing and planning events/parties for them.  I loved it then, and I love it now!  I would say I am a "quarter time" (or less) working mom who gets to plan, organize and set up some pretty spectacular parties and amazing weddings.  It allows me to get out of the house and lets my creative side out to play. Check out what "Grand Events" I worked on this week. I am just learning the whole world of balloon art, it's pretty crazy and complicated, if you can believe that!  I made the below balloon bouquets, I am pretty proud of them, if I do say so myself.  I have a ways to go before I can be on the new TLC show The Unpoppables, but I am learning. Employee Appreciation Valentine's Day Party A balloon bouquet that I designed and made for a "Hollywood" themed party. Table centerpieces for the "Hollywood" party.  (Use your imagination a bit, it's a bad pic.) Some would call it work, but I call it my hobby, because I love it soooo much! I am and always will be a SAHM! 

What's for dinner the day after a blizzard hits?

The official snow fall in our area was 12.2 inches with snow drifts up to 5 feet in some places, that's a good amount of snow, enough to keep us at home for the day.  So what does one cook for dinner when a foot of snow just dropped? 

Grilled burgers of course!

Mike took a shovel to the back porch (with about 21 inches of snow there) and cleared the area around the grill to make burgers. 

Nothing stops my man from grill'n!

 We enjoyed a delicious, to die for, scrumptious dinner, on the grill, in the beginning of February just after a blizzard!  It was the BEST!

I wish we had smellerblog, so you could smell how incredible these babies were.

Ohhhh, I can't wait until summer! 

Our Snowy Day...

This morning, while Daddy was still sleeping (lucky guy), the kids and I made our first Valentine's Day craft together.  I didn't exactly know what craft I was going to do since I was not able to drive (due to the blizzard) to buy any needed supplies, so we had to make do with what we had around the house.  Check out what we made!

First, we used a pencil sharpener to sharpen some "Valentine's Day" color crayons.  We gathered the shavings from pink, purple, white, fuchsia and red then placed them in separate bowls.

Then we laid down a piece of wax paper on the ironing board and sprinkled the crayon shavings on the wax paper. 

Once we had the perfect selection of color, we placed another piece of wax paper on top of the crayon shavings and pressed it down a bit.

Then we placed a hand towel over the wax paper. With a hot iron we started to iron or heat the wax.

 After ironing, we removed the hand towel and discovered that all of the wax from the crayon shavings melted together to create a beautiful piece of art.  BUT we weren't done yet!

After letting the wax cool for a about 5 minutes I drew hearts on the wax paper.

  And Kate cut most of them out herself.

Finally, we taped the hearts on the glass of our door.

(Do you see the Michigan Blizzard?)

Beautiful!  Especially when the sun shines through!

If you have a snow day tomorrow, like we do again, give it try!