Loaded Questions

One of our favorite games to play with friends is Loaded Questions. Tonight we decided to try and play it with the kids. We hand picked the questions and gave it a run. The answers that the kids gave were pure gold - they had us cracking up the whole night. Here is an example:

Question: "If no one was watching, what would you do?"

Here are the answers that I was read:

1. Eat Fudge

2. Put a "kick me sign" on someones back

3. Take a bath

4. Cook eggs

5. Take something from Wendy's

It's my turn to guess and I have to figure out who said what between Ben, Ella, Caroline, Lily and Beth. I only got one right - Ben's was "put a 'kick me' sign on someones back".

See if you can guess the other 4...

Another trip to Ivanhoes and Wizard of Oz

Saturday we introduced the Hatchs and Smiths to the Ivanhoes. 100 mile round trip for Shakes and Sundaes. (disclaimer: all pictures taken with my Blackberry camera - hence the bad quality).

Hatchs enjoying the Ivanhoes

Saturday night we took the kids to the Indianapolis Civic Theatre to see The Wizard of Oz. They loved it. They even got to meet some of characters afterwards.

Caroline and Lily got their faces painted like the Munchkins. My favorite part was Lily leaning over during the storm and whispering that a "tomato is coming" in the
begining of the play.

The kids with Dorothy.

Tin man posing with the kids.

The Lion was Ben's favorite... the Lion really did a good job.

The Wizard!

Lazy

I am too lazy to upload pictures to the blog... So visit here instead to check them out.



http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43897&id=1367934313&l=73aaee7d12



Merry Christmas everyone. Promise to update this thing more often.

Ella's baptism

Last week was Ella's baptism. She was so excited and nervous. She woke up several times the night before and crawled in bed with us. She would say, "I can't sleep, I am too excited."

We are thankful that the Cluffs and Nana and Papa could be there. We are so proud of you Ella.

Miley Cyrus Concert

Miley Cyrus and all of her 16 year old swagger rolled though Indianapolis last night. We had decided that we weren't going to tell the kids that she was coming to Indy because we didn't want to deal with telling them that they weren't going - the problem is that they teach kids how to read at school. A few weeks ago at a Pacers game Ella read on the Jumbotron that Miley was coming on Nov 16th and the rest was history.

So, I worked some magic at work and got a suite for the show. Beth went shopping while the kids were at school and bought them some Hannah Montana outfits (for those of you not hip to the whole Miley-Hannah scene, I'll fill you in and tell you that they are the same person).When the girls got home Beth told them that we were going and they freaked out. Ben freaked out but for a completely different reason. Ben was a good sport and endured the "torture". According to Ben, "we owe him".

Time is flying

Can't believe it's the middle of November already. What happened to October? Here's some stuff that happened during the month of October.

American Idol Concert

Fever Playoff Run

The Indiana Fever made it all the way to the WNBA Finals and were one win away from wining the whole thing. Beth and the kids went to the sold out Game 4 to watch the Fever try and capture the title.

Almost 19,000 people packed the house for game 4.

Even Payton Manning of the Colts jumped on the Fever bandwagon.

Kids Soccer

Lily's last game of the season. She turned into a scoring machine the last 2 weeks of the season.

Backyard Kickball

So You Think You Can Dance

Halloween

Caroline decided to be a "Sick Girl" for Halloween - red nose and everything

Ivanhoes

Last year we played a game in Fort Wayne, Indiana. On the way back home one of my co-workers said that we had to stop at this hole in the wall restaurant where they have over 100 different sundaes and 100 different shakes. It's in the middle of no-where about halfway between Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. We rolled up at 11pm on a Friday night and line was out the door on a chilly fall night.

This Saturday we made the 100 mile round trip journey into the sticks of Indiana to the little town called Upland. The ONLY reason you would find yourself in Upland would be either you live there, you're lost or you're going to Ivanhoes.

The trip can best be summed up by Ben, who several hours later that day, out of the blue, proclaimed, "that Cookie Monster Sundae was UNBELIEVABLE".

Ivanhoes has a club for people that have tried all 100 sundaes or all 100 shakes. If you accomplish one of these two feats, you get your name on the wall and they go ahead and open a preemptive file at the Upland emergency room under your name. Two sundaes down 98 to go...

Caroline got the Snow White Sundae - Vanilla ice cream, marshmallows, bananas, marshmallow cream, whip cream and coconut. Ella got a Tropical - Strawberry milkshake with slices of Banana and Kiwi.

Ben's Cookie Monster Sundae - Cookie n Cream ice cream, Heresy bar, Oreo cookies and hot fudge.

All Lily wanted was a scoop of Cotton Candy on a cone.

Beth's Grasshopper Shake - Mint Chip Ice Cream, chocolate cookies wafers with a scoop of Chocolate ice cream (she finished only a 1/3rd of this).

I tried a Vanilla shake and a cookies and Cream cone - living on the edge.

The damage.

It's all about the Washingtons

We are 7 weeks into the soccer season and Lily has touched the ball less than 10 times the entire season. Most of those touches were by accident. Lily wanted nothing to do with the ball. She would run along side the opposing player but wouldn't even think about trying to take the ball from her. She would run as fast as she could to the ball and then stop dead in her tracks and wait for someone else to kick it. She has skipped, hopped and danced around the field for 7 weeks. So, with 2 weeks left in the season we had to figure something out to get her involved.

This Saturday we told her that if she scores a goal she gets a dollar. She stopped and thought about this for a second and then said, "what if I score two goals?" Now I don't gamble, but if Vegas gave odds on Lily scoring two goals in one game I would empty out my checking account and throw every last dollar at this. We told her that she gets a dollar for every goal she scores. She agreed to this proposition and thus began her transformation into a soccer prodigy. She began running at a speed we have never seen, she began using her shoulders, hips and anything else she could use to take the ball away from the other team. She dribbled the ball towards her goal with such urgency. She had a look on her face like she knew exactly how much time was left in the game and that every minute was a wasted chance at a dollar - a look of panic and pure concentration. She finally scored, swung her head around, gave a huge smile and ran over to us to collect payment. I don't know who had a more surprised look on thier face, us or her coach.

Lily scored 4 goals in the game. Lucky for us, there is only 1 more week left in the season. I have a feeling that next week is going to be a pricey one.

Day in Anderson, IN

A couple of weekends ago we drove up to Anderson, IN to spend the day. Went to the race track to check out the horses - the kids loved it. Other than that, I would NOT recommend spending a day in Anderson, IN.



Caroline riding the mechanical bull - she did well.

Just showing off now...

We didn't let the kids bet on any of the horses.

The horse I would have chosen won this race.

This real-life cowboy spent about 20 minutes with Ben trying to teach him to lasso. It was his personal mission to get him to figure it out.

Ben finally got it.

Lily was not going to let this guy spend 20 minutes with her. She was freaked out by him.

Kids showing off their tats.

Anderson, IN had a pretty nice candy shop.

Swine Flu

On Tuesday Caroline woke up not feeling well. High fever, sore throat and vomiting. After a trip to the doctor's office they told us that she has the Swine Flu. Luckily, since we took her in as soon as we did, they were able to start her on Tamiflu and less than 24 hours later Caroline was back to being the Hurricane.