Yearly Interview

I've been wanting to do a yearly interview with each of my children. Here are the questions and answers.

Yearly Interview: Ava

Age: 5 3/4

Favorite Things:

• Color - pink


• Food - spaghetti, tomatoes


• Cereal - Lucky Charms


• Fruit - strawberries


• Vegetable - green beans


• Drink - lemonade


• Dessert - cake


• Toy - doll


• TV Show - Wild Kratts


• Movie - Elf


• Game - Zingo


• Book - Dr. Seuss


• Restaurant - McDonalds


• Holiday - Birthday


• Animal - Butterfly


• Clothes - Dress


• Song - "ABCD"


• Flower - Sunflower


• What do you like best about yourself? hands


• What are some things you like to do? playing outside


• What sports do you like to play? gymnastics


• What is your favorite subject at school? art


• What are your best friends? Lilly, Katerine, Elise


• What makes you happy? Elise


• What makes you sad? yelling


• What makes you scared? dark


• What are some of your favorite places to go? Monkey Bizness, Grandma's House


• What do you like to do around the house? play downstairs


• What would you like more of? make music


• What do you want to be when you grow up? vet


• What is something you'd like to be good at or learn to do? drawing


• If you could change your names, what would you change it to? Melissa


• What do you love about each person in your family? Mommy - beautiful, Elise - great, Daddy - Smile, Jake - ? (need to ask her! Daddy did this interview while I did Elise's)


• Where would you like to go on vacation? Oklahoma


• What are some of your wishes this year? goldfish

Yearly Interview: Elise Age: 3 (2 wks before 4th bday) Favorite Things:

• Color - green & yellow


• Food - pasta & banana, pb, & honey sandwiches


• Cereal - Lucky Charms


• Fruit - strawberries, bananas, apples & oranges


• Vegetable - green beans


• Drink - lemonade, milk, water


• Dessert - cake & cookies


• Toy - Toothless, Derby, Choco-Choco


• TV Show - the new My Little Pony


• Movie - How to Train Your Dragon


• Game - Candyland


• Book - Little Critter


• Restaurant - McDonalds (fries, chicken nuggets & apple juice)


• Holiday - Christmas


• Animal - Quartz & Maya Clothes - dragon pjs, poodle shrt & green pants


• Song - Jesus is Real to Me


• Flower - daisy


• What do you like best about yourself? sharing, I like myself because when I grow up I'm going to be an artist.


• What are some things you like to do? play games and watch movies, playing on someone's phone (i-phone apps)


• What sports do you like? gymnastics


• What is your favorite subject at school? craft time/art


• Who are your best friends? Ava & Jake, and Kate


• What makes you happy? by saying YES and letting me do stuff, sharing & caring


• What makes you sad? by taking a toy away from me. That makes me sad.


• What makes you scared? ghosts, bats


• What are some of your favorite places to go? McDonalds, Target, Walmart


• What do you like to do around the house? play games, and have fun and have parties


• What would you like more of? somebody sharing a toy, like being nice to each other


• What do you want to be when you grow up? an artist


• What is something you'd like to be good at or learn to do? paint a rainbow


• If you could change your name, what would you change it to? Daisy


• What do you love about each person in your family? Daddy: playing games, Mommy: saying sometimes no and yes, Ava: sharing and playing games with me and going to parties and swimming, Jacob: taking care of him


• Where would you like to go on vacation? to the beach


• What are some of your wishes for this year? my wish for a baby triceratops or baby stegasaurus but they're dead.

Temple Block Plaque Freebie

In honor of our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson's General Conference address this past Sunday on the importance of temples and how every young child should have a picture of a temple in his or her room, I'm sharing a project that I helped put together for a Super Saturday/Craft Day a couple of years ago. You can display it on an easel, attach a picture hook to the back or hot glue some ribbon on the back that you can tie at the top or just lean it on a bookshelf.



Enjoy!
Here is the Project Download: Temple Block Pics

Elise Turns 4!

Elise is growing up! She turned 4 this year. In the top left picture, Elise is chatting with her Aunt Gina right before she opens family presents. I decided to get her a Playmobil toy to see how she and Ava would like it - I'm leaning towards starting to invest in toys like Playmobil that are a little nicer and longer-lasting in both quality and play age. Ava was very excited to pick out the items for Elise's cake. She chose a double-chocolate cake, sprinkles and yellow (Elise's current favorite color)frosting for the writing. It wasn't the prettiest cake I've ever made but the girls didn't care at all.

Here is a copy of the front and back of Elise's birthday invitations this year. If you've been around Elise much this year, you know that she LOVES the movie How to Train your Dragon. She has a plush Toothless dragon (the main dragon from the movie) and even pretends that she is baby girl Toothless. She's seen the movie dozens of times and knew she wanted to have a Dragon Party! When Elise saw the invitation I whipped together one afternoon, she asked me if I could change the clothes on there too...too many online Barbie dress up games I guess.

Elise invited many of her church and preschool friends. When they arrived we had the movie playing. They decorated shields (paper plates), put on viking hats (styrofoam bowls with card stock horns and crepe paper hair for the girls), and were issued a sword (kind of dagger-ish) made of cardboard. It was now time for them to do Viking Training. One little girl said quite seriously that she didn't know how to fight dragons - she had never learned that before. ;) I told her not to worry because we'd teach her everything she needed to know. Elise's Aunt Kelly was in charge of taking the kids thru an obstacle course that included jumping on rocks (beanbags) in a lava pit, going through the thick fog (crepe paper streamers), crawling through tunnels, etc.

Just as the vikings finished their training, we had a visit from a real live DRAGON! He came out and was shooting mini marshmallows. The kids put up their shields to block the incoming mallows and then I let them charge the dragon. The dragon was about to die when we showed mercy and let him live. One of the kids told his mom in a whisper that he knew the dragon was actually Elise's dad...I guess we can't fool him! One funny side note: After Chris had finished vacuuming after the party, I asked him if he had vacuumed up any marshmallows. Nope. I guess the kids went around and picked them ALL up off of the floor and ate them. Makes me laugh - I'd have done the same thing at their age of course.

Instead of doing a theme cake, we opted to purchase cupcakes and I made little cupcake toppers from clip art online and some photoshop magic. I ran them through my Xyron and then adhered them to fun foam, then cut them out and taped toothpicks onto the backs - worked really well for any other moms who like to do that kind of stuff. Elise had a GREAT time. Before the party had even started, she was running around our basement saying this was that "best birthday party EVER!!!"
Special thanks to all my family who helped - honorable mention to my SIL Liz's boyfriend Shawn for cutting out 13 cardboard swords.