An Interview with 9 Year Old Carter

 When Carter turned three we started asking him the same 20 "interview" questions each year on his birthday.  We have done this each year, and it's fun to see how much the answers change. So here is Carter’s 9 Year Old Interview...

So...here's an interview with Carter on his 9th birthday! 

1. What is your favorite color? Blue

2. What is your favorite toy? My tablet

3. What is your favorite fruit? Peaches and pineapples and kiwi

4. What is your favorite tv show? America’s Funniest Home Videos and Angry Beavers 

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? “Candy, no, actually shrimp”

6. What is your favorite outfit or things to wear? Pajamas

7. What is your favorite game? Animal Crossing

8. What is your favorite snack? Clif Bars for Adults

9. What is your favorite animal? Duke the Dog

10. What is your favorite song? Poop in a Bag (a silly song by Slugs and Bugs)

11. What is your favorite book? Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Wild Fire

12. Who is your best friend? Dawson, Nora Kate, Clayton, Sutton, Hayden, Henry

13. What is your favorite cereal? Fruit Loops with Marshmallows in them that we get at the beach

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play basketball and kick the soccer ball

15. What is your favorite drink? Sprite and fruit punch

16. What is your favorite holiday? My birthday (smiles) and Christmas, Easter, and Valentine’s Day

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  Lovie and the frog that daddy gave me

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Cinnamon rolls 

19.  What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Steak and Shrimp and cake and brownies

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A Farmer

 Just for the fun of comparison, here are the responses he gave the previous 4 years.  The answers in red are how he responded on his 3rd birthday and the answers in green are his responses from when he turned 4; the blue responses are from when he turned five, the purple are from when he turned six, and the orange responses are from when he turned seven, and turquoise are from when he turned 8!!

1. What is your favorite color? 

Blue

blue

blue

blue

blue

blue

2. What is your favorite toy?

my tablet

My tablet

switch

Nintendo ds

  Paper air planes, sandbox, Wii Tanks

Dump trucks

3. What is your favorite fruit? 

Peaches

strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries and blackberries

grapes, raspberries, blueberries

grapes 

Apples, bananas, every kind of fruit, and blueberries

blueberries

4. What is your favorite tv show? 

Frozen 2...well, I like it but it's not my favorite! (He added that disclaimer in there because he frequently refers to Frozen 2 as a "girl movie")

Spy Kids movie I watched with Daddy, and Wild Kratts

Word Girl

Word Girl

Word World
Octonauts

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? 

Steak and Blueberries (then I said, I know you love those foods but like in a lunch box, what's your favorite) "oh, a peanut butter sandwich"

For lunch, like no cake or ice cream? In my lunchbox I like peanut butter sandwiches and Cliff Bars with chocolate chip.

Grapes and a peanut butter sandwich or a meat sandwich

Grapes and a peanut butter sandwich…with NO jelly

Bananas

Bananas (It's odd to me that he said Bananas for lunch 2 years in a row...he always has fruit with his lunch, but not always bananas!)

6. What is your favorite outfit or things to wear?

My new Captain America Suit because I really like it

My hockey shirt and my shirt I got at the aquarium 

Gym shorts and a soft shirt

Pajamas!

The shirt where the bears mouth zips open
Shorts!  Soft shirts

7. What is your favorite game? 

Monopoly

War 

Switch Games

Plinko, connect 4, and uno

Mouse Trap

Don’t Break The Ice

8. What is your favorite snack?

Candy...or actually a  banana

 Cliff Bars

Graham Cracker

Grapes and bananas

Crackers

Blueberries

9. What is your favorite animal? 

Eagle

Dog

lizard

A lizard

Rhinos

elephants.......or the crested screamer (this is a bird at the zoo that for some reason Carter just thinks is hilarious because of it's name)

10. What is your favorite song?

It's a Cat Flushing the Toilet by Perry Gripp

My Lighthouse

Pumpin Up Music like you play for me before soccer games

That one that goes “This is my commandment that you love one another that your joy may be full!”

Itsy Bitsy Spider and NOT I'm So Fancy! That's a girl song like Nora Kate!

 Itsy Bitsy Spider

11. What is your favorite book?

Harry Potter

All the I Survived Books

Round Robin...that bird is so funny she eats TOOOO much

 Junie B. Jones…she’s so funny

SHARKS!

Eye Spy

12. Who is your best friend? 

Our family, Henry, Sutton, and Carson

Halston, Joshua, Henry, McKennon, and actually Dawson, Nora Kate, and Clayton, and everybody in this family.

Harper, Barrett, Mrs. Johnson, everyone in my class, and all of my soccer team are my friends too

Harper

Harper

Mommy and Daddy.  Nora Kate and Dawson.  And “my Charlie” and Harper...she likes walking with me (three days a week on Dawson's school days he gets to walk in to drop off Dawson and Harper is always there too...so I think that's what this was about!

13. What is your favorite cereal? 

Lucky Charms

Lucky Charms and Apple Cheerios

Lucky Charms

Lucky Charms

Remember that time we had the circles that were all colors? Me: Fruit Loops? Carter: YES! Those!

Lucky Charms 

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? 

ride my bike and play football or 10 thousand

play soccer

Go to Port St. Joe...that's the best outside thing you can do

Swing or catch grasshoppers

Play on the playset!

Playing in water, chalking, and bubbles!!!

15. What is your favorite drink?

Coke (made a super silly face becaues he knows he doesn't get to drink coke, then seriously responded) Orange Soda

Sprite

Sprite 

Apple juice

Apple juice and caprisuns!

juice

16. What is your favorite holiday? 

Christmas

Christmas and Easter

Christmas

 Thanksgiving, no I mean Christmas

Christmas...AND Halloween-remember we get all that CANDY?!

I don't know! Not rainy days?

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? 

Lovie and Blankie 

Lovie and Blanket

Lovie and my Blanket

LOVIE

LOVIE!

My Lovie! 

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? 

Cinnamon Rolls and Waffles that Daddy Makes

Waffles and pancakes

Chocolate chip waffles, blueberries, pancakes, bagels

Grapes and Strudels

Bananas, Bagels, and healthy food (hah!)

Candy (laughing) Bananas.  

19.  What do you want for dinner on your birthday?

Pepperroi Pizza and cake! or warm brownies with ice cream

Ice Cream and Cake....and pizza

CAKE HAHA and maybe Mr. Gatties 

CAKE HAHA

Waffles

CAKE!  Green beans and corn and cheese pizza

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?

uhhhhhh, ummmmm a farmer

That's the hard question...a fisherman.

A fisherman and a golfer

 I don’t know. Maybe a…farmer, or I could change my mind.  Or maybe I’ll be an astronaut or I COULD even make video games like for a ds.  

 A farmer that’s a police man too  Why? I just do! And police mans can drive fast! Oh, no I changed it.  I'm going to be MY Daddy when I grow up...REMEMBER? I told you that!

“a Mommy” Why? Mommy washes dishes.....and I'm going to drive a Monster truck when we live on Dawson's farm!

Clayton’s 5 Year Old Interview

Clayton's 5 Year Old Interview

Since tomorrow is Clayton’s 5th birthday, I decided to go ahead and do his 5 year old interview today. Cannot believe this sweet little boy will be a whole hand old tomorrow!

Two years ago when Clayton turned 3 years old he got to take his first "birthday interview."  With each of the children I have started asking them the same 20 questions on their birthday each year starting at age three, and it is so fun to see how the answers change each year.  Now the big three kids love for me to read their old interviews to them and laugh about the answers they gave at younger ages.  So, here are Clayton's questions and responses to his birthday interview at age five, and I've included the answers from age 4 and 3 too so we can see how his preferences have changed or not.

1.  What is your favorite color?  Age 5: orange and blue

age 4:  blue and black

     age 3: green
2.  What is your favorite toy to play with? Age 5: Lego sets  

age 4:  LEGOS, Darth Vader Lego guy, Spiderman, Batman, my batman mask

     age 3:trucks and dump trucks and fire trucks

3.  What is your favorite fruit?  Age 5: grapes

age 4:  GRAPES and little oranges (he loves little cuties so much he would eat them all the time.  His siblings tell him he should enter an orange eating contest! Hah!)

     age 3:grapes

4.  What is your favorite show? Age 5: Go Dog, Go

age 4:  Spiderman

     age 3:Octonauts

5.  What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Age 5: Grapes, oranges, string cheese, and a cheese sandwich (so basically he picked cheese and fruits! Haha)

age 4:  grapes and apples and bananas! (apparently we were still on the fruit kick from question 3)

     age 3:Chicken

6.  What is your favorite thing to wear?  Age 5: Pajamas (this is so true, he would have a pajama day every day if he could here lately!)

age 4:  my batman shirt! (I have to hide this shirt sometimes just like I typed last year about the Dollywood shirt! This boy has his favorites and I think he would wear only those items all the time if I allowed it.)

     age 3:My digger shirt from my birthday party and my Dollywood shirt (this is so true-he wears his Dollywood shirt all the time!  Sometimes I have to hide it in the laundry room after I wash it to keep it out his sight for a few days, but he always goes looking for it.)

7.  What is your favorite game to play?  Age 5: Mario

age 4:  Riversurvival (a Wii game that he likes to play with his older siblings because 4 can play at one time so it's perfect!)

     age 3:Sharks 

     Me: What? Sharks? What game is that?
     Clayton: Haha (laughing) I actually like to play Kerplunk (he loves to use the word actually)
8.  What is your favorite snack?  Age 5: animal crackers

age 4:  APPLES (again with the fruit!, he does love fruit)

     age 3:Snacktime I like snacktime

     Me: Yes, you love snacktime.  But what is your favorite thing to eat at snacktime?
    Clayton: Crackers!
9.  What is your favorite animal? Age 5: Giraffe or DUKE

age 4:  Oreo (Oreo is Aunt Emily's dog that the kids LOVE) or a giraffe

     age 3:Donkey (HAH! I have no idea where this came from, but he gave this response without hesitation!)

10.  What is your favorite song? Age 5: Gummie Bear

age 4:  Who Let the Dogs Out, Crazy Train, or Fear Fear Get Out of Hear! (Can you tell he has a wide taste in music?!)

     age 3:Who Let the Dogs Out AND the Dollywood Song that I dance to (translation: You don't know you're beautiful--he heard this song at Dollywood in September and danced to it and loves to watch the video of himself dancing to this.  Now he regularly asks Alexa to play this song)

11.  What is your favorite book? Age 5: Jesus (he means his Jesus Calling For Kids Devotional that we read every night. He calls this “reading Jesus”)

age 4:  my Superhero book or my Spiderman book from the library 

     age 3:My Trucks Book...with all the trucks in it

12.  Who is your best friend?  Age 5: Jackson, Cooper, John Thomas, Ruby

age 4:  "no one...just our family!" (As a disclaimer Clayton has lots of friends-probably his most played with friends are Ruby and Cooper, however, Clayton really does love playing with his siblings so I can see why he would respond this way)

     age 3:My birthday cake friends (I think he means the friends who came to his party last weekend?) Then he said "RUBY!"

13.  What is your favorite cereal? Age 5: “That green one that turns your milk green, but you have to wait!” (This is the new leprechaun Lucky Charms for St. Patrick’s Day that we have. It’s meant to turn your milk green)

age 4:  Green Cheerios (translation apple cinnamon cheerios...they come in a green box)

     age 3:Lucky Charms

14.  What is your favorite thing to play outside? Age 5: Jump on the trampoline

 age 4:  driving the princess car or riding my bike or laser tag

     age 3:play on my scooter

15.  What is your favorite drink? Age 5: Orange Fanta and Pepsi (laughing as he says it because these are big, big treats if he gets orange Fanta and he never really gets Pepsi)

age 4:  Gatorade or Sprite or (super silly, sly laugh) Coke (laughing because he knows he is not allowed to have Coke)

     age 3:Sprite (sprite is a special treat and he knows it, he smiled so big when he said sprite...so sweet)

16.  What is your favorite holiday? Age 5: “Christmas and my birthday!!!!!” (Said with much excitment)

age 4:  uhhhh I don't know

     age 3:Easter Eggs

17.  What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  Age 5: Blankie 

age 4:  Blankie Spankie

     age 3:(Smiling mischievously) My blankie spankie (laughs) Then says more seriously, "My blanket"  (he's been being silly lately and calling his blanket his blankie spankie haha)

18.  What is your favorite food to eat for breakfast?  Age 5: Strudels and Daddy’s waffles and pancakes (Clayton’s favorite meal is probably breakfast. Every night as we tuck him in bed, he asks what we are making for breakfast the next morning.)

age 4:  waffles and oranges

     age 3:Eggs and waffles and strudels and eggs

19.  What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Age 5: CAKE!!!

age 4:  cake!

     age 3:A Cheezits in a BIIIIIIIG box! (Haha, I have no clue)

20.  What do you want to be when you're a grown up? Age 5: “I don’t know. Maybe just what Dawson’s gonna be-a farmer” (I think he picked an easy answer an was loosing interest here because one day last week he told me randomly that he wanted to be a scuba diver.)

age 4:  "nothing. OR I would work at Polaris."

     age 3:A digger or a space man or a dump truck

February 2021

February is always one of my least favorite months. It’s usually so dreary, rainy, and cold. However, this February we got a big surprise of SNOW and found lots of ways to stay entertained.

Nora Kate turned the garage into a roller rink and has been practicing her roller skating.  We also attended skate school once this month, but Whew! Skating in a mask gets a little warm.  

Basketball season came to an end for Carter!  At the end of the season, he was nominated for and made the Athens All Star Basketball Team for his age. His coach told us he had nominated him, and honestly, we had no idea that there was an all star team for basketball. So we were all surprised and thrilled.  To recognize the All Stars they announced the All Star players after the season championship and awarded them the medal Carter is holding above.

Below he is holding his basketball trophy for the season.

And, just because I can’t remember if I documented this in the blog or not, Carter wore these ridiculous socks that in no way match his jersey to a game one night. Well, he played AWESOME and declared they were his lucky socks....so then he wore them to EVERY game there after.

Dawson had a great season this year too!  Dawson played with against a lot of teams who had taller and bigger boys...I guess that’s the way it is when you are 11 and in the 11-12 age group-this is an age where the boys are growing! Thankfully, Dawson held his own and played a great season. He really enjoys basketball!

Here is Carter with the rest of the All Stars.

One day we grabbed lunch out (a rare treat in these COVID days), but we literally had the whole restaurant to ourselves except for one other man....Clayton was SUPER excited to get to drink sprite out of a can while we were there.  Look at that smile.

Clayton and I continue to work on his school at home, but on gymnastics days we take his school in the van to do while Nora Kate is inside doing her class.  Clayton grabbed these sunglasses one day and put the on his head like this cool dude to do his schoolwork in the van.

The dinosaur playground is still a favorite stop!

On Valentine’s Day I tried to think of something fun for the kids because it seemed like Val Day maybe wasn’t as exciting at school this year without sweet treats etc due to COVID, so on Valentine’s Day we had set up a scavenger hunt.  Here is the first clue...

And here are the rest of the clues before I cut them and put them on colorful hearts.

All 4 kids had a blast reading the clues and running to their guess of the location of the next clue.  Finally after 11 clues, they got their Valentine’s Gifts...Candy and a ticket to a hockey game in 2 weeks!

The treasure at the end of the hunt! The ticket is on top of the candy.

They had so much fun and are counting down the 2 weeks until the hockey game.

Clayton did still get to have a party at school, I should add with sweet treats, Valentine’s and friends.  Here is a picture from his school party!

Church on Valentine’s Day

After church on Valentine’s Day.

Our 4 Valentine’s!

This picture is technically from January, but since I got it I wanted to include it. I mentioned that in January Nora Kate got to attend Bible Adventure Day. Here she is unwrapping one of the layers of paper on her Bible.  Thankfully since I don’t think we managed to get any pictures, the church had posted this one of her with John at Bible Adventure Day.  She and John didn’t realize they had taken it.

And while I’m borrowing pictures from church, here’s a picture the church posted of the current confirmation class.  Dawson is pointed out by the red arrow.  We are proud that Dawson has started the 10 week confirmation class at church.

We were working on handwriting one day, and Duke had to come check his brother’s work!

Duke thinks he needs to be involved in EVERYTHING his kids do!

SURPRISE! We got snow in Alabama...and a lot of it!

John actually surprisingly got to work from home for 3 days for ice and show on the roads. We were so surprised, but we remember how Alabama is just not prepared for weather like this-ie, no salt trucks, no snow plows, etc. It was a fun change of pace to have John working from home and be snowed and iced it. We had a blast playing in the snow.  We made a snowman.

Snow angels

When we built this house I never figured it would see much snow! But surprise we got around 4 inches!

More snow angels

Made snow cream

Giggling snow angels

Hot chocolate

And had the very best time!  It really did lift our normally dreary February mood to have snow and a change of pace.

Then, the very next week it was in the 70’s...crazy.

Clayton and I had a rare hour together one day without the big 3, and he wanted to spend it picnicking, feeding the ducks, and playing at the Dinosaur Playground.

Duke loves to watch his people out the window.

Duke put a scratch in our hardwood this month (yikes!), so now he gets to wear these fancy nail tips made of rubber.

We avoided places like Altitude since COVID hit, but it’s getting harder and harder to do our limited amount of things-especially on rainy days when my go-to entertainment is just being outdoors hiking, biking, etc. On a Friday afternoon, Dawson and Carter had been invited to a friend’s birthday party, and initially I had planned to take NK and Clayton to the park to play while we waited to pick up the big boys.  Well, that day rolled around and it was absolutely monsooning. What to do?! I decided to give Altitude a try.  Thankfully with it being the middle of a the afternoon on a week day there were only 2 other families in there and one was just a mom and her kid. So we practically had the place to ourselves.  We jumped with out masks on the whole time and hopefully did our best to stay healthy.  The kids had an absolute blast! It made me realize how much they’ve probably missed doing these types of outings like we used to do before COVID.  Here is NK above jumping into the foam pit.

Clayton on a trampoline.

Nora Kate and Clayton spent so much time on the trapeze that they both had sore arms the next day.

Look at Clayton! He loved it!

I got this picture from the bowling birthday party they went to while we were at Altitude. It was their friend beside them Henry’s birthday.

The next night was the long awaited Hockey game.  We had told the kids we would get dinner out. They all wanted Hops and Guac-they like the big Jenga set and connect 4 set there.  Above they are playing jenga together before we finished dinner and headed over to the hockey arena.

It was especially hard to get tickets to the hockey game this year because they have limited seating.  You can see the chairs in front, beside, and behind us are unavailable because they are zip tied together.  It was honestly nice not to be crowded in with people.  The kids had the very best time and for the first time ever everyone made it through the entire hockey game!  Also, as a plus-Huntsville Havoc won beating Birmingham 5-2!

John knew one of the men working security, and that man managed to get 4 hockey pucks the team had just been warming up with and give them to the kids! The kids thought it especially neat that they were still cold and wet from being on the ice!

I think we ended up having a great February for a usually dreary and drab month.  We are still looking forward to spring for warmer temps, soccer, baseball, Dawson moving up to big Boy Scouts, and more-but February was pretty great!