A few weekends ago, Ryan, aka Uncle Too Tall, called up asking if we wanted to go see the Fire on Ice World Championship at Comcast Arena in Everett.  He got free tickets and wanted to treat us.  :)  What is Fire on Ice?  Well, someone thought it would be super cool to race motorcycles, quads, three wheelers, and go carts on ice.  So, where does the fire come into play?  Two hours into the show, a stunt man/racer jumped his quad through a ring of fire – not once but twice.  The show started at 7pm.  We usually start the boys’ bedtime routine around 7:30 / 8pm.  Joel was hesitant but I thought how cool would it be to see racing on ice?  Damn cold, that’s how cool it was.  I could see my breath.  Oh, but the boys LOVED it.  There were a few crashes too, just to make it more interesting.  We’d never seen anything like it.  We all wore protective ear gear because it was super loud in that arena.  I was shocked to see parents bring their babies there with no ear muffs.  Here are a few photos from our very cold experience.  Enjoy!

I have 6 posts queued up to go.  All they need are pictures and video clips.  Now, if I can just steal Joel away from the boys, I might have a chance at getting these done.  

Nicholas and Dexter finally got to perform in front of hundreds of people.  Of course, they were performing with hundreds of other preschoolers.  Last weekend, was their Christmas production.  Here is a link if you’d like to watch the whole thing.  I won’t spoil their performance – you’ll just have to watch it for yourself.

Password is: KATC  (all caps)

KATC 10am Program

https://vimeo.com/55803018

The boys’s class introduces itself at 10 minutes in and the singing starts around 33 minutes in.  At 34 minutes in, you can see Nicholas and Dexter sing!

At lunch time, the boys were eating fried eggs.  Dex has always loved them, and Nic has always hated one, until about 2 months ago when he was tricked into actually trying one and discovered that he loves them.  Apparently a small piece of shell fell into Nicky’s, and he spit it out with a horrified, “it’s crunchy!”  Katie explained what had happened, and Dex helpfully interjected, “Egg shells help protect the eggs.  They protect the eggs from foxes, and wolves, and bad guys, and guns, but not guns, because guns can blow them up.”  I still can’t discern the hidden meaning behind his words, so I shall leave you to quiet contemplation.

Later, we were frosting some sugar cookies.  Dexter hated it, until he realized that the stuff making his fingers sticky was edible and full of sugar, at which point he started making a lot more messes.  We also made the mistake of allowing Nic to eat the corner that broke off one of the cookies.  Once they realized the way it worked, we found ourselves with a surprising quality control problem and a large number of broken cookies.  Then a glob of frosting fell of Nic’s knife and onto the table, and he says, “That piece fell onto the table, so I get to lick it off!”  He then leaned forward with his tongue stuck out, ready to clean our table the old fashioned way.  It was almost as cute as when the boys didn’t realize what “licking the bowl” meant, and each repeatedly licked the outside of the bowl and seemed confused what the fuss was all about.

We watched “Arthur Christmas” for movie night, and it worked out pretty well.  When we were trying to talk them into it I mentioned the one part where a guy shoots at Arthur as Arthur is trying to steal a sign off the top of his shed.  I mentioned it in the spirit of trying to warn Nicholas, as Nic is freaked out to watch any new movie lest he inadvertently discover himself face-to-face with a bad guy.  So for the first 40 minutes I was asked about 60 time a minute, “is he going to be shooting soon?  I don’t wanna watch this!  Where’s the farmer with the gun?  What happened to that Reindeer?  Is he going to be shooting soon?”  We had agreed to fast forward, but then the shots came before we were ready for it, and Nic started laughing.  Figures.  We hadn’t warned him about the next scene, where Arthur, the elf, the old reindeer, and Grandpa Santa are nearly eaten by a pride of lions, which I consider to be the scariest part of the movie, but again Nic laughed his way through it, after a few nervous titters.  Maybe the only thing we have to fear is fear itself…  Of course once the movie was over he threw a full on screaming fit insisting he didn’t want to watch that movie.  Once he calmed down, he was running around re-enacting it with Legos with his brother.

Lest you worry that only Nic made his orneriness show, Dex made his stand at bed time, predictably with no pants on.  Nic was finally getting ready for bed and Dex was rolling around on his bed grumbling.  I chose the “firm” tone and told him to get his pajamas on or he would lose his stories.  He glared at me and blared out, “You’re not the boss of the whole world!  You can’t tell ANYBODY what to do.  You’re not a boss.  You’re not the boss of the family.  You can’t make me do anything…”  My, but they grow up so fast.  I thought we’d have a little more time before he tried that line out.  Leaves me wondering what’s next?  ”But Nicky made me do it!  All of my friends parents let them take their iPad into the bath!  No, DAD, we’re JUST FRIENDS.”  <sigh>