Monkey is 2

Another year has flown by and our little Monkey has turned 2.  Last Year we did a Monkey Themed Birthday Party and this year I went with LadyBugs.  Over the next few days I will fill you with pictures and posts on all the details but first I want to wish Monkey a very Happy Birthday. 

Birth Day

1 Year Old Birthday

2 Year Birthday

Monkey you bring so much laughter and joy into our lives and I often find myself wondering what we ever did without you.  You make life so much sweeter and I am constantly counting down the seconds of when I get to have you run into my arms when I pick you up after work.  You have the biggest personality for a 2 year old.  You are great with babies, other children, adults, and animals.  You are shy when you first enter a room filled with people but quickly warm up and make friends with everyone.  You don't feel the need to be the center of attention and a lot of times just sit back and watch the others but you will always be the center of my attention!

Your Poppa and I will often just sit in the living room after a hard day's work and laugh and have you entertain us by your imagination.  It is amazing to watch you discover new things and soak up learning.  When we have had a stressful day, a hard day, a sad day, all we have to do is pick you up and you running to greet us melts all of that away in an instant.  God gives us the strength to endure all things but He gave us a little extra help getting over hurdles when He gave us you.  I often wonder what I did to deserve a child like you and a husband like your Poppa.  You don't know how blessed you are to have him as your dad but I will spend my life making sure you do. 

You talk non stop, most of the time your words are clear enough to where I know what you are saying.  You will repeat anything Momma and Poppa say and I do mean ANYTHING! :) You love to color and write and are working on writing your name, you have the C down pretty good.  You know most of your colors and can count to 5.  You love to sing the Bible song and you are precious and heart melting when you say your prayers.  Night time is the sweetest time for me because Poppa gives you a bath then you cuddle in the rocking chair with me and we read a book, sing 5 songs, and then you say your prayers.  I look forward to it each day! 

You are more into stuffed animals than baby dolls but you LOVE shoes, I know you get that from me!  You also LOVE to eat.  Your school tells us that they never have to look to see if it's time to eat as they have you to let them know. :) Your favorite foods are tomatoes, avacados, grapes, brocoli, and smoked sausage. 

Some of your favorite activities are jumping, playing with Maximus, throwing balls, and wrestling with Poppa.  You are obbessed with balls and could spot the only ball in a room full of squares quicker than most people could spot the squares. 

You will be starting dance in September and I'm very excited about that.  You will be taking tap and ballet on Saturday mornings.  Momma took many many years of dance and hopes you enjoy it as much as I did.  Of course Poppa is chomping at the bit to get you out on the golf course but he'll get his day. 

You are still in the 95% of weight and length and head.  You are a tall baby with the cutest pop belly.  You are loved by so many and we are all so much more with you in our lives. 

I hope your life is full of happy birthdays and Momma will do my upmost to show you how much you are loved each and every day! 

Happy 2nd Birthday Monkey.

Zing Zang Zoom Circus

Last night we took Monkey to the opening party, preshow, and Zing Zang Zoom Show.  I'm wiped today but it was worth it.  I learned a few things.

1. Make sure your camera battery is charged prior to going to family events.  I was able to get like 7 pictures before my camera went out and had to settle for crappy iphone pics.
2. Never put an almost 2 year old in a new cute white shirt and then take her to the circus. 
3. Get an SLR camera ASAP!  PERIOD!
4. I don't care how good it looks I am not spending $12 for a bag of cotton candy, $9 for a snow cone, or $25 for a stuffed animal. 

Ok moving on, we started out at the opening party where we got to eat and meet the performers and get their autographs.  This is a seperate purchase from the circus tickets and only about 50 spots are available.  The kids are given a swag bag that has a hat, coloring book, crayons, clown nose, and a huge program book, not pamplet, not flyer, but a real book.  It's beautiful.  That's what the perfomers signed.  I saw this stuff in the gift shops and all of it combined was over $50 worth of stuff so we were pretty excited about getting it. 

Meeting Ring Master Alex

Muscle Man Shawn

After the opening party and meet and greet and food we went to the PreShow where the elephant Asia painted a masterpiece, the clowns clowned around, and performers performed and you got to be on the ring floor with them.  Our seats were awesome, front and center so we just sat and watched this show.

Then the Zing Zang Zoom show started and it did not dissapoint!  The opening act though was by our very own Poppa.  That's right thanks to his lovely bride (ME) volunteering him to Muscle Shawn he got pulled into the act.  They (he and 3 other suckers dads that got pulled in) played musical chairs with the clowns and of course the dads won and then they sat in 4 chairs in a certain way and leaned back on each other's lap and the clowns pulled the chairs out from under them and they stayed up, it was pretty cool.  He's a good sport that Poppa!

I think Monkey's favorite part were the elephants, she loves elephants and moves her arm up and makes a roaring sound to mimic them.  Yes I know elephants don't roar, tigers and lions roar, don't judge her, she's 2 ya'll. 

They had some amazing acts but like I said earlier, camera died, suck at taking pictures anyways, and I need a nap so take what you get people. I kid.  :)  They had horses, zebras, tigers, performers, dancers, lots of magic, and the most amazing dog show.  One dog looked like our dog Maximus and when the dogs left Monkey was a little sad and wanted to go find her Mam mam (what she calls Maximus).  He's smart and and all but back flips he can not do! 

Hope ya'll get to go to this show, it's amazing and well worth the drive and money, well the cotton candy isn't worth the money but that's my cheapness coming out.

Easter 2010

I trust you all had a wonderful Easter weekend, making memories with family and celebrating that we serve a Risen Saviour!  I know I sure did.  Here's a few pics of our weekend I wanted to share.  I know I try to keep the blog to project and crafts but mixing it up every now and then is fun too.  Enjoy some pictures.

Dying Easter Eggs

Having fun times with my 3 nieces and Monkey (These are my brother's girls)

Easter Morning ready for Church.

Me, Monkey and Poppa

Easter Egg Hunt with Monkey's Cousin

They did so good with sharing with each other!  Hope you and yours had a great weekend too!

April Fool's Pranks and Fun

Do you realize how fast April is approaching?  That means that April Fool's Day will be here quick and so I want to make sure you all have plenty of time to plan out your pranks and tricks for this year. 

For the kiddies:

How fun would it be to fake them out with some of the Faux Food ideas at Family fun.  Hint, that's not a pie people, that's meat and potatoes. 

Or how about using dye pellets and unscrewing the cap to the faucet and drop one in and watch the colored water flow when they turn on the faucet.

Or how about switching the drawers around on them?

For Coworkers
OMG can you imagine coming into work and finding your cubicle like this?  Thank God I have an office where this would be impossible because I know some of my coworkers would love to do something like this.

Or how about the old mouse in a jello mode trick?  I've actually done this, not with a mouse but with a wallet and keys.

I think taping the phone's receiver button down so that when someone calls and they pick up the phone continues to ring is a good safe prank to do.

For Hubby or Loved Ones
This one may come back to bite you when he gets you back but still a funny one to try.  Put a rubber band around the spayer nosel so that when they turn on the water they get sprayed.  Of course remember that you did this and don't spray yourself by accident.

You Smell Like Chicken: Place a bullion cube in the shower head.  It's subtle enough that they won't notice but everyone else will.

And if you just too much time on your hands and you have an alarming amount of post it notes stashed away then this one is for you.  Awesome!

So go figure out what prank you're going to pull but be ready for the retalliation.  Have fun and would love to hear what you do.

Me? I'm going to tell Poppa that I've got an awesome prank planned for him, torture him all day with how awesome it is but the joke is I won't be doing anything to him except watching him squirm trying to figure it out.

Most of these ideas came from Martha Stewart website or Family Fun or just google.

What Will You Be?

Two more days til Halloween fun!  I start planning our costumes around June of every year.  I'm not sure why as I still wait until the last minute to actually make them.  My goal is to do something easy but fun and not commercialized and something that I don't think is going to be very popular.  I may buy certain pieces to put the whole thing together but I prefer to not buy a store bought costume.  I have however rented costumes before because they are authentic and believable.  I don't go crazy all out but I do put effort and thought into it.
I keep getting messages and emails asking what the monkey is going to be this year.  Early on I had decided that she and I would go as flappers and Poppa and Maximus would go as a 20's gangster. Oh did I not mention that I dress my dog up as well? :)  I already had his and my costume from a few years back so I would just need to make her's.  Easy Peasy.  Then the stores starting coming out with their costumes and guess what costume the major chains were showcasing? Yep Flappers.  So that nixed that idea.
Let me tell you, coming up with an additional idea nearly caused panic attacks.  I mean I'm trying to start a tradition where we all dress up in a theme as a family that includes the dog, something that makes the monkey stand out, doesn't embarrass Momma and Poppa, and that I can do with little to no sewing or spending $, and that is not going to be the same as every one else.  Wow do I box myself in or what?
Then I get a letter from her school that they are having a Fall/Halloween party on Friday, need me to bring a bag of candy and sign up for something to make/bring and since it's a Christian school, no little witches, mummies, monsters, devils, etc, and no props like swords, wands, masks, etc.  Talk about really boxing one in uh? :)
Well what's my plan?  Sign up for home made cupcakes of course and do 2 different costumes, one for her to wear to school and one for her to wear with our family theme on Sat.  Oh and let's still wait til the last minute to do it all. Why do I love to torture myself so?
So after changing my mind on the family costume about a zillion times, including as late as Monday, I've finally got it all figured out and worked on her school costume hoping to finish it last night so that I could do the cupcakes tonight and our family costume Fri night only to mess up her school costume and have to go out on my lunch break and get the supplies to redo what I messed up which means tonight finish that and do the cupcakes yes I realize I just wrote about 4 run on sentences, don't judge me I'm tired and mad at myself. :)
I am not revealing the costumes until they are finished but I thought it would be fun to view past Halloween costumes.  Stay tuned tomorrow for her 1st costume reveal, I'm taking a half day so that I can go and volunteer and be at her very 1st school party and then Sat come back to see us on Halloween.
Happy Halloween everyone. Oh and can you believe my monkey will be 15 months on the 1st? Wow.
I can't wait to see everyone's posts in all their costume glory.

This was our freshman year in college, we'd been dating a few months, my Nana made us these genie costumes.

All dressed up for the Halloween night

Batman and Catwoman

Basketball player and cheerleader

Hip Hop Rappers

Sumo Wrestler and Geisha

Ceasar and His Queen

Blues Brothers with Our WD Group

Flappers with my girl Amanda and 20's Gangster

Maximus as a Turkey, won 3 contests that year

Maximus and Dantes as Thing 1 and Thing 2 won the national Petco contest and got a year supply of dog food

My little chicken clucking

Made this from the Martha Stewart Show

Last year we went as Farm Living with Farmer, Milk Maid, Chicken and Cow

Hope you enjoyed looking back at the past 13 years of our Halloween fun, come back tomorrow for the monkey's 1st costume and school party.