Green Light For October

Logan's October check up was today and all is well for another month! His blood counts still look good so peaceful rest is forthcoming in the monkey home tonight!

TuTu Girly Party

Amanda and I attended a TuTu Girly event last night. This is a new business in town where young divas can make their very own tutu and play dress up.

Amanda had a ball playing with her friends on the stage.

And helping me make her tutu. We were a little limited on colors so she settled for red and black... we ran out of black so I added white too (see below).

And the here is the little diva in the finished product. I don't know... maybe it just clashes with the leopard print. She's got the bored look down, though!

A New Job and New Schedule

Today I started my new job at Amanda's preschool. I'll be teaching Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in the "new" classroom so Amanda has been moved from afternoon preschool to morning to accommodate my new schedule (but she is in the "other" classroom). We won't be able to be as active with the Stay At Home Mom's Group now, as most of those events take place during preschool, but we'll still try to get out as often as possible to see our friends. Amanda has several girls from last year's class that she knows in the morning class so her transition today went very well. She also likes being able to help me before and after classes getting things setup or cleaned up. Hopefully we'll both LOVE this new arrangement. WISH US LUCK!

Happy Birthday, Love!

Happy Birthday, Daddy Monkey! : )

Eric decided he wanted a King Crab Leg dinner for his birthday, but the rest of the monkey house doesn't do seafood so he bought himself a let and two claws to cook here at home (and not subject the rest of us to a restaurant).

Check out these massive things! I guess that's why they're called KING crabs! HA, HA!

Our sweet little Amanda got a gold star for trying something new... she just didn't care for the crab legs. That's okay, honey. It's an expensive food that I'd prefer you didn't develop a taste for.

Such a silly monkey!

There was a whole lot of meat in these babies and Amanda and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Eric eat (and open) his dinner.

After dinner we sang him Happy Birthday and enjoyed a Banana Cream Pie.

We also went on a family bike ride through some neighborhoods. It was a wonderful, relaxing birthday (after Eric did the Birthday Gift Scavenger Hunt the kids made... their clues weren't so good!) : )

Saturday Fun

There is an organization in town that organizes events for cancer patients/survivors and their families. Today was family day at our local amusement park... nothing like the big parks, but the kids had lots of fun riding the mini coasters, driving the go carts, bumping in the bumper cars and playing a round of mini golf. Amanda rode the carousel about 50 times in a row... and we didn't get a single picture since I forgot my camera! We then took Eric to the store to let him pick out his birthday gift. He chose a cool dart board for the basement. He and Logan have enjoyed challenging each other all evening long. Then, as a special treat to our awesome Saturday, the kids got to watch a movie and are just now going to bed! A busy day indeed, but oh so special.

How The Monkey House Spends Their Evenings

So today, Amanda came home with these cute little candle samples for the fundraiser her Mom's Day Out is doing...
Well, after smelling them 500 times each and deciding which scents to purchase we decided to "repurpose" some. (Strictly for environmental reasons... not to have fun. No, not us)

So we melted the candle samples and dipped match sticks into the melted wax to make water proof matches for our camping survival kit.

Now, don't worry readers. We didn't allow our children to play with matches (much ; ). But we had to melt the wax SOMEHOW!

And here is the finished product. Coated in wax to keep the tip dry and ready to light a fire if ever there is a need. (And you better believe we tested about 40 of these babies by soaking them in water first! : )

Tomorrow we're collecting pine cones and making fire starters for the camp fire with our remaining wax samples.

Don't you just LOVE the three R's?

recycle, reduce, REUSE!

McConnel Air Force Show

McConnel Air Force Base hosted an open house and air show yesterday and today. We had planned on only going yesterday, but when it got to the main event (The Thunderbirds) the weather turned bad and they had to cancel the flight. We got to see and do many other cool things but Logan and Eric REALLY wanted to see the Thunderbirds so we went back out again today. After yesterday, we got the lay of the land and showed up super early to do all the fun stuff. (Tour the airplanes, tanks, and helicopters) and we left an hour before the Thunderbirds were scheduled to fly and went to our scoped out spot. We were on a hill at the end of the Air Force's runway and we got so SUPER awesome pictures and didn't have to deal with the crowds afterwords.

I also got so really good video (they flew for a LONG time!) but it's too big to post here. What a wonderful day for a little boy who LOVES airplanes!