My Real Life

April 14, 2012

FunPlex

Filed under: Adventuring — Amy @ 6:00 am
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A few weeks ago, Baby Monkey went to a birthday party at the FunPlex.

He loved it.

He came home and told his siblings about it, and suddenly, they, too, needed to go to the FunPlex.

I’ll be honest…I thought it was pretty cool.  Kinda like a small, indoor amusement park/boardwalk all-in-one.

So, I put it in the back of my mind.

We had our week off for Spring Break, and we packed a lot in.

We also had the Monday after Easter off, and I was wavering between taking a day off and just chilling or doing one more fun thing with the monkeys.

I went for fun.

So, I told the Monkeys we were going to run some errands and then do something super fun, but if there was any complaining on the errands, no super fun.

They were angels on the errands, and I kept dropping little clues, in our conversation, about where we were going.

Monkey Girl began a notes sheet, on her iTouch, with the clues to try and figure out the mystery.

It was pretty darn cute.

Once the errands were done, I headed down and pulled into the Funplex parking lot to the cheers and thanks from the monkeys.

If you ever want to go, be the first ones there and you miss the crowd and it’s a much more fun experience.

We had a great, great time.

Bumper cars were the favorite activity, but they tried everything multiple times, thanks to the wristbands that got them on all the rides.

Monkey in the Middle LOVES racing games.

Back to the bumper cars.

The funniest part was that, after we had been there for about an hour, I got a text from my friend, Jean, with whom we had been to the Crayola Factory on Friday.

The text read “r u at funplex??????”

I wasn’t sure why she was asking, because I knew I hadn’t mentioned to her that I was thinking of going, so I just texted back “Yep.  Kids r in heaven.”

And in the door walked Jean, her two kids, her two nephews and her niece.

She had been planning to take her nephews, as a gift, for a few months, but never mentioned it to me, either.  When they pulled in the parking lot, she recognized our truck and said to her kids, “Guess who is here?”

It was fun to see them, the kids were thrilled, and I got to hang out with my friend for another day.

And when all was said and done, I had three very happy children.

And one very happy, but exhausted baby.

This picture was taken 5 minutes after we got in the car.

Just in case you didn’t get the full effect of the exhaustion:

April 11, 2012

Wordless Wednesday

Filed under: Uncategorized,Wordless Wednesday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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No babies were actually given any candy in the taking of these photos.  They were, however, allowed to pose next to their older siblings baskets, which were far more interesting than the baby basket that only contained a Touch and Feel Farm Animals Book.

March 28, 2012

Wordless Wednesday: Growth

Filed under: Wordless Wednesday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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to

in a year.

March 14, 2012

Wordless Wednesday

Filed under: Wordless Wednesday — Amy @ 6:00 am
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March 5, 2012

Twins?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:00 am
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I think all of my kids look very different from one another.

They all have the genetics of my husbands family and they all resemble that side of the family, but in terms of really looking alike, I have always thought that the only two who really look alike are Monkey Girl and Tiny.

I’ve always thought that Monkey in the Middle looks the most different from everyone.

My Dad used to say that people had two types of faces:

Pig faces and Fox faces.

My Dad and I had Pig faces.

My Mom had a Fox face.

Every single one of us, in this house, have Pig faces, but Monkey in the Middle has a Fox face.

The next part to this post involves explaining how our computer crashed when Baby Monkey was about two.

We lost all of our photos of Monkey in the Middle from birth to age three, and all photos of Baby Monkey.

We hadn’t backed anything up, and had only a few photos that we had sent to other people and they sent back to us.

So, I really don’t get to remind myself what Monkey in the Middle looked like as a baby very often.

(Baby Monkey looks exactly the same…just bigger.)

Except, I guess I just forgot, or got used to seeing until it blended into the background, we have a family photo at the top of the stairs from 2005.

I was pregnant with Baby, so technically he is in the picture, but it’s basically just the four of us that made up family at the time and my parents.

Anyway, for some reason, I noticed this photo yesterday and stopped dead.

Compare.

I don’t know…maybe it’s just me.

Granted, Monkey in the Middle was about 5 months older than Tiny is in his picture, but in the grand scheme of things, not too big of a difference in age.

But, it’s nice to think that Monkey in the Middle looks like someone around here, and to think that I might have a glimpse into what Tiny might look like when he gets a bit older.

February 25, 2012

Birthday Season Wrap Up

Filed under: Birthdays — Amy @ 6:00 am
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As so, as we come to the end of February, all of my babies are now one year older.

Thought I’d share some of the birthday fun with you, through photos.

Enjoy!

February 9, 2012

Ka-Ra-Tay

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:00 am
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So, Monkey in the Middle and Baby Monkey are taking Karate this winter.

It is through the town rec program, so it’s not like they are at a dojo, or anything, but it’s still a full karate program.

As with all things, Monkey in the Middle is into it and working to learn his moves and is ready to kick some butt.

Baby Monkey is just along for the ride.

It’s fun to take them (although I am very grateful when Real Man offers to take them, as well) because you never quite know what you are going to see.

Like a sparring match up between Baby Monkey (one of the smallest guys in the class) and the sensei, one of the tallest people I’ve ever seen.

But don’t you worry…

Baby Monkey showed him a thing or two.

Of course, the real reason either of these boys ever want to go to karate is because the sensei ends each class with a game of dodge ball.

With karate helmets.

They’ve each got the strategy down.

Stay in the back and be invisible.

Monkey in the Middle does get aggressive and starts playing a mean game of dodge ball with helmets.

Baby Monkey needs to be prompted to play, and yet, he almost always winds up as the last one out there.

It’s always a good time, watching them get down with their karate selves.

Last week, the boys came home after being at karate with Real Man and wanted to show me their new moves.

“Bully me, Daddy!  Bully me, Daddy!” they were yelling.

“Huh?” was my response.

So, Real Man showed me how they learned two different ways to break away from an attacker, and they were adorable doing it, and it made me feel really good to know that they knew how to defend themselves or how to get away in a dangerous situation.

So, karate…

…adorable AND potentially life-saving!

January 15, 2012

14 for the 14th

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:00 am
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I read a blog, a week or two ago, where the blogger decided to chronicle her day through photos.

She took as many photos as it was days into January.

I think it was the 4th.

Now, I wish I had gotten my act together and actually done this on the fourth, as there would have been only four photos to take.

No.  Not me.

I decided to do it on the fourteenth.

So, how many photos needed to be taken?

Yep.  Fourteen.

However, I guess it does go along with one of my 2012 goals to take more photos.

I didn’t specify what quality the photos had to be.

Right?

So, here was my Saturday the 14th in photos.

I had to stage this photo at 6:00 am, because I didn’t have the presence of mind to pick up the camera at 3:17 am, when I was actually woken up for the first time, being summoned by Tiny Monkey to come give him a cuddle.

However, the first thing I did when I woke up on the 14th was look at this clock, and this is what it said.

Give me strength.

When 6:00 am rolled around, I was being summoned, yet again, by Tiny Monkey, who is usually a good little sleeper, but, apparently, growing 2 molars and 2 canines at the same time is too much for him, and, so, sleep is a thing of the past.

It will return, but not any time soon.

Such a baby, that one.

Anyway, we stumbled downstairs to find his older brothers were already up, and were happy to see him eat up some Cheerios, while Mommy made herself a cup of tea.

Once I had some tea in me, I got down to business with some laundry…

…and when that was done, I played in the living room with Tiny and his tiny toys.

I drove my impossibly beautiful, impossibly almost 11 year old girl to choir practice.

While she was at choir, I hit the bank and the lottery store.

I had been given a scratch-off lottery ticket, for my birthday, from my father-in-law, and I won $10.00.

So, since it was, essentially, free money, I turned those winnings around into 4 tickets for a big jackpot (fingers, toes and parts of me I didn’t know could cross are crossed, hoping for a win!) and a few more scratch-offs.

Couldn’t resist the Zombie scratch-offs.

And guess what?

I won $10.00!

Excellent.

Picked up my girl and we headed to Target for journaling pens, candles, Baby Tylenol and a skirt for Monkey Girl.

And, this cart is evidence why I generally tend to stay far away from Target.

We drove Real Man’s Jeep so we could listen to satellite radio.

Sugar Ray came on.

I really, really liked Sugar Ray.

Something about their music made me smile.

Not deep or particularly musical, but fun.

When we got home, I made a double-batch of sauce with a double-batch of sausage and meatballs.

So good.

So good.

I read with my Nook for the iPad.

And when it dinged that someone had made a move on one of my Words With Friends games, I played my letters back.

I used my new journaling pens to write in my current journal, which felt good because it’s been awhile since I’ve taken actual pen to actual paper.

I also spent some time rearranging my bookshelves, as my Dad and I have combined our Michael Connelly collection, and I spilled over onto a new shelf.

After dinner, I played hard at Wii Tennis with Monkey in the Middle.

We now play every day, and play about 10-15 games.

It’s really nice time with him, doing something he loves.

Wow, and that’s 14 photos of what I did on the 14th.

There were so many other moments, throughout the day, but the camera wasn’t always handy, and even when it was, even I was unwilling to break the spell by pulling out the camera.

I kind of like this type of entry.

Nice to be able to look back at the photos and see exactly what I did with my day.

I think I might do this again.

On the 1st.

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