Back To School Teacher Gift

We thought it would be a nice gesture to start the school year off with a gift for the teacher. Unfortunately, I started thinking about what it would be a little too late, so I didn’t do what I really wanted to. We did buy a bottle of hand sanitizer and decided to add the teacher’s initial and Little Monkey picked out a flower to add to it. A little bit of cutting on the Cricut and the gift was done. Nice and quick and we know it will get used! The teacher was grateful for the gift and surprised at the personal touch.

Personalized bottle of hand sanitizer

Little Monkey–The First Grade Edition

This week, Little Monkey headed back to school for his first day of first grade. He was very excited to go to his new class. We discovered that he doesn’t have any friends from his last class in his class this year but he says he will make new friends.

Standard pictures for back to school. Little Monkette had to check up on her big brother!

After getting Little Monkey to his class, Little Monkette didn’t want to leave him! She’s been begging all summer for him to go back to school but then wouldn’t leave him there. She wanted to color a picture like all the other kids were doing. Once I got her back home, she was okay with him being at school until we were at the gym. He was only gone three hours and she was ready to have him back home again! She does love her brother!

When we were back at the house, I thought it would be fun to do a line up of the first day of school for the past three years. It is amazing to see how much he has grown!

3 years of First Days of School

I am excited to line up 13 years of first days for him! So far he likes first grade but says they eat lunch really late. He is glad that they get to have a snack in class.

Working Out!

Back in May, we started going to a gym and did the Advocare 24 day Challenge. It was hard work but it has been worth it. During the 24 days of the challenge I only lost 3.5 pounds but I gained 6 pounds of muscle! I was hoping for a bigger loss on the scale but building of muscle is great. Since the 24 day Challenge, I’ve been keeping up at the gym (except for the month of July) and have lost a total of 12 pounds since starting in May! I took pictures of my journey along the way, because I wanted to SEE that there was a difference. I wasn’t planning to post my pictures online but it has inspired some of my Facebook friends so I figure why not!

Results you can SEE!

It has been tough at the gym but so worth it! I’ve gotten much stronger and thinner in the process! In the beginning, I was lucky if I could do a push up or two. In fact, I often got called out, “This is not yoga class! That is a downward dog NOT a push up!” I would laugh and just keep trying. Now, I can do many more push ups! When I started working out, it was tough but now I actually feel good, sometimes even great, after working out. I’m not counting every calorie but I am watching what I eat. Thankfully working out allows me to indulge sometimes when I want to! It is so nice to fit into clothes that haven’t fit in a really long time!

I’m hoping to be able to post another picture in a few more months with even more pounds lost and more muscle gained!!!

Book Review: Dick Van Dyke

My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business

It has been a while since I actually read this book, but I did read it! I got a bit behind on posting my book reviews (and any other kind of post!).

But I did read Dick Van Dyke’s book, My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business and it was great. In fact, after reading it, I put many of his DVDs on hold at the library so I could watch his show. The way the show was written made the dialogue funny no matter what year it was. There aren’t references to things happening in the world, it is just comedy that works any year that you watch it in. I’d say that is pretty good writing!

Enough about the show though, the book was a pretty quick read and it was cool to see how Van Dyke made his way through his career in entertainment.

I wish I could recall more details from the book but it has been about five months and another five or six books since I read this one! If you like biographies, funny stories or Dick Van Dyke, I’d recommend the book to you. I own it, so if you want to borrow it, I’ll put you on the list! (Right now it is loaned out!)

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The Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

Little Monkey has asked many times to go to the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse and climb all the way to the top! I have told him before that he would need Big Monkey to take him because I wasn’t planning on climbing up there. I don’t really like being high up, so the lighthouse was not at all appealing to me. Lucky for Little Monkey, his Grammy decided we should go last week while we were staying at the beach. Big Monkey was out of the country on a mission trip, so he wasn’t available to climb the lighthouse. Bad news for me because Grammy’s knee wasn’t going to allow her to climb all the way to the top.

The Littles and Me at the door to the lighthouse.

Once Little Monkey and I made it all the way to the top, I took a picture of us up against the Lighthouse. I then decided that no one would care to see the black paint of the Lighthouse, so we took another one with the beach in the background.

Little Monkey and me at the top of the Lighthouse overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

While we were up there, we tried to grab a picture of Little Monkette and Grammy waiting for us down at the bottom. I hadn’t thought about it until after they had taken our picture so they were already on the move.

I wrote their names right underneath them. It is hard to see though! They are in the middle of the picture. We were pretty high up!

The climb up wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It is 203 steps to the top. The biggest issue is how hot it is in the lighthouse. At some of the windows there would be a small breeze but that was it. I was sweating before making it all the way up (And we weren’t charging up the stairs like we do at the gym!) The climb back down was a little more difficult but not too bad. As I stood close to the inside edge, but not too close, I stretched my arms out and took a picture of the staircase with my phone.

The stairwell!

Overall, it was a fun experience and I’m glad Little Monkey finally got his wish! I don’t think I’ll need to climb up there any more but at least now I can say that I have done it. If you are ever in the Ponce Inlet area, you might want to check out the Lighthouse too!

Chick-fil-A Cow Appreciation Day 2012

Every year I think, we should really dress up and get free food at Chick-fil-a for Cow Appreciation Day. And then it comes along every year and we don’t go. This year I decided we were going to make it happen! I printed the first page of Chick-fil-a’s costume kit which included ears and noses/mouths. I taped the ears to hair clips for easy use. Next we cut out black spots from construction paper. We taped those onto white shirts. I also made Little Monkey and Little Monkette each a sign similar to the Chick-fil-a cow’s sign.

Eat Mor Chikin or Frys and Frut!

Since Little Monkey can’t eat chicken, I made him a special PKU friendly sign for fries and fruit. Who knows, maybe we’ll help Chick-fil-a start a new PKU friendly marketing campaign!

They were very excited to meet the cow!

Shortly after we sat down to eat our food, the Chick-fil-a cow came out. The kids were SO excited. They hopped right up from the table to meet him. They got hugs, high fives and a photo op! The cow hung around for awhile, greeting people outside, going through the drive thru line, sneaking up on people eating or waiting in line, taking orders, handing out orders in the drive thru and sitting with other people who were eating. Every time Little Monkette saw the cow she would wave and often he would wave back (except when he was outside and she swore he did see her though!)

There were a few people eating in the restaurant (we got there about 4:15 to avoid the dinner crowd-turned out to be a great idea!) that were not aware of Cow Appreciation Day. One guy even asked me if something special was happening today. I told him about the event and assured him that we didn’t regularly dress like cows (Yes I was dressed like a cow too! Hello! It was FREE food!)

I would say dressing up for Cow Appreciation Day is worth it. We had fun and got to have great food for free. We didn’t spend any money on our costumes. Everything we used was stuff we had on hand. I’ve entered the kids picture into Chick-fil-a’s Cow Appreciation Day photo contest. Once I know the link of where to vote, I’ll post it here so you can go vote for them!

Update! I got the link to vote for the kids!! Please go give them your vote! Click Here! Thanks.