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.

Giveaway Winner—Me!

Recently I entered a blog giveaway at Yours Truly. Anna makes some super cute cards and she was giving away a set of her new card design, a flamingo! The flamingo is so cute and screamed, “Florida  Summer,” to me. In the end, I won the giveaway! I was excited to find a cute package arrive in my mail one day. Anna wrapped the cards up nicely and her handwriting on my package was fun. I haven’t decided who will be the recipient of these cards yet. Part of me wants to save them as a gift and part of me wants to sit down and write a bunch of cards and mail them. Don’t you like getting mail? Well, at least mail that isn’t a bill?

Cute flamingo cards

Check out Anna’s shop for lots of other fun cards and prints that she has available. I bought some of her Grateful cards at a Homespun Chic Marketplace show once. Every time I give one of those cards, the person responds with how much they love the card!

My Take: T-shirt to Workout Tank

Another idea I saw floating around on Pinterest and finally tried out myself: The T-shirt to Workout Tank

DIY Tank Top T-shirt Makeover

This morning I was trying to find something to wear to the gym and I decided to try this out real quick. It was quick too! Just a few cuts with the scissors and I turned an oversized t-shirt of Big Monkey’s into a workout tank for me. This project was FREE thanks to using a t-shirt from our stash of shirts! Since it was so quick and I was needing to finish getting the littles ready to go, I didn’t take any before or during photos. And the after photos were done on my phone by Little Monkey, after working out.

My Workout Tank

Back of the workout tank. The only problem I found with this workout tank was the knot in the back. It is fine, until you try and do sit ups!

Want to make your own? Check out Dollar, Sense & More for the tutorial!

Teacher Appreciation Week-Day 4

For Day 4, it was suggested that we send in a candy bar for the teacher. Little Monkey’s teacher’s favorite candy bar is just plain chocolate. We picked up a Hershey bar for her at the store and found the printable below to wrap around it (Nothing But Country). Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of Little Monkey with the candy bar.

Candy Bar Wrapper

Firefighter Combat Race

A few weeks ago (because I”m slow at updating the blog and finding the time to write!), Big Monkey was working and the kids and I were looking for some things to do. We ended up making that Saturday and VERY busy day. The kids did their race, we picked blueberries and then we went to the Firefighter Combat Challenge.

The Firefighter Combat Challenge is a traveling competition for firefighters. While wearing all their gear and an air pack, they must complete a series of challenges. The goal is to do them all correctly and in the shortest time. We watched a little bit of the competition and then saw they also had a kids challenge area. Little kids could try out the challenge for themselves on a smaller scale. Little Monkey was old enough to try it but Little Monkette wasn’t. She was a bit sad about it but got over it and cheered her brother on.

Little Monkey got suited up with a jacket and helmet and we checked out the Bahia fire truck while waiting his turn for the challenge.

Ready to Respond!

We watched a few other kids do the challenge and talked about each step he’d have to complete. Little Monkey and another kid lined up, ready to try it out and listened to the directions intently.

Finding out what to do.

The first part was to pick one of the two hoses and carry it to the other end of the row and drop it by the ladder.

Running with the hose!

After dropping the hose, Little Monkey climbed a ladder, and then slid down the slide.

Sliding down!

Once he got to the ground, he ran over to the kid sized Keiser Force Machine. It simulates a forcible entry chopping. Using the mallet, Little Monkey hit the beam until it got all the way to the other end. This took him a bit of time but he kept at it.

Testing out his chopping skills for forcible entry!

The next step of the challenge was to run and grab the fire hose, carry it down to the marker, aim and shoot the water to knock down a target. Little Monkey said this was his favorite part of the challenge!

Shoot the target!

The last part of the challenge was to drag a dummy kid to safety. Little Monkey had a hard time getting a good grasp on the kid but once her figured it out he got the dummy to safety.

Dragging the kid to the safety zone!

After he was done, Little Monkey said he was tired and it was a lot of work. It wasn’t too much work though, because he ended up doing it twice! He thought it was a lot of fun but at the end of the day decided he still wanted to become a policeman when he grows up.

After doing the combat challenge, we also went into the Safety House where they taught the kids about smoke alarms and what to do if you hear one. Then the kids go into another part of the converted trailer where they fill the room with non toxic smoke. The smoke alarm goes off and they have to get on their hands and knees and try to get out. (There is a firefighter with them showing them what to do.) They feel the door to see if they can go out of it but it is hot, so they climb out the window and down a ladder. Little Monkey liked that and thought it was a cool thing.

They also had a room filled activites the kids could do, coloring, build a fire truck (paper folding), watch a video, etc. The event was lots of fun and helped wear the kids out even more from our busy day. Even better, the entire event was FREE!

Check out the Firefighter Combat Challenge webpage to see if they are coming to a town near you!

Crocheted Softies Book

The other day I got another fun surprise in the mail! I won another giveaway from Sew, Mama, Sew’s Giveaway week. This giveaway was from Vegan Craftastic. I won Crocheted Softies, a book about how to crochet 18 different cute little animals. Since I don’t know how to crochet, I was planning to give the book to my mom if I won. So, I have passed the book along to her and hope that she will learn to make a few of the creatures inside. There is a cute little fish and octopus. I think both of them, along with the crab would be fun additions to the beach house.

Crocheted Softies

Thanks Vegan Craftastic and Sew, Mama, Sew for having the giveaways!

New Monkey Hat

About a week or so ago, Sew, Mama, Sew held its Giveaway Day. I entered quite a few, just hoping to get lucky enough to win one. Well, I ended up winning two! Yay! So far only one of my prizes has arrived but I’m excited to share it with you.

I won a Monkey Hat from Raven’s Rascals.

Here I am trying it on right after opening the mail. I am also wearing a new shirt I got from Uncle K and Aunt S for Christmas. It is very comfy.

Monkey Hat (and new shirt)

I was hoping the hat would bring with it some cooler weather (it was coming from WA) and lucky enough for me, it did. Today we headed out to run some errands and it was chilly out so everyone bundled up. Little Monkey decided that since I took a picture of the kids all bundled up, he should take a picture of me too! He made me pose in the same place they did.

Posing with my monkey hat!

I am loving my new monkey hat, though Big Monkey thinks it is quite silly. What does he know anyhow?!?

Go check out Raven’s Rascals. They are a Relay for Life Team and are raising money for the American Cancer Society.

Raven’s Rascals Relay for Life Team
Blog: www.ravensrascals.blogspot.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ravensrascals
Etsy: www.ravensrascals.etsy.com

Our Christmas Card

A big thanks to Shutterfly again this year. They let me do a review of their site and give away some free cards. In exchange for my post, I was given some free cards of my own. I used them to get this year’s Christmas card. I was planning for a picture of our whole family again but we just didn’t find a good time or place to take a picture. I ended up taking a few pictures of the kids one day while we were at the Magic Kingdom. They were doing some filming for the Christmas Day Parade, so we weren’t able to find the big tree or many other Christmas decorations without lots of television cameras and gear around. We did find one tree up in the train station though so we decided to use it. I took a handful of pictures and then used the best one out of those.

Merry Christmas from the Monkeys to you!

I love how they are cuddled together and holding hands! Little Monkey and Little Monkette are so sweet together…most of the time!

Merry Christmas to you!

Quick Halloween Decorations

Yes, I know…Halloween has come and gone…but I wanted to share two quick decorations that we made this year. I am hoping to remember next year and save up some materials so we can make more.

Chug Ghost & Tub Jackolantern

The ghost was made from a milk chug container. I had gotten Little Monkette a Happy Meal at McDonalds one day with milk. She didn’t end up drinking it but we used it in cereal. I was about to toss the container into the recycling bin when I thought….this could be a cute little ghost! I washed it out, ripped off the label and grabbed a Sharpie. A little coloring and a piece of twine and we hung the ghost up outside. Next year I’d like to have a whole family of little ghosts!

The jackolantern was made from a large container that once held pretzels. Big Monkey bought the pretzels at BJs before going camping with his buddy. We finished up all the pretzel about a week before Halloween. Grammy and Pops had given the kids some Halloween gifts and there was this orange plastic type ’tissue’ paper inside the box. I removed the label from the pretzel jug, drew on the outside with a Sharpie and shoved the orange inside.

Quick fun Halloween decorations. No real cost to us since it was stuff we already had and both items were headed for the recycling bin. Now that Halloween is over…the ghost and jackolantern are off to the recycling center!

Kids Fun Run

Last week the kids and I went to a food truck event in Ocoee. While we were there, the nice lady from Chick-fil-a let us know that today there was going to be a 5k and Kids Fun Run. I basically brushed off the idea because it meant getting up early and driving over there. I certainly wasn’t going to run in the 5k (seeing that I haven’t been running since July!). A few days before the event, we found out the Big Monkey was going to be working on the day of the race. I asked Little Monkey if he wanted to go run in the race or go build something at Home Depot. He said, “I’ll make you a deal. We can run the race and go to Home Depot after.” Smart boy…and while it was probably a possibility, I figured one was enough. He decided that he wanted to do the race. I registered them both online and prepped them Friday night for an early wake up today. They both did great. We got up, had breakfast and got in the car. We got to the race while the 5k was still going on, so we got our stuff for the kids race and cheered for the 5k runners/walkers.

Wearing their shirts and bib numbers!

When the race was about to start all the kids lined up under the balloon arch. I told Little Monkey that he needed to hold onto Little Monkette until they crossed through the start line and the crowd dissipated some. After that I would be right there to help Little Monkette get to the finish line and he could run off and finish ahead of us. I told him to cross the finish line, get his ‘medal’ and wait next to the fire rescue truck (right next to the finish line). He was a great big brother holding onto his sister!

We're ready to run!

When the countdown began, I was waiting on the other side of the start line to get a pic of them. It was so cute…off they went.  Little Monkey was holding Little Monkette’s hand but trying to get her to go faster.

Come on Little Monkette!!!!

I told Little Monkey that he was free to finish the race and wait for us. He took off! Little Monkette ran/walked/ran. I tried running with her, ahead of her and cheering her on. There were so many people watching and cheering and everyone thought she was so cute. A long line of spectators and volunteers started cheering and putting their hands out for a high five. She didn’t know what to do but figured it out. She was so cute giving them all high fives!

High Five!!!

Eventually we got right up to the finish line and she got her ‘medal’ (a lanyard with a Chick-fil-a cow clipped on!) and goodie bag. She was so excited to see that Little Monkey finished and got a medal too!

We finished!!

After the race we enjoyed walking through the craft vendors and riding a few carnival rides (thanks to the free ride tickets the kids got in their goodie bags!). The kids got the shirts, the ‘medals,’ stickers, pencils, free face painting, carnival rides, water, etc all for FREE! It was a great event and I’m glad we decided to give it a go. Little Monkey was very excited to show his ‘medal’ to his Mimi. He says he wants to do it again. Looks like we’ll be trying to find some more short kid fun runs! Thanks to Ocoee Founders’ Day Event and Chick-fil-a for a great free family day!