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!

First Blueberry Picking of 2012

Little Monkette and Little Monkey hard at work looking for dark blueberries.

We tried out a new blueberry patch this past weekend with Mimi. Our ‘regular’ patch hasn’t opened up yet but the one by Mimi’s house was ready for picking! After doing the Kids’ Run, we headed over to the patch to get some blueberries.

Little Monkette took a little bit of teaching because she tried to just pick any berry she saw. Once we got her to look for the dark berries, she did great. Little Monkey did well too. We ended up filling a bucket with blueberries. It was almost 6lbs of berries! Even better, it was $15 for all 6lbs! That is quite a deal if you compare it to the grocery store. We will be getting more blueberries…once all of these are eaten.

Little Monkey showing off most of our blueberries!

Windermere Kids Run

The City of Windermere held its 11th Annual 5k Run Among the Lakes this morning. They also had three different lengths for kids races. Little Monkey has been begging to do another run, so when I found this one a few weeks ago, I signed the kids up.

This morning we headed out to the race and arrived just after the 5k had started. We parked and checked in at town hall to get the kids race bibs and shirts. Unfortunately, many other kids had already checked in (most who hadn’t registered ahead of time like we did) and they were out of kids shirts. The staff was nice and helpful and did get us one shirt, though it was a ladies medium. Looks like I have a new running shirt, or I can do a little sewing to it and make it fit Little Monkey. We waited around for the 5k to finish and checked out some of the vendors. Before the kids race ever started we ended up with two bags filled with free stuff! We got frisbees, flat water bottles, bam bam sticks, lollipops, Chick-fil-a cows and a coupon, popcorn and I’m sure I’m leaving something out! Mimi arrived (after getting stuck in race runner/walker traffic!) and we waited for the kids races to start.

Little Monkey and Little Monkette before the race!

The kids lined up for the first race (and the shortest). Mimi went with Little Monkette to help her along and then Little Monkey decided he wanted to run the short race too. They both did a good job and Little Monkey was right near the front of the group with the bigger kids. The next race was about 1/4-1/2 of a mile long. Little Monkey said he didn’t want to do it but then changed his mind after they already started. Mimi convinced him to do the longest kids run, just about 3/4 of a mile. She offered to run it with him.

Mimi and Little Monkey starting off for the long run!

Little Monkette wasn’t too excited to sit and watch for them to come back around but she did alright once some kids started coming to the finish line. When she saw Mimi and Little Monkey, she got very excited!

Little Monkey leading Mimi to the finish line!

Little Monkey did a great job running the 3/4 of a mile race. Mimi said they stopped two times for a short walk and then kept running. Little Monkey was very excited about it and is already looking forward to finding another race to run.

Little Monkette and Little Monkey showing off their medals!

The kids had a lot of fun and did a great job in their race. It was a great start to what turned out to be quite a busy but very fun Saturday!

Florida Special

The State of Florida or a Grilled Chicken Nugget from Chick-fil-a?

Little Monkette and I found the above gem in our lunch today. I immediately thought it looked like the state of Florida. I took the picture on my phone and then Little Monkette proceeded to pick up the nugget and try to shoot it like a gun. Pow, Pow!

I like to think that Chick-fil-a just really likes Florida, just like we do!

Resurrection Garden

Our Resurrection Garden

When Big Monkey was growing up, they had a Resurrection Garden for Easter. I had not heard of a Resurrection Garden until recently seeing them pop up on Pinterest.

GrandMom came to stay with the littles the other weekend and they planted a Resurrection Garden. Last night we had a lesson about it, added the crosses, put Jesus in the tomb and rolled the stone in front of the tomb. We asked the kids a few questions and I was impressed with what Little Monkette knew. Big Monkey asked if they knew what Jesus did on the cross. Little Monkette popped right up with, “died!” We talked more about what Jesus did for us and why it was important. Then we let them know that on Sunday they could roll the stone away and Jesus shouldn’t be in the tomb anymore because that is when he was raised from the dead. Tomorrow, we will find Jesus is gone and talk again about the real meaning of Easter.

 

Lobster Love!

I have this friend….and he has this sister….who is now also my friend. Funny, I’ve known her, at least of her, for a long time, but we’ve never really hung out or chatted. She lives clear across the country, but thanks to blogs and a few (just a few) similarities, we are now real life friends too. She has this great husband and amazing little girl. They came to visit their family and invited us to come hang out with them while they were here. They took us with them to Animal Kingdom. The littles loved it. My Little Monkey and Little Monkette became fast friends with her little one. Little Monkey has asked if we can go to her house (I showed him a map and told him, maybe one day.).

I had planned to make her little one a dress earlier in the year and mail it, but it never got done…so I made it my mission to have it done by the time they got here for their visit. I also wanted to make something for her Momma K, which meant I couldn’t leave her Daddy C out either! But what on earth do you sew for a grown man?!?! I decided on a bowtie. K and C are eclectic and it is so fun (I hope you know I do mean this in a good way!). I thought Daddy C would love a fun bowtie. (Thankfully I was right, though he did have to learn how to tie it!) I made a matching headband for Momma K.

Sweet Love!

I made the little one a pillowcase dress and a headband to share with Momma K. I love how everything turned out and that they loved the gifts as well. (In fact, Momma K has asked for more headbands! I better get on that!)

Thanks to Momma K and Daddy C and little one for letting us hang out with you while you were here! I wish you lived here so we could hang out more often!!

Little Monkey, Goofy and Little Monkette

Agent P!

We got to meet Agent P at Platypus Day!

The Disney Channel has this fun show, Phineas and Ferb and Agent P (aka Perry the Platypus) is one of the stars. Radio Disney put on a special event for Platypus Day at the local mall. We managed to stop by on our way to another event that day and meet Agent P! He was lots of fun and danced around with Little Monkey and Little Monkette too! I wish Ferb had been there too (He’s my favorite) but one day I’ll get to meet him too I’m sure!

Cookie Decorating Day

At the beginning of December, Little Monkey had some friends over to have a cookie decorating day. We met one of the other families at a PKU event and another family online through Facebook. Turns out one of the families lives about 15 minutes down the road from us. We were very excited to all get together and decorate cookies and let the kids play.

We talked to our dietician and she was able to get us connected to a person at Cambrooke who generously sent us some wheat starch that we need to make the cookies. Wheat starch is the one odd ball ingredient in the cookie recipe and it isn’t cheap. We were thrilled that Cambrooke was happy to send us some for our little party.

Before the party we cooked up a bunch of cookies, decorated for Christmas and made aprons for each little guest. We also planned to make some cookies once the guests arrived so that we could show them the recipe. Little Monkey decided that we needed a sign in the yard so that people would know where to park. Mimi tried to convince him that wasn’t necessary but he wouldn’t give up. They ended up making a sign and putting it on the back of my car. While making that sign, they also made two signs for the door. Little Monkey did all the writing and then hung them up. Apparently this special animal tape was all he could find.

Welcome!

We set up two tables for cookie decorating but ended up only needing one. We used the other to collect all the finished cookies. We laid out all the aprons for the guests, but Little Monkey decided that just their first initial wouldn’t be enough. So he labeled each apron with their names too!

Appliqued aprons for the guests.

Once all the little chefs arrived, we had some pku friendly foods for everybody to eat. Once their bellies were filled up on good stuff, we got to the fun part! We pulled out all the cookies and lots of icing and some phe free decorations and let the kids go at it. It was a fun crazy time with lots of icing covered fingers and candies and cookies being eaten.

Concentrating on decorating cookies!

Even Little Monkette had fun decorating cookies (and eating them).

As cookies were decorated, we moved them over to the other table to make room for more decorating. Each family had their own section and we filled up some cute storage buckets with all their creations and more undecorated cookies to take home. We’ve been enjoying snacking on our cookies for most of the month. Amazingly, the cookies keep pretty well. We also took a plate of cookies to Little Monkey’s nurse and deitician. They shared the cookies with the office and everyone was surprised at how yummy the cookies tasted. (Lo pro foods have a bad rep for not tasting too great.)

A small collection of the decorated cookies!

A great time was had by everyone and we hope to have another cooking day in the new year. Our deitician has also asked us to consider putting together an event for our entire clinic (pku patients and families) next year. By the time Christmas comes around, the new Nemours Hospital should be open and they are going to have a big teaching kitchen that we could use to hold our event!

 

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!

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!