The monkey takes two of her favorite Christmas presents out for a walk

her new ear muffs and Louie, the new family dog

Multi tasking

”yep, I’ve got the report right here. I’ll email it straight away with my comments”

Chomping on tha ginger bread house candies

well, she took a little nibble out of one of the tootsie rolls anyway.

And this is why I used a picture from last year for our holiday cards...

three missing teeth and a black eye. I guess could be considered festive in some circles...

What do you make on craft day?

A finger whisker of course

Crazy hat day at school

Another basement photo

Off to the side of the basement tv room, was a room that the previous owners used as an office, which is what we are using it for as well. They had like swords on the wall and broken framed posters from Game of Thrones or some nonsense. So weird, but oh well.

We took the French doors that were on the main floor leading to the dining room and moved them downstairs. One of these days we’ll get rid of this giant desk set up that we do not need and get a cute little day bed and maybe install a closet somehow. But that’s a long  time away...

Rough party

someone was playing with her cousins and ran into a chair. Her eye is fine and there are no broken bones. She just can’t see out of her eye right now ☹️

Trick or treating

Vampirina and a Slytherin getting some candy

Our first real trunk or treat

It was pure mayhem but the monkey loved it

Having fun with some make-up

i bought the little monkey a cheap eyeliner in the color of gold. She’ll ask every once in a while to play with mine, or even just have me draw a heart or star on her cheek. I thought this would be a cheaper alternative then using my Bobbi Brown makeup. Tonight she decided to practice a bit on my face. Thank goodness the color is pretty faint.

At the playground on a chilly autumn day

We pretty much had the whole playground to ourselves

Victorious after completing the corn maze!

Oh sorry...and here’s the after of the tv room in the basement

A nice and cozy room to use now 🙂

Our new closet doors

Finally got all the orangey wood covered up! The white might have been a little better with a tiiiiny bit of grey or brown in it so it’s not so fluorescent white looking, so I may revisit that another time. But for now, with the new hardware and a darker rug in front, it works for me. That rug probably won’t be the one that stays there, just wanted to see if a darker rug works.

Thoughts?

Some more basement photos

Here’s a before.  Why people post photos with their pets on the realtor sites, I’ll never know.

More fall activities

This is a week old but wanted to post it anyway. Since we live near several farms, there are a TON of fall activities we can participate in. This farm in particular has people running the farm in Little House on the Prairie style clothes and I guess old fashioned tools and stuff. They had some historic toys, like the “pony” in the picture (you can see some other kids playing on stilts and hitting hoops with a stick). They showed us how to shed corn cobs for feeding their hens, had some cider made with a hand press. It was fun. And free, which was my favorite part 🙂. Then we paid ten bucks for a giant freshly squeezed lemonade with a pound of sugar and some crappy fries. Great way to end the day!

Just doing some fall stuff

Our annual apple and pumpkin picking trip in Colts Neck. Not a great turnout with the apples due to the rainy summer and into fall, npbut the weather was perfect!

Funny things the monkey said

If you know the monkey, you know she likes to dance and sing. A lot. One day while we were waiting for chris to come home we watched Trolls the movie which has a lot of singing. What better time to practice a new routine for dad?
Monkey: mom, first watch my practice routine.
Me: yep, love it.
Monkey: okay, now it’s time to watch my show off
Me: your show off?
Monkey: well I already practiced so now I can show off
Me: makes sense

—————————————
I have many complaints about our house. I’m trying to work on that. One thing that drives me crazy is the sink in the main floor bathroom. Pedastool sink with zero counterspace, so the monkey’s toothbrush and toothpaste often fall into the sink. And to boot, the medicine cabinet is also weirdly small so...anyway, I digress. So, I bought a thing to hang on the wall to hold said toothbrush and toothpaste.
On the way into taking a bath I hear the monkey: see what mom put up?
Chris: ohhh...I see it
Monkey: yeah, it’s a “hold that”
Chris: .............
Monkey: because it’s only there to HOLD THAT
Chris: makes sense

Making some English muffin pizzas

Monkey: I’ll take care of this. I’m kind of an expert

Only a few hot days left to take advantage of...well maybe. Who knows anymore

so we drove on down to the boardwalk this weekend to enjoy the nice weather. What did the monkey want to do? Spend most of the time indoors at the aquarium and arcade. Though to be fair, if we were really prepared and brought bathing suits, she would have immediately jumped in the ocean.

And after our first official (half) day

We have already had a holiday. Cold, rainy day...so naturally we played a lot inside.  The monkey loves finding my reading glasses...

First official (half) day starts tomorrow!

we lived through orientation today. Surprise surprise, once she sat down and got some crayons in her hand I couldn’t get her out the door.

Celebrating our last real day of freedom

With some chocolate cupcakes. We head to orientation on Wednesday then Thursday she takes the bus to school all by herself. Yikes!

Another pic of the basement

I don’t think we even had a “before”pic because it was such a gross bathroom. The washer and dryer were stacked on the left side. There was a stall shower. The toilet was raised on a little pedalstool for some weird reason and the sink was about 12 inches wide. Also it was gross. Did I mention that?  Anyway, this is another Betsy redo. It’s sooooo nice now. We moved the washer dryer to a different part of the basement and the shower is a walk-in but nice and big now. So pretty I think...

Football game at chris’s alma mater

Go greyhounds!

My new reading nook

after we closed up the “loft” from our bedroom...love it!

Getting down to her Italian roots...

...Capisce?

Conversations with the monkey

Monkey: I don’t like [student’s name]. He’s WAY too silly
Chris: what do you mean he’s way too silly. You’re pretty silly
Monkey: yeah, but I’m only silly at home. I’m always serious at school or camp
Chris and me: mhmmmm

————
Trying to get everyone in the car...
Chris: why is it you only have two speeds? Really fast or really slow?
Monkey gives the side eye and purposefully slows down more
Me: haha...you know you’re describing yourself too, chris.
Monkey: I have two speeds. Really fast and really slow. Dada has to speeds. Really fast and really slow. And mama is just really really slow.

I mean, she’s not wrong.

Basement kitchen after

can’t take any credit for this room 🙂. So cool, right?

Basement transformations

the before pics of the “kitchen”

The toooooth fairrrryyyyy is comingggggg!

Busy day

Going to the dentist and getting a hair cut

Takes a lot out of you. Guess who has her first loose tooth!

Surprise pick up

every Friday the monkey’s school goes on a field trip. This past Friday they were just 20 minutes south of our house at the point pleasant boardwalk (I know. So fun). So we surprised her just as she was getting on the bus to go grab some dinner, and you might be able to tell, some ice cream. Yay summer!

Just dropping the beats

as DJ Pattern

“Whatever you say mom and dad”

And this is what happens when you leave for ten days

My blooming plants all eaten

No problemo

Is what she said when she climbed up on top without using any hands

Finally...

My hydrangeas are blooming!

Happy birthday/fathers day

sonya was nice enough to come all the way down to our house to babysit so Chris and I could go out to dinner - not at the diner. May I present the tomahawk steak. We got a lot of stares and audible gasps from other patrons at the restaurant when this thing was brought to our table.

Finally finished some projects - part 2

painted all the spindles on the stairwell...going all the way down into the basement. Took forever!

Rainbow day at school

just chillin out and reading to a stuffed bunny

Finally finished some projects in the house - part 1

The different stains of wood in this house drive me absolutely crazy. In one room there can be 5 different finishes. I don’t think everything needs to be all matchy match, but at least have some rhyme or reason to it. Okay, enough ranting. One project I was able to get done is the main floor hallway. Before: dark stained doors and door jambs. But, the molding on the floor was the builders grade orange-y oak. So awful. It was a mess and took a few days, but I got everything stained the same color. Love. It now!

Ta da

My little friend

It’s hard to see but a little humming bird has been hanging around our house over the past few weeks while I’ve been home. Or, it’s our daughter in bird form keeping track of me.

That little dark spot right below the light fixture

Our big cheeseball

I mean our big five year old

Our almost five yr old

Going on a safari

Got the hat and beenoculars and the checklist. As all safaris do of course

Now you (sort of) don’t

Now you see it ...