Good morning!

 

Random hot air balloon on a Saturday morning. We love it every time.

Happy Halloween!

 

Hermione from Harry Potter. Who we all agree is much better at wizarding and smarter in general than, well, Harry Potter 😀😀

Funny things the monkey said

 Driving the monkey over to basketball

Me: is that a man on a razor scooter?

Monkey: that makes me sad. Not like sad like I’m sad on the inside. Sad because he’s a grown man on a razor scooter.

————

Conversations from the bus

Monkey: I have this key chain I want to put on my backpack but I don’t know how to open it.

Monkey’s friend: my older sister knows how to open those

Monkey: is your sister on the bus?

Monkey’s friend: we’ll, no.

Monkey: so how does that help me?

——

Monkey picks up book on my night stand and reads the title: How to Talk to Kids So They Will Listen and Listen So They Will Talk

*pause*

Monkey: How’s that working out for ya?

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

We like all the colors

 The more colors and patterns the better!

Spooky Oreo house

 Getting into the Halloween spirit 

Spooky dog

 “I’m waiting for you…in the shadows”

So proud of himself after barking furiously at the baby deer outside the window

 The deer didn’t really seem bothered by him but he was proud 

Happy monday

 Random hot air balloons just appear in the sky around here. We are surprised and enjoy seeing them every time we see them. Especially when it’s unexpected (i.e., not a scheduled balloon festival). 

Third grade, here we come!

Obligatory picture of the monkey in her t-shirt with her high school graduation year. It kinda looks like it may fit her this year, but it really is big on her. Though she is once again at the 97th percentile for height for her age. 

Another picture from vacation

 I was trying to get a picture of my dad, husband and my kid. My dad is the one who couldn’t sit still while I was taking it, just wanted to keep looking for rock formations and other things you can randomly find along the road in Moab. Just made me giggle. He’s an amateur photographer too so he knows it takes more than a few seconds to set up the shot. I guess he was done posing after the first two seconds :)

Someone got braces today

 Of course they’re green. Just the four front teeth but makes her seem so grown up :(

This is her selfie 

Some photos from our summer

 I’ve been forgetful about posting photos so I’ll attempt to post some from this summer to make up for it. Here’s one that the monkey took as we were about to board the airplane out to moab. I bought some fun colored masks for us to wear.

Bumper cars down the shore

 

Praying mantis

 They’re pretty creepy when they turn their heads to look at you but still pretty cool. This one was right outside our back door

Fireworks after the balloons

 

Balloon Festival!

 

The clothes caddy!

 A group effort by the monkey’s grandfather in NJ (his original gift) and her grandmother in Utah (spent a lot of time sewing and measuring and cutting and sewing). But came out super cute!

The lazy days of summer are upon us

 

Camping in the back yard

 Two years in a row now, Chris and the monkey have camped in the back yard on the last day of the school year (for the monkey). Last year they made it until the almost sunrise the next morning - the birds got super loud around 4am. Last year, Louie wouldn’t even go near the tent, but slept right by the back door just to keep an eye on them. This year they made it to about 2:30 am when the thunder storm rolled in. This year, Louie stayed I. The tent with them until about 10:30 when a neighbor got home so he decided to bark and wake the whole tent up. Both years, I was comfortable, inside, in my own bed.

My 8 year old and “gamer” in training

 She’s taken over the office again 😂

Science class

 Still doing science at home...the teacher asked all the kids to act out what it’s like to be a meal worm, or a seedling, or something 

Cape may

(I’m a little behind on my posts)

Two weekends ago we went to cape may. Thus was our first time at the zoo down there. Pretty small but was still nice. And a perfect sunny not too hot not too cold day. Here’s our own little monkey being a goofball.

The monkey throws out the first pitch

 At one of the softball games for Chris’s school. She was so nervous but had a ton of fun

Here’s the board game in action

 You put the magnifier up to your mouth then just have to mouth the words on the card while the other people playing try to read your lips. I just end up laughing a lot because look at the mouth! It’s funny!

New board game

 Trying to keep us all off our devices from time to time. Chris and the monkey came home with something new to try. I’ve never heard of this one...

Happy monday

 Nothing exciting, just getting ready for school 😀

Red Dog Day in Readington

 One of the teachers where the monkey goes to school lives on and owns a Buffalo farm. Today they had some hay rides and food and music to show off their three new Red Dogs, which are baby Buffalo. It was a perfect sunny day. We saw a couple of friends from school and the monkey’s teacher made us a Buffalo cheeseburger! Here’s Chris and the monkey in front of some of the Buffalo wayyy off into the distance.

Throwback photo

 Feeling a bit nostalgic for the younger years today

Someone got a belt promotion!

 FULL grey belt!!!

Remote learning continues

 Just gotta find more creative places to learn I guess

Check out the new paver patio

 Looks so much nicer and will hopefully stop some of the water coming into the basement. Check out the before from a few posts ago...

Yay spring!

 

Enjoying a nice sunny day

 

For those who were asking

 These are the bilco doors I was talking about on Skype the other week with the fam. They lead to stairs into the basement and we think are also letting water down there from time to time  any suggestions on how to spruce up the area? 

The picture corner

 

The sleeping corner

 

New haircut!

 Sonya stayed over for the Super Bowl festivities, AKA yummy food. And like an hour before her train back to the city we decided the monkey needed a haircut. Sonya gave her last haircut back in September. She LOVES it. (She’s also sporting her pajamas that the Gibby fam gave her for Christmas. If she could wear these every single day and night, she would. She also loves these pajamas.)

Our poor little smoker

 

Snowing again

 We measured at 20.9 inches in my little part of NJ. I know some people got way more though. It’s coming down again this morning but at a much lighter pace. 

Anyway, poor dog couldn’t get around much yesterday but it’s packed down a lot now so he can basically walk on top of the snow now. If you can spot him, he’s pretty much at the same level as the floor of our deck.  

Snowy monday

 Opening up the back door to let the dog out and this is what was there (about half a foot so far of snow). He didn’t go outside. 

A little bit of snowdrift here but mostly just coming down in bug flakes. We’re expecting about another foot of snow by the end of tomorrow 🥶

Some hiking over ChristMas break

 Turns out we live by some pretty decent hiking paths that around a really pretty lake.  And the lake...is haunted...spoooky. I’ll post some pictures of the lake another time.

Good morning

 

Enjoying some sunshine on a cold day

 

Where do doodles go to die?

 They get sent “off” with a maniacal message of course. 

“Bye. Hope you liked living. Haha! 😭

Just another night of reading at bedtime