2009...A Year in Review...

Some fun pics from the year I didn't blog...

Sledding parties...yes, this is the hood of a car being pulled by a snowmobile...that's how we roll!

What? I don't look badass? Even with the carseats behind me?!

The Twinkeys began outgrowing their highchairs...

And lost them this day, after I left them in their own highchairs to blowdry my hair...and returned to them in the same one:

We learned some great new habits...

And a few not-so-good ones:

Boy + mud = happy boy.

We participated in a local Empty Bowls Dinner, creating the bowls to be purchased for donations to the local food pantry.

A totally talented, wonderfully artistic, and did I mention modest person created this flower!

Some of us watched parades, as others marched or rode in them.

We had lots of pool fun!

These teeny little Twinkeys...

...turned into these Terrific 2 year olds!!

Popsicles and playdates were fun.

And I finally got a pic with MonkeyButt...NOT making a funny face!

We met our brand new baby cousin C. I imagine his thought bubble to say, "Wait. How many of you are there?!"

CuriousGeorge & MonkeyButt started at their brand new school...

...and then there were 3...

Until SpiderMonkey joined a 3yr old program :) Which he absolutely loves!

We tried a new park near the ocean...thank goodness for helpful big brothers, and paperbags for Mom to hyperventilate into.

The cast of Farmville joined us for Halloween...

as did Kate Gosselin.

We survived the first snow of the year...barely.

Does this boy not look like a garden gnome?!

We took a lesson from Mommy and snapped pics of ourselves...

I'll need to let him know to tidy up the background next time :)

And of course, a group pic at Christmas.

We're looking forward to a sharing a new year!...once I get a new camera cuz the other one is currently held together with apple juice :)

World's Largest Nerf Party for Mason

Mason is celebrating his defeat of cancer by having The World's Largest Nerf Party! (Friday, March 19th), Kristen is hosting a virtual party, so please go here to link picture(s) of your kids, neighbor's, friends or yourself nerfin' it up! We did!

Top 'o the Mornin' to ya!!!

CuriousGeorge (age7) came downstairs wide-eyed this morning:

"MOM! Do you know what Phoebe told me?! She said if you wear green today,

you get a kiss (with the girls-have-cooties face);

and if you don't, you get a pinch."

I giggled as I shielded my eyes from the blazing orange outfit he was wearing.

After explaining the higher probability of getting pinched by all the boys in his class,

he came out of his closet in head-to-toe camo.

MonkeyButt (age 9) was then reminded and was on the hunt for some green.

It was close to bus time so I entered his closet, threw him a pair of jeans,

some (coincidently) green underwear, and a blue shirt with green letters on it.

"That's not green!"

"Bud, you don't have to have a green shirt, just something with green on it."

"But what if one of the guys comes up behind me and pinches me cuz I have a blue shirt on."

"Well, (not my proudest parenting moment) pinch 'em back! And if they don't think it's enough green, you could always pull your pants down."

Picturing that phone call from the principal, I added the fine print: "That was not me giving you permission to pull your pants down, by the way!"

Mom: "Happy St. Patrick's Day, SpiderMonkey!"

SpiderMonkey (age 3): "It's Patrick's Day?!! Is he gonna be at my school?!"

Well, I Try... ;oD

NURSE: Are these all your boys?!?!

ME: Yup...all five.

NURSE: But you look so SANE!

"Well, you told me to share, Mom..."

I probably shoulda waited for Wordless Wednesday, but I couldn't resist :o) Maybe I'll link it up if I don't get back on before then...I'm gonna try tho!!

SpiderMonkey & Mommy at Playhouse Disney LIVE!

For some alone time, I took SpiderMonkey to see Playhouse Disney LIVE! on stage. We signed up for alerts from Ticketmaster and got to use a code to purchase tickets early, and we had floor seats, Row G, so only like 25-30 feet from the stage.

The show was amazing!!! Most of the Playhouse Disney characters were there. We've been to Dora before, and also Bear in the Big Blue House, but this one was...by far...MY favorite! I wouldn't change a thing...well, except that I love Mr. Lopart's cat (who wasn't there, I don't think) and there was no interaction with any other major Handy Manny characters, like his grampa and Kelly, but they were up there dancing around. So cute!!! If you get the chance to go see it, you definitely should!!!

Here is a Smilebox of our little adventure. Have you made a smilebox yet? They're sooo easy, free and fun to do!!! You can get more music options and print them off if you choose to purchase a membership, but you can still email, blog, and save them to limited music options if you choose. I even put this one of facebook...LOVE IT!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Wordless Wednesday--They Look So Innocent, Don't They?!

They look so innocent, don't they?

Look at all those monkey ears as they watch the puppies play out back.

Yes, innocent indeed...

Until you ZOOM OUT!

Naughties.
:op

I'm not all American Idol all.the.time...

I'm not all American Idol all the time, really, I'm NOT! It's just this thing I'm doing to avoid laundry and dishes right now. It's fun, and it takes up two nights a week I could be going to the gym, but can't cuz I'm so busy blogging Idol (not that I make it any of the other five nights...), but my days are filled with raising my five boys, wiping noses, butts, counters, and tears and trying to climb the mountain range that is forming in my laundry area and bathroom and bedroom, oh, and closet. I have my days when I veg and don't get much done except refill sippy cups, change diapers and pick up the same messes over and over and over again.
I no longer watch live TV. I can't stand commercials! I am in love with my DVR, which is at 99% almost daily, and enjoy my "me" time when all the monkeys are asleep and I can fast-forward through a week's worth of Guiding Light in a little over an hour.
Life is crazy, totally messy, VERY LOUD, and full of hugs and tears...and pen!ses. I love it, and I'm resolving to capture more of it through blogging. I've started filling a google reader, so if you happen to stumble on this and want me to add you, please leave a comment :o)

Don't worry Mandy, I've already got ya! ;o)

Wordless Wednesday

Dear Summer,

Please hurry up and get here!

Signed,

My Washer and Dryer

My (Many) Men

I prefer candid pics to posed, but Olan Mills had a $15 deal, so I thought what the heck. I went there without ANY hopes of getting a pic of them all smiling, let alone looking at the camera! It only took 30 seconds to get this one! :-O

MonkeyButt, age 8 and CuriousGeorge, age 6

SpiderMonkey, age 2.5

MonkeySee and MonkeyDo, age 1.5

There's Something I Never Thought I'd Say To My 2yr Old!

There's something I never thought I'd say to my 2yr old:

"Stop milking the dog!!!"

SPOILER: The Bachelor Rant!

Don't read if u haven't watched or don't care lmao...and if u are about to watch, just skip to After The Final Rose...you'll see the whole 2 hours in 90 seconds neway!!!

I started painting tonight while watching the Bachelor Finale but got to the 2nd Seattle visit and couldn't wait another 85 minutes to see who Jason chose (and more importantly...how much they cried!) so I blew my DVR a kiss and clicked to the After the Final Rose episode. And that's where the "are you freaking kidding me?!" comes in.

I've always said he was gonna pick Melissa, but to turn around and "break up with" her on TV was just mean! And for her to sit there and take it like that...she didn't even take a swing at him?! Come ON!... And then Chris Harrison baited Molli, asking her, what would u say if Jason told u he changed his mind. Way to play hard to get, girrrrrrrrrl! *NOT* She knew...she had to know...that was not shock on her face at all!!! (and what did she do, go get some facial injections after seeing her face on TV this many months?!)

So, I've set the DVR for Jimmy Kimmel and will have to go set it for GMA cuz I'm sure they'll be on there... but really, there's nothing left of interest to tell us...unless u wanna get down to the juicy details of what has been going on these past few months...and what Jason told Molli happened between him and Melissa after the taping! Basically, we now can predict the outcome of every Bachelor/Bachelorette from here on out...they'll pick one of the finalists, give her a test drive (if u kwim!) for 6 weeks and then "change their mind" right before the After The Final Rose show.

I think one day Ty will be sent home from his 10th grade english class with a failed paper, with a big fat red-inked note to his father cuz the teacher was a fan of the show and Melissa's, way back when. Jason's such a big fat crybaby! It's cute and even a lil sexy to cry when ur baby's born, or to tear up when talking about your child or u just got ur heart broken...but that man's been balling like a sissy for weeks!!! *sigh*

There'll prolly be tons of interviews coming up...maybe tomorrow night (After, part 2) Molli will come back and say, "nah, it didn't work out...he cries too much." {Evil laughter}

But you know where the REAL GOOD interview lies????! With the FORMER Mrs. Jason Mesnick...Ty's bio mom...someone who's 'been there, done that!' and here's why I left it. That would be some goooooooooood TV! Now I gotta go email Barbara Walters and pitch my idea to her! LOL jk...I think...

And in case you're wondering...I agree I watch too much TV, <3 my DVR more than words can describe, and take my "reality" shows a little too seriously...I'll blame it on the paint fumes! Ha!

Busy, busy, busy!

Another snow day on the books for New England...how am I supposed to get anything done around here when I'm so busy refereeing baby/kid wrestling matches?! I've already taken 4 excedrin and now I'm enjoying a breakfast of coffee and chocolate chip cookies, so if I'm rolling on the floor convulsing, it's prolly not a seizure, just all the caffeine in my system, m'kay?

I've been doing a lot of wallpapering, painting and re-wallpapering (dayum kids! lol) around here...I guess it's my own version of spring-cleaning cuz gawd knows I'm avoiding those closets like the plague!

But of course, with so many kids around, my "working hours" to paint/paper are from 9:30 pm to 3:00 am...I've been meeting KingKong on his way to the shower many mornings... :o(

And yes, I've been blogging IDOL...sorry to bombard your readers with the posts if you don't watch! I'm doing it for one of the local radio stations, so I thought I'd post them here, also!

The Twinkeys were supposed to have a speech eval today, but of course, snow day = canceled...but that's ok, cuz I wanted to paint one more area before they came and I suppose I should tackle some laundry! The Twinks understand everything, but resort to their own little twin "language" entirely too often...while I think it is freakin a.dor.a.ble when they use their gibberish, and we can pretty much understand what they say/want cuz they use different syllables/sounds for things (like if MonkeyDo is pissed at you, you will know cuz it's the same 5 syllables over and over again and he is pointing at you for emphasis! LOL), I really don't want them to be saying "duh dit doo duh duh duh" for "Get me more milk, woman!" when they are 15 yrs old, kwim? ...either that, or we're gonna have to move to asia hehehe...joking!

Anyhow, I'm hoping to get some blog reading in today...but prolly not if these monkeys have anything to say about it!

Aaaaaaaaaah!

I'm freaking out a little bit right now. As you know I'm blogging AI episodes for our local radio station (as I bombard you with a couple of them every week!)...well tomorrow morning is my first on air "interview." Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Just wanted to share.

Please excuse me now, I need to go find a paper bag to breathe into!

:op

How Rude!

We took the monkeys shoe shopping over the weekend and while at a double-laned stoplight, waiting for the green light, we heard another car rudely honk his horn (a MAJOR pet peeve of KingKong)...

KingKong (as he turned around to look behind us): What the F? Who
just tooted??!!
MonkeyButt (from the backseat): Me.

Check Me Out!! :op

Obviously I played with paintshop a bit, but you get the gist :o)

I do <3 me some American Idol!

My facebook status today has said LadyKong (ha!) is suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper excited!!!

'Cuz I am!

First, CuriousGeorge was on AFV, and now, I've been given the opportunity to be the American Idol Blogger for a local radio station here. I'm still awaiting details, but can't wait to begin!!

Yay!

(My son) CuriousGeorge is gonna be on TV!!!

I just got the phone call an hour or so ago...CuriousGeorge is gonna be on America's Funniest Home Videos this Sunday at 7pm (eastern) on abc!!! The clip is on my old laptop, or else I'd post it...but you might as well just watch it on Sunday :o)

So be on the lookout for this cute little man. You can't miss those dimples!! He'll be sitting at a kitchen table, looking at a laptop and getting a scare. Hehehehe Let me know if you get a chance to check it out!!

There's One I've Never Heard Before!

KingKong whines complains. Kind of a lot. He gets bummed that we never can do a lot together. It's either I run to the store alone, or he does, and dinner is always drive-thru take-out, and if we're out with the kids, usually one of us runs into Walmart to grab the bare essentials while the other sits in the car with the crazies kids.

I honestly can't remember a sitdown meal in a restaurant that we've had just as a family of 7-9 since this one. Last Sunday, KingKong shook me furiously while I pretended to sleep so he'd get up with the kids woke me up asking if I'd prefer breakfast sandwiches from the local grease mart or pack up everyone and go grab McDonald's breakfast (YUM!) and allow the kids to work off some energy in the playplace. Hmmmmm.

My immediate answer was to just send him to the local store...but KingKong got rather upset, thinking I was trying to avoid time with him...which, btw, I wasn't...It was the crazy looks from other people I was trying to avoid, while our children literally hung from the rafters, colorful tube slides, and nets...and all the frustrated crying (mostly by me ) when we tried to get them all back in the car in a timely manner...with *gasp* their shoes on.

But, I soon decided it was high time to give it another shot and after changing them out of the mismatch outfits their father picked out dressing all the boys, we were on our way...after all, we might as well tie in a pointless meandering trip to Marden's, the discount store who has everything and usually nothing you need. Sadly, when we pulled into the parking lot, the fire exit door of the playplace was boarded up and the metal joints were caved in. Evidently someone was in a hurry to get some mcnuggets and missed the drive thru!

The boys understood and in the spirit of eating out of a paper bag in the car less dining out together as a large family, we unloaded the crazies into McDonald's. Four #8s, one #2, some extra hashbrowns and a big breakfast later, we all dined together rather calmly and quietly. I was very pleased and proud of my little hoodlums.

And to add to the list of comments I've never heard before...A woman who was leaving passed by our table slowly and commented to my husband, "Wow, there's no denying those boys, huh?" Ummmmm, noooooo, but thanks for your input! LOL. I know she meant it sweetly...I think ;op

You Think Kids Say the Darndest Things???.......Well,...

...Just wait 'til they put it in writing and get graded for it!!!

I was going through the mountain stack of school papers CuriousGeorge and MonkeyButt put on the counter last night and found: "About Myself" by MonkeyButt.**'' **duh, name change.

Chapter 1, How Old: I am seven years old and have one sister and five brothers. MonkeyGirl is my only sister, and MonkeyBoy is my teenage brother. Then there's CuriousGeorge, SpiderMonkey, MonkeySee, and MonkeyDo (my little brothers).

Chapter 2, What I Look Like: I have light brown hair, blue eyes, tan skin, and brown eyebrows.

Chapter 3, How Old Are My Parents and Other People in My House: My dad is 33, my mom is 27. My sister is 14, my brothers are 12, 6, 2, 1, and 1.

Chapter 4, What My Parents Do: My dad drives a big truck all day. But my mom sits on our couch, on the computer or watching Guiding Light TV.

Chapter 5, My Birthday: I was born on January 11, 2001. I was born in Monkeyville Medical Center.

Chapter 6, Favorite Foods: I like tacos, spaghetti with meatballs, and cereal.

THE END

Well, this is OBVIOUSLY a fictional story or else the word bon-bons would have been included!!!

The moral of the story folks...someday your child will be in 3rd grade and will have to write something like this, so you better start brainwashing training prepping them on all the wonderous duties of being a sahm now!

;o)