Summer of the Monkeys Part I

The first week of summer vacation is over. I think it will take a full week to recover. Each day this week we had a special activity and many also had baseball, gymnastics and Bible school.

Day one:
We stopped by the library and signed up for the summer reading program. Josh was not very excited about the prospect of 15 hours of reading, but I think that's because he doesn't realize how much reading he does. Maggie picked out some American Girl books and then helped Caleb choose his. They sat quietly reading together for 40 minutes while Josh and I hunted for his books. I find it funny that he didn't want to listen to my suggestions, but ended up with my offerings. He hates that I know him that well. I found a series by the author Tamora Pierce and finished it this week. It is aimed at 6/7th grade reading level, but I don't like sex/ violence in my literature, so juv fiction is for me. As I was reading it, Maggie had so many questions, I just gave her the first book to read when I was done. She is pleased with herself for following the story and has minimal intervention from me. Her decoding skills are fabulous and she can figure out almost any word, but sometimes needs help with their meanings. We also hit the sprinkler at home and the pool. Josh had a baseball game. His team won by slaughter rule in the fourth inning. It was a fun day all around.

Day 2:
After morning chores were done we headed to the pool. We spent most of the day there. We met up with friends and the kids had a great time.

Day 3:
We went to the zoo (in the rain). Josh brought along a friend that I will give credit to for keeping everyone's spirits up. Our family has been spoiled by years of zoo membership. His sense of wonder and excitement opened everyone's eyes to just how cool the zoo really was.
The rain was a bit of a downer, but soon everyone was in a poncho and had their shoes off. Poor planner that I am, I had dressed myself for a heat wave in a tank top and shorts for this lovely 75ish degree rainy day. I had to buy a hoodie from the gift shop just to survive. Because the zoo was less crowed than usual, we were able to see things for the first time like the tiger training. Next time I'm going to check the weather before we head to The Ville. Skyline chili ROCKS!!




Day 4:
We picked up an extra monkey while at the zoo, Baker monkey that is. We stole the kid's cousin Adam and brought him back to Lexington to help give his parents a break and me a breakdown! No, he was awesome and we went to the Explorium on Thursday. I had to write my cell phone number on Adam's arm because he wanted as much freedom as my own kids. The front desk people thought it was hysterical. I don't think we saw everything although we were there all day. The bubble room alone kept their attention for more than an hour!


Day 5:
With cousin Adam still in tow, we headed to Kids Place. I should have known better. The weather was not good for a pool day, but the kids and I had different expectations for Kids Place. There is a giant play structure with tubes and slides and ball pits and a trampoline. I figured it would be a great way to get extra energy out. What kids place also has is arcade games with tickets one can cash in for cheap plastic crap. The start of our trip I let them know they had to play for an hour before they could get their 4 tokens that came with admission. Adam had a blast playing in the ball pit and building a house out of funky puzzle piece blocks. My kids kept comming up to me asking if it had been an hour yet. I caved after 45 minutes. They had no clue, I'm sure it seemed as much like an eternity to them as it did me. Their tokens were gone in less than 10 minutes. They decided that they could get something cooler if they pooled their tickets. Score! Cooperation! Whoohooo! I held their tickets and sent them back to the tubes to play. Adam walked up to me a short time later and asked where the kids were. I had told them to stick with him, so I was more than angry whe I found that they sneaked off to the prize counter to scope out the loot. I kept the tickets and they will not spend them until we go back there...if we ever do.

Day 6:
The fun didn't stop on Friday. We had 2 birthday parties 3 baseball games and it was Caleb's half birthday. Having no time to prepare a (half) cake, I just gave him an IOU. He was good with that. There was plenty of junk food that day.

Make your Stick Figure Family at FreeFlashToys.com

Christmas time

Here at Baker Monkeys we've been having a fantastic time celebrating the holidays. We just got back from Saint Louis visiting my grandparents and will have another gigantic picture post from the trip up soon. In the meantime, enjoy this video of our monkeys (plus an extra, the Baker Monkey cousin Abby) sing their favorite Christmas song.

Pedway Tag

Last night Tom took Maggie to a basketball game. As usual around here the fans were obnoxious and stupid. They left at half time and did some exploring downtown. Tom showed Maggie how all the buildings with pedways were connected and that one could get completely around without going outside.

Tonight the whole family went. We scouted out the whole thing with the intention of playing pedway tag tomorrow night. We are going to make up some guidelines and set up teams tomorrow and the fun starts at dusk.

Having absolutely no money really gets the creative juices flowing. If anyone has any other free family fun ideas, send them on.

Inspired to Write

Josh hates it when we make him write. It's okay if he does it on his own terms, but I really want to encourage writing more than just the bare minimum to get through school. Tonight we were at praise band practice with Tom and he was acting kinda, well, eight. I offered to pay him a dollar to write me a story that was front and back of a page (he writes big and on every other line).

I started him off with a line and he responded with very little and went off again to play. I didn't want to give up so I wrote another line and asked him to alternate with me. This is what we came up with:

The day my mom was turned into a toad...

We kicked her out of the house. She was gone for good. She was on her own. (tres harsh)

Then there was no one to wash clothes or dishes.

So daddy did it. Nothing was in place. (hehe)

I couldn't find my underwear and there were plates in my dresser drawers.
Then mama's drawers made out of chocolate. I ate them all up. There was nothing left.

I had a tummy ache. I really missed my mom. I decided to go find the witch that turned her into a toad.

But it was too scare [sic] that I never went. The next day I was too busy playing game cube that I never went.

Then my brother, who is much braver then me, went and found the witch and had my mom restored to her proper form. She found my underwear!!!

Then she turned back into a toad.

The end!