JunkMonkie N Magnus

Teacher for the Day

Lilly is really enjoying her time in Kindergarten - and we had a fun experience recently with Lilly being "Teacher for the Day". Justin and I both were invited to be her student at school, where she walked us through various lessons that she especially enjoyed doing. 

Lilly is such a tomboy at school. I am AMAZED at how filthy she is at the end of the day! I often have to do a quick wipe down before we leave the school because her arms and legs are covered in dirt. White shirts (obviously) don't stay white long! Her arms and legs are covered in bruises from playing. Her hair is a rats nest at the end of the day! And she LOVES it - and of course - we love it!

 

Lilly's first lesson was a math game - Building a snake. It involves little color-coded balls and was an interesting way to learn counting by 10s. She did it so fast! I'm needing to read up a bit more about how to expand this game - because she really enjoyed it!

Our next lesson involved building a clock - seriously building it! This was a fun way to learn our time - Lilly wasn't as interested in learning the time as she was putting it together tho, so we didn't stay on this activity for to long. 

 

Our final lesson was movable alphabet. We associated pictures with the word and then found the letters and built the word. After a bit, we didn't look for the words, but rather build the word with the letters using only the picture. This was a lot of fun - and similar to word building activities we play at home already!

We really enjoyed Lilly's sense of accomplishment with each lesson she took us through. She is really learning concepts in a whole different fashion than what we remember when we went to school! 

Pinterest Win! A different casa every day!

I haven't blogged in FOREVER - like a month - life gets so busy, especially with Birthday, school, work and life!

Here is a Pinterest WIN. OMG - I am addicted to this site. It's like I can get rid of the piles and piles of magazine clippings of things I "want to do" - it's all there for me! My favorite pins are for kiddo ideas and crafty experiments. I saw this post and said - yes - we are doing this!

Great thing my husband was on board. He had plans drafted within a matter of minutes and off to Lowe's we went!

The supply list is pretty short: 

1/2 inch PVC pipe: Here you gotta do some math - Our height was 4 ft tall, wide, etc. with 3 ft pitched roof = ~52 ft of 1/2 inch PVC

Connectors: 6 3 holed L shaped, 4 3 holed T shaped and 2 L shaped

Saw

Measuring Tape (Measure a few times, cut once!)

The entire thing came together super quick - like 20 minutes.

We didn't put a bottom cross beam on the "front" of the frame - reducing trip hazards! We didn't glue/seal anything - the intention is that the frame is protable and takes up as little space as possible!

We moved the frame inside the house to Lilly's playroom and I dug out some vintage sheets to cover it. 2 Full size sheets covered the sides and roof of the house. A full size sheet folded in 1/2 covered the back and 2 fitted sheets covered the front and back parts of the roof, with a little overlap in the front for a low entry-way (what Lilly wanted).

The plan is to go to the thrift store and pick up a few white sheets in the largest sizes possible. I'll pin those to the frame, sew up the slip cover and we'll either applicae or draw/paint elements onto it (windows, doors, flower pots, etc). Heck, we could make different slip covers for whatever the imagination wanted to be (castles, firehouse, tree, underwater - the possibilities are endless!)

When used outside, I have a floor cover of lime green/hot pint placemats I sewed together to create a bit of water barrier between the grass (and whatever else is in there) and us! 

Lilly LOVES LOVES LOVES it! Mommy LOVES LOVES LOVES+++ it! Daddy TOLERATES it!!!

We have some BIG plans for this house frame - tea parties and sleep overs are being scheduled as we speak!

 

All About Me

Lilly is really enjoying school. They are doing fun and engaging activites. Montessori school is definetly different than traditional - and I think Justin and I are starting to get into the groove of things. Lilly has learned about the life cycle of frogs (their field flooded with the recent rains and frogs were popping out of the ground everywhere!), our Solar System (Pluto got "kicked" out, but she already knew that from Preschool), they have a classroom gecko (who eats meal worms and shed his skin on Friday!) and so many other things that she "just forgets" to tell us!

One activity we enjoyed doing together was creating her "all about me" poster. The poster was a way for the kids to express themselves in both writing and drawings - and Lilly had fun!

 

I am 4 years old. My Favorite color is Pink + Black. My favorite animal is fish (we just got a fish tank).  My favorite food is candy (technically, not a food!)

When I grow up I want to be Santa Girl (and I added: And give gifts to all the animals!) - I don't know where she got this idea from - but it's cute... perhaps become a vet? 

The Day and Night before being 5

Today is Lilly's last day being 4 years old! I can't believe she is already turning 5! What an amazing little girl. We love her so very much!

Today, Lilly celebrated her 5 "times around the sun" with a special event at school. Each child in the class gets to put together a special collage of their time spend on this rock and the parents can come to school and be part of the celebration. Well, I (of course) had so many ideas on how this collage could be crafted, but scaled back my awsome imagination to something that wouldn't overwhelm the crowd (ha ha). Lilly LOVES it and I do as well. 

I took some of my favorite pics of each of her 4 years and had them printed in wallet size at Wal-Mart. They printed out really well - I was surprised at the quality of the prints! Well, I went a bit overboard and printed way more than needed, so my next task was to determine which pics made the cut. That was very difficult! I had to include pics of Grandma Rose and Grandpa Howdy because they volunteer in the class and the kids got a kick out of seeing Lilly as a tiny baby with them. 

When Lilly's school day was done, we ran a few errands, baked cupcakes and then grabbed a handful of Chucky Cheese tokens (from her birthday when she was 2!) and went to Chucky Cheese and played for a bit. We pocketed our winning tickets and finished off our night with dinner at Outback!

(We ran into a few princesses at a party store..... sorry gals, she wants to be a Monster High chick this year - but we'll see you in a few days!)

This weekend will be a bit laid back, no big birthday blowout (like last year!). We are going to do something quiet at home (aka - eat cupcakes all day long), and go to dinner at the "Funny Chef Place" (Beni Hanna). Sunday we'll have a playdate with a friend. Then.... it's time for Disneyland!!!

My picky eater..... will this work?

While my child eats "well" she is a picky picky eater. She would rather eat a bowl of corn, peas and green beans than mashed potatos. She loves grapes, carrots and string cheese. She doesn't like spice and can live on grilled chicken and steak her whole life. With the addition of buttered bread and a couple other "once in a while" fruits - that is the extent of her menu. She also doesn't eat much at one time.

We found this dinner plate at Bookmans and I thought perhaps this plate would entice her to eat a wider variety of food because the face can't always have the exact same food making up it's hair style and jewlery!

I must say, it was a hit! 

 

Almost all the food was eaten, and without a whine or complaint that "I don't like xxxxx". Granted, i did use all the foods she would normally eat anyway (with the exception of the hot dog).

As I use this more, I'll post more face plate designs!

Pintrest: Recipe FAIL

I finally used my pintrest account (and of course, am now hooked) and tried a new recipe that I thought would help me with the hussle and bussle after school, when we don't have a lot of time to cook. 

I thought that "muffin meals" would be a perfect way to make food ahead on the weekend and heat up on our week nights. I found a pintrest post and followed the link to the Betty Crocker site to grab the recipe.

This is how it went: 

#1, I forgot to check the fridge to make sure I HAD all the ingredients I thought I HAD (ie. MILK). I didn't have milk to make the bisquick dough - but was to far into making the recipe (cooking the chicken, veggies were combo'd already) that I decided to use whatever I had on hand. What I had on hand was Cream of Mushroom soup. So - instead of using MILK I used SOUP to make dough. The dough was a bit thick, but I thought it might actually cook up rather tasty.

#2, I didn't want to make any ol' "small" muffins - I wanted them to be larger, so that one would be enough for a meal. So, instead of using the regular muffin tin, I used my large muffin tin. 

All of the ingredients went well together - I even put an extra splash of cheese on the top for extra yumminess.

(This is how they looked before going into the oven - don't they look like they would be great?!)

I did realize that they would have to cook a "bit" longer than the normal recipe because they were in the larger tin. What I didn't realize was that dough made with mushroom soup doesn't really cook up! I ended up baking these guys for over an hour.

When I pulled them out of the over for the last time (I was starving) the tops looked great. The middle was still gooey.

(Don't these look yummy?!)

The bottoms were cooked ok as well.

I warned Justin about what he was eating - I didn't want to ruin my experimentation with him thinking I was tricking him into eating something crazy. The tops tasted delicious! The bottom part tasted delicious! The gooey part - not delicious! Bronco loved them though!

So, final conclusion: The Fail of this recipe wasn't because of the recipe itself, but was me. I need to (1) make sure I have all the ingredients on hand before I start cooking (2) follow the recipe closely (I kind of threw some extra things in there for a bit of jazzy pizzaz) and (3) use the right muffin tin!

I do plan on trying to create some other "masterpieces" in the near future - there are to many great pictures and posts to think that they can't come out perfect.....eventually!

Lilly's First Day of K was Gr8!!!

Lilly had a wonderful first day of Kindgarten. She met new friends and learned a couple of new songs. She is having alot of fun. 

Some pics from the "first day ever":

Justin came up with this idea: Take pics of Lilly with the turtles the first day of every school year. I wish we would have thought of this last year, when they were born (around this time) - because they were so much smaller then (about the size of a 1/2 dollar!)

 

It was very hot and humid (at 8 AM) - at this point in time - we were all ready to get inside!

 

The Friday before school we went to "Meet the Teacher" day and Lilly colored a wooden stick doll to look like her. On Monday, she had to find her doll and sit on the chalk circle and wait patiently for the other kids to find theirs. This was the last picture before  we gave her a quick kiss (holding back tears) and introducing her to a new friend, to take her mind off of us leaving. 

I picked her up after school and she didn't want to leave! She had a great time and had a lot to tell us all evening long. When she woke up today tho - she did say she didn't want to go back, but that didn't last long after we talked about all the new adventures she will get to experience today.

I'm crafting a pretty cool book, documenting her Kindegarten year, I'll post about it soon.

 

First day of Kindergarten

Our special kid is embarking on her next grand adventure! Lilly started kindergarten today and is so excited! 

Have a super day, super kid! Mommy and daddy love you to Infinity and beyond!

Alice in Wonderland

We love going to see a good children's play! Alice in Wonderland was playing at a local dinner theater - and we grabbed the chance to enjoy some good "kiddie" food and watching the retalling of a story Lilly loves.

The "rare" photo of the three of us together.... most of the time one of us is behind the camera!

Lilly picked her outfit out - this dress would be worn every day if I let her!

After the play we got to meet the characters.

This is Lily (the flower) meeting Lilly, the little girl. He was so excited to take this picture!

Lily, Lilly, Tweede Dum (or Dee) and Royal Guard

Mad Hatter, Lilly, and Hare

Catapillar, the Queen of Hearts, Lilly, and White Rabbit

 

Alice and Cheshire Cat

The theater is closed now, undergoing renovations. When I asked, I didn't get a clear answer on if children's theater would be coming back or not. So now I'm on the look-out for other venues in my area where we can continue enjoying the theater in a relaxed, kid-friendly environment!

Latest obsession

While dinking around YouTube one night, Lilly stumbled onto some face painting videos - and has been hooked. She watches the same ones over and over (x10) and has been "play practicing" on our faces. I finally broke down and bought some cheap (and I mean CHEAP) face paints from the store - so we could have a little fun. 

I will never match up to the artistic expectations Lilly has placed on me - but I gave it a try! She loves watching a specific Hello Kitty video, and has every single word of it memorized! 

Ok, here I go.....

 

To "soften" the blow that I didn't do her nose or bow right, I added a few colors to her hair. She loved it! (But I still got the lecture on how to make it right next time!) 

 

After some convincing (and a convenient time to not have to go out of the house because these paints don't come off very well!!!) Lilly got her chance to paint my face. 

Here she goes!

She did an amazing job! Like I said, these paints are CHEAP - her birthday is around the corner - so we'll see if better ones show up.

And again, showing my Zero artistic ability, I free-handed a design for her face. She loved it and that is all that matters!

Lilly's shot of her daddy and I. He refused to get anywhere near the end of the paint brush!

San Diego - July 4th 2012

We made the trek to San Diego again this year for a fun few days in San Diego! Of course, we had a BLAST!

My camera battery was left charging at home, so all pics are from my camera phone.

We stayed in Point Loma - and enjoyed walking along the harbor. We also went to Sea World, Balboa Park, La Jolla and Ocean Beach!

 

 

June 2012

We've been having a great summer! Plays, movies and lots and lots of swimming!

In June we went to the play, Rapunzel, at Hale Theater. It was so fun!

 

And we continued out Disney Princess obsession with a Mother-Daughter date to Brave!

 

It was a great way to beat the heat!

Happy Father's Day!

Wishing all the great dads a Happy Father's Day! Our day was spend doing special projects for Lilly's favorite daddy (shhhh - he doesn't know yet), swimming to cool off (112+ degrees!) and grill up some brats for dinner!

I haven't blogged in awhile - I wish I was more motivated to do it - I love going back and re-reading them. Life is just extra busy - ya know?! :-)

Class of 2012~ Stephanie

Stephanie is my cousin, but she calls me Auntie Jen. The story on why this is so is way to long to repeat – but I love being called Auntie Jen by this girl. Steph will be graduating High School on Friday – and we are so very proud of her. 

I remember the day Steph was born (like it was yesterday!!), and she and I have been close buddies for 19 years. She means the world to me and I love the woman she has become.

Steph is a super driven young woman. She excels in athletics and academics. She won her division state gymnastic title a few years ago and took 2^nd in her high schools division pole vault event and first place in the 4x400 relay at state this year!

She’s also a pretty awesome cheer leader – and is so much fun to watch (she’s rubbing off a bit on Lilly!).

Steph will be traveling a bit further south this fall than I wanted to, choosing U of A over ASU – but that’s alright with me. It means I get to visit a part of Arizona I haven’t really paid attention to yet! She’s going to be in the honors college and I know she’ll knock that out of the park!

Lilly and Steph are now developing the type of “sister” relationship that Steph and I have. If you were to ask Lilly who her favorite (anything) is – she would say Steph.  I hope these two continue to strengthen their bond over the years. Lilly needs someone to look up to and considers Steph her “big” sister.

 

Steph and I have a super secret “hand sign” that we’ve perfected over the years. I taught Steph our secret when she was a year old and we’ve used it since. Wherever she is (usually performing of some sort) she’ll look for me in the crowd and I’ll “flash” the sign. It lets her know that I’m rooting for her, all is well and she’ll do great whatever the outcome. Well, I won’t be at her graduation – not because I don’t want to but because it’s going to be complete chaos (no tickets, open door for everyone) AND I’ve also signed up to be the paparatzzi at Project Graduation and I’ll need a nap first….. but I know in her mind I’ll pop in for a quick “flash hand sign” and she’ll know I’m there with her in spirit!!

Great job Steph! You should be so proud of yourself! You have nothing but opportunity in front of you – and with your determination – YOU WILL CONCOUR THE WORLD!!!!!

 

Class of 2012~ Lilly

On September 15, 2007 my life became immensely perfect, with the birth of my most precious baby girl, Lilly Rose.

And now, 4 ½ years later we are celebrating another huge milestone in her life – and are so proud of her!

Lilly graduated from her preschool with the most amazing group of kiddos we’ve had the opportunity to know. Lilly has made so many great friends and I hope these relationships can continue once each child goes off on their own path to Kindergarten. Lilly is so excited to be going to Kindergarten next year –  she asks to drive by the building every day. I hope her love of learning and experiencing new things continues for her entire life. She is truly an amazing human being and brings smiles to so many people!

Lilly – My wish for you is to fully embrace all life’s opportunities and challenges. I can’t say I hope you love every minute of your growing up – because frankly – that is completely unrealistic. But I hope that the MAJORITY of your life experiences are amazing and you truly enjoy as many steps of your journey as you possibly can.  Your daddy and I love you to infinity and beyond and will be with you, supporting you every step of the way!

Be creative, be inquisitive, be joyful, be kind, be a true friend, be honest, be happy – most of all – BE YOU!

Love ya Lilly Buggy Boo!

 

Class of 2012~ Alyssa

Three of the coolest girls I know are enjoying a very special time in their lives right now. It’s really neat that these three amazing girls are all GRADUATING this month from their respective grade!

I have a bit to say about each of them over the next few days.

 

My niece, Alyssa, is a great kid. She is graduating from 8^th grade and moving into high school next year. I am amazed at how cool and laid back she is. She’s smart, funny and very athletic! She plays tuba in her school band (which I think is very cool!). She is also on the high school crew team (If you don't konw what that is....she rows a boat.. don't fret, I didn't really know what it was either till she explained it to me)! Yes - as an eight grader, Alyssa is playing high school sports!

I think of Alyssa as the “world traveler” of the family. This kid has taken been on an airplane more than many of our family members combined! She is such a joy to be around – we have the greatest time when we she comes to visit!

The first time I met Alyssa I was fully in love with this child. I didn’t get to see her until she was 3 years old, as her family used to serve in the Army and had moved to Germany shortly after she was born. She was the spitting image of Boo (from Monsters Inc) and had the best disposition of any child I had ever met.

(This pic was taken in 2008 at her dad/my brother's wedding)

A few summers, Alyssa came to Arizona and Oregon to spend time with Justin and I and we loved it. We’ve been all over the Oregon Coast (with Steph and Mikey Joe), San Diego/Sea World and all over Arizona. She was with us when I was 8 months pregnant with Lilly – and we had such a special time together.

(This pic was taken with the kiddos in Oregon at the Sea Lion caves in 2004 - wow - look how small they were!)

This pic was taken in San Diego 2005. Alyssa's favorite song was "Move It" from Madagascar and we heard it the 6 hours to San Diego AND the 6 hours back! :-)

I am so proud of Alyssa and the fine young woman she has become in her early teen years. I look forward to seeing how she blossoms as a teenager and through her 20s!

Love ya Lyssa!!! xoxoxo

 

Ballerinas and Birthday Bulls

We had such a busy weekend! 2 preschool birthday parties with Lilly's buddies, Lilly's Dance Recital and Grandpa Howdy's Birthday! And this upcoming week is going to be just as busy..... graduation!!!!

Lilly participates in Twinkle Toes at her preschool. All the girls worked very very hard to put together a dance to Disney's Tangled. How appropriate!  

Lilly patiently let me curl every inch of her hair - she looked like Shirley Temple! After a liberal dose of hairspray and glitter spray - our princess was ready for her big day!

 

 

 

Lilly shined like a star! The entire performance was magical and all the girls did a fantastic job! I teared up every time she took the stage, I was SO proud of her! Lilly really enjoys dancing - and we'll encourage that for as long as she is interested!

We also celebrated Grandpa Howdy's birthday. Lilly wanted "steak" and what better place to go than Ruster's Rooste! The food was good and the company was great! 

Happy Birthday Grandpa Howdy!!!

 

 

Pink-errific!

Lilly, Grandma Rose and I went to the Broadway Palms last week to see the "Off Broadway" rendition of Pinkalicious! 

We had a great time! Lilly was very familiar with the Pinkalicious story told in this play, as we read it just about every week! 

Lilly dressed up super special in one of her "many" pink dresses, hair glitter, make-up and jewlery! She looked super-pink-cooper cute!

Chemistry Lab in the Kitchen

Justin is going back to school to get his degree in Engineering and is currently taking online classes. One of the classes he's taking now is a Chemistry class, with a lab. 

Needless to say, Lilly wants to be in the middle of the beaker/pipette action - and "assist" her daddy with his chemistry experiments! 

She didn't quite understand the cosuming M&Ms while doing science experiments doesn't really work out. 

This is Lilly's response to me asking her, "Lilly! What is in your mouth?" (Notice the drink cup is now included in the mess of the chemistry lab?)

While her help didn't turn into a disaster, we make sure now that she and I are out of the house while he's working on his classes!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the awesome, amazing, beautiful mom's in our lives. Today is a day to reflect on all the great things that we love about being moms!

My favorite thing about being a mommy is my daugther, Lilly. She is the joy of my life - she is the most amazing kid!

 

My two favorites

The start of summer is here!

It's been warming up in the Valley of the Sun and Lilly has wasted no time checking the pool to see if it's warm enough to swim in. Her parents still think it's a bit to cold for their taste, but she's all ready for it!

Our summer goal this year is for her to learn how to snorkle. This cheap snorkel gear is going to soon be replaced by quality gear that we can use in the pool, nearby lakes and ultimately, the ocean!

 

Lilly Breadsticks

Getting Lilly to try new foods is a struggle. I know at school she eats a wide variety of foods - she tells me everyday the new food she's tried. She is starting to show some interest in cooking - and I want to foster that. I love to cook and trying new dishes. I hope that by fostering her interest in cooking (mostly baking) she will venture out of her standard dinner meal.

We had a great time creating breadstick letters and home made sauce (referred to as "dinosaur blood"). She loved making the letters, helping to bake and making up the sauce. She especially loved grating the parmasean cheese with the micro planer! She ate the whole thing! Next time, we might try "calzone" it up a bit with some of her favorite veggies and cheese. :-)

Note: Lilly's eyes look very dark because I let her put on her own make-up for this photo shoot. That included some extra dark purple to go with her Rapunzel dress! :-)

Girls Date

We had a little "girls" date this past Saturday. Lilly dressed in her favorite "gown" (anything black and pink made the inital cut) and prepped her Rapunzel doll for the big day.

 

Lilly took her Great Grandma Arizona and myself to go to Disney on Ice in Phoenix. 

We all had the greatest time!

Our seats were amazing! 

While my wallet is lighter, our memories are richer with this great experience of a little girl, her great grandmother and their chaperone!

Fun at the park

Who can't get out and enjoy the AMAZING spring weather we have here in Arizona! It's been so great!

But, for anyone who's lived in Arizona at least 12 months understands that the brilliant spring weather soon gives away to incredible (sometimes almost unbearable) summer heat (thus, why most everyone has a POOL!)

We spent an amazing day at the park, near my parents house. Lilly enjoyed playing on all the equipment and my dad and I enjoyed watching a dog agility club put their dogs through their workouts!

 

 

<3 from Ireland

I am blessed to work for an international company. I have co-workers in China, Israel and Ireland - and they are truly amazing people. A recent business trip of an Ireland co-worker to the states included a special gift for Lil Miss Lilly. She couldn't be more thrilled at a special present, and "it wasn't even my Birthday, Mommy!"

Lilly took great care with removing the ribbon from the package, but took no time getting the paper off!

What was our surprise underneath?

A super cool tin (which I will keep FOREVER) filled with the most amazing beads - perfect for Lilly's creativity to come through. We've beaded, and re-beaded and re-re-beaded the same elastic necklace string many times over.

Also part of the surprise were two amazing books! I am in total love with them!

The Kingdom of Mourne and The Mysteries of the Avoca Pony. Two great reads!!!

Thanks Ms. Mary!