Silly Monkey Stories: Our Son, the Mutant Alien Fly

Here's our son's mutant alien fly #diycostume for the 2nd grade Bug Parade.

A photo posted by Karen Coutu (@karen3g2s) on Jun 19, 2015 at 11:15am PDT

It's been awhile since I've shared a Silly Monkey Story.  Between you and me, I was starting to consider changing the name of the series to "Exasperating Monkey Stories."

This is an Instagram photo I shared of our 8 year old, Luke, on the day of the 2nd grade Bug Parade at school.  He's been going through a phase of making signs with his hands whenever I try to take a photo of him.  What do you think he's trying to say?  Peace?  Steal second base?  Is he throwing gang signs? . . .

We'll share more about our twins' DIY bug costumes soon!

Silly Monkey Stories: The Straight Shooter

For the most part, our 7 year old son is a straight shooter.  That means he will tell you the truth even if he digs himself into a very deep hole doing it.  For instance, we are always on the children about being so messy when they eat.  I think all three of them are still as messy now as when they were just three or four years old.  We must have asked them why they are so messy at least a hundred times over the coarse of there lives.  We never expected to actually get an answer, but one day we did . . .

Me:  I don't understand how you guys drop so much food on the floor when you eat!

Luke:  Whenever we have junk food, we eat every crumb of it.  Whenever we eat broccoli, we dump it on the floor.

He may believe that, but I happen to know from stepping on my fair share of sharp potato chip crumbs that it isn't the complete truth.

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Silly Monkey Stories: Snow Play Photos (Taken with the #SamsungNX300)

I know we usually share our Silly Monkey Stories on Tuesdays, but we're a little off schedule this week.  One of our beloved family pets fell ill and he passed away this morning.  Although the children were very sad this morning, they are apparently far more resilient than I am.  I really could use some cheering up and a few extra reasons to smile today.  That's why I thought it was the perfect time to share these photos my husband took last weekend.

The children lasted almost a whole hour outside playing in the snow until they decided it was too cold and wanted to come inside for hot cocoa.  Luckily, my husband was able to capture several fun moments with our new Samsung NX300 Smart Wifi Compact Camera.  He shot all these photos on auto and I'm quite impressed with how they turned out . . .

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Silly Monkey Stories: Our Children May Be Tiny Hoarders

Last weekend, we decided that it was time for the children to clean their room.  With all the new items that came into the house over Christmas and their birthdays this month, this was long overdue.  Originally, we thought they just needed to clean things they left out and around their room.  Then our oldest child, Jake, discovered he had lost a prop he needed for a school project.  This led us to turn the room upside-down.  When they had no luck finding the missing item, I had a turn trying.  That was when I had the revelation that my sons might be hoarders in the making . . .

Here is a diagram of the items (I could recall seeing) that were in our boys' bunk beds.  There were many other little items, but I just cannot remember them all.  I honestly do not know how they have room to stretch out and sleep comfortably at night, but they seem to manage to.  Some odd things that stood out to me were the chemistry set, the 8 t-shirts, and the bookmark I found in the bed of a boy who never reads in bed.  My husbands says that he empties out their beds completely when he changes their sheets, but somehow everything ends up back in the beds eventually.

What is the oddest thing you've ever found in your child's bed?

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Silly Monkey Stories: A Letter to the Elf on the Shelf (a.k.a. Bob)

Last year, we introduced our children to The Elf on the Shelf.  We even watched the DVD and read the book.  Our children couldn't agree on a name for him, so they named him Bob Jake Luke Makenzie, Jr.  We call him 'Bob' for short.  Ever since last year, Bob has been keeping a watchful eye on the children from the beginning of December until Christmas Eve.  He hides in a different spot around the house, so the children have fun trying to find him every morning.

One morning recently, the children found a note from Bob with the words "Be good" on it.  Well, they promptly ignored that advice, but decided to leave him a note of their own.  Our nearly 7 year old daughter had been practicing letter writing at school, so she took on the task of writing a letter out that reflected the thoughts of all three children . . .

On the morning the children found that note from Bob, he was sitting on top of the curtain rod in the living room, which explains how the children's letter was addressed . . .

Do you have a silly Holiday story to share about your children?  I'd love to hear it!

Happy Holidays!!

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Silly Monkey Stories: Santa Shakes Things Up!

About a week and a half ago, we attended the annual Christmas celebration hosted by the Taekwondo studio where all 3 of our children study.  During this celebration, everyone enjoys a huge pot luck feast, as well as a belt ceremony for any students who are being promoted around that time, and an awards ceremony.  Both our boys were being promoted.  We also had a wonderful surprise when our daughter was called up to receive a "Best Lil Dragon" trophy.  Both those things were thrilling for our children, but what they were waiting for came at the end of the evening.

After all the ceremonies have taken place, the children catch a hint of bells jingling from the distance.  Then shortly after, Santa Claus appears with not one, but two huge sacks of toys.  All the children then sit around Santa on the floor and patiently wait for their name to be called.  It always seems like it is torture for the last 25% of the children, since they have been waiting for quite awhile.

To loosen the children up this year, Santa gave them each a bouncy ride on his knee.  It seemed to work like magic.  Even the children who were shy seemed to smile.

Even the older kids, who were on the edge of being too cool to sit on Santa's lap, smiled when they got their little jostle.  What a great way it was to end the evening.

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Silly Monkey Stories: Post-Photo Shoot Sillies (4th Installment)

Right before the weather turned frigid, I was able to sneak in one more outdoor fall photo shoot with the children.  Although it wasn't warm out, they were not too cold to stay outside a few minutes longer to take part in our traditional post-photo shoot sillies photos.  In case you've missed them, feel free to take a look at the first, second, and third groups of Post-Photo Shoot Sillies photos.  When I look at them, it seems like each installment is sillier than the last.

The photos below are pretty darn silly.  I'm extremely curious to see what our next group of photos will be like . . .

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Silly Monkey Stories: Post-Photo Shoot Sillies (3rd Installment)

Recently, I shared the portraits we took of the children for our 2013 Holiday photo cards.  Like always, our 3 children looked like sweet little angels in those photos.  However, if you've been reading this blog for awhile, then you'll know that the secret to getting those poised photos is the promise of a silly shoot after we've finished up with the serious business.  In case you've missed them, feel free to take a look at the first and second groups of Post-Photo Shoot Sillies photos.

I hope you enjoy these photos.  I know I can't help but smile when I look at them.  Can you tell that the first photo was when they were starting to lose their composure?  That was my first clue that I needed to wrap things up.

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Silly Monkey Stories: A Conversation Between a Donkey and a Pig

Sometimes I forget I live in a multicultural household. In hindsight, conversations like this shouldn't surprise me so much:

While I'm upstairs steaming a shirt for Makenzie. Luke walks in.

Luke: "Baba, are you a donkey?"
Me: "Um, what?" (did he just call me an ass?)
Luke: "Well, me and Kenzie are pigs"
Me: "Ahhhh....(figuring out where this was headed) I am a dog, mom is an ox, and Jake is a monkey"

I was relieved.  Thought I was going to need to rumble with Luke.

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Silly Monkey Stories: Renaming History

The weekend before last, we took the kids to King Richards Faire, a local renaissance festival and one of our favorite places. Although Karen and I have yet to dress up, the kids have a blast dressing up for the faire.

This year Jake dressed as a pirate, Makenzie a fair maiden, and Luke a wise wizard. While we were getting dressed up, I over heard Jake explaining to Luke about the costumes:

“Yes, these costumes are from MEDICAL times”

Of course he meant 'Medieval' times. The part that was most amusing and interesting to me is Jake reads a great deal, I mean A LOT. So all this time he was reading 'medieval' as 'medical'.  I wonder what other words he has mixed up? Only time will tell . . .

Look for more photos from our trip to King Richard's Faire this week!

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Silly Monkey Stories: Post-Photo Shoot Sillies (2nd Installment)

I just realized yesterday that I had these photos put aside to share and never did share them.  I saved them because everyone seemed to enjoy the last group of Post-Photo Shoot Sillies photos I had shared.  For those of you who are not aware of this, I always take silly photos of the children after they do a photo shoot for me.  This is the only way I can keep them from being silly when I really need them to focus and be serious.  I tell them that they need to save all the silliness for afterwards and boy do they ever.  You would not believe how much silliness they have bottled up inside!

By coincidence, just like the last photo shoot, this one was also for a fashion review for a Gymboree campaign.  I must say that, since I learned to let them do this, our photo shoots have gone much more smoothly.  I am actually looking forward to shooting our Holiday card photos next month.

Which silly photo is your favorite?

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