Playset Saga Continued

We finally got all our landscaping plans back along with the quotes for a couple of the items. First and foremost, was the information for the playset prep...$4000. The quote isn't itemized and also doesn't list what materials are going to be used for everything (except pea gravel for filler), but I can't believe it. My thoughts are that if we knew what we were doing then it's something we could possibly do ourselves. It'd be a lot of work and take a lot of research and trials/tribulations on our part, but it's doable. I'm definitely not saying that we would, but I'm shocked by the price.

Needless to say, Dadda monkey's next task is to get a couple of other quotes and get a break down for everything. I'm sure there's something we can do to save ourselves some money. For example, I bet we can lay down the weed barrier, which might save us all of $50. Who knows, but I surely didn't anticipate Monkey girl's playset costing us around $5000. I don't think I even need to continue with the rest of the information we got. Let's just say a deck will not be built in our backyard in the foreseeable future.

Stormy Weekends

I love thunderstorms, I really do. When I was a kid, my best friend and I would spend time in rocking chairs, blankets draped over our laps, sitting in front of the sliding glass door to the backyard just watching the storms go past. I still love them, but living in San Antonio has some drawbacks. The soil here is extremely rocky and the area doesn't get much rain. It seems that when it does rain here, it comes down in buckets and the ground can't absorb it all. Aside from being very expensive to put in an in-ground pool (due to the blasting required), the rocky soil contributes to our flooding problems.

The storms woke my daughter around 4 this morning and she spent the rest of the night with us. Interestingly enough, Bro Bro monkey didn't wake up early. We didn't venture out today so I'm not sure what the roads are like, but the news was consistently interrupting the day's television programming for storm related updates. We were planning on going to the Alamodome tomorrow, but I think we're going to play that by ear now. I heard it was going to rain some more, so I may find myself entertained by just watching some more storms pass. I hope everyone's enjoying their weather wherever that may be.

Boon Bath Goods

One of my recent favorite discoveries is Boon. They're products are fabulous and quite innovative. The company is also completely in tune with current social media trends. They even have their own blog, www.booninc.com/blog. You can also find Boon on Facebook and Twitter. We were lucky to receive the Boon Bath Goods and my daughter loves playing with them during EVERY bath. Unfortunately, that also means she's requesting even more baths. I must have the cleanest daughter in town.

I was surprised to see how large the package was. There is a ton of stuff in there and the name, Bath Goods, seems completely appropriate. The set includes 2 mini-scrubbies, 3 balls, and a bunch (15) of appliques that don't absorb water, but stick to the tub surround.  Monkey girl, like most kids, loves to have toys in her bath tub and these were no exception. However, after the initial excitement of new toys wore off, she wasn't sure what to do with the appliques. Dadda monkey and I showed her how they stick to the wall and that was it. She was in full gear designing her masterpiece.











The mini-scrubbies are great because they're smaller for children. Monkey girl grabbed one and declared it her own. Since she loves to play with balls anyways, they were also a hit. She had no problem figuring out how to play with them during bath time. I do have one warning though, for other households with retrievers, you might want to safeguard the balls. We had one casualty because the dogs loved them as much as Monkey girl does.

We already owned Boon's Flo for the tub faucet and the Frog Pod to clean up/hold her toys and have been quite pleased with both. Flo needs to be cleaned regularly though because of the bubble bath residue left behind, but it's easily dealt with. Amazon even has the Frog Pod and the Bath Goods packaged for sale together.

I'm sure Bro Bro monkey will also love playing with the Bath Goods when he gets older. Until then I'm pretty sure Monkey girl enjoys having them all to herself. As for me, I've already got my eye on the next Boon product I want, their Boon Benders. Monkey girl has a problem turning her eating utensils toward her mouth and these are designed perfectly to help her adjust to this. Be sure and visit Boon yourself and I'm sure you'll find something there that you like as well.


Mommy 2 Monkeys was provided with a sample for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received and the views expressed here are my own.

SodaStream Soda Maker Winner

The winner has been picked for the SodaStream Soda Maker. The winner, as picked by Random.org, is comment #159.  Congratulations to Anne J.

I've sent the winner an email. If I don't hear a response within 72 hours, I will select a new winner with Random.org. Thank you to everyone who participated and a special thanks to SodaStream for sponsoring the giveaway!

Friday Follow

Each week I tell myself that I'm going to make sure I try to get my name onto Friday Follow early so I can at least break into the top 100 and most weeks I fail. This week is no exception, but 108's not bad. So in addition to finding some great new blogs, I have a little contest with myself to see what number I can make.

Also, I want to give a special thank you to TammyLyne who told me about my broken button. I have no idea how long it had been like that and it's fixed now, but it's really nice having people like her who care and take the time to notify you of problems. Happy Friday Follow and an early Happy Mother's Day!

Old Fashioned Milk Delivery

I'm pretty excited about something we discovered the other day. A guy was in the neighborhood and was leaving flyers for the residents (which normally annoys me) for dairy goods delivered to your home. I wasn't sure where it was coming from or how the prices compared to the supermarket so I asked Dadda monkey to call the guy and suggested we go comparison shopping. Even if the price was slightly higher, but the products were coming direct from local dairy farmers, I was willing to give it a try. Also, organic milk wasn't on the list so I wanted to make sure we could get that.

Dadda monkey called and the man was very nice and explained that he had gone to the local dairy farmers, but none of them wanted to sell through him. He explained that most of them sell everything to Borden and he was getting his products directly from Borden. So it didn't really eliminate all the middle men, but the items are still pretty fresh and come to find out most of the prices were competitive. He also said he could get organic milk and gave us the price, but told us we needed to let him know ahead of time (which really isn't a problem since we go through a gallon every week or two). After our trip to the grocery store we found out that bread (I know it's not dairy) was priced about the same, but the milk was much cheaper. Also, half gallons and pints of ice cream were cheaper.

Later this week, since we're already almost out of milk, we're going to place our first order. I think it's a neat concept and it is actually going to save us money. Though I think it would be more fun to get nice glass bottles of milk each time.

Movie Time

(This is the experience of my monkey family going to the movies, not a review of the movie.)

So many people told us how much they enjoyed How To Train Your Dragon, that we decided we would try to take Monkey girl. Her favorite stuffed animal is a blue dragon her dad bought her so we thought this movie would be appropriate. We've never taken her to a movie before and to be honest, I was quite nervous about how she'd behave during it. We went on a Friday, at noon, after the movie had been out for a while (yesterday in fact) so there weren't many people in the theater. Just to make things more difficult and increase my anxiety, Dadda monkey decided we'd try to see it in 3D at the Imax theater. I wasn't looking forward to the idea of trying to get Monkey girl to wear her glasses the whole time and if she didn't then she'd be watching a blurry movie, which would make it even less likely that she'd sit quietly through it. On the other hand, we haven't seen a 3D or Imax movie (much less both) in this theater (we don't get out much/at all) so I was sort of looking forward to it. We arrived about 2 minutes before the movie started so we were off to a less than ideal start, but they sold us the tickets and we headed in.

As an aside, I can't believe how often the prices of movies goes up. With the 3D glasses fee (2.50 each) and our 2 tickets (at least the kids got in free) it cost us $28 to go during the day. Maybe it's a good thing (for our bank account at least) that we don't get out often.

We went into the theater, picked up our glasses (they had smaller ones for kids), and took our seats. We got an entire row to ourselves, which turned out to be a good thing. I think there were only 2-3 other groups of people in there. The other thing I had been debating was what to do with Bro Bro monkey. I brought the sling in the diaper bag because 1) he's too big for the Baby Bjorn and 2) I thought it'd be easier to have him sort of attached to me hands free so I could deal with Monkey girl, however I do have to say that I'm not really hands free with it because I guess I just don't understand how to use it correctly. I also wasn't really looking forward to wearing Bro Bro monkey because he is very squirmy and I thought it would take away from my ability to handle Monkey girl. I didn't think there would be a decent place to put his car seat, however score one for Dadda monkey because he was convinced the car seat would be fine. So I let him lug it in and sure enough, it fit rather nicely on the seat next to Dadda monkey.

Now onto the movie, Monkey girl happily put her glasses on and was impressed enough with the 'big tv' to sit still for the first half hour. She was pretty good for the first hour and only got a little restless. She also started taking off her glasses and playing with them, but at least she was still sitting quietly. Occasionally, she'd say my name, point to the screen, and say 'dragon'. Dadda monkey got a drink at one point and she enjoyed occupying herself by moving the drink from one cupholder to the next for a little bit. The last half hour was a little more difficult because she wanted out of her seat. I wouldn't let her past my legs, but Dadda monkey did allow her to pass so she was happier and she never got more than 3 seats away. Bro Bro monkey started to fuss once, but with a quick adjustment of his pacifier, he settled down again. We all enjoyed the movie and I'm glad we went. We might even venture out to see another one in the not so distant future. Now even Bro Bro monkey has 'seen' his first movie and he got to see it with his sister for her first time.