Delivery Man

I have been looking forward to a movie coming out like this so that Dadda and I could enjoy a date night. This was perfect, the humor, the drama, the cohesive story.

Vince Vaughn was his normal jovial self, which I've learned some people don't like the lack of variety to his movies, but for me it was perfect entertainment. After a day with the monkeys, I don't want to have to think or use any brain power while relaxing during a movie. I want to sit there and watch a story unfold.

Anyways, without divulging too much, the story revolves around a bachelor, David (Vince), who learns that he is the father of hundreds of kids via sperm donation. The story is not at all what I expected after that point though. It's pretty heartwarming to see some of the moments that happen in the movie. I recommend it, especially for a relaxing evening out.

Rating: **** No Monkeys Sleeping (at least not the adult ones).

Maleficent

Daddy Monkey is probably more excited about the upcoming Maleficent movie than either the monkeys or I, but we're all looking forward to it. Here's a few treats for you all!

Free Birds

It's been a while since the whole monkey family has gone to the movies. However, we recently saw Free Birds in 3D (the monkeys are much better at watching movies with the glasses). I was having a discussion recently with someone about how there aren't many Thanksgiving movies for kids. So I was really glad when I learned what it was about.

The story revolves around a turkey named Reggie who has been trying to enlighten his flock about how they're being fed to get fat and be the main course for Thanksgiving. The movie portrays present day turkeys as dumb and Reggie is a bit of an outcast. Somehow Reggie lucks into being the pardoned Turkey and goes to live with the President and his daughter at Camp David. Just as he's relishing his luxurious pardoned life, he encounters Jake. Jake is on a mission to travel back in time and get turkeys off the Thanksgiving menu for good.

While not the greatest movie I've ever seen, it was a cute Thanksgiving movie and the monkeys really enjoyed it. I can see adding this to our Thanksgiving traditions because it's a good family movie with some accurate bits of Thanksgiving history thrown in.

Boo to You!

Happy Halloween from my monkey family to yours! Halloween has been a really long holiday for us this year since we started celebrating in mid-September when we went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party on our Disney World trip. The good thing about that is that we've had our costumes ready for a while. The bad thing is that I've been eating candy pretty much non-stop since then. We're excited to have some theme music this year. We loved the Boo to You Halloween music at Disney so much that we added it to our Halloween soundtrack for our neighbors to enjoy tonight.


To continue with the festivities, we'll be having mummy hot dogs for dinner and spiderweb munch for dessert (not that we need dessert tonight). Then Dadda monkey will take the monkeys trick or treating while I stay home eating handing out candy. Stay safe and have fun, everyone!

Halloween Party

The monkeys and I had a costume party to attend at a neighbors house. She requested we all bring Halloween themed treats. She had mummy dogs, gummy worms, jack o'lantern quesadillas, punch with dry ice smoke, etc... Dadda monkey requested I try something we haven't seen on every Halloween food themed article we've seen. This is the pumpkin bundt cake I attempted.

I figured it was simple enough, two bundt cakes placed with their bottoms meeting in the middle, some orange frosting, and a green ice cream cone. We've been abnormally busy the past couple of weeks so I decided to take the easy route and buy spice cake mix and cream cheese frosting. Normally, I'd make them from scratch, in fact, at the same time I also bought pumpkin just in case I had time to try a new recipe I found. The green ice cream cones were quite elusive though, despite knowing we'd seen them before. I finally grabbed them at HEB hours before the party today.

Time was still a major constraint for me and I thought we might have to go with half a pumpkin because I don't own two bundt pans so I couldn't bake both sides at once. One other thing to note is that I think the cake in this picture was baked in a smaller bundt pan because my cone didn't fit snugly in the center like this one. Lastly, I was able to get my two halves to meet together nicely only because I had this trusty tool on hand. It trimmed the bottoms perfectly and the halves sat flat on top of each other. All in all, this was a pretty easy Halloween treat to make.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Monkey girl just started kindergarten and tonight is our first parent teacher conference. We've had a few incidents since she started school, but I don't think that's out of the ordinary for kids just starting public school. There's a lot of new experiences, a large building to navigate, new teachers and classmates, a busy schedule for a full day (8-3), riding the bus, eating in a cafeteria, homework (oh gosh, the homework! It's supposed to be work for her, not me, right?!), etc... Mix that with a type A personality and I would think there's bound to be a few bumps along the way. 



We've done our best (I think) to correct any issues that have cropped up and I'm hoping that tonight goes well. Monkey girl is smart, enthusiastic, curious, and social. Yes, I'm her Mom so I may be a bit biased. However, knowing her, I can see how it's hard for her to focus. Then again, as a friend pointed out those traits that may make school a bit difficult now also indicate she'll be a good leader.

$200 Holiday Gift Card Giveaway

Welcome to the Holiday Gift Card Blowout Giveaway!

The Holidays are coming and I am sure everyone could use some extra cash to buy gifts for your loved ones or maybe fund upcoming travel $200 would totally help with all these expenses.

This giveaway is made possible by my awesome co- hosts :

My Dairy Free Gluten Free Life , What Simply Works , Oh Locked Heart , Capri"s Coupon

and a lot more of other fabulous bloggers!

 

One very lucky person will win a $200 Gift Card of her choice

Giveaway will run until 11/15/2013 at 11:59pm EST, is open worldwide, must be 18 + to enter, and use the Rafflecopter widget below. Good Luck!

Disclosure: