Smoke's New(ish) Ride

This Lady is on her fourth vehicle in the almost five years I've known her.  I can't say anything bad though because she always gets exactly what she wants for exactly how much she wants to spend.  Actually....I'm not allowed to buy my own cars anymore.

This time it is a 2013 Chrysler Town & Country Touring Edition minivan (because one additional child means you need four times the space).  The van is loaded with leather, a dual DVD player with two sets of headphones, remote self opening/closing rear doors and tailgate, and a ton of other stuff.  She got it for the same payments as her lease on a base model 2014 Honda CR-V while ending the lease 18 months early.  She wanted to keep the finance worksheets as a trophy because when all was said and done she worked them for $4500 off their original offer.

And Monkey likes it too because she can get into the van and up in her seat all by herself (but we still have to work on how to safely exit the vehicle).

Monkey Is Growing Up Faster & Faster

Big girl waiting for her swim class to start this morning.

Just about every night we watch an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse together in our bedroom before bedtime.  It's Monkey's favorite show. She usually climbs into bed with Smoke and me to watch it, but tonight she wanted to sit in our big chair all by herself instead.

A Sister First

It's Monkey & Froggy's first night sharing their room.  I think Smoke is having separation anxiety and withdrawals but that's what baby monitors are for. 😉

She Is A Monkey After All

She couldn't wait to get home.  Monkey had to have a banana as soon as we got out of the grocery store.

Froggy Faces

Fishing

Doggy Rides

Hi-ho Brownie, away!

Rain Fun

Waiting for and playing in the rain. (Don't worry, it's an all-weather flag with a solar spotlight.) 

Minnie Bows

Smoke made Monkey some hair bows to match her outfit.

More Appropriate Blog Handle

I don't mind being called "Pa" even though I'm not that old in the grand scheme of life.  There's a sense of experience and wisdom in that word to me.  However, since we updated the blog using pseudonyms I haven't been able to get comfortable using "Ma" to describe my amazing wife.  She is loving and she enjoys cooking and baking, sure.  But there is much more to her than that.  She is funny, whimsical, silly, affectionate, and serious when she has to be.  Those that know me at all can pretty much surmise that music and quotes play a big part in my thinking.  I'm also an ex-smoker and still have a hard time avoiding the temptation to join coworkers in this habit at times.  So in trying to come up with a new blog handle for Ma the song "Smoke" by 1000 Horses took the lead (although I decided not to use the official video because it gets a bit racy).  So from now on, Ma will be known as Smoke on this blog.  She goes where the breeze takes her at every moment and fills any space with her personality.


Love you Smoke!

She's Smoke
I pull her in nice and slow
She's a habit and I can't let go
Blowing rings around my heart
The one she stole
Watching her sway and go
It's killing me and I know
Can't stop her once you start
She's Smoke

Momming

Pa and my girls made sure I had a lovely Mother's Day. As usual. Pa likes to spoil me and lately I've had a yen for kitchen gear so he got me a beautiful shiny new crockpot. We have a small one but I tend to fill it up to the tippy top and it's hard to take to potlucks and such. My shiny new one is BIG and has a shmancy locking lid. YAY! He also got me a pizza stone which I'm really excited to experiment with. And I got me a 12 inch cast iron skillet. I've been watching too much Pioneer Woman lately and have convinced myself I can't cook without a cast iron skillet.

I started my morning snuggling my sweethearts.

We had a lovely breakfast with some silly faces.

Then we went for a drive to the lake and threw rocks.

Swim Class

They sang happy birthday to Monkey at swim class. You can't see the HUGE grin on her face but she was so excited.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONKEY!

Monkey turned 3 today.  It was pretty exciting.  The day started out with a bubble bath, while wearing her birthday crown of course.

Then she got dressed in her special Birthday Princess shirt.

And ate her favorite breakfast, waffles with whipped cream and a glass of milk.

After that it was time to just relax for a while.

While Ma did some major birthday prep.  Just check out that cake!

She got her very own Minnie Mouse balloon.

And her favorites for dinner: chicken nuggets, French fries, macaroni and cheese, and chocolate milk.

She also discovered that she likes Ma's sweet & sour sauce.

Then it was time for that amazing cake.

Even Froggy got a little taste.

And finally...PRESENTS.

A new princess for her birthday train.

Minnie Mouse dress-up costume and Candyland game.

A new dress for church.

A "Min-Min" outfit.

And her very first dollhouse, because her pretending and imagination skills have exploded lately.

Now it's just time to play and relax with the family.