Lesson Learned

I don't really watch TV during the daytime. I would love to catch Regis & Kelly, and maybe even Ellen DeGeneres' talk show once in awhile, but my kids are television addicts, and I feel a little guilty as it is for all the PBS they watch. Not that I'm doing anything about it, though.

Not only do I not watch TV during the day, but I also don't use the Internet for anything useful. Wait - did I just say that? I mean, OF COURSE reading blogs, "window" shopping for things I don't need and instant messaging friends is useful. I just don't read the news online, or educate myself otherwise.

And then there's Facebook, the most IMPORTANT reason that Al Gore ever invented the Internet in the first place. Important because apparently it provides me with more information than Wikipedia and cnn.com combined.

For instance, Facebook, in the form of friends' status updates, is where I learned:

- President Obama referred to Kanye West as a jacka**
- the Twins won the League title and were headed to play against the Yankees...and that they lost.
- the Vikings were winning and eventually won against the dreaded Packers (I started off following this on CNN sports, but found Facebook faster!)
- President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize
and most importantly, and much too late, that Old Navy had monkey costumes for $12.

This last bit of info was important because of a decision on my part to attend our MOMS Club costume fall party the next day. That afternoon I had asked Ben what he wanted to go as, and wonder of wonders! he picked something I could agree to! When "monkey!" came out of his mouth, I started picturing how I could make it, mostly because I didn't think I had enough time to track down one for purchase at a store, and also because Ben LOVES pretending to be a monkey, so I figured this could end up being a reoccurring theme.

To make it work, we took a family trip to Walmart, where I had tried to purchase some adorable monkey printed fleece a few days beforehand. I say tried because in the tradition of Walmart's excellent customer service, I could get NO ONE to come cut and price the fabric for me. Humpf.

Here are the components of Ben's costume:

- brown fleece for hat and tail (already had the hat pattern)
- yellow monkey fleece for pants (already had the pattern)
- tan flannel for inside of ears (already had it - in the flannel board box)
- brown shirt from Target (found it after the Walmart trip - took me 7 minutes from drop-off at the front door. Ha! Aaron said it would be at least 10. I win!)
- piece of monkey -printed flannel to put over the green dinosaur on the brown shirt (from fabric mom gave me!)
- paper-mache banana that I've had since my teaching days, knowing that you should NEVER get rid of a white elephant gift that is so versatile. (the gift was actually a large selection of faux fruits & veggies. Awesome!)

Here is a photo of the finished product, along with Ben's friend Isaac, the friendly blue M &M. Maybe eventually I can talk Ben into wearing the tail and get a photo of it. He only tolerated it for about 5 minutes, which I anticipated by not sewing the tail into the pants - I just left a gap in the seam to pin it into.

Leah once again wore the Sleeping Beauty princess dress that my mom made her for her 4th birthday. Getting good mileage out of that one! She would like me to tell you that the crown is from leapsterworld.com, where she typed in the "secret code" from one of her games and was rewarded with the crown to print out. She colored it, and I stapled it to a strip of construction paper. It is her new most treasured possession - that, and a ring from a vending machine at Perkins. I'll take it over $60 jeans, folks.

Photographer and good friend Tara snapped all these photos. Including at least 3 attempts at this one of Adam and me.

Aaron was astonished that I had 19 comments when I posted on Facebook that we were thinking about getting a food dehydrator and making apple chips (done and done!). And STILL I did not think to ask my FB friends about the monkey costume options out there. Oh well. Next time. As it is, this one cost me about $15 - but Ben has a new shirt in his drawer, and possibly a new winter hat! He wore that thing all day, even though our party was in a room that must have been about 80 degrees. THAT is a loved costume.