Monkey See, Monkey Do!

Recently our family caught Mr.Magorium's Wonder Emporium on DVD (thanks, Nana Mary and Grandpa). It came and went from theaters so quickly we didn't get a chance to see it out. I heard next to nothing in terms of reviews about it but I'm guessing its quick exit and release on DVD suggest it wasn't received well by the ticket-buyers. I thought it was fun---Dustin Hoffman was fabulous. Natalie Portman--meh--not so much, but whatever. To me it was as good as any non-Pixar kid releases.

There's a scene where a sock monkey in the store reaches out to one of those adults who don't believe in the magic of toys (or much else, actually) and of course that adult totally misses his opportunity to connect. Awwww. Poor monkey. My kids just couldn't stop talking about the pooooor little monkey. I remembered that my partner-in-many-kinds-of-crime, Special K. had made some monkies recently and it seemed reasonable to think it could be a family craft project for a rainy weekend. We invited next door BFF Lexi to join us 'cuz she is simply a maniac at the craft table (like at Mullen Movie Night we kind of usually have to start removing things to get her to STOP).

After doing the initial sewing-machine work, the older girls were pretty much OK handling the stuffing, the cutting of parts, the sewing closed. Of course you've got to know there was a ridiculous volume of uncomfortable jokes about how big the butts would be, what funny bulges in unusual places might be... it kind of reminded me of hanging out with my own best friend, actually.

Haley and Anna had some early challenges and eventually threw in the towel for the day; me and Lexi pressed through and in just under three hours, I had the "demo" monkey finished (actually Lindsay did help with stuffing him) and hers was also finished. She's a fiercely focussed child and I dig crafting with her---she's unflappable. She and Haley are six weeks apart in age, both first daughters. Its been amazing to watch the two of them grow up together.

We had some yummy banana-pineapple smoothies, too; not a bad way to spend the afternoon---especially when at the end Rob announced that this year, the IRS is going to have to give US money. I like it like that.

Maniacs
Of the soccer persuasion, of course.... Spring soccer is here and Thing 1 and Thing 2 are playing with the same team again for what? The fifth season or something--there are no new kids this time, no losses. In this weekend's first match of the year, they played against a group of girls that are all about 2 years older than most of our girls and easily 10 feet taller that beat them 10-1 in last season's opener. This year? Ha! Tied 3 - 3. The girls had a great game; Haley was fierce on defense. Of Anna's performance, Rob said, "she looks like someone stole her wheelchair..." Whaddya gonna do? She had fun---is there anything else I should be concerned with?

A couple of the girls are also in my knitting club at school---I'm really getting very attached to all of them.

Knitting
Hey--speaking of my knitting bullfrogs; those kids are aces! All but two of them are now purling pretty convincingly; I think I might be a rock star! We have such a blast I always feel like its a shame we only have an hour a week. Next week is scheduled to be our last meeting but I get a make-up date because of my recent dental emergency. I've asked the Principal to consider allowing us to continue to use the space until the end of May or so because we're having so much fun and there's still so much to do. Cross your fingers they say its OK!

In sock knitting news, my March Rockin' Sock club effort is nearly 50% complete. Seems that the adjustments I made to the pattern are going to do the trick; the fit seems right on target. Sweeet! I'm expecting the Art Walk April selection tomorrow and then I should have a little bit of a reprieve in which time I should knit the mother-in-law the anklets she's not-so-subtly fishing for...

such demand on the artists these days, you know?