We did dishes as a family. The boys really enjoyed being able to do the grown up job. I didn’t even have to pay them!

Baby girl learned new “tricks” to impress people, such as a true crawl, pulling herself up and finally growing a tooth.

Even I got in on the fun and tried my hand at using rag curlers to make my hair pretty. I was surprised at how curly it made my hair and the fact that the curls stayed until I finally washed them out.

To cap off the week, we made a giant “tent” to sleep under in the living room. At this point I was going a bit stir crazy and the plan that started off as being a small tent attached to one window ended up to be a false ceiling expanding the entire living room. It was a bit like sleeping under a big top tent at a circus.

I love the way the light made the tent glow in the evening and early morning.

I’m sure the kids will look back and remember how crazy their mom was when they were little. Honestly, I think I’m okay with that.

A simple green balloon was all that was needed for a few hours worth of entertainment for the day. There were a variety of games played ranging from the classic “keep hitting the balloon to keep it from touching the floor,” to the more scientific game of “generate static cling and attach the balloon to your head” as demonstrated by Young Owl.

I love when the kids can find a non-toy that sparks they’re imagination and creativity. They can play with the simplest things for hours and in multiple ways but give them a toy they’ve asked for because they’ve seen it in a commercial and they’ll play with it for only a few minutes before it gets put aside.

Even baby girl got in on the balloon play action when Young Owl invented the game “make baby sister’s hair stand straight up.” Needless to say it got lots of giggles from both Mama Zoo Keeper and Young Owl.

Where was Little Monkey during all this fun? Well he was taking a completely unusual nap for three hours! Hopefully he is over this illness soon because his giggle is heartwarming and contagious.

I apologize for the slightly blurry photo, I thought it would be rude to use the flash and wake up the napping monkey. He tends to be cranky when awoken from a nap, that is unless you are waking him up to tell him Electric Company is about to start.

To begin assemble your ingredients and tools.

Ingredients:

4 to 5 apples, I choose 4 very large Honey Crisp apples

1 bag of Kraft Caramels

1 tablespoon water

a generous handful semi-sweet chocolate chips

a small handful vanilla chips

assorted sprinkles

Tools:

microwave

popsicle sticks

microwave safe bowls

plate for finished apples

wax paper

butter or cooking spray

Begin by washing the apples and inserting a popsicle stick into the center of the apple near the stem. Now prep your finished plate by covering it in wax paper and coating the wax paper with a generous amount of cooking spray or butter. You don’t want your apples sticking to the wax paper after all your hard work.

Next unwrap all the caramels in the bag, there should be around 50, and place them in a microwave safe bowl or a glass measuring cup. Make sure the container is wide enough to submerge the apple yet not so wide that the caramel doesn’t cover the apple when submerged.

Add a tablespoon of water to the caramels. Microwave the caramels on high for 2 – 3 1/2 minutes in one minute intervals, stirring and checking them to see if they have melted completely. When they are melted they should freely flow off the spoon.

Mmm, caramel….

Resist the urge to put a little caramel on your finger to lick off. It will burn as it is really hot, not that I know from personal experience or anything.

Now carefully submerge the apple in the caramel, letting it coat the apple withing an inch or so of the top of the apple.

Carefully lift up the apple and scrap the bottom of the apple along the bowl to remove the excess caramel.

If you are making a sprinkle covered apple, roll the apple in sprinkles and place on the plate to set.

To make the chocolate swirl caramel apples, dip in the apple in the caramel and then set on the plate. Next melt a handful of chocolate chips by microwaving them on high in 30 second intervals, stirring in between. It should take about a minute for them to be warm enough to melt. (Here’s a hint, when the chocolate chips appear shinny they will melt completely when stirred.)

Now just drizzle/glop the melted chocolate on the top of the apple. Be generous but don’t worry about it looking pretty at this point.

Now repeat the same process with the vanilla chips. Microwave them then drizzle/glop them on the top of the apple a little less generously than what you did with the chocolate.

Now let’s pretty these apples up a bit. Take an extra popsicle stick and swirl the melted chocolate and vanilla.

Keep swirling until you get the affect your looking for. Now lick the warm chocolately goodness off the popsicle stick, don’t worry I won’t tell.

Place the plate of apples in the fridge for an hour or so to set the caramel. When your ready to sever them be sure to give them time to warm back up to room temperature  before you go bitting into one. Unless of course you want to go visit the dentist.

We found it easiest to cut the apple into wedges before eating. These large apples easily served two.

Prepping dinner of four.

Note to self: look for non-Christmas tablecloths this year at garage sales.

Little Monkey’s close up of his heart shaped pizza.

Table set for fine dining at the zoo, complete with real glasses, nice dishes, a tablecloth and a candle!

Surprise special Valentine’s day treat!

Stop back later this week for a tutorial.

Here is what’s new in the zoo:

1. Birthing a new baby girl in mid-July. She is happy, healthy and growing quickly. Still doesn’t have a zoo name…
2. Venturing into homeschooling. Young Owl and Little Monkey are both homeschooling this year.
3. Learning even more crafts. Mama Zookeeper has what seems like a fifty craft and sewing projects on her to do list.
4. Becoming ever greener, the zoo is delving into cloth diapering. Perhaps someday I’ll be able to give up plastic too, but not yet.
5. Reconnecting with old (and not so old) friends and family via Facebook. Yep, the zoo is hooked.
6. Living day to day life that is full of ups and downs.

As you can see we’ve been living in verbs. The zoo looks to continue to be a busy place in the coming months.

Young Owl's toothless grin

For those of you keeping track, Young Owl lost yet another tooth and now is missing both front top teeth. He has two more loose on the top too! I told him if he keeps loosing them at this rate I’ll have to start feeding him baby food. Ha, ha!

Little Monkey painting and stamping

Little Monkey has been busy following in his brother’s footsteps of growing up far too quickly.  This last week he has given up his “me-me” (pacifier). I had been dragging my feet about him giving it up and last week the dentist said we had to get rid of it. Okay fine, Mama Zookeeper will bite the bullet and finally take it away. Little Monkey has been a trooper and is already over missing it. Unfortunately, it makes him seem that much older to me.

Now for totally random pics because frankly I can hardly string two thoughts together at this point. I really need to have this baby soon so I can regain some of the blood flow to my brain!

Little Monkey playing in the mud after last weekend's rainstorm

Last weekend's big excitement - blown transformer and powerlines down

Finally here is what happens when Little Monkey plays with your digital camera. (Note to self – both boys need their own digital cameras.)

Little Monkey Photo Fun

Please excuse my tremendusly long absance. To make up for it, lots and lots of pictures of our adventures for the last several months.

In February, Little Monkey turned 3. To celebrate we had race car party complete with race track cake!

Little Monkey blowing out the candles on his birthday cake.

One of the most popular toys to come from the birthday season is the Bilibo. The kids love this thing and are still playing with it almost three months later. Little Monkey loves to turn it upside down and stand on it and then jump off. Young Owl on the other hand, loves to sit in it and spin. The day care kids love it too. I think I am going to have to invest in a couple more.

Little Monkey playing with one of his favorite new toys.

Young Owl decided that he wanted to learn how to do chores and start earning an allowance. He insisted that Papa Penguin teach him how to do dishes because that sounded like a better chore than taking out the trash. Needless to say, his enthusiasm for doing chores was short lived.

Young Owl learning how to wash dishes. (He asked to do this, I swear!)

Little Monkey, in his quest to be as much like his big brother as possible, has started to show an interest in learning his numbers and letters. He has been surprising me with his willingness and desire to learn (I’m not trying to push him in any way). Below he is doing what he dubbed his homework, number recognition and touch counting.

Little Monkey working on touch counting and number recognition.

When he isn’t trying to mimic his brother, Little Monkey can be found in the kitchen begging to help cook. The boy practically has a melt down if I don’t let him help in some way. A few weeks ago, we put one of his new skills – peeling bananas – to good use and made Banana Peanut Butter muffins.

Little Monkey perfecting his banana peeling skills while making muffins with Mama Zookeeper.

This past weekend, Young Owl convinced Papa Penguin to teach him how to play his old He-Man game. Not that this took much, as Papa Penguin enjoys introducing Young Owl to the joys of his childhood. Young Owl of course loved the game. Anything to be more like Papa.

Young Owl learning to play Papa Penguin's old He-Man board game.

We are finally enjoying some warmer weather again (thank goodness) and I have been trying to get the boys outside to enjoy and explore nature.  We ventured out on a nature walk a this month with Papa Penguin and Auntie in toe. We had a great time discovering bits of this and that from nature, listening to the animals and spying several different birds.

Boys enjoying their nature (run) walk.

This past weekend was low key around the house. As I as getting ready to make dinner one evening Young Owl noticed the bright the light shining in the kitchen window. He decided to see what type of shadows he could make on the fridge. It wasn’t long before Little Monkey joined in too.

Young Owl making a cobra shadow on the fridge.

There really isn’t much news on the new baby front.  We are simply awaiting the newest one’s arrival this summer and taking the time between now and then to educate ourselves on cloth diapering and natural childbirth. 

Papa Penguin has been busy at work with a project that should be wrapping up soon. When he’s home the poor guy has been taking care of more of the household chores and Mama Zookeeper.  I think he is looking forward to the baby’s arrival when I finally go back to cooking and cleaning on a more regular schedule. 

In addition to being waited on hand and foot (not really), I have been busy with day care, pregnancy and reading. I seem to be fast approaching some ugly little birthday called the big 3-0. I have noticed that recently I have become more “hippie-dippie granola happy” which seems strange but natural at the same time. Perhaps, I’m finally growing up and worrying less about what popular culture wants for me and my family. That’d be a shocker, me a grown up by the time I turn 30.  

Well, that’s all the exciting adventures while we were away, or at least those were all we had pictures to remind me. Because as all the zoo knows, Mama Zookeepers memory is on vacation until the baby comes.

But first I must review Christmas. Although it didn’t really resemble anything like the Christmas I was planning back in September (with lots of handmade gifts and baking and decorating), it was still nice none the less. Prolonged morning sickness will do that to a girl.

Best Christmas gifts of 2008:

• Little Monkey’s most loved gift: any of the presents that had wheels!
• Young Owl’s most desired gift: the much awaited Batcave!
• Papa Penguin’s most enjoyable gift: the entertaining Nintendo DS!
• Mama Zookeeper’s most beloved gift: a beautiful neckless from her favorite designer Lisa Leonard!

Boys enjoying the goodies from Santa!

Now back to the year in review.

Things that made us feel that the boys are growing up too quickly:

• Young Owl loosing his first tooth then a second.
• Little Monkey mastering potty training and speaking in greater depth.

Top political quotes uttered by the children:

• After taking Young Owl to an Obama rally: MZ – “What are you going to tell your teacher about what you saw tonight?” YO – “We don’t like John McCain’s policies.”
• While watching the news Little Monkey see Obama setting out a wreath at a Veteran’s Day service – “Look mommy, Obama finally got his present!”

Bug of the year:

The bug of the year.

This is just one of about 2 dozen that we found over the summer. Thanks to much internet searching by a wonderful aunt we learned that this is a tussock moth!

Most delicious family outing:

Outing to the Strawberry Patch

We were fortunate to find a brand new local berry patch. The strawberries were the best we’ve ever had and we will definitely try to make this a yearly event. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to either of our favorite apple orchards this year. We will definitely have it on the list of family events for 2009!

Best news of 2008:

• Little Monkey’s eyes are fine. After much unnecessary worrying we had his eyes checked and where told he has great sight.
• Young Owl made leaps in his reading. Thanks to his hard work with his auntie, he is well ahead of where he needs to be.
• The zoo is expanding. We are so blessed to be expecting again and are looking forward to meeting our new little one in 2009.

What we’re looking forward to in 2009:

• New baby! Seriously for all the suffering this child is causing me, we are truly excited and I’m looking forward to holding the baby in my arms.
• A new home? Okay we have tried this song and dance many times before but this time we really need to get out of this small place otherwise the baby is going to have to sleep in the living room.
• Another blog. Crazy becuase I haven’t really been updating all that frequently here but I am also working on a food blog.  I’ll give everyone a link when I get a post up.
• Tons new of family memories! From outings as a family to art projects with the boys. You never know what new memories we’ll be making in 2009.

So until then, please have a safe, healthy and happy new year.

With love from the zoo