Courage to adapt, learning to feed my son through a tube

If you've read any of my previous posts or know me personally then it should be very clear that music plays a huge role in my life. I truly do have a song for everything, every little aspect of the day. 

Sometimes though on days like to day life just hits so hard that all I can do is cry no songs left in me. I hit that point at about noon today, thankfully the oldest monkey and the monkey princess were still with friends and baby monkey was sleeping. I had turned on Pandora to help baby monkey fall asleep, but for once I wasn't actually listening. I just felt so broken that I couldn't even think of a song to focus on, usually when I get that way I start working my way through the alphabet singing hymns and eventually that one I need comes. Today though it was like the music inside me had died it was all just too much I had even completely shut out Pandora playing through the tv. I had laid on the living room floor for at least 30 minutes crying when a song broke through the tear filled fog, and in that moment I knew that God was speaking to me through this song. Whatever you believe in if you have ever had a moment where the exact right song came on at the exact right second you know that it's not just by chance. For me I fully believe that God knew the only way to get through to me was by music. So if you are hurting, if life feels like it's crashing down on you, you want to give up or just need a pick me up please check out this song by Sidewalk Prophets "The Words I Would Say"

Baby Monkey has had a very rough few weeks, numerous seizures even with the Neurologist more than doubling the Keppra, his atatxia getting worse and worse and affecting his GI tract  so that he would no longer eat. After loosing 6lbs, and his Mito symptoms becoming worse and worse, he was diagnosed with failure to thrive and his specialists all agreed a gastronomy tube or g tube was his best bet/hope for a future. While thankfully we were on top of things so he never became dangerously thin with the mitochondrial disease the only way to hopefully restore his GI tract was to give him enough nutrition for his body to thrive. I admit I struggled with this decision, but all my research showed positive results for kids with mito getting a g tube as their symptoms progressed to the point baby monkey's are at. 

So anyway Tuesday morning we went to an amazing Pediatric surgeon who not only did a great job on the tube, but agreed to perform the muscle biopsy while under anesthesia.

There were some complications with the tube placement so the surgery took an hr longer than expected which meant I was extremely stressed out, but in the end all was well. It took the usual extra long time for him to come out of the anesthesia, but thankfully no seizures after he did. Two nights and three days in the hospital and we went home with a bunch of medical supplies that until I started researching I had never heard of or thought about. More was delivered that night and then another couple boxes the next day. I have now returned to the world of formula and night time feedings and while no baby crying machines beeping at me. 

Today was our first day with approval for him to eat whatever. Sadly even with 10 hrs worth of formula tonight he was still 445 calories short. Because he does eat some by mouth we are trying hard not to do more than 50% of his diet through the tube. Thankfully after talking with the GI dr, the surgeon, the oncologist/hematologist, and the dietitian they are all on board with us trying a blended diet as much as possible. So my wonderful friend the Nutri Ninja (and yes I admit my brain starts singing the original TMNT theme song every time I say or type that) and I are coming up with some fun concoctions to feed him through his tube. I have decided to be brave and taste some of these and if they are any good I will share some super healthy smoothie recipes with you all. In this case it is very true that I am the brains and he (yes it is a he don't ask me why) is the brawn. For my sanity we are going to solely use the formula and water through the tube for the next couple of days though. 

Baby Monkey has been his usual amazing self smiling and laughing his way through it all. The light in him shines so bright all around him see it.

The surgeon on the 2nd day after the surgery told his P.A. that, baby monkey "has a good soul, that you can tell the second you meet him that he is good through and through" he tends to be a favorite patient as he never fights about anything, does whatever needs and gives the nurses his adorable dimply smiles. He is a constant reminder to me to stay strong and remain positive he's like my own personal little Toby Mac singing "Get Back Up". 

 This has been a huge adjustment for the the whole family, but tonight even though the machine kept beeping at me till I finally fully fixed it's issue, and between that and his meds this may be another sleepless night for Mommy, I am ok tonight I realize that while not how I imagined my baby boy's life whatever makes and keeps him healthy is alright by me. Behind those dreams I dreamed really all it came down to was that he would be healthy, happy, have a relationship with the Lord. While the first one is far off him being on the feeding tube gives us a glimmer of hope  for healthy. Although his version of healthy will never be the same as his brother or sister we can do whatever it takes to make him as healthy as he can be.  

I know this is rather long especially for not including a recipe or anything so here is a smoothie I make for the Monkey Princess, Oldest Monkey and I that we all love love love.

Monkey Princes named it the GO GO Smoothie since it gives her energy.

1/2 of a fresh zucchini (I sliced mine about 1" thick

2 med carrots

1 cup cantaloupe (great source of vitamin c) 

6 medium strawberries

1/4 cup chopped almonds

1/8 cup unsalted sunflower seeds

2 cups orange juice 

1 1/2 cups water 

I make this in my 72 oz pitcher for the Ninja so adjust accordingly. It has a great taste a good source of protein and fruits and veggies. 

I hope you enjoy the GO GO Smoothie and that somehow this post helped you where you are at in your life. Remember whatever direction things take, "Hold On" for the ride. 

It's been so long, but I'm bringing you gf biscuits...

So much has happened since I last posted way to much to bore you all with. Important highlights my Grammy now lives with my mom and dad so we are back to being a family of 4. Somehow that has not lessened the insanity much though. Baby monkey finally has an official diagnosis of Mitochondrial disease (for more info visit the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation website). He started the New Year with a 5 day hospital stay, where I picked up Pneumonia. So it has been an interesting start to the New Year to say the least.

But moving on as if I'd never taken a 4 month sabbatical. The oldest monkey has been desperately craving biscuits. I had run out of Tapioca flour and was searching desperately. For some reason without the combo of Tapioca flour and Potato starch in the flour blend the biscuits just aren't as fluffy and yummy. Then last week we finally found a package!!!! That made for one happy monkey. In fact he was so happy we just had to do the monkey dance, now I find a lot of kids shows annoying, but I fully admit I've always liked the Wiggles, we have the best of the Wiggles DVD and even though he's 7 going on 20 the Oldest monkey can't help getting sucked in. But, anyway, back to biscuits.

I suggest using this flour mix as I, as well as a couple of my testers have successfully used this blend, and it seems to have the best taste and texture. But I understand that everyone has their individual allergies and diet restrictions so don't be afraid to try whatever flour blend you use for breads or cookies or whatever.

Flour Blend (make 2 batches)
2 cups combo of gf flours ( I use 1 1/2 cups of oat flour and 1/2 cup of sorghum flour)
2/3 cup Tapioca Flour
1/3 cup potato starch
1 tsp xanthan gum

Now I highly recommend combining these flours into a bowl and whisking really well. For the biscuits you need two batches of the flour blend. I actually make these separately because whether it's all in my head or an actuality when I've doubled it, things don't seem to come out as well. So there you have it further proof I'm probably insane, but no one argues that my GF baking is yummy so as crazy as it sounds make it two batches. One batch throw directly into your sifter or just give it an extra good whisking. While you are whisking away don't forget to rock out, how about a little Newsboys?The on batch gives you three cups of flour.

Biscuit recipe

4 cups GF flour blend
1 tsp salt
4 heaping tsp baking powder
1 cup palm oil shortening
1 cup your choice milk substitute ( or if you use regular dairy or goat milk add 2 Tbl)

Preheat oven to 425

In Sifter with the 3 cups of flour that you made above add, salt and baking powder and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl cream the 1 cup of shortening. Now my blog is not fancy enough yet (maybe someday) to get samples or kick backs for endorsing products, so this is all me. This a great palm oil shortening. I use it for biscuits, pie crust and even frosting and even people without allergies all love my frosting. :)

Sift in the flour and add 1 cup of the 2nd batch of flour mix you made for the total of 4 cups. Now here you have two choices, for those who hate getting their hands gooey you can use a fork to mix the flour and shortening until you don't have any crumbles bigger than a pea, or you can have lots of fun and pretend you are a kid again the way I do. For the 2nd dig your hands in there and mix it all together kneading and mixing till you don't have any crumbles bigger than a pea. Pour in 1 cup of a milk substitute we use almond milk since amazingly enough nuts are not an allergy for us. If you use an actual milk whether cow or goat follow the recipe suggestion. Mix the milk in thoroughly, I do swap back to a fork at this point, but feel free to continue to use your hands. Your dough should be pretty sticky.

On floured board or counter place dough, pat down and flip over one time. Press down till approx 1/3" in thickness. Use a biscuit cutter or an upside down glass to cut out biscuits. I cook mine on a pizza pan that has the holes in it with a layer of parchment paper. I like the way they cook on that, but they work just fine on an un-greased cookie sheet with or without parchment paper. I just hate cleaning pans so I always use parchment paper.

Bake at 425 for 22-25 min until toothpick comes out clean. With GF I don't trust the outside so I always verify with a tooth pick. When done ENJOY with butter, jelly, honey or gravy. You can't go wrong with yummy biscuits. The oldest monkey even eats them without anything on them. Just don't expect them to last long! At least they don't in our house. :D

Keep baking, and don't forget just because we have allergies doesn't mean we shouldn't get to enjoy our food! I leave you with one more song this one has been played a lot so far this year in our house. 

for King and Country- Shoulders

Baby gifts made with love are the best

With my two besties due this winter, I am keeping very busy making baby gifts. With school now in full swing at the Funny Farm, and Gram's dementia continually getting worse time to blog has been non-existent.

Meet Mr. Munk as the three monkeys have dubbed him. He is made with Bernat Pipsqueak yarn. It is one of my favorite go to yarns for super soft, fuzzy, cuddly stuffed buddies. When I crochet I am usually doing other things as well so it becomes very difficult to get an accurate count. This yarn is very forgiving you don't have to worry about being exact as long as the shape looks right. Being a perfectionist I will continually rip out row after row if a mistake is visible so having a yarn that hides any mistakes is fantastic. :) Plus it is just so amazingly soft!

Mr. Monk is not my own pattern since pattern writing is not a skill I've obtained yet. I used this Little Bigfoot Monkey pattern from Amigurumi To Go's blog. It's a well written pattern, the only big change I made was to decrease the neck rows and add additional rows to the middle of the body. There is a video tutorial but as I did not watch it I cannot attest to it's quality. She has a few other Little Bigfoot animal patterns as well. I think the elephant and pig look super cute, I plan on making them for Christmas presents.

Minky and Satin are my two favorite baby blanket materials for sewing projects. One of the besties is doing a sea turtle themed nursery, with teal and white. So, of course I had to make a minky blanky. I used teal and white minky, cut to the size I wanted. I then sewed them wrong sides together with a 1/4 inch seam. Now normally I am to impatient to bother with pinning, but minky is the exception to that, you must pin like crazy! I then took a stencil I made from a hibiscus image I found on a stock photo website and used a quilting pencil to draw the hibiscus in the corner on the white side. I stitched around the image using turquoise for the top thread, and white on the bobbin. I stitched with the white side up so that the turquoise thread was on the white fabric and the white thread on the turquoise fabric. I sewed on a cute sea turtle patch in the middle of the hibiscus. The border is satin blanket binding, I used a decorative stitch and changed the bobbin to turquoise as well so that it is visible on both sides. 

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My other recent baby project was an elephant lovey. I made him out of extra teal minky and some baby flannel,using an elephant coloring page printable for a pattern. I sewed ribbons onto one ear and the other I filled with pieces of a plastic bag to make crinkle noises. He has some oops' but I am happy with the concept and hopefully my next attempts will turn out flawless. 

Fold a piece of minky in half so that the pattern fits then cut out the elephant, make sure to leave a seam allowance or pic an image that will allow for one. Cut a length of ribbons and burn the ends with using a match or lighter so that it won't fray. Fold the ribbon in half and pin the edges to the wrong side of the elephants rear end so that the ribbon lays on the fabric. That way when you turn it, it will be on the outside. I angled mine so that it would point down. Then stitch right sides together leaving a small opening to turn the fabric. Turn the fabric and hand stitch the opening or use an invisible stitch. I then used a decorative stitch to make the eye and a straight stitch for the eyebrow. 

Cut four 3/4 circles for ears. For one ear cut lengths of ribbons for "taggies". Pin them the same way as the tail laying on the fabric, pinned to the wrong side. Sew around leaving a small opening for turning. Turn and use a decorative stitch to attach the ear. I folded the raw edges of my opening under and stitched that when attaching the ear. You could do two like that or the other crinkly. For the crinkly one I did the ear the same without the ribbons and after turning stuffed pieces of a plastic grocery bag inside before attaching and stitching closed. I have read that you can buy a crinkly fabric online, and some people suggest using cereal bags, washed then dried and cut up. Make sure to line the ear up so that when you are stitching to stitch over the stitches from the other ear. 

And because I must end on a song here's The Monkees Theme Song, by the Monkees :D  If you make a blanket or elephant lovey I would love to see pictures. God Bless, and keep life crafty.

Crafty days bring a family together

As we were getting ready for our first day back to "school" I wanted to do some fun projects. Sadly I had a really severe flare up with my eyes again so we did not get to do most of them, but we did manage to make our first fairy house. Now don't ask me why, but as I am typing, I am singing Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics. Hopefully no psychologists are reading my blog because I can just imagine what thoughts they must have about me :D

So anyway back to the Fairy House. Grammie has to have her decaf Foldgers every morning without fail, so we end up with tons of the containers. We of course recycle, but I hate throwing out perfectly good containers so I use them to store all sorts of little things in the school room. The problem is there is only so much room....Hence came the idea for the fairy house. I cut out a door, and then raided my odds and ends tub. I gave the kids flowers, buttons, yarn and ribbon scraps, feathers, pipe cleaners, and glitter. I manned the glue gun and they got creative. Baby monkey made the flower/button table. Oldest monkey came up with the idea for the button chairs that turned out fantastic. and Monkey princess made the bed and pillow. They are picked where to put flowers, leaves, feathers, buttons, etc on the outside.

We spent about two hours on it. Two blissful hours of all three working together nicely, helping each other, laughing, and singing. It was amazing! I don't know if it will work so well next time, but I sure as heck am going to try it again. Who knew something so simple could entertain three very different children.

Now it is back to school. It's still strange for me being back in AZ. I got used to starting school in September so it feels really weird starting them in August. While we don't take the summer off, we do have a much lighter schedule and I always give them two full weeks off before we have our official 1st day of the school year. Yesterday was our 1st day and it went off without a hitch. 

I love having an actual School room, especially one with built ins! :) I am really excited for this school year and I hope that the first day was a sign for how this school year is going to go. I wish many blessing for your school years whether you are homeschooling or doing public or private school. Remember we are all doing what we feel is right for our family, so be caring and supportive toward each other. :) 

Pacifier Animal Buddy

So I am finally getting around to posting. My apologies! I had a very bad flare up of Iritis (in case you're wondering what the heck that is I included a link to the Mayo Clinic's info) that then caused a 5 day migraine. That combined with having to keep my eyes dilated for a few days, and I ended up way behind on just about everything.

Here on the Funny Farm the monkeys and I spend a lot of time singing and dancing (well them dancing me just singing). We usually get stuck on a song for a while and right now it's one from the Newsboys God's Not Dead. I cannot express how grateful I am that this is true. I honestly don't think I would be able to hold onto the funny and let go of the crazy if God wasn't a very real part of my life, and very much alive! Wherever you are in your life; know that if you are hurting or scared or need a friend all you have to do is Cry Out to Jesus. Life is a Roller-coaster (ooo and that gives me another song going old school with 4Him) and I am so very glad that the one manning my ride is the Big Man upstairs. Other than music one of the ways I maintain my sanity is crafts so that brings me to today's post :)

My two best friends in the world are pregnant, which means baby stuff!!! I love love love making things for babies, and now that we know one is a boy I can focus even more. They are doing a sea turtle theme, which I am going to have a lot of fun with. Now. I think one of the coolest paci holders I have ever seen are the little animal buddies. However they are expensive, so I got to thinking.... I knew I had extra minky that I bought for a blanket so I decided I could make a sea turtle animal buddy. He turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself, although not perfect by any means hopefully the next one will turn out even better. :)

As I was looking at the pics to figure out what to post here I was like awwww he looks like he could just swim away with the fishes. So then I'm like "swim through your veins like a fish in the sea"....Yep and that my friends is how my brain works, everything is a song. I don't hear voices in my head I hear an unending soundtrack. It's really a terrible song about a guy screwing around with a married chick, but there is something about Uncle Kracker's voice, plus the college days nostalgia it brings back. Follow Me- Uncle Kracker

My first step was to go to Coloringpedia for a sea turtle coloring page to use as a pattern. Click on the link there to go to their turtle coloring pages. I found the one I wanted to uses for a basis then sized it where I wanted it. I cut out two turtles. one turquoise and one white. I think next time I will go a little bigger though.

Next step was to figure out what I wanted to do to give him some weight. I didn't have any dried beans on hand, but I quite literally have thousands of buttons. It's a crazy obsession really, but that's for another post. I didn't want to just fill him, because what if he pops a seam? So I used some scrap fabric to make a pouch and filled it with buttons. I stitched the seams with a triple straight stitch, 3 times, to make darn sure it would hold.  

I missed taking pics for a couple steps, sorry :( 

But. with right sides together stitch around the turtle leaving in between the back legs open. Turn him right side out then stuff the head and front arms with batting. Place pouch (with whatever in it) inside and finish stuffing him. I then folded my edges under and top stitched his rear end. I think it gave his tail a little more dimension, but if you wanted to blind stitch by hand that would work too. Now you're probably thinking ummm what about the pacifier.....

Now this might seem strange, but for me this method worked best, on a Phillips Avent Soothie 0-3 mo pacifier there is this little lip. (Look at my snazzy graphics aren't I sooo clever, haha)

Anyway I put this up to Mr. Turtle's mouth seam and ripped out the stitches just to the width of it. Then inserted the lip right into him. The cool thing about this silicone material is that you can hand stitch right through it. So I knotted my doubled heavy duty thread ( I don't want this sucker popping out) pulled it through from the inside so the knot is hidden and stitched him closed. Just make sure to get both layers of fabric and that portion of the paci all stitched in there tight. I tugged really hard on it to make sure I had it all the way. I also stitched a little farther on each side so to catch where I had machine stitched. Then of course poor Mr. turtle needed eyes so instead of tying off I went up to where I wanted an eye and did several visible stitches in all directions then went over a little ( yep that's the technical measurement) and stitched another eye. I knotted the thread at the eye, so it doesn't look out of place. 

I forgot to get a picture of his tail and he is already in the mail, but I will get one of the next one! The animal for my other bestie is undecided as of yet, she wants to wait to pick till she knows gender, but I will post about it as well. If you have any questions I will do my best to answer them. :) 

Take care and don't forget to "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming" yep I went there!

Faces of Disability

So this is something I've been debating writing, because overall I'm trying to keep the focus of this blog on being thrifty or crafty, dealing with dementia or cooking. I decided to post this tonight though after a conversation I had this week that started with the question I always dread.

"So what do you do for a living", even when I could still work this is so often such a loaded question and you know you're going to be judged based on your answer and enthusiasm level. I doubt that I am the only one who dreads this question. And really all I want to do is bust out my inner Tina and sing some "Proud Mary" maybe it would distract them and I'd never have to actually answer.

Because I believe in being honest I will admit I'm on disability....then of course so many times comes the automatic judgement and disgust. Like I'm no longer worthy to breathe the same air. Maybe I'm just to sensitive, but then comes the "you? you look fine to me, why are You on disability? and that you is almost always very snide.  I know I could just choose to say nothing and walk away, or tell them it's none of their business, but I can't bring myself to do that. So once again I explain, I explain the large holes in my SI joints that make it impossible for me to bend past touching my knees, or to sit or stand or walk for more than a few minutes at a time without changing. I explain how my right arm can't raise above my head and I can't even brush my hair with it most days. I explain how the swelling in my eyes gets so bad that they burn and the world looks as is I'm looking through a kaleidoscope. I explain the pain I live with every day as my body attacks itself over and over.

But really why do I feel I have to defend myself, why is it their business. They don't really care that I live with Ankylosing Spondylitis, Fibromyalgia, Iritis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Carpal Tunnel, Scoliosis, Arthralgia TMJ, and Chondromalacia Pattellae in both knees. They don't care that I've worked since I was 15 sometimes holding down three jobs while going to school, until I couldn't anymore. All they care about is that I look healthy other than being overweight and automatically assume I'm a fat lazy chick living off the system. Add to that the fact I'm a single mom and my fate is sealed. I don't bother to say I've never been on welfare, or that my ex only occasionally can be bothered to pay child support so I'm not living off of that either. Because even if they actually cared, it wouldn't matter. Judgement has been cast, I'm guilty because all they can see is the outside and the fact that I keep smiling so I must be fine.

There are times it's really hard not to lash out. Should I use the cane the doctor thinks I should so that people have a visual that says she really is disabled. Well as long as I can walk just grabbing onto walls or railings or pushing a cart or stroller I'm not going to. Would it make it more acceptable if I didn't bother to smile. If I let the pain I hide show through. I don't know, but for my monkeys I'm not going to find out.

So judge me, assume I'm a lazy mooch living off the system. If it makes you feel big then go for it. But if some part of you is reading this saying I wonder how many people I've judged unfairly simply because I couldn't see their pain. Whether 2 or 92 when you look at a person, maybe you should think twice before jumping to conclusions. Maybe take a few minutes and get to know the real them. Ask how someone is, with the intention of listening and caring about the answer. Be willing to look past what's on the outside good or bad, and get to know the real person. You don't know what someone else is going through, so maybe we should all be a lot slower to judge and a lot quicker to love. And if you are asking someone what they do just so you can define them and fit them into a box, Don't. Please for me! What does it matter how they make their living? If you become friends I'm sure you will find out what the person does.

I will keep on smiling and for my kids sake do my darnedest every day not to let the pain come through any more than it does. But, that doesn't mean a part of me isn't hurt by the looks of disgust, that my heart doesn't feel stepped on when you all of a sudden are to busy to keep our kids play date for the unforeseeable future, only after you find out I live on disability. I would happily give up all my pain and work full time again. Yes I look at the bright side of things and enjoy being there for my kids, and that I'm able to take care of my Gram full time, but that doesn't mean I would think twice about taking a cure if they found one and jumping right back into a full time job.

END RANT :)

Now on a lighter note, I have been so exhausted this week and I totally feel like the walking dead. Hmm not sure this is a lighter note...anyhow. When I was talking to my sister she got a song stuck in my head that I feel the need to share so it will be stuck in yours. I've been singing it for three days straight. I absolutely LOVE the voice of the lead singer in the Cranberries and this song has always been one of my favorites as crazy as that sounds. "Zombie" The video is so in your face, but so bizarre, it's really something that stays with you.

Because of my exhaustion this week I needed some easy comfort food one night so I made something that just totally hit the spot. It's something I picked up from an Italian lady I was a nanny for back in college.

This is actually fairly healthy as well, especially as far as comfort food goes. I take a piece of Pita bread, spread some sun-dried tomato hummus on it to the edges, then for grins and giggles a few pepperoni (that's my own addition, but I love pepperoni), then top with some crumbled feta. Toast in the toaster oven at about 400 for 3-4 minutes till the cheese softens and voila!
It is sooooo yummmy, really you must try it. Now I do not think this would work in the microwave, I've never tried it though because I'm not a fan of microwaves at all. You could put it on a pizza pan in the oven or just on the rack though and it would be fine. I put mine on the rack in my toaster oven so that the pita toasts nicely on the bottom. I cheated and used store bought hummus. I know I'm shocked at myself too, but I really really have been exhausted this week. I will post my hummus recipe as soon as I get measurements worked out for you all. It is another one of those things where I just throw things in the food processor till it looks and tastes good.

This is one of those things that I can't eat without thinking about college and that makes me think about my first love. RIP Chris, you are loved and missed more than you ever could of imagined.
You know how it goes; you associate something with a time or place or feeling and the memories flood in. So now I'm singing "Strawberry Wine" far cry from where this post started but I'll end here and go to bed singing about Strawberry wine and the hot July moon that saw everything :)  

Saving money at big events without skimping on the fun

Yesterday (in case you live in a available bombshell bunker without a calender) was Independence Day. I love this holiday it comes in a very close second to Thanksgiving for my favorite holiday.  I love this great country we live in,  and it's nice for this one day to see most people put away their political differences and celebrate being a free nation created under God.
The down side to holidays is I love to go crazy,  but things have been really extra tight financially so I got extra creative this year.
Bring your own food and drinks
The first thing I did was go online and find info on all the celebrations in my area.  Being Phoenix metro I had a ton to choose from,  which I know doesn't aply to everyone so this tip might not help you if you live in a small area.  I narrowed it down to the ones with free admission first. I love the word FREE! Then I checked for who would allow me to bring a cooler with drinks and my own food, obviously for the monkey's allergies, but also a HUGE cost saver.

I settled on Apache Junction and was very impressed. They not only had a lot of fun activities starting 3 hours before the fireworks, but the police presence was helpful, friendly, and very on top of things. Thank you to the AJ police department you guys and gals are AWESOME ! Their fireworks display was wonderful, the band pretty good and the booths were fun. The police also did a bang up job of getting traffic out of there.

But anyway back on topic.

Buy face paint and decor type things ahead of time and bring them
We stopped at Walmart and picked up face paint for $1.29, it had red,white and blue in one. Then I grabbed a package of 10 patriotic glow necklaces that were marked down to $2.50.  Hobby Lobby was right next door so we ran in there and found the 4th stuff already marked down to 50% off. So we grabbed some garland to decorate the wagon for $1 and a 2 pack of flags for the monkeys to wave also for $1.

I also made Lilly's hairclips, but that is only cost effective if you have a ribbon stash for every occasion like I do.


If you do face painting at the event or buy glow Sticks there it can cost you a lot more. At AJ it was the cheerleaders doing it and asking for donations but you get one little character and then you can't not give them money. Which is great if you have it but I'm focusing on being thrifty. I'm not saying they aren't worthy or anything.

So here's the monkey's face paint, which I really should of taken a picture of before food and drinks and sweat.

I had several people come up to me about the face paint, and ended up doing about a dozen other kids as well. 

Find booths with a free game or craft for the kids

What I've always done at things like this is to find businesses with booths that have a wheel to spin or some sort of game for the kids. These are almost always free,and if not I move on. A lot of times you can find free craft projects as well. AJ was all fundraiser booths, but all the games were $1 which was pretty awesome so I did let the kids throw wet squishy balls at the school superintendent. The oldest monkey did mommy proud when he nailed him right in the middle of the forehead. The monkey princess hit right on the edge of the face cutout so she got him pretty wet as well. :)

A wonderful time was had by all 4 of us, and I spent a total of $10.29 including the case of water I bought to take. We were there from 5:30 till after the fireworks ended and didn't feel like we missed out on anything. Monkey princess was even given a light up star necklace still in the package by some teenagers who said she had the best face paint they found all night. 

 So I will leave you with this, one of my favorite songs, and a fantastic video montage. 

GOD BLESS THE USA! Happy Independence Day America