Enjoying Florida Winter Weather

We have had some fantastic weather lately - in fact, I think that beach season is upon us soon! This past weekend, we managed to get out of the house and enjoy some fun spots - on Saturday, my Mom and I took Tyndell to Loxahatchee Refuge and walked around the Cypress boardwalk, which is beautiful, and then went to lunch - sitting outside of course! The Loxahatchee also had a pretty awesome Everglades education center to tour, with a airboat simulation. On Sunday, Jeff, me, and Tyndell went to the zoo for a few hours. Tyndell was being really funny next to the statues that are in the zoo, especially the Mayan ones! She definitely likes the monkeys and the Tiger best.

She has been pretty hilarious lately and I think she even sang "Tyndell, Tyndell Little Elmo" yesterday instead of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." That is her jam actually - it's the song where we never really hear the right words - there's always a Zen the Puppy, Gigipapa, or Elmo that slips in there somewhere. She has been singing lots in the car lately - her favs also include ABCs, Jesus Loves Me, Wheels on the Bus, "Backpack, backpack" from Dora, and the B-I-B-L-E.

Sleepy Baby

From naptime last weekend.....

Happy Vespa...oops! Valentines' Day!

So we have been totally into Groupon lately...everything from hitting up shopping deals at Nordstrom to finding new and quirky restaurants to try. Just the other week Jeff goes - "hey there's a Groupon for a Vespa rental, two movie tickets, and dozen roses on Valentines' Day in Miami." I said - "That sounds so random and fun - let's take the day off and do it." So we did! Jeff and I always say we are going to take a random day off together and hang out but we never do it and we've really been trying to enjoy all the fun things that being South Floridians has to offer. We really do feel lucky to live in such a beautiful place and Monday was no exception...I have to say that we had a total blast cruising around Miami on this fun Vespa and stopping for some different sightseeing. We apparantly got the "Corey Hart Vespa" b/c it is the one that he and Pink have rented before when they are in town. We picked up the Vespa downtown and went south to Coconut Grove for lunch. This is a sort of arts district and there's all these funny peacock statues and fun restaurants and cool architecture - we ate at a ceviche themed place called Jaguar and it was so yummy. There were umbrellas outside and a giant Jaguar was on the side of the building so it was pretty much a win-win. Then we found this fun historical site called The Barnacle, which is an old house that looks over Biscayne Bay - talk about beautiful! Then we went back north to South Beach and found this cool road across the bay called Venetian Way and saw all these Old Florida Art Deco and Spanish Houses before we got to the beach area with all the fancy smancy hotels. We also found this really amazing park with fun spider overhangs on the way to the beach. It was an awesome day - it just makes me appreciate Jeff and his sense of adventure so much and that even after all that we've been through, we can still take a day off for random fun.

Oh and by the way....the beach pictures are for all of you out there experiencing Snowpoclypse! Boo-ya! hahahaha!

Hogsmeade and Guster Adventure

Ok - so ever since the Harry Potter land was built at Islands of Adventure in Orlando last year, I've been dying to go and then an opportunity presented itself when Guster announced they would play a show in Orlando last year so I begged Jeff that he get me tickets for my birthday and we would go this past weekend to the park and the show! Well - the weekend I've been looking foward to forever came and we had a blast AND Donald met us there for the weekend and we had so much fun riding the coasters, having butterbeers in Hogsmeade/Diagon Alley, and then topping the day off with the most fun music ever. At the show, I even ran into a friend of mine from playing soccer in high school! How wonderful and random! We even made to Wolfgang Puck's for dinner before the show and it was DELISH! Sunday before we left Orlando, we decided to walk around Downtown Disney and check out the cool toy stores, including the Lego one. I have to say that the Disney toy store is one of the best I've ever seen....I mean....they have a Mr.Potato head station (think Buzz Lightyear Potato Head, Yoda Potato Head, Pirate Potato Head, Minnie Potato Head...), a light saber station, and every cool soft stuffed animal ever, including all the muppets. So fun! We have decided that we have to go back in the fall with Tyndell and do some Christmas/Birthday shopping there and knock it all out! Anyway - we had a great time. Perks of being Florida residents = quick Orlando vacations. AH YEAH.

Winter Art and After Dinner Activity Update

Just an Tyndell art update from about 24-25 months old - these are some of the favorites that come home in her school backback. As you can see - we are exploring color and texture right now ;) I just love my budding artist!

Over the holidays, Tyndell became really obsessed with coloring and tracing her hands and feet (you can see some tracing action on the "manger" collage) so we would spend a lot of nights after dinner with our paper and crayons. Lately, our after dinner activities have been more focused on playing "Night-Night," where we gather all the pillows (pronounced "pile-low") and blankets (or "bankeys") and tuck her in on the floor with all the Elmos. We kiss them, she kisses them, and sometimes the Elmos even kiss each other before going "night-night." Then we repeat this scenario about 5 times before the puppies try to get tucked in and ruin the whole scene haha. Who can resist two owl pillows, an otter pillow, 4 Elmos, and about 10 blankets?! Not I....

Entering the Land of Awesome Outfits

That's right....purple boots + furry knee socks + Dora panties = Awesome. We have entered the world of awesome, Tyndell-driven outfits.

South Florida Fair

The other weekend, Jeff was able to get FREE tickets to the South Florida Fair in West Palm Beach so we went with my parents for a few hours. Tyndell really liked feeding the animals and riding the racecar attraction! Mom was determined to introduce Tyndell to funnel cakes and it was definitely a win-win. Even though Jeff claims it was "sketchy," we still had a fun time.