Tyndell's New Favorite Friend

This post is way late in the making...a couple of weeks ago...or uh..three...our great friend, Jason, just happened to be in Fort Lauderdale for one night and we got to have dinner with him. Jason was one of my teammates when we were in the Peace Corps in Mali - his village was about 10km outside Sikasso where Jeff and I lived so we worked with/hung out with him tons during our stint there. He got me through a lot of hard days there for sure. Jason is also one of my favorite people - he is hilarious and scary smart and probably one of the most passionate people I've ever met about improving livelihoods around the world. It is inspiring to know him. If fact, Jason still works for the Peace Corps but as a health sector director for volunteers...he is a "patron-ba" if you ask me - so he still lives and works in Africa and so, we never get to see him obviously. It was such a nice surprise that between his move from Malawi to Liberia that he had some time off to visit family near us, so hooray! It was so great catching up and Tyndell also adored him. In fact, I've NEVER EVER seen Tyndell crawl into someone's arms and talk/play with them so easily and quickly as she did with Jason. She must know how cool he is. If Tyndell were a Malian, she'd say "Seydou...you're cool!" Aww - Jason - I miss you already and best of luck in your ventures in Liberia. Thanks for sharing your short time in Florida with us. xoxox

Tyndell Bell and the Pumpkin Patch

So at Disney World the other weekend, Tyndell finally settled on being Tinker Bell for Halloween, so last Friday night, I took her to the Disney store after school to get the one she had been talking about with wings and all. She has pretty much put that costume on everyday ever since Friday (which makes me feel better about the amount it cost by the way...hehehe). It glows in the dark and the wings light up actually! On Sunday morning, Jeff needed to work, so I also took her out to this farm nearby that has a pumpkin patch, because I wanted to take cheesy pictures of her near pumpkins. I know, I know...totally dumb...but she looks great next to orange. Ok - I know it's not a real pumpkin patch, but it's about the closest you can get in Florida! We picked out a few little ones to put in her room and we've been talking about trick-or-treating and reading some fall-themed books the last few days which is fun. She has this one book that my friend Cecily gave her and she always wants to look at it now and see the 'mummy.' Anyway - we are having fun gearing up for Halloween this year which will be Tyndell's first real dress up and go trick-or-treating year. I'm so glad she settled on a Florida appropriate costume instead of the more common furry, sweaty, hot costumes you see that are made for regular Fall climates. Much improved over last year's Elmo choice. And unfortunately (or fortunately) the vampire pacifier has been destroyed by the garbage disposal so it will not be making an appearance this Halloween (ssshhh don't tell Tyndell that) either.

First Trip to Disney World!

So it's been a pretty Disney-obsessed year for us...between going to Disneyland on our CA trip earlier this year and all the 'family movie nights,' Tyndell has definitely developed Disney fever. So needless to say, when my parents found an awesome deal for a long weekend condo/villa up in Orlando, we figured we should all do Disney World. Having a kid and living so close to Orlando has its advantages for sure because it's definitely nice to do a long weekend up there to get some park time and shopping in, and not have to take much time off of work or worry about crowds. So the other weekend, we took of Thursday and Friday, and met my parents up in Orlando. We did some shopping at Downtown Disney when we arrived (had to scope out Tyndell's birthday and Christmas gifts....this is a plan that started development back in February when we realized how awesome the toy store is up there) on Thursday, Magic Kingdom on Friday, and Epcot on Saturday. Then Sunday, Jeff and I went back to Downtown Disney to get all the cute things that Tyndell kept asking for on Thursday to get our December completely taken care of (yessssss) before we drove home. So before I get into Magic Kingdom, let me just say that Jeff has been psyching Tyndell up for this trip for months so that she kept saying, "let's go to Septembers" all the time haha since she knew we were going to Disney in September. When we got to Magic Kingdom, Tyndell immediately wanted the Peter Pan ride and then we spent a good portion of time in Fantasyland (note to Disney lovers: they are expanding Fantasyland right now and building ALL the princess castles and even though I'm not a big princesses fan, it looks totally cool) before lunch, and then got some Pirates of the Caribbean and the Jungle Cruise in. Tyndell rode 'It's a Small World' twice of course and I'm sure it's still it's her favorite. Jeff got to experience the Hall of Presidents at his sole leisure and Tyndell took a nap in the 'Carousel of Progress' to his dismay. It was a blast and Tyndell was pretty starstruck. I was never a big fan of Magic Kingdom when I was a kid, but I have to say that experiencing it through Tyndell makes me love it. The next day, we did Epcot and definitely got to hit all the hot spots on our list - the land boats, Soarin' (awesome IMAX ride), Figment, and the return of Captain EO! We ate lunch at the Mexico restaurant and then Jeff, Tyndell, and I managed to stroll through the world circus before a storm hit that evening. We were super lucky with weather up there - we missed all the little storms while waiting in lines inside for the most part. Anyway - it was a great time and I'm pretty sure Tyndell's love for Toy Story and Tinker Bell has been solidified. Thanks Mom and Dad for inviting us on a great mini-cation!

Ahrens' Fall 2011 Visit and 100 Years of Magic

Jeff's parents came for a 10 day visit in September and took some fun pics that I thought I would share. We are such nerds and didn't have batteries in our camera the whole time, so Dad A was nice to send most of these along and I paired with a few iphone pics. We mostly took it easy while they were here, had lots of fun dinners and playtime at night with Tyndell. Unfortunately, Mom A took a bike spill one day on the ride to Target one day during their stay and had to get some stitches (and we got to experiment in the world of dry shampooing!) on her head, but luckily, it seemed to heal very quickly and the Delray Medical Center was very helpful/nice to her. Poor Mom! Also - Dad A fixed our kitchen door which has literally had a hole in it for a year haha b/c we could never find the right door to replace it/fix it. It looks awesome now! The big event while they were here was that Jeff had found out about Disney on Ice "100 Years of Magic" show at the Bank Atlantic Center near Miami and we all piled into cars (Gigipapa included) and Tyndell in her Cinderella dress and went to watch the show. It was honestly awesome (does that make me an official parent that I thought it was awesome?). Even some of the pizza nighters - Tammy with Sam and Max and Keri-Ann with Regan and Reilly (and baby on the way) - came out. All the kiddos dressed up and were so excited. Jeff and I liked the tribute to 'It's a Small World' the best obviously b/c Tyndell loves that ride so much from our Disneyland trip in April. This show was just a warm up to our trip to Orlando the following weekend (last weekend), which I will post some pics of very soon! Great visit - thanks for coming down Mom and Dad A! You better sharpen your Candyland skillz for Christmas!!

You Know You Live in Florida When....

...you post cheesy fake scary pictures of your 2-year old next to an alligator! This cracks me up...Tyndell's calm position and the firey eyes of the gator are perfection!