Walking Everywhere

Fast forward two weeks and Ellia has decided that she is now going to walk everywhere. Even when she falls, she picks herself up, gets back on her feet and keeps walking!

Sugar Sand Park

Uncle Jim and Aunt Chara were in town on vacation and they met up with us at Sugar Sand Park in Boca. The girls have such a great time there with the science playground, the Children's Explorium (which now has a dinosaur exhibit), and, of course, the carousel! Another reason why we are enjoying Florida. Having Uncle Jim and Aunt Chara there just made it that much sweeter!

Making music at the playground!

Bianca has to ride on the "sparkle horse" about 52 million times before we leave the park...

We enjoyed the park so much that we had Lisa and Jules meet us there today!

Farm Day at School

If each of us were able to pick our own individual and unique heaven this would be Bianca's choice. It was Farm Day today at Bianca's school where they celebrated the Fall harvest with a big meal and a visit with farm animals. I wasn't expecting much when I was driving to Bianca's school...I thought maybe they would bring a couple baby chicks and bunnies or something but, Animal Kingdom delivered. There were baby goats, pigs, rabbits, chickens, turtles, puppies, and even a baby donkey, cow and llama. Bianca kept jumping back and forth from animal to animal, brushing them, feeding them, petting them. It was actually hard to get any decent pictures because as soon as I would move to where she was she was already off to greet another animal friend.

Getting ready bright and early for Farm Day!

Bianca's classmates and Miss Sue and Mrs. Auz.

Of course, Ellia came out to show her support for Bianca on Farm Day as well!

Flamingo Gardens with Julianna

We met up with my friend, Lisa, and her daughter, Julianna, again at Flamingo Gardens last week. The girls have so much fun playing and gabbing, gabbing, gabbing together.

Here they are looking at the map while riding on the tram that was "really bumpy" according to Bianca.

Eating some peanut butter crackers before catching an animal encounter show.

The girls kept picking so many flowers while we were there that Lisa and I are pretty sure they aren't going to let us back again :-)

A baby peachick and a peahen...

A rare picture of Ellia without her beloved thumb in her mouth (but notice her blankie is close by)!

Fallin' for Fall

Mmmm....Fall, my favorite season of the year. Maybe it is because it is the perfect excuse to light spice-scented candles throughout the house or bake several times during the week or drink those pumpkin spice lattes that Starbucks holds out on me throughout the rest of the year. Any which way you look at it, it is still my favorite season of the year. Now that we are spending our first Fall in Florida it is especially sweet. Even though we don't have the crisp fall leaves that turn spectacular colors, we do have a break in the sticky humidity that hung over us all summer long. The weather is still in the 80s and the rain is tapering off. Life is pretty good here.

We've been venturing out more to check out local parks and to greet and feed the ducks in the pond down the street.

Mimi and Poppy came to town to watch the girls last weekend and brought some Halloween/Fall decorations with them. Bianca made sure she hung them up on the sliding glass door

high enough up so Ellia couldn't rip them down.

We continued our celebration of Fall by heading out to our local pumpkin patch. Not quite the kind you find up in New Jersey where you can pick them off the vine but, my girls didn't seem to mind one bit.

Bianca picked one pumpkin out for each member of the family. She choose a white pumpkin for Ellia...love that!

We brought the pumpkins home to paint and paint they did.

While we were painting Bianca said, "Mommy, I'm an artist! I'm the best artist in the whole world!". She then said, "I can't wait to show Mark"! Ummm, yah, that would be Daddy...

Even Carrera got in on the action!

Combine those hand-painted pumpkins with some Costco mums and voila! This, my friends, is what Fall in Florida looks like!

Off to go enjoy some more pumpkin pie...just wish I had a pumpkin spice latte to go with it!

First Steps

It started a few weeks ago with just a couple of steps here and there. Then it went to a few steps before she decided to stop, drop and crawl. Now, it is several steps but, of course, whenever the camera is close by, it is hard to get it on video...

In this first one she is not so much walking but, I love her little voice and her smile when she sees me...

Cheers to Dr. and Mrs. Rishwain

Mark and I traveled out to LA last weekend for Mark's best friend, Darron's, wedding. It was our first mini-vacation since Ellia was born and boy did we enjoy ourselves. It started out in the airport where we were actually able to have dinner together with adult conversation. Since we flew Virgin America (love that airline) I was able to relax and catch up on some TV shows the whole way there. Once we arrived, we went and spent the night with the Afsharis, got caught up and enjoyed some delicious pizza. The next morning I attended a cardio barre class (yes, I was very sore after!). and then went out for coffee. Ok, I won't bore you with the rest of the details but, all of you moms out there know what I am talking about. It's just so wonderful to enjoy all of the small things that I took for granted before kids.

The rehearsal dinner was held at Nic's Beverly Hills which is a restaurant and Martini lounge with a walk-in/drink-in exhibition vodka freezer. So yummy and fun! Even I enjoyed some of the chocolate and toffee-flavored vodkas.

Darron and his mother

The happy couple

Mark and I in the VODBOX

The wedding was one of the most beautiful I have ever attended. Mark did a fabulous job as one of Darron's two best men and gave a funny yet, touching toast in front of nearly 400 people. I was impressed! Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries as soon as the reception started (knew I should have charge it before I left the hotel) but, here are a few from the cocktail hour.

Mark's parents drove up for the day for the wedding.

Mark and Randy Char

Cheers to Darron and Pam!!!