Rainy Day Fun

The other day I heard Bianca come out of her room saying, "Daddy, go get my raincoat!". I looked up to see her in her rain boots and carrying her umbrella. She was ready to go! For those of you who may not know, it doesn't rain here too much in the Fall (or at least that is how it seems to me). Mimi and Poppy had purchased her a matching mermaid rain coat/boot set but, she received it after the rainy season was over. I guess she was really looking for an opportunity to use them!

I tried explaining to her that she didn't really need her umbrella since she had her rain coat on but, she wanted that umbrella...

Splashing in some puddles!

Big jump!

She finally decided to forgo the umbrella...

The Dragon and Her Princess

As many of you know, Bianca decided to be a green dragon this year for Halloween. I wasn't sure how I felt about this for a while being that all of the other little girls in her class were either princesses, mermaids, etc...you get the picture. But once I ordered the costume and saw how happy it made Bianca, I started to change my mind. She is a very special and unique little girl and as her Mommy, I, more than anyone, need to embrace that. The only obvious choice (at least to me) to go along with the dragon costume was a princess costume. So that is how we decided what Ellia would be.
Bianca was so excited for Halloween. She has been wearing that blessed costume almost every day since it arrived. It is pretty much too small for her and I needed to exchange the size but, I didn't have the heart to take it away from her to send it back in the mail for a new one. So when Halloween day actually arrived she kept saying, "I'm so excited for Halloween! I can't wait to go trick or treating! Mommy, Halloween is getting even closer!".
We decided to go to the "trunk-or-treat" at her school where they had plenty of candy for little dragons and games to boot. Bianca got to play golf with Daddy, fish, do bean-bag tosses and all sorts of other fun games to earn even more candy. She really didn't have that much candy at the end of the night, just enough to fill the bottom of her Hello Kitty treat bucket. But, she thinks she has a lot and she has been enjoying it ever since!

This little ham ran around like she was queen of all the land!

I'm guessing the half-naked man in this picture was a rapper?

Ahhh...the goods at the end of the night...

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!