Japanese Gardens and Key West

Last week we took advantage of Mark's Spring Break and took a trip to Key West. I'll get to that in a minute but, the weekend before last we took an impromptu trip to the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Palm Beach County. The gardens were beautiful and quite unexpected in this land of sun and surf. The girls had fun running around, spotting turtles in the water, and feeding the enormous koi fish. We even spotted an otter (not pictured) while feeding the koi!

As far as our Key West trip goes, we miss it already. As some of you may know, it is a town that insists that you just sit back, relax and enjoy. That is exactly what we did. Some of the highlights of the trip included: the magnificent drive through the keys with nothing but turquoise water on either side of us, a sunset cruise on a glass-bottom boat (at least the kids enjoyed it but, the adults were trying not to get sick), a trip to Mallory Square for the sunset celebration complete with many unique performers such as house cats that performed tricks like jumping through rings of fire, renting bikes and touring the island, visiting a butterfly conservatory, eating key lime pie, conch fritters, fresh fish, and of course, more key lime pie.

A pit stop in Marathon on the way to Key West...

Glass bottom boat ride...

One of the many roaming chickens/roosters of Key West!

Having lunch at the Conch Republic on the water...so nice and such yummy conch fritters!

Blankies? Check! Thumbs? Check! Will ride in the bike "carriage" as Bianca called it!

This picture is pretty blurry but, it shows the amazement on their face of the 100s of butterflies flying around us!

Blue Heaven Restaurant - a definite must-see in Key West!

Bianca getting in on the ping pong action!

The grand finale of all key lime pies!

Pledge of Allegiance

Bianca's version of the Pledge of Allegiance. My favorite is the end..."Please be seated. Have a great day!".

15 Month Old Sweetheart

Stats at 15 Months: 22 lbs. 7 ounces - 45th percentile
31 1/2 inches - 80th percentile

What is she doing now that makes me smile? Everything!!!!

*Her favorite words are "Dada", "Mama", "Doggie", "Bye-bye", "This", "Uh-Uh" (as in "No"), "Uh-Oh", and "Ball"
*She tries to repeat a lot of the words that I ask her to in her own way
*She wants to do everything that Bianca does...
*She is still a good sleeper and naps for about 3 hours a day and sleeps for about 11 hours at night. Of course, she does occasionally wake us in the middle of the night when she can't find her blankie. We just hand it to her and she passes right back out!
*She does not like the word "No" - shocker!
*She is pretty good at using her fork and spoon and eats well although she has slowed down a little in the past few months. What she likes to eat changes all of the time.
*She loves to stand on her stool at the sink and "wash" her hands and brush her teeth. She even pretends to spit into the sink like Bianca does.
*She stands on the stool and goes into the accessory drawer and pulls out all sorts of necklaces and bracelets and puts them on. She can be found with beads around her neck most of the time.
*She has taught herself to climb down from chairs and the sofa as opposed to just falling off.
*When she is hungry or thirsty, she grabs her bowls and cups out of the cupboard and holds them up to the fridge for water (cups) or grabs a box of Cheerios/crackers and "asks" me to pour her some.
*She still loves the bath and runs as soon as she hears the water.
*She loves watching the Wiggles and listening to Mommy sing "The Wheels on the Bus".

Wonderful Weather

We have been having fabulous weather lately and we are trying to take advantage of it any way we can. A couple of weeks ago we headed up to Boca for a trip to Gumbo Limbo State Park with Lisa and Jules. They have a butterfly garden, pools with turtles and other marine life, a beautiful walkway that leads to a tower that overlooks the ocean and so much more. Needless to say, the girls had a blast!

And when we are home, we just grab Bianca's bike and Ellia's baby and stroller and ease on down the road and over to the little park.

Ellia'a New Chair

Ellia's last Christmas present FINALLY arrived - better late than never! It was a chair from Pottery Barn Kids that I though she would enjoy since she liked to play with Bianca's so much. Do you think she likes it or what?

Back to the Zoo...

We jump at any chance we get to go to the zoo, especially at this time of year when the weather in Miami is perfect. This time it was to celebrate Vanessa's 6th birthday. During this trip we rode on a camel, rode on the carousel (of course), dug for dinosaur fossils and pet and brushed a rhinoceros - pretty cool!

Ellia waving to the bears.

And the day wouldn't have been complete without and ice cream treat to top it off!