Two mom's from our group, Sonya and Cyndi hosted the St. Patrick's Day Party for the little one's this past Tuesday. I made Cristiana a pair of pants (1st clothing item I've sewn and it was quite a disaster, but nevertheless they look ok from afar so I made her wear them), with a green fabric she selected and she wore a cute green headband that surprisingly enough she kept on all day long. The ladies provided lots of fun things for the kids to do including a treasure hunt. Cristiana had a great time with her friends and was very excited to receives a little flower pot with seeds as her St. Patrick's day gift, so much so that she did not want to let go of the seed packet until we got home. Thanks Cyndi and Sonya for such a great time!
Jaime had to travel to S.Fl to work again this month (we traveled there last month as well but forgot the camera, hence no pics, no post). We stayed at a Staybridge Suites there (separate bedrm/living room and kitchen) and the free breakfast buffet was yummy. They also have free orderves and beer Tuesday-Thursday evenings. Cristiana and I spent time at the malls in the area, especially Sawgrass Mills which I loved shopping at when I lived in Miami. They have a Rainforest Cafe at this mall and we spent A LOT of time looking at the fish (I had a funny video of Cristiana looking at the fish and dancing to the music in the background but she deleted it off the camera before I was able to save it on my laptop). We also played a little in Cha Cha's Adventure Area, yes, you heard it right, Cha Cha's area, I completely forgot that the frog from Rainforest Cafe is named Cha Cha so I had to take a picture of our Cha Cha in front of a sign with this on it. On our way home we actually traveled down south to visit my mom and have some yummy, good, scrumptious authentic Cuban food at one of my favorite restaurants down there. Cristiana has gotten so much easier to travel with, though she didn't sleep in the car at all this trip (which was very different from our last trip, she fell asleep every time she was in the car) she was content and entertained for most of the car rides.
Yesterday we celebrated Papi's birthday with a short visit to Magic Kingdom and of course lunch at the ESPN Club on the Disney Boardwalk. Papi took the day off to hang out with his girls and we enjoyed every minute of it!
We LOVE you Papi! Hope you had a great Birthday!
This weekend we headed to Wekiwa Springs State Park for their Annual River fest. We were able to see some animals, do some kids crafts, and enjoy the wonderful weather that day.
Cristiana met a real live bear (character of course) and enjoyed making a bird feeder (peanut butter,a pine cone and bird seeds) and painting a miniature bird house. She really enjoyed looking at the springs but her favorite part of the day was her bird feeder which she would NOT let go of and would NOT let anyone else hold it or touch it (it was in a zip lock bag). She even fell asleep in the car holding onto it. She was so excited to give the birds some food, but unfortunately the crazy squirrels would get to it first and devour it before the birds would even know it was there. At least someone had a good meal from it.
I decided to take an intro to sewing class @ Jo Ann's sometime in January and decided that I would love to be able to make some of my own stuff and especially stuff for Cristiana. I took one more class there last month which taught us some basics as well as creating a reusable lunch tote (with water proof lining in it). I've got to say I'm hooked and thanks to my wonderful friend Kathy (you're the best Kathy!), I've inherited a machine and I'm off on my journey to become a real domesticated diva ,as I like to think of it (Jaime likes to call me Grandma!). Here's a picture of my lunch tote as well as a neck travel pillow I made for Cristiana. I'm very excited to get going on making clothes as well as gifts. Don't be surprised if you're next gift from me is something I made myself (hopefully you'll like it!)
We had my friend Toya over to celebrate her birthday. We invited her over for lunch and for cake. I made her favorite, red velvet w/creme cheese frosting and it was yummy but a little over colored. I coincidentally frosted it white and purple which matched perfectly with Toya's shirt. I guess great minds think alike!
Happy Birthday Toya! We LOVE you!
Here's a picture of Cristiana enjoying one of mommy's parenting magazines as she sits on the potty. She doesn't usually go while she's reading but it does give her something to do while she's waiting. Too cute!
This month two of my friends were blessed with welcoming new babies into their families. My friend Malika and her husband welcomed twin baby boys, Devin Eric and Ari Lawrence at 2:46 and 2:47 AM on January 8th. My friend Linda and her husband Mashal welcomed little Genevieve (aka Evie) on January 18th. Babies and moms are all doing great and adjusting to their new lives (we understand!) Congratulations Adams and Walker Family! We can't wait to squeeze those precious little angels!
I decided to take Cristiana to Birthday World (where Ava had her birthday party) the day of her actual birthday since they give you free ice cream and tokens on your birthday. Amelia and Reagan were able to join Cristiana that day and they all had a great time riding the rides and bouncing the morning away. Cristiana again rode everything and Reagan was brave enough to join her on everything as well. But as I mentioned before, her favorite ride there is the banana one and she must have been that ride at least 3 times while we were there. Since her birthday was on a week day, Birthday World is usually pretty empty on week days so we were lucky enough to have the run of the place. I'm sure we'll be heading off to birthday world much more since Cristiana loves it so much and it's only $5 for everything.
This past weekend we celebrated Cristiana's 2nd birthday @ her favorite park, Chapin Station in Winter Garden. Cristiana was a huge fan of Jojo's circus, a very cute and educational playhouse Disney animation that unfortunately was discontinued a while back. Cristiana watched a DVD of this show and she was hooked. It was not easy finding birthday supplies with Jojo on it but I did find some and the rest I got creative with. I got really brave this year (last year I made 2 cakes out of cupcakes along with her smash cake) and decided to make her a circus tent cake with some cupcakes for her friends. I got my inspiration from some ideas on the cake central website (I LOVE this website) and though it took me longer than I expected (mostly due to waiting for the cream cheese frosting to crust (which it never did)) and it did not come out completely the way I wanted it to, but I was overall happy with the outcome.
The kids had fun running around the playground, playing in the sand box, and having their face painted and luckily we didn't get any rain until the very end, which ended up as a short and quick sprinkle. Thank God!
Happy Birthday My Monkey!
Make sure to pause the music at the bottom of the blog before playing the video below.
Make sure to pause the music at the bottom of the blog before playing the video below.
This week we headed to the Central Florida Zoo with some of the mom's from our mom's group. It was a bit chilly at first but it ended up being a beautiful and perfect day for the zoo. Cristiana LOVES seeing all the animals, she gets that from me. We spent some time feeding some of them @ the petting zoo and then walked around and enjoyed the rest. On our way out we rode the carousel, not by choice of course, every time we pass one Cristiana throws a fit until I give in, I guess it's not too much to ask since she's such a good girl!Thanks for the pics Kristin and Tracy!
This weekend the Grant Family invited us over for dinner. Joe likes to hunt and always comes home with something and they wanted me to try venison (deer) for the first time. Anyone who knows me, knows that my list of foods I like and eat is very minimal and I'm usually not adventurous about trying new things, but I decided to give it a whirl. We brought over black beans and rice (Kristin's favorite) and had a lovely dinner along with some great drinks (Kristin makes a good appletini). So you may be wondering what I thought about the venison? Well, Joe threw it on the grill with some seasoning and the verdict was: YUMMY! I won't lie, I was scared at first, but after I tried it, I could have taken a whole plate full of leftovers if we had any. The girls had a great time together as usual, dinner was a bit unproductive for both of them but they had a ball playing with everything and just being plain silly. It was a bit late when we were about to leave so we decide to let the girls take a bath together, that way as soon as we got home, it was straight to bed. We thought she would fall asleep on the way but I guess she was too excited from her afternoon/evening w/her best friend. Thanks Grant family! We had a great time and LOVED the food. And thanks for the pics Kristin!
Disclaimer: For those of you (like my sister) who look at these pictures and wonder, do they ever brush her hair? The answer is YES, and she usually looks really good when we're leaving the house with a bow or hairband on, but if she decides to take it off, that's where we loose the game and it usually doesn't go back in and hence her hair looks like a crazy mess.
Cristiana LOVES to hang out with her best girl friends. They always seem to have such a good time together and as they're getting older, they seem to interact more with each other every time. It's so cute, the girls will give each other hugs hello and goodbye, and most of the time the moms don't even have to initiate it. Here are some pics of them having fun together @ few different locations, Monkey Joes (one of our favorite places), Amaya Papaya (indoor "play"room), and My Gym. Thanks Kristin and Julie for the pics!
On Sunday was Cristiana's best friend Ava's 2nd birthday party. It was held at a really neat place called Birthday World that's has small carnival rides, a few bounce houses, arcade games, and even a small miniature golf course ALL indoors. I'm always so amazed and at the same time terrified of Cristiana's bravery. She rode on all the rides there, except the bumper cars since she's too small for that one, but she rode the banana ride which is like a smaller version on Dumbo, the carousel, the teacups, and even the really LOUD train roller coaster they have there. There was no influence from me, she decided to go on these things all on her own and she LOVED them all, but her favorite was the banana ride. We even got to play some games (which Cristiana likes to ask for money and search my pockets whenever something she wants such as arcade games or little rides requires money) and decorate our own cupcakes, Cristiana had more fun eating the sprinkles that actually the cupcakes itself. We had a great time celebrating Ava's 2nd birthday, and to think these 2 girls have known each other for about 2 years (since Cristiana was 2 or 3 wks old). Happy birthday Ava! We LOVE you!
