Lock-in

As we were getting ready to leave the timeshare condo in Orlando, Mia decided to lock herself in one of the bedrooms.  Unfortunately, it wasn't a push lock, but a lock that you had to turn the tab, so opening the door from the outside was impossible.  We put a call into housekeeping and while we were waiting for someone to spring her, Makaela was feeding her Reeses pieces to keep her calm.  She did really well though- we were the ones who were stressing. 

Our view of Mia during the ordeal

Grammy trying to explain to Mia how to open the door

Makaela feeding her sister Reeses

Legoland

Grammy and Papa came to visit us while Matt was on leave.  The first few days of their visit was a wash, literally, because tropical storm Debby rolled right through Florida with a lot of rain and flooding. We had plans to visit Legoland later in the week and when we left the house Wednesday morning, it was still raining.  Still, we ventured south to tackle yet another theme park.  Legoland was AMAZING! 

Grammy and Makaela

Grammy and Mia

Mia loves the carousel

It was totally geared to the toddlers and young children.  While we love Disney, Makaela doesn't meet all the height requirements, but she met all of them at Legoland and there were little toddler parks and lego stations all of the park for Mia to chill out while her bigger sister went on all the rollercoasters. 

Grammy and Makaela on a ride- love the screaming faces!

And, because of the rain, the park was virtually empty.  Makaela went on one rollercoaster 6 times in a row, because she would get off, duck under the handrails and board the coaster again.  She went on a mini free fall ride and the people were watching her saying to their kids, "look how brave that little girl is".  Then we headed through Lego USA and there were replicas of the different US towns all made out of legos- amazing. The girls had a blast, but we really had a tough time pulling Matt out of the lego stations.  At one point I caught him racing a lego car he built against a few 8 year olds.  He complained he had lost twice so he needed to "revamp" his car...Oh, my competitive husband!!

Makaela outside the dragon rollercoaster

Showing off the house we all made at a Lego station

Matt and Makaela in front of Albert Einstein's head that was totally made of Legos

Makaela on the jousting ride- motorized horses that went around a track.She was waving at everyone like she was a beauty queen in a parade!

Mia Beans

Mia is growing at such a rate, it's amazing.  First of all, she eats constantly.  While I used to worry about this, she has hit a growth spurt, gotten taller and we are finally starting to notice a neck. She had gained a healthy vocabulary too and says: mommy, daddy, baby, ootside, up/down, jooooice, more, -ailey, -ayla, no (we love this one), peese, tank you, apple, flower, ball, bubbles, shoes, socks, moo cow, dis, dat, up, and some others that escapes my mind.  She has also become interested in using the potty, so she tells us peepee when her diaper needs changing or we need to put her on the toilet- no pee pee in the toilet yet, but all in good time.

Pinterest Summer

I have become a bit of a Pinterest addict.  It all started when I created a Pinterest project for my students where they had to create a board for one of the characters in The Scarlet Letter- what the character needed, wanted, deserved, needed to rid themselves of, etc.  A few students confessed that I got them hooked on Pinterest, so I had to see what I was missing.  Boy, did I ever make up for it.  This summer has been a Pinterest summer, since there are so many fun crafts, recipes and decorating ideas- I want to do them all.  Matt rolls his eyes because when I say I have a new Pinterest project it usually involves him having to hang, cut or do something.  Of course, he doesn't mind when I cook the Pinterest recipes though (he was overjoyed with the shrimp fajitas and yogurt sauce as well as the bruschetta chicken).   I still have many more projects lined up...so excited to be a stay-at-home mom this summer!!  Here are some of my Pinterest projects in action:

I redecorated my powder room in a blue/grey and white theme.  I also did wall decorations that were fabric wrapped boards.  It's not a great picture, but the bathroom came out cute and all for under $70.

Our teaching wall in the playroom.  Even Matt got in on the painting of this one.

Keeping Mia busy while I clean up the kitchen

Makaela's plate aquarium...this activity took over 3 hours and she did it with a friend down the block.  Great way to occupy a rainy day.

Swimming Lessons

I enrolled Makaela in swim lessons again this year.  Most of the kids on our block are a bit older and none of them use floaties, so when we started going to the pool, she refused to put hers on.  This created some problems since I couldn't chase after Mia and guard Makaela at the same time. Also, our pool has a pretty awesome slide that Makaela can't go down until she can swim- it's sad to see her watch her friends go down the slide when she can't.  Anyway, our pool advertised swim lessons and we started last week.  Within a week, her instructor got her using her "scooping" arms.

As you can see, she still had to come up and stop swimming to take a breath, but by this week, she was doing it.  Matt took her to swim lessons yesterday and couldn't believe how much she had learned.

Father's Day

Most of the daddies in our neighborhood were a bit under the weather due to a late night watching an MMA fight and "socializing" so we opted to hang around the block instead of attempting a big family outing. Matt roused from the couch long enough to put together his PVC pipe sprinkler concoction for the kids and then pulle out the blow up pool.  Lauri gave the kids golf cart rides (really, the simplest things make them happy) and then Matt got his Father's Day surprise.

Surprise!! Baby Hoffman #3 is on his/her way!

Matt's surgery

Matt went in for elective surgery to get his nose fixed recently.  Over the many years of playing sports (and growing up with a brother) he has broken his nose a few times and ended up with a deviated septum.  He always had problems sleeping but since we moved to FL, it has gotten much worse.  He was rarely able to sleep through the night due to his breathing. Since he is still somewhat training, his command allowed him to get surgery on it.  During his pre-op, his doctor did some tests and Matt found out that he is allergic to many things: strawberries, peanuts, milk, wheat, gluten, four strands of grass that are used in the lawns in our neighborhood and a few other things.  These are not throat closing allergies, but he is allergic to them regardless.  Not like Matt will ever change his diet (I refer to the diet he should be on for his acid reflux, but take salsa away from matt- no way and now take bread, pasta and peanut butter cookies,- double no way). 
     His surgery was scheduled for the day my school ended so I brought him to the hospital and what was supposed to be a 2 hour procedure ended up being 4.  The dr said his nose was so broken, it was pinching one of his airways and as a result, he had a major portion of his septum removed.  It was a very long day and I was so grateful we have neighbors I could call to pick up the girls from preschool because I couldn't get there in time to get them.  When we got home, there was dinner on my stoop waiting for us from another neighbor so I didn't have to cook after the hectic day too.  I'm so grateful for our new friends.
      Makaela was very concerned about Matt's nose and recovery.  She didn't want him coming out and told him to "stay in bed and rest".  Turns out she wanted himlocked up in the room so "people wouldn't laugh at him" because of his black eyes and nose cast.  A few days later though, she thought he was better enough to return to work.  When Matt asked why,she said, "well you have to go back to work and make money so I can "bisit" Hawaii".  Oh, our superficial daughter :-)

ABCmouse

A while ago, I subscribed to ABCmouse.com, an online learning program for pre-school and Kindergartners.  Makaela loves doing it because it has songs, puzzles, reads books aloud, paint-by-number pictures, and science/nature facts.  Lately Makaela has been bored with it, so to challenge her a bit more, I moved her math up to Kindergarten math which involved simple addition and substraction. While Matt and I have been working with her a bit, this was the first time I got to see her apply some of those skills.  While I am so proud of her and of how much she is learning, it startles me how much she has grown.

Pirate Park

Since it is finals week, I have been getting out of work early, which gives me more time to spend with the girls out exploring.  We found a park in a neighborhood close to Mia's school that was a pirate park.  The place was huge and had at least 6 slides that jutted off the pirate ship. I can definitely see this being a place we head to during the summer.

Mystery Solved

Last week we had the dogs groomed and we noticed that Leila is carrying a bit more weight  than usual.  I know I am not running her, but still, the old girls is packing on the pounds.  The other day I found out why.