More Zoo time

We finally convinced Matt to come to the zoo (he is not a fan of walking around in the heat), but we had a great time doing all the activities the zoo has to offer and showing Matt around the zoo (Makaela was a fabulous and overly directive tour guide).



Slide races

Matt playing "vet" at the zoo Discovery Zone

Mia dressing the part

Makaela showing us the Xrays of some animals

At the petting zoo

Mia showing me the penguins swimming over her head

Feeding the giraffes

Even Mia got in on the feeding.  Wasn't scared at all.

Momma giraffe and Baby nuzzling- how cute

Oh Mia

Mia is hitting the Terrible Twos early which is putting her accident prone self at an even bigger risk.  She has recently taken to running away from me when she knows it's bedtime.  One night in particular, she ran away (half naked as well) and dove into Makaela's little tent to hide from me.  What she didn't know was that Makaela's wooden doll castle was inside the tent, so she ended up diving head first into the wooden castle.  The fact that she didn't start crying at first scared freaked me out, but then she started bleeding and I was worried I had to bring her to the ER.  She had a decent sized puncture wound in her forehead and considering how my forehead is held together with stitches, I immediately thought of that.  After a few panicked phone calls to Matt and sending him different pictures, we decided not to go (oh yeah, Matt was working which made this incident even more fun).  I ended up keeping her up until midnight watching for concussion, but this kid has a head like her dad...hard.

20 week Ultrasound

Today was our 20 week ultrasound for baby #3.  Matt was able to switch opening and closing times with another person, so luckily he was able to be there to witness seeing the baby. The first thing the tech measured was the baby's head and of course she commented on the size of the baby's forehead (what else is new?)

She also mentioned that baby has a long femur and very long legs. She was shocked when we told her both our girls were only a little over 19 inches long at birth.  She thought we would have had longer kids by the size of his baby's femur.

baby's leg stretched out (thigh is towards the left, foot towards right)

The baby was definitely playing peek-a-boo with us and on the video (which I'm too tired to edit to post right now), the baby kept bobbing his/her head in and out of the camera shot.  Here the baby's fists are balled up in front it his/her face.

Face

Here is the money shot.  You can see the pelvis, both thigh bones and toes (look how cute!!)  The tech didn't tell me the gender for sure, but I have my guess.What are yours??

As for names, for a girl we are thinking Madison (Madi) Lynn or Morgan (not quite sure of the middle name yet).  And for a boy, Aidan Robert or Jeremy Robert.

Homework

Makaela and I have a new favorite show to watch together: "The Voice".  We DVR it so we can watch it before bedtime and if she is not dancing around, she is yelling at the TV, "Turn around Ceelo, turn around!" She also told me that she wants to marry Adam Levine (who doesn't?) but I can't tell her daddy because it's a secret.   Since watching the show, she has been on a singing kick and has been telling me that when she is 19, she is going to go on "The Voice".  I told her that it was far away and when she found out that the show was in California, she said, "So I can also see Abby!  How cool is that?  Abby and the Voice!"  Tonight's art homework says it all.

 

Showing off her gifts

Makaela had a great time getting all her bday gifts and deliveries.  This year she asked for a lot of clothes because she is officially a "big girl" and needs big girl clothes.  Here she is showing off an adorable dress from Suzie.  Matt did not share her excitement over looking like a "big girl" though :-)

Bouncy House Heaven

Makaela was invited to a birthday party the day after her party at an indoor bouncy house facility.  It was a bit hectic trying to follow Mia among all the bigger kids, but both girls had a great time.

Makaela's Merida Birthday

Makaela's birthday party theme this year was focused on the "Brave" movie.  We made up Brave party invitations and decorated the house in the Brave colors. My parents bought Makaela a Princess Merida costume for the occasion so we also have a Halloween costume to boot.  (We all had lots of fun with that wig.)

Matt and I decided to buy a bouncy house since renting them is so expensive. Now that we will be having three bday parties a year, buying a bouncy house will pay for itself in two uses. We are so glad we did! The kids bounced the majority of the party and it is small enough that even the toddlers could negotiate it with ease (the one year olds were following the larger kids and we had some flying toddlers :-) The parents were able to watch the kids from inside the screened room and the house while the kids occupied themselves.

The neighborhood girls

 
Later, we had some freeze dance and it amused the parents more than the kids :-)

Mia had her dance card filled

And the cake that everyone wanted to touch and "feel" the grass.

 As the party wound down, the kids couldn't resist busting into some of the arts and crafts gifts. Kept them quiet and busy- best gifts ever!!

Makaela turns 5!

This week has been the week of birthday celebrations.  We went out for a family dinner on Monday for Makaela's bday since Matt was supposed to work the night of her birthday, but on Tuesday, it turned out he got out of work early to come home, so we went again.  She got sung to quite a bit (not to mention was very well fed)  It's hard to believe that five years ago Makaela was just entering the world...and now she acts as if she owns it :-)  She has grown into such a bright little lady; we are so blessed.  We just hope the next five years don't fly by like the first five did. 

At Chili's on Monday night

 

Then we came home to find Grammy and Papa Hoffman's bday gifts at the door. We had lots of video, but the files were too large to upload to Blogger.  I'm sure you can gather how excited she was.

 

On her actual birthday, we went to Yamoto's, the hibachi grill (or as Makaela refers to it, "the chopping place")

Men's night out

So our lives are not exactly what they used to be, but we are still trying to make do now that we are parents of little ones.  At least the people that we hang out with find themselves in similar situations.  Many of the guys in the neighborhood stay within the confines of our community when they want to have a guys' night.  This weekend it was Sunday night football projected onto a garage door.  I looked outside the window to see our neighbor's set up and I was pretty impressed. 

The guys had chairs lined up, speakers out and were all prepped to camp out for a few hours as the Steelers played.  

Vilano Beach

We have had a bit of rain here in northern Florida lately and with Matt's crazy work schedule, we haven't been able to get out to the beach as much as we had wanted.  So Saturday, we decided we were going to head out and explore a new beach (since Florida is full of them).  We headed over to Vilano beach and were amazed at how quaint the area is. For my NY family/friends, it's like a more tropical Breezy Point.  We parked headed to the beach where we discovered we could drive our car right onto the beach and set up camp. That sounded great considering we were carrying a boatload of beach paraphenalia and trying to wrangle Mia.  Matt went back and got the car.  As soon as we parked, we noticed the sand was pretty soft and while the tires were acting like they were stuck, I guess we just figured we would deal with it later. The surf was up and Makaela couldn't wait to get into the waves.

Getting some salty kisses

Mia getting super sandy

 No sooner than we set up shop, it starts pouring. We pack up the car, get ready to leave and the rain stops.  Unpack the car.  Start playing.  The rain starts again.  Run for cover.  Sun comes out...get the picture?  The girls had a great time though.  By the third time the clouds rolled in, we realized the rain was not going to be abated.  We were heading home after 45 minutes at the shore.

Notice all the rain clouds coming in

So we started up the car to realize we were stuck- really stuck in the sand.  We have a big Acadia, so I thought it would have enough power to get us out of the sand, but I guess the front end is too heavy and appearantly, we don't have 4 wheel drive.  Matt worked tirelessly through the pouring rain to pack down the sand and get us out, but we were going nowhere (I was having visions of 2009 Easter in Haiku Valley).  When the rain lessened another group of beach goers, tied our car to their Range Rover and pulled us out. Another case in point of Southern hospitality. 

      I don't think this has deterred our use of the beach, but next time we will probably keep the car in the parking lot or on the packed down sand next to where all the civics and camrys park :-)