Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Brianne has been having trouble keeping her hair out of her eyes, so it was time for Baby's First Hair Cut! Mommy got over-excited about the prospect of doing fun things with Brianne's hair, so Brianne also got Baby's First Ponytail the same afternoon. Mi Ma Debbie is a lot handier with scissors, so she came over to be Brianne's stylist.

Brianne is getting ready for her trim. We tried a variety of hair bows and clips to keep her hair out of her eyes, but nothing would hold it back.

After chasing her around our living room and basically pinning her down, I was able to get this loose ponytail into her hair. Her hair is so soft, it slips right out of the rubber band (I even bought the little clear plastic rubber bands, but nothing would hold). You can see that I need a lot of ponytail-tying practice!

We had to distract her with an episode of Elmo on the iPad. Even with Elmo, she still wiggled around.

But Mi Ma Debbie persisted, and we were able to trim Brianne's hair!

Here's the finished product! What a cutie!

Fly Away, Little Butterfly

On recent Sunday morning, our friend Lori invited us over to see her butterfly garden. She planted all kinds of plants in her back yard that are butterfly-friendly, and early in the morning, her yard is swarming with hundreds of butterflies. Lori's grand daughter Kayley was a wonderful hostess and taught us all about the different kinds of butterflies, and informed us that when the butterflies flittered around in pairs, they were "getting married" to make more baby butterflies. One of the cutest things I've heard recently, hands down.

We got there in the late morning, so there weren't too many butterflies due to the heat, but we still enjoyed visiting and learning about butterflies. As a special treat, Kayley took Brianne and Bradley for a ride in her Princess car. Brianne got scared when the car started moving, but I think she will grow to love it.

Brianne waiting to see some butterflies in Lori's beautiful garden.


Brianne getting a ride from Kayley in Kayley's Princess car. We had to put a make shift air bag in front of Brianne to keep her from falling over.


Brianne and Bradley on their first car date. Watch those hands, young man.


Bonding over butterflies and princesses :o)

Splish Splash Saturday

In our continued quest to beat the heat, we have started exploring pools around our area. I've recently learned that many public pools have "splash pads", which are like play grounds with sprinklers attached. We recently visited a splash pad in Coral Springs, and had a great time exploring all the pools.

Brianne scoping out the splash pad with daddy. All the big sprinklers kind of freaked her out, but Marty and I really enjoyed running through them! I think we both felt like we were 5 years old again.


We tried to put Brianne on Marty's shoulders, but she wasn't having any of it. Here is the world's worst chicken fighter.


Having a break from water fun, and eating some lunch with her buddy, Bradley.

Enjoying a sprinkler with her favorite accessory, mommy's sun glasses.

Rain Rain Go Away

When you're on a beach vacation, you can handle overcast skies. It's the rain that really puts a damper on things. So on one of our last days at Sanibel was all rain, all the time, we turned to the internet to find something to get us out of the house, but still be in doors. We found a child's discovery museum called the Imaginarium in Ft. Myers that seemed right up the babies' alley, so headed out to see what it was all about.

It took a bit longer to get there than we originally thought, and I thought we had gotten lost when the directions were taking us by pawn shops and gun stores in a bad looking part of town. The Imaginarium ended up being in a reclaimed water plant, so we had our reservations.

Once we got there, we were pleasantly surprised. They had an area dedicated to under 5 kids, with all kinds of toys, a puppet show, and mini grocery store (all plastic). They also had a live animal area, with local wildlife (alligators, etc), science experiments, even a hurricane wind tunnel experience.

This place would give the Discovery Museum a run for it's money!

Our day started off inauspiciously. Brianne had just fallen asleep right as we pulled up. She was determined to stretch her nap out as long as possible.


Checking out the animals. She wasn't afraid at all!


Learning about clouds...


And gravity...


Practicing her audition to join Blue Man Group...

She loved watching the ball race around the track.

In the Tiny Tot area, they had a bee hive experience, with a little maze built to look like a honey comb. Brianne really enjoyed wandering around!

Playing with a train set.

Bubbles and Bathtime

After a little bit of sun on Friday, we ran out of weather luck, and had overcast skies for the rest of the time. So we had to get creative in how we kept the babies entertained. Alona and Frank have a really awesome bubble machine that makes humongous bubbles. So we went out to a grassy area outside our condo, and enjoyed some bubble fun.

This picture is so cool, it looks like the bubble is wrapping around her.

Brianne pondering the mysteries of bubbles.

Brianne LOVED the bubbles! This is one of my latest favorite photos.

At the end of the day, before bath time, the babies had some fun running around the condo in their diapers. Bradley and Brianne have been mistaken for siblings before, but when dressed only in diapers, they look more similar than ever.

Out of all their toys with lights and music, they loved playing with Gumby, the one toy with no noise or shininess.

This picture of Bradley just cracked me up. He is a little comedian.

Here they are admiring themselves in the mirror.

Fourth of July on Sanibel Island

We went back to Sanibel over Fourth of July weekend. We actually rented a condo in the same complex where I used to go on my annual family vacations growing up. Many of the same families were there, but we also introduced some new friends to the island fun, including our daughter, Brianne. I was fortunate enough to be able to take Thursday and Friday off, so we got to have a nice long weekend. I had just gotten back from a work event on Wednesday night, so I had to have a speed packing session on Thursday morning. This resulted in some tears and meltdowns (that would be me - the baby was happy as a clam to be going on vacation).

We were able to get out the door in the late afternoon, and caravaned over to Sanibel with our friends, the DiPaolos. We shared a 2 bedroom condo with the DiPaolos, which was a whole lotta fun. Thursday was pretty much over when we finally got there, so we loaded all our stuff into the condo, and got ready to enjoy the rest of the weekend.

On Friday, Marty and Frank went to the gym, so Alona and I took the babies out for a stroll around the complex. We walked down to the beach and saw the only sunshine we'd see for the entire weekend.

We brought out the jogging stroller for the first time for this trip. Brianne really enjoyed it! Here is Brianne and Bradley enjoying the soothing ocean sounds.

Here we are dipping our toes in the water. This was the only time we got near the ocean the entire trip due to rain. Very sad, but we managed to still have a lot of fun.

After our walk to the beach, we scoped out the pool area. Brianne must have been ready for a snack, since she was willing to munch on some leaves.

This trip marked the first time Brianne wore her Crocs. They made a very fun squeaky sound when she sat on a pool chair. Here's a video of Brianne making some music with her Crocs.

Brianne and Daddy in the pool. We tried to sit Brianne on Marty's shoulders but she wasn't having anything to do with it. So she settled on paddling around with Dad.

After some swimming, we noticed the babies eyeing the bikes.

So we went on Baby's first bike ride! We had a special pink helmet for Brianne, so we were ready to roll! We actually went all the way to Captiva (about 4.5 miles from our condo). Captiva is very scenic and has a lot of enormous houses right on the ocean. Brianne was so excited by the bike ride that she didn't even fall asleep. Though since it was at the end of a long day, we had to race back home to get the babies to bed before we had any meltdowns.

And all this was in the first day!

Best Weekend Ever

The weekend of June 19 was the best weekend in recent memory for the Kiar family. Friday was the qualifying deadline for candidates to file paperwork to run for office. Marty's opponent did not file his paperwork correctly, and didn't qualify, so Marty won his state house office. That would have been enough reason to celebrate. But Saturday was Marty's birthday, so we had another celebration. Marty's special birthday meal is McDonald's so he enjoyed some McNuggets and fries. Then Sunday was Father's Day, so we got to celebrate that as well. All around a GREAT weekend for Marty!

Marty enjoying his annual McDonald's dinner for his birthday. We only eat McDonald's once a year, so he really savors every bite. Since I don't eat meat, I just get french fries and a strawberry milkshake (though I doubt there's any meat in the McNuggets anyway).

Brianne made Daddy a mug for Father's Day with her picture on it. The glue wasn't very good, and the photo popped off after a few minutes, but it was the thought that counts!

They Call Her Flipper

Living in South Florida, we are lucky to have so many fun activities nearby. One weekend recently, we ventured down to Miami to visit the Miami Seaquarium with our friends, the DiPaolos. I am normally opposed to driving to Miami when I don't have to, since I have to drive there almost every day of the week for work. But we thought it would be fun to do something different.

I haven't been to Miami Seaquarium since I was a little girl, and a lot had changed. First off, it was way more expensive (like $40 per adult - though we found some coupons online). Also, there were a lot more animals than I remembered. They had a really neat observation area where you could see the dolphins up close, as well as a lot of different kinds of fish and aquariums. There were even a baby dolphin and a baby sea lion (in separate tanks). We had a great time watching the animal shows, and checking out all the different kinds of sea life.

Here we are at the entrance to the park. We got there right when it opened, so there were hardly any people there.

The SeaAquarium has a really cool bounce house water park in the front. The babies were too little to go on most of them, so they had to settle for a regular bounce house.

Brianne checking out some fishies in the main aquarium area.

Brianne wanted to take a dip and swim with the sting rays.

We wrapped up the day with the Shamu show. They had a killer whale in the same tank as 5 dolphins. Brianne enjoyed watching the dolphins do flips, and watching the whale splash everyone on the lower seating areas.