Funny Farm

This weekend (February 20), we went up to Coral Springs to check out Trade Winds park. This is the park of all parks and has so many fun things to do, like a farm, pony rides, a train, a bounce house, and a play ground. We had a blast exploring all the different areas, starting with the playground.

Brianne ran right up the playground, and threw herself down the slide before Marty could catch up with her. Thank goodness she is an excellent slider and made it down feet first.


Then we went on a tour of the farm. There was a huge pig right behind them, but they were distracted by something else (I can't remember what).


Petting a sheep.

Brianne was so interested in the chickens in the coop that she didn't notice the chicken right behind her.

Rocking and relaxing.

A family photo before heading home.

Pedal to the Metal

We live on a street with a lot of families with kids. Brianne is fascinated by the bigger kids, and wants to do everything they are doing, like riding bikes and playing basketball. As much as she wants to ride her bike like the big kids, she still doesn't like to actually sit on the bike. So she contents herself with giving rides to her toys.

Taking Cookie Monster for a ride.


I tried to convince her it would be easier to ride it, but she would have none of it. She was on a mission to push that bike!


Taking a break to play in the leaves after some serious bike pushing.


Wondering when I am going to put the camera down to play with her.

My Crafty Valentine

With Valentine's Day falling on a Monday this year, we had an entire weekend to prepare. I was feeling particularly crafty, so Brianne and decided to make our own Valentines. I don't think Brianne is quite ready for scissors, so we started off with some simple finger painting.

This was actually Brianne's first experience with finger paint. It says "washable" right on the bottle, but I changed her into some old clothes, just in case. Good thing I did, because what was the first thing she did after touching the paint? She wiped it on her shirt. Then she licked her fingers. Thank goodness the bottle also said "non-toxic".



After the initial shock of the wet, slimy paint, Brianne really got into painting. I didn't know it at the time, but Brianne was getting bitten up by mosquitoes while we were out on the patio. I guess it was a life lesson that sometimes, we have to suffer for our art (at least that's what I tell myself to make me feel better about letting her get eaten alive).



After an extensive hosing down, we moved inside to make our Valentine's cards. I bought all kinds of really cool scrap booking paper, and we (I) cut hearts out of it. Brianne supervised, and so did Big Bird, who is sitting in my cup.



Brianne got a little tired of crafts and tried to escape out the front door. Sneaky little Cupid :o)



Here are our finished masterpieces...

We made Valentines for everyone at day care. We even made mini red velvet cupcakes for everyone to enjoy. We had such a LOVE-ly time making these special crafts that we are already searching for our next creative muse.

It's a Jungle Out There

Marty signed up to run in the ING Miami Half Marathon, and had to pick up his participant packet the day before the race. We had to go all the way to the Miami Convention Center on Miami Beach, so we decided to make a day trip down to Miami. I drive to Miami almost every day of life for work, so Marty had to bribe me with a fun day in order to get me down there on a weekend.

We decided to go to Jungle Island (formerly Parrot Jungle). Even though I have lived in South Florida my entire life, I had never been to Parrot Jungle. For the longest time, I thought it was just a bunch of parrots. But when they got there, we were surprised at how many different animals there were.

For example, as soon as we walked in the door, a guy came up and tried to hand Brianne a baby alligator. She was like, maybe next time...


Of course, there were parrots. They had several of them hanging out under their own little individual domes. They weren't tied down, so not sure how they got them to stay put. Brianne enjoyed counting them.


Along with exotic animals like ligers (not a typo - ligers = tiger lions) and kangaroos, they also had a petting zoo with all kinds of farm animals. Brianne made friends with a llama named Felix.


Here we are checking out the alligators. I am subliminally turning her into a Gator fan :o)




Getting the underwater view of the gators. We nick-named this one Tebow.

Making faces at an orangutan.

A quick family photo at the end of the day.

Brianne loved Jungle Island, and can't wait to go back!