The Family That Bounces Together...

Saturday, February 4, was one of those strange weather days where it looks like its going to rain, but doesn't until you try to walk out the door to go do something. We were itching to get out of the house, so we decided to play it safe and go to an indoor bounce house playground called Little Javas in Weston. This place had some seriously big bounce houses, and from past experiences with similar places, I was a little nervous that Brianne wouldn't be able to fully enjoy it.

But Brianne was ready to climb inflatable mountains, and ran right up to the first big slide. Even though there were bigger kids jumping all over the place, she still had a blast scaling each bounce area.

Here is Brianne coming down the big slide. She climbed right up the middle stair case and jumped right down like a big girl!


All smiles and slides! This slide was her favorite. She must have climbed it at least 20 times.


Even though there were tons of awesome bounce houses, Brianne wanted to make a pit stop in the ball pit. This little boy kept taking all the balls and stuffing them down his shirt. Brianne did not like this one bit and felt the need to report him.

Building a fort in the tree tunnel.

We got a surprise visit from Daddy! Marty was walking door to door all day, but wrapped up a little early to come bounce with us. And lucky for me he showed up when he did. Brianne wanted to tackle the mother of all bounce houses. This was more of a bounce fort, with things to climb over, climb under, and then up really high to fly down a big slide. Combined with 30 other 4 - 6 year olds running through, it would have been too dangerous for Brianne to do by herself. But she had no fear with Daddy around. Marty was a champ and ran the bounce fort with Brianne at least 10 times in a row. No need to go to the gym - Marty was exhausted afterwards.

Exploring another bounce fort. Brianne had no fear!

After about 3 hours of bouncing, mommy and daddy decided we'd had enough. Unfortunately, Brianne was still not ready, and had to be dragged out. But we soothed the fury with the promise of ice cream. So we made a family trip to Dairy Queen.

Brianne wanted her own strawberry ice cream. The below was a kids size, believe it or not. She ate about half, and I managed to sneak the rest away and toss it out. It was a great day of bounce houses and ice cream, and we can't wait to do it again!

Power Wheels

Brianne has finally gotten tall enough to reach the petals on her bike! She will take any opportunity to ride, whether that be in the house or around the block. She especially loves to ride her bike since we got her a Princess helmet. Now it's a battle to get her to take the helmet off!

Here is Brianne showing off her skills.


We rode all the way to our neighborhood park. I was able to convince her to remove the helmet, otherwise she might have gotten her head stuck in the slide.


Singing her favorite songs while swinging.

Hamming it Up on a Winter's Day

Our cold days are few and far between, so we'll take any excuse to break out our sweaters.

Like Brianne's pants? Who knew they made "jeggings" this small?



Love this little face!


The cool weather made Brianne extra smiley.

Birthday Circus

On January 14, we were invited to attend our friends Abby and Peyton's birthday party (Abby turned 4 and Peyton turned 2). The theme of the birthday was the Circus, and Abby and Peyton's parents did it up big! It was pretty chilly outside that day, but there was so much going on at the party, we hardly noticed.

When we first got there, they had the popcorn and cotton candy machines going. Brianne discovered a new-found love of popcorn. They also had a balloon artist walking around making balloon animals.

They also had carnival games. Here is Brianne practicing her underhand at the ring toss with birthday girl Peyton. They also had Ducks in a Pond and Go Fish. Each game had a prize basket, and Brianne loved playing each game and picking out a prize.

After some games, it was bounce house time. Brianne loves a good bounce house! She had a blast jumping around, and then sliding down the big slide.

Brianne also had her first experience with face painting. She did very well sitting still, but she kept wanting to tilt her head down to her chest. So I had to help hold her face up. This face painter must have been experienced with small children, as she was able to do a great job in about 2 minutes flat.

Brianne chose "Butterfly Princess" for her face painting theme. Surprised? :o) Here is our butterfly princess. The cool weather was actually perfect for face painting since she wasn't sweating.

Bradley got a robot face!

Hi-fiving the balloon clown.

Abby and Peyton's mom, Lauren, is a very talented baker and cake decorater. She made cupcakes that looked like little tubs of popcorn! They were actually marshmallows. They tasted delicious! She also made cotton candy cupcakes. We had to limit ourselves to one though, or risk a sugar coma.

In addition to all the awesome things at the party, they also had a little carousel and ferris wheel brought in. Brianne was a little intimidated by the ferris wheel, but she was all over the carousel. This was definitely one of the best birthday parties we've ever been to!

Disney Marathon Weekend

One of Marty's New Year's resolutions and bucket list to-do's was to run the Disney Marathon. The Marathon was scheduled for early January 2012. Marty started a training program 6 months prior to the race, however, due to various circumstances, stopped running in November. Even though he hadn't run 10 feet in 2 months, Marty was still determined to try running the marathon. Marty had been training with our friend Frank, but the difference there was that Frank diligently trained while Marty fell off the wagon. But Marty would not be deterred!

So we found ourselves in Disney again. The race was on Sunday, so we went to Magic Kingdom on Saturday morning. When we got up that morning, Marty went to get dressed to go to the park and realized he forgot his shoes. Not just his sandals, but his running shoes. This did not bode well for this marathon. Not only had he not ran in 2 months, he was going to run 26 miles in brand new/not-broken-in shoes. But again - Marty would not be deterred.

The week before we left, Marty made the mistake of telling Brianne we were going to see Mickey at his castle on Saturday. Brianne still doesn't get the concept of the future, so was very upset to go to school that day when she thought she was going to the Mickey Castle. Every morning that week, she asked us "Go Mickey Castle today?", to which we replied "Not today, Saturday." After the first meltdown, she was ok and waited very patiently.

So when it was finally time to see Mickey, Brianne was thrilled! Shrieks of "Micckkkkeyyyy Caaasstleeee!" could be heard from miles around our hotel.


Trying on some princess accessories. Luckily, we were able to leave the store without buying anything.


Riding the Peter Pan ride. Brianne and Bradley were more excited than they looked.

The last time we went to Disney (December 2011), Brianne fell in love with the Disney show performed in front of the castle. The show had all the major characters, as well as some lesser known ones. It's amazing, but Brianne remembers a bunch of the characters and was telling us about them before we went in January. The week before we left, she said "Go Mickey Castle and see Peter Pan and Captain Hook and Mickey and Minnie and Goofy...." We were impressed she could remember so many of the characters she saw! She was so excited to see her favorite show again!

We stayed until after dark (the kids hung in there the whole time - Brianne didn't even nap), and we got to see the castle all lit up. It was still covered in lights from Christmas, and was spectacular!

Sunday was the day of the marathon. Frank and Marty had to get up at 3:30am to get to the marathon parking area by 4:30pm. They actually started running around 5:45am. We got to the family area around 8:30am. In true Disney fashion, they had characters and entertainment and more. But I was mostly anxious wondering how Marty was doing, and if he was going to finish. Here we are with Daisy Duck.

Frank finished around 10:30am. He had brought his cell phone with him, and Alona could text him intermittently. Marty didn't bring anything, so we had no idea where he was. I was starting to worry that he was unconsious on the side of the road somewhere. But around 11:00am, we saw Marty come across the finish. He looked a little rough, but was smiling (of course!). I was so proud, I almost cried.

Brianne of course was very proud of daddy and couldn't wait to give him a high five. She also enjoyed wearing his Mickey metal. We are so proud of Marty, and were so happy to be there to share in his big accomplishment!

A Visit from Santa

Santa came to see us on December 25, and was very good to Brianne.

Excited to start opening presents!


This was a very Princess themed Christmas. Brianne got a bunch of princess dresses, princess accessories, shoes, shirts and more.

Brianne opened about half her presents, and had to take a break. But not before she put on as much of it as she could. Here she is watching Rio on her new portable DVD player.

After the break, we went back to opening the rest of our presents. It was exhausting, and we still had 2 more stops to go! After Christmas morning at our house, we went to Aunt Casey's house to have breakfast with the family. Brianne got even more presents at Aunt Casey's house.

Then it was on to Grandma Mimi and Grandpa Monroe's house for even more presents. Whew, we were tired, but we pushed on. Brianne got a new desk and chair.

A bunch of new dolls and other toys.

But probably her favorite gift was a new doll house complete with furniture. The residents of the doll house are all the Disney Princesses, so it's kind of like a miniature sorority house. Later, we had Christmas Dinner at Mi Ma Debbie and Brad's house. We had a great Christmas with our family, though I don't know where we are going to put all these new toys!

Elf on the Shelf

Last Christmas, someone gave us the Elf on the Shelf, so this year, we were excited to bring it out. The way it works is, you put the little elf in a different place in your house every day and the child is supposed to find it. The elf watches the child's behavior and reports back to Santa if they are good or bad. The child is not supposed to touch the elf, otherwise it loses its powers.

Brianne was very interested in the Elf, and even named him. When asked what his name was, she said "Eddie!". We have no idea where she got this from, as we don't know anyone named Eddie. However, when it was time to put him on the shelf, Brianne didn't want to let Eddie go. I tried explaining the whole thing about him losing his powers, but she wasn't buying it.

When I finally got Eddie out of Brianne's grasp, I put him in a place for her to find the next day. But when she saw him, she threw a fit when she couldn't hold him. So we ended up putting Eddie away a little early. Maybe next year!