Leah's Medical School Graduation!

 In May, we took a long weekend trip up to Gainsville to celebrate Leah's amazing accomplishments. She graduated from Medical School just shy of her 25th birthday!!!! She is now back in Gainsville starting her residency. We are so incredibly proud of her and had a fun time celebrating....

Kids Workshop at Home Depot

Okay so life has been, well, just busy but I have a bunch of pictures and events to blog about so here goes....starting with some Kids Workshops at homedepot...
Every first Saturday of the month Home Depot holds a kids workshop for parents to bring their children to use real tools to build something out of wood. Each month they have a different piece to build and usually to paint as well. Jonah and I have been going for the last 9 months. I am really impressed with the workshop and Jonah absolutely loves banging nails in, using a screwdriver for little screws and most especially painted our finished piece. We have made a snowman napkin holder, a valentine keepsake box, a picture frame, a "piggy" back house, a helicopter and cars and more.
We also usually meet or run into some of our favorite friends there! Yep, Rachel and Jaden are frequenters too!

This was a Saturday in March where they built a Home Depot Racecar....

A bird feeder in April....

And a flower bed for Mother's Day in May....

Meeting Baby Cian...

Living in sunny Florida does have it's benefits, especially when our Northern friends come to visit! In the beginning of the summer our wonderful friends Kristin and Jonathan came to stay for a few days. This time with baby Cian who was just five months old. Jonah could not get enough of him and wanted to play and hold and touch him all the time. He was super about sharing his baby toys with him too. And despite some rainy weather, we had lots of fun in St. Armand's, at the beach, Mote Aquarium, and just playing around!

Butterflies!

At school, one of the big science units in that I teach in the spring is all about life cycles. This includes the butterfly life cycle and it's complete metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly. I have little pet tanks that are filled with milkweed and passion vine for the monarch and gulf fritillary butterflies and we watch as they eat and grow, eat and grow until finally turning into a chrysalis and then a beautiful butterfly. Well, not only do my fourth grade students really get into this but so does Jonah. He can tell you all about the butterfly's life cycle including the big words like chrysalis. He loves holding the caterpillars when I clean out the tanks and letting the butterflies go "fly free" when they are ready. This year we ending up with over forty butterflies, thanks to one that laid a bunch of eggs on our passion vine...One day we set free over ten butterflies....

My little scientist....

First In Season Baseball Game...

	Back in May we all went to Tropicana Stadium to watch the Rays and Yankees play. Jonah had so much fun yelling "hit the ball!" at the players, eating peanuts, cotton candy, and so much more....What a fun day with the family!

Lots of fun in 2012

The last 2 and 1/2 months have just flown by. It's been a busy beginning of the year. There have been birthdays, playdates, a visit to the fire station, a trip to Myakka State Park, spring break and all it's fun, and news from Gainsville! We have lots to celebrate and be thankful for. First, both Uncle Adam and I (Mommy) hit some milestone birthdays if you can call them that. We celebrated with lots of cake, candles and a smiling 2 and 1/2 year old who loves to blow out candles for everyone! Then came spring break filled with playdates, the children's garden, strawberry picking, visits to Mote Aquarium, the beach, a trip to Dakin Farm, and back in the pool for the first time since last summer with Jonah swimming like a fish, not in the belly of one! ;) Also, during the week our family got some great news about Aunt Leah's residency which will be at UF for a year and then in Brooklyn, New York. Congratulations Leah!!!! It's amazing how life goes in circles sometimes and things have a way of working themselves out. It will be a wonderful adventure and learning experience for you Leah! And now we will have an even bigger reason to visit New York! There is to much to blog about that I had to collage lots of pictures, so have fun scrolling through all of them! :)

A random fun night with Rachel visiting. These two are so silly together!
Jonah loves fire trucks! We took him to visit the new Palmer Ranch Fire Station. The Firemen so graciously showed us the big fire truck and all the equipment they use!
Family trip to Myakka for a visit with the gators, a picnic lunch, and a walk with a view way up high!

Uncle Adam's 30th Birthday! Jonah loved helping blow out the candles!
Only a week later for Mommy's Birthday. My little helper eating the chocolate off the cake before we could cut into it! :)


Spring Break! Strawberry picking with Mommy. We had so much fun. Jonah ate as many strawberries as we picked and so did his shirt!
Fun play date with Abby, Liz, and some friends at The Children's Garden. Jonah loves the big dumptrucks to run around with!

At Mote Aquarium with Rachel, Marni, and Jay. Jonah loved the turtle that kept swimming up to him. He bravely got close to the shark tank and held a Starfish all by himself! I was impressed.
A picnic lunch with lots of food to share hit the spot after a busy morning with the marine life.
A morning at the beach with Daddy, finally home from work and with us for a couple of days. We did lots of playing in the sand and then swam in the pool later in the day. The gulf water was still a little to cold for us!...I have pictures from the beach!

The next day we took a trip to Dakin Farm in Myakka. Where we saw the cows being milked, feed duck, goats, a sheep and baby cows, took a hayride, watched a pig race, saw chickens and a turkey, made butter, and even tasted their yummy chocolate milk. Jonah had such a good time, he's been talking about it for days after!
While we were playing at that Dairy Farm....Leah was receiving her big news about her residency! This is the photo that was in the Gainesville Sun Newspaper about Match Day! Way to go, Leah!!!

November and December 2011

I can't believe that it has been two months since my last post. All I can say is that it has been a busy couple of months with Thanksgiving, birthdays (Daddy's, Uncle David's, Grandpa's), the holidays, winter break and more. As for updates, here are some quick ones....work/school has been super, busy, fun, hectic, and just flying by this year. Jonah is growing and growing as usual...mimicking everything, talking more and more, reading books with me from memory...books that he wants repeatedly read to him, and really making connections and reasoning with things not just talking. He loves his trains, his kitchen set, his tools, big trucks and fire engines, his vacuum, and musical instruments! We spent lots of time over winter break playing at the park, the beach, baking cookies and cake pops (my first try which came out pretty good), seeing holiday lights around town, and visiting with friends and family. Uncle David was home for a couple of weeks and Auntie Leah was between residency interviews, and so we hung out, visited, took bike rides, and played. We even made it out to Mote Aquarium where Jonah fell in love with the turtles and manatee!

Thanksgiving and Jimmy's birthday weekend!

Hanging out on a cool day with Mommy and Daddy....
A day at Mote Aquarium. Jonah can't stop talking about the turtle that got stuck in it's toy and the manatee who kissed him. :)
Chanukah celebration downtown...with an ice sculptured menorah!
Celebrating with Rachel and her family...check out that elephant chair! What a great present! Jonah loves laying and reading books on it!
Jonah and Rachel always having fun and getting really silly together!
Celebrating the last night with everyone at Grandma and Grandpa's!
Jonah is trying hard to spin dreidels and being silly with Mommy...:)
More cute pics with the family!
Lots of smiles at the park!Spending time with Abby and Liz at the Sarasota Children's Garden. What a great place for toddlers. Lots to explore and see for the kids and a great chance for Liz and I to catch up!