Tool Time...

Jonah and Daddy love tools...In fact I am planning a tool time workshop for Jonah's 3rd birthday! (Coming Soon!) Here are a few pictures of them working together on a tool box in the garage and another time at a Home Depot workshop building a cork board...My handy guys are working hard! :)

Summer Fun...

Here are a few pictures of some more summer fun we have had over the last couple of months....a day at the beach, Leah's Birthday where she also gave Jonah an adorable early birthday present, and a day with her and our friends Tiffany, Quintin, and Tristin at Mote Aquarium....spending as much time as possible with family and friends!

 

A Day at the Zoo!

We took a day trip to Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo this summer. It was our first time there with Jonah and tons of fun. Jonah was intrigued by all the amazing animals and couldn't believe how big the elephants, rhinos, and giraffes were. He brushed the goats' fur, feed the parakeets, walked around looking at all the different animals, took a couple of train rides, and splashed in the water. What a great family day!!!

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....