Identity Crisis

I think Lily was 4 when she painted and decorated this little birdhouse. It has been hanging on the fence for years now waiting for an occupant. It barely survived Wilma when she blew threw and sustained quite a bit of damage. Jacob put it back together as best he could because Lily was so sad.

Lily is now 8 and still we are waiting for a bird to move in. Today as I was in the kitchen I looked up and noticed something in her bird house. I dashed to the window and this is what I saw.

A lizard! Yes folks she now has an occupant in her birdhouse, an occupant who according to hubby, is having an identity crisis apparently.
Perhaps he thinks if he pretends to be a bird he won't get eaten by one.

The photo isn't very clear as we didn't want to get too close because that would scare him. About an hour later he was sunning himself on the roof.

King Mango Strut Parade.

A couple of weeks ago Lily bought a form home from school requesting permission to participate in a parade. It was not a school involved parade but a parade that her art teacher has been putting on for the past 25 years. It coincided with the Miami ING marathon which her P.E. teacher wanted her to participate in.

I said I would talk to Jacob but ultimately the final decision would be hers if Daddy was OK with it all. Daddy was fine with either and she chose the parade.

This morning at 10.30 we met down a side street with her teacher and other parents and kids. There was a huge VW car show going on and apparently this year the King Mango Parade was going to be a flash parade and the group was going to just start parading down the street. You can read about the parade here

Lily was part of the, "Next BP Oil Slick". She loved it. Even Rosie got in on the action as she was chosen to sport a sign that read, "I put the piano on the island". Perhaps by chance you have not heard about the grand piano that showed up on a sandbar in Biscayne Bay, in which case you can read about it here. ( the first search I did showed a paper from Ontario, which is why you may have heard about it because it has been all over the news with people claiming "they did it")

Jacob was asked to carry the sign along with another dad to introduce the oil slick and I pushed Rosie in her pushchair. I have never seen so many camera lenses and T.V news crews direct cameras at us before. If I saw them aiming at us I dodged and left Rosie in the spotlight.....it was her, after all, that did it! We had so much fun and both kids loved it. Jacob and Lily made the news this evening much to Lily's delight. Rosie and I dodged that one but were interviewed by the newspaper and I gave permission for her photo to be in it so tomorrow it might be her turn.

These ladies were form the South Miami Farmers Market and I loved their "corny" signs

Miss B.P. covered in oil and tar.
Little Barack Obama
Lily, centre, in her oil slick
The perp.

Jacob with Lily giving a goofy grin over the top of the sign

Meeting King Mango
A juggler
Getting the slick ready

About 20 minutes before we were due to leave I had this hairbrain idea to make a picnic that we could eat in a park, any park, somewhere, after the parade. That my friends proved to be a stellar idea. We ate at Kennedy Park in Coconut Grove and then walked down to the Bay. It was gorgeous, absolutely glorious in fact.

Lily by the bay

Silly girls. Look at the colour of the sky, is it not beautiful?
Way to much of a zoom for my little camera but this was the view during lunch
Freaky, that just looks like it hurts
Another view on our walk around the park

I kill all plants so I was amazed to see this little shrubby thing growing quite happily out of a piece of coral

Lily and Rosie were throwing stones into the water and then Lily found some coconuts...they made a bigger splash and got the biggest giggle out of Rosie
Waiting for Daddy to hand them some throwing stones.


It was a perfect day and the end to a perfect weekend. The last weekend I will ever have with a 3yr old child. Gulp.

House Of Sick

Not much going on around here that is blogworthy. I'm quite sure you don't want to know the details of Rosie's fever that lasted for days or the river full of snot that she has been producing since her fever broke. I can't see the point in blogging how she shared the crud with her sister, which I find ironic as she is not the best sharer in the world. I of course came down with it next, no fever, she only shared the ability to produce a river of snot with me but she shared the fever part with her dad. He probably will end up with the man flu....heaven help us all.

Since I cannot possibly jinx anything at all with this statement I will say in a loud voice...we don't get sick. We never catch colds, what is going on? I have had 2 since Christmas. The ironic part is I started taking vitamins, as per, Doctor Nasty Pant's, orders at the beginning of December and have been sick since then. I'm thinking it is better to not take supplements and just continue to eat well. I also started a much more rigorous workout schedule. Huh all the things that are meant to keep you healthy appear to be doing me in. LOL

If I am going to point the finger here I shall point it directly at Rosie, that kid has bionic snot! When I picked her up from nursery the other day I scooped her up and planted a big kiss on her face only to find out she had a runny nose and I kissed the schnoog. I placed her down gently (dropped her like a hot potato) and instantly purelled my mouth, including my tongue.....just in case. It didn't work so next time I will try Lys0ling my mouth or perhaps Clor0x!

The other evening, before the plague visited us, we went to a spaghetti dinner at Lily's school. It was a fun evening they had prizes for the kids and contests etc. The turn out was poor due to inclement weather that blew through just as it was about to start. As a thank you to all the kidlets that did show up the Principal gave them a homework pass. I'm not sure who was more thrilled about it, Lily or myself. Third grade homework is not for sissy's.

Here is a picture of us at dinner that night.

My Girls

Since we knew about three seconds after holding Lily (well Jacob did) that we would be adopting again I saved some of Lily's clothes, that were my favourites, to pass down to her sister.

Forgive the not so fetching photo. This is Lily at 19 months wearing an outfit from Nannis and Grandpa

Here is Rosie today, at 47 months wearing the same outfit.
The clothes are 18-24 months. Rosie sure is a tiny peanut.

This was rather fun to compare them in outfits I will have to make sure to take more photos when I know Rosie is in a hand-me-down.

Ha....I did it!

I grew up in the shadow of a very athletic older sister. Sally could play all sports and excelled at them. I on the other hand, not so much. Sally could fly over a vault in P.E. whereas I could crash into the side of it. Sally was a fast runner, me, not so much. Things changed by the time I became a teenager and I left school holding the title of "sports girl of the year". In fact my school took on my sisters school in a netball tournament and we beat them. They had never been defeated.....ever, I played that game!

There was one thing that I just could not do and those were the ropes in the gym. I swear they were at least 80 feet high and we were supposed to climb to the top of them. Firstly, and please excuse me, the ropes were shoved between your legs and you had to pull yourself up by using your arms, fireman style. Those ropes had been glued to the crotch of every single student in the schools history and they ended up being right in your face as you climbed.....ewww, that is disgusting! They were really nasty. I would grab on for dear life but could barely get off the ground. I have never had huge amounts of upper body strength. Try as I might, monkey bars have also always defeated me.

I have been really trying hard to get into better shape. I don't weigh very much and am pretty thin but that does not make me fit. I am extremely hyper and have tonnes of energy but again, that makes you skinny and not fit.

Today the girls and I were at the park and nobody else was there. I was playing on the swings, the slide and all sorts of other things with them, heck I even did a couple of cartwheels and a handstand or two but I stayed far away from those nasty monkey bars. Lily was hanging upside down by her knees and swinging herself along (much to my panic) and then flipping herself over and swinging from end to end with great ease.

Jokingly I said to her, "move over it is my turn". I have tried loads of times and fallen flat by the second bar which causes us to laugh hysterically. I grabbed hold and went for it. You can tell where this is going can't you?

I MADE IT! I finally did a set of monkey bars. Yay me! What I didn't know was that Lily had the camera and was frantically snapping photos of my grimacing groaning self!

Not very graceful but I never said I would grow old gracefully.

I can't believe I was staring at her and didn't realise she was taking photos. Must have been the concentration I was using to stay up!
I think I am whining here about how much it hurt my soft little hands.

My girly girl tomboy is always up a tree

Well if Lily can do it so can I, Mama.
I love how this shot turned out.
Do you know anyone that sits on a swing like this...my pretzel child.
This is how odd she looked from behind.


I am off to bed now so that I can think about what's next on my list....I can guarantee you it won't be those smelly ropes!

Seven-Eleven Needs A Ride Thru

I am quite sure the unassuming customers at Seven- Eleven were not expecting to see horses tethered up outside when they ran in for their coffee or whatever else they were stopping for.

Lily had a ride out and the destination: 7-11 for a slurp*e and or a treat of their choice. It was hilarious seeing the faces of the other customers and even funnier watching everyone snarf down their food and drinks on horseback. Rosie and I drove there to meet them when they arrived. Lily still has no objections to me accompanying her on lessons and ride outs so I always go. I know it won't be long before the idea of me showing up causes her eyes to roll, way, way, back in her head.

Not the best pictures, the light was in front of me and I had to be quick

Lily absolutely loving the experience, not so much the drink.



As the little sister, Rosie gets to spend a lot of her time waiting on her sister. We wait for her to come out of school, we wait for her to go into school, we wait for her while she rides and on and on the list goes. So when Lily is busy with her business Rosie gets to have some fun as well.

She drives my car, well I expect she would if her feet actually reached the pedals and she could see over the dash.

She loves to drive and these photos just make me smile.

Me Time

One of my goals for the year was to actually have some, me time. Sounds rather selfish I know but that is because I need to take care of everyone else before I think of me so I put me last all the time. Not this year baby!

Now to some of you this will sound dreadful but I consider my exercise time, my time. Don't come anywhere near me when I am exercising. I make sure I get this time every single day. If I don't I am cranky. Very, very cranky.

Today I was all set to spend the morning playing with Rosie and doing whatever she wanted when I suddenly realised my friend Jakie and I needed to get together for a coffee. I was so shocked at myself for doing it but we did. I rounded Rosie into the car and off we went. Jakie and I had a great time window shopping and yipping and Rosie enjoyed her treat at the coffee house and her ride on the carousel. See, I am not totally selfish, well, not yet.
You can see by the look on her face she had no idea it was all about me!


By the end of this year I am going to find the time to get away for a weekend, just me. No kidlets allowed. I know I will be a much better Mother for some me time so that is what the goal is based on. That and the fact that due to having no family at all around sometimes I could go crazy. LOL The only time I have ever been away from Lily is for 2 nights when my Mother died and I flew back to the UK for the funeral. I arrived one day and left the following. I have never been away from Rosie.

Tonight I went for a run. Yes, for the first time in my life I went running. What is more scary than me running is the fact that I loved it. I told the girlies to get on their bicyclettes and off we went. I had to keep stopping cos Rosie found this and that to stop and peruse but for the most part it worked fabulously.

So here's to a nicer, more patient me...... cheers.

Snow, In Florida? Oh Yeah

Yesterday all the national news stations were stating that the only state without snow was Florida. Well not anymore. We have snow. Just 2 little dollops of the stuff and only at the Creat1ve Learning Center in Kendall.
Rosie's school had it's snow day today and they couldn't have hand picked a more perfect day. It was cold for us, 48 degree's which just made it feel as if it really had snowed.

All the kiddies were instructed to come to school bundled up and their teacher made each and every one of them a scarf to wear. Due to the fact that we travel to the UK and Boston alot in the winter Rosie had a snow suit that was perfect for today and she loved, loved, loved wearing it. (thank you Auntie's Fran and Shell)

I wasn't sure if she would like it because she gets cold so quickly but she was bundled up like an Eskimo and thoroughly enjoyed herself. Her face says it all.

The Eskimo herself

Crazy Ms. Maria all ready to roll in the snow with her class
Ms. M, Victoria and Ro
Her first glimpse of it
BFF and Ms. M sliding on a disc
Rosie and Ms. M sliding down on a disc.

Sliding down the heap of snow

look Mummy, snow, real snow
Climbing to the summit
and heading back to the base
all her little classmates


Each class only had a few minutes in the snow and let me tell you I think that was a good thing. They were so hyped up afterwards. Each and everyone one of them was nuts!
It really was so much fun I laughed and laughed.

Fredbean's Nook

At the very beginning of the year I entered a contest to win a beautiful necklace from Fredbean's Nook. I don't ever enter giveaways or contests on blogs or FB cos it just isn't me. I always think that it's a bit cheeky to enter a contest on a site if you don't usually participate in that site or if you don't know the person. I am just peculiar that way.

This however was something I loved, it was a love at first sight sort of thing. I love all the jewellry on this site and the designer, Emma Thomas, also happens to be an Ex-Pat just like me.

Imagine my absolute joy when I turned on my computer and found that I was the winner.

The stunning necklace, which is all handmade, arrived today and it is even more beautiful than I thought. I am loving it. ( I even changed my outfit just so that I could wear it immediately.)

If you haven't ever checked out Fredbean's Nook, you really must so that you can also fall in love and ohh and ahh at all the beautiful, elegant pieces that she has.

Try as I might to get a photograph worthy of this piece, I failed but you still can behold it's beauty.