Junkie

I am not a lover of junk food. Chocolate does not fall into that category as chocolate is a food group, it is the Brown Group and is one of the largest food groups. It's the other junk food that I am not particularly fond of. I don't get really nutty about it, just certain aspects of it. I don't like fast food restaurants at all but that's just me.

As luck would have it neither of my girls can eat Mickey D's it makes them physically sick, at least in this country it does. Lily can projectile vomit like the best of them if she eats it. So we avoid these kinds of places like the plague. Another place I avoid and I don't really know why is Dunkin' Donuts. It just looks nasty to me, that and Taco Bell. I call it Taco Hell and I have never ever been to one.

I have been reading my friend Trish's blog and when Hailey goes to get chemo they sometimes stop and get Krispy Kreme doughnuts, warm crispy Kreme Doughnuts. Now I have no idea why these appealed to me but they did. I have seen box upon box of these donuts in Publix and walked right by them but the idea of them being served warm straight from the fryer, I like to think of it as an oven cos I detest fried anything, made me yearn for one.

I went online to see if such a place even existed down here and it did so yesterday morning I bundled the girls up from the elements, it was 47 dgerees here and off we trekked to Krispy Kreme. I wouldn't tell them where we were going but asked them to look for a big red K. Lily announced in a sad sap sort of voice, Oh good grief are we going to K-mart. I have never ever shopped at Kmart so why she thought that, I have no idea and it made me laugh. They were so excited when we pulled into the car park. They were also floored that I had taken them to a doughnut shop.

WE can't believe our luck, Mummy has gone off of her rocker.

who drinks water with a doughnut? yuck.

Yum.

Why yes, I did eat 2, who's counting? 

Cheers, Mummy

The verdict: Krispy Kreme Doughnuts served hot are the best doughnuts ever. They are light, fluffy and of course really fresh. They put that other so called donut shop to shame. We are converts. It might be another 10 years before I eat another one but they are delicious. A friend of mine asked if we bought a dozen? A dozen, what on earth am I going to do with 12 doughnuts....sell them?

Annual Jr. Orange Bowl Parade.

There are so few things down here that make it feel like the holidays. The weather certainly doesn't and there are so few traditions but without fail every year the Junior Orange Bowl Committee has a parade and every single year without fail we go to it. Sometimes it is magnificent and sometimes it is lacklustre at best but we don't care because we always have fun.

We started going when Lily was 3 or 4 and we haven't missed one since. We normally go with our friends Richard and Shara but this year they couldn't go and it was the first time in 12 yrs that they have missed it. Lucky for us Hollis and the girls were down for the day and they wanted to join us.

A big bunch of crazy happy waiting for the parade.

ATT had a booth set up and were giving away freebies, I took 4 of the girls over to it because they wanted some stuff. On the way back some nosey man wanted to know how come they got so much and I told him because there were so many of them but he pointed out that Rosie had 2 bags and that wasn't fair so I then said she was carrying one for her sister who was sitting down waiting for the parade to start. He looked a little shocked that there was one more so I flippantly said, hey you've never heard of the Von Trapps? He left me alone after that and we took our seats as the parade was about to start.

I think I may have mentioned before that parades in Miami are different than parades anywhereelseintheworld, they have their own unique flair, yeah, that's it, flair. Hollis and I were laughing our bottoms off at some of the oddball stuff that made it into this one. But since we went for the kids I took photos of things that the girlies would want to remember.

Ron Magil from Zoo Miami, if there is a parade anywhere in Miami, Ron and a snake are in it....ALWAYS

I am not sure.

A marching band and this one the girls actually looked happy to be here.

The float from Miami Childrens Hosp. What can I say that hospital holds a special place in my heart.

Oh my that's blurred, the Shriners

More Shriners

This horse was gorgeous but was right on top of me before I saw it.

The actual Jr Orange Bowl float

Arghhh, Pirates

Little Cutie

Gang of bikers, not sure if they were meant to be in it or if they crashed the parade.

The winning float. There never are many floats.

Flag twirlers. These girls were so good.

We had a great time. There weren't as many marching bands as usual which was a shame but it was a good parade. For the first time ever they were throwing things off of the floats and the kids thought it was brilliant. I was appalled at some of the people who would run towards the floats get the goodies then charge back to their seats and then get more. Whats up with you folk? It's cheap crap that you really don't need, stop being greedy. Five days ago it was Christmas and you got beautiful things that you actually wanted not plastic doo-dads with advertising all over it. sheesh. The girls laughed and had fun and thought they were part of the biggest parade in town...that's what counts, well that and spending time with good friends.

I'll just eat, "dat one"

The girls ate their weight in candy  decorated gingerbread houses on Saturday afternoon. I should have just locked them in a candy factory, thrown away the key and said, eat your way out! In all fairness, Rosie ate 10 times more than Lily, in fact she ate so much she was heard uttering the words, I don't feel good. She didn't look good either.

They had such a great time and their finished houses are gorgeous. They even took over the making of the mince pies this year. They were determined to do it all themselves.

Making mince pies

No help from me

Both girls got their own set up complete with a muffin tin full of candy.

Ready to start sampling!

Such concentration

I'll just eat "dat" one also

Busted! Sucking the icing right out of the tube!

In the meantime the BIG sister was just taking her time and creating a masterpiece.

Rosies house

Rosie used the sweets she liked

Adorable.

Lily's house

The roof says, Let It

Snow. Do you see her little campfire? 

I love the different style of both my girls, Lily the perfectionist and Rosie the, the, the, well Rosie. Rosie would copy every single idea that Lily ever had if I let her so I encourage her to do things her own way. (it stops Lily from getting cranky and it allows Rosie to be Rosie,)

Traditions

This post got lost somehow and didn't get published. It's from Thanksgiving.

The girls didn't want to have a big Thanksgiving gathering at the house this year and they most certainly didn't want their meals served in reverse order and quite honestly I was quite happy to have just us. Before I started inviting the world and his brother over for Turkey we had started a traditional Thanksgiving morning walk where we would go out and collect pine cones. I don't know why or how it started it just did so this year I resurrected the tradition.

I might have done well to think it through a little more as the park we always visit burnt down a year ago so the pine cones were few and far between. It made things interesting and the girls really had to hunt for them. Once we have walked the perimetre of park we stop at the playground for a little while.

my turkeys

A rather burnt park

I love to see them holding hands

She was all smiles until I told her to watch for snakes

Weird mushrooms

Lily took this one of  the flowers

dead pine trees

Lily looking up a tree

smiley

We ate our turkey at dinner time, just the 3 of us. We liked it that way. we got to spend the day doing the things we liked while the turkey was busy getting cooked. I'm glad the girls spoke up...or should I say, I'm glad Lily spoke up and Rosie echoed her opinion.

Why I love Easter

It was no surprise to anyone when Rosie woke up sort of early this morning and announced in a voice, that could have woken the dead, "it's Easter". As we walked down stairs she noticed a couple of eggs on the stairs but didn't stop to pick them up she was more interested in getting to the bottom to what what might have transpired in the living room whilst she slept. Both girls were so eggcited to see Easter baskets with their names on. They slowly started to sort through there loot and one by one opened all the little plastic eggs.
I will explain the hair later.

I'll also explain this hair doo later....this one is a long story.

May absolute favourite part of Easter Sunday is the egg hunt that we do with our friends the "K's". They finally remembered spotting eggs as they came down the stairs and took off running with their little baskets firmly in hand in search of more.

This search kept them busy for longer than expected and before we knew it were running a little  late for my absolute favourite part of Easter.    

Every year since becoming parents our friends the K's and us have done an egg hunt together. We meet over at their place for breakfast and then while we eat the Bunny magically hides eggs throughout the courtyard of their condo complex. Last year we were unable to get together due to a really horrid year. This year, it was GAME ON. We may have gone a little overboard. NAH. We had such a lovely time and ended up spending hours with our friends. We even went out for a walk together, which for my girls was fabulous cos we took their dog.

Brunch

Egg hunt is on

This little chicky made me smile

The pros. They had a 10 second delay.

Full baskets

Don't judge by the face, Rosie did have a great time

Each year we line the kids up and take their photos. 

and family photos

and couple photos...all in the same spot

The motley crew

A look back: 2010

2009

2008 ( bwa ha ha, Such a happy little one back then) Evans face is priceless here. He is probably thinking, someone save me from the howling banshee. 

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I can hardly wait until next year to see how much the little whipper snappers have grown!