Florida Aquarium, Tampa

We had an awesome weekend. Today, we spent the day with Brett, Sherilyn, Baylee, Tiffany, Brennan, and Duane. We were supposed to go to the Zoo but $5 day is way too busy, so we ended up at the Florida Aquarium.

We had a great time, the kids explored and ran all over the place oohing and aahing over the fish.

After the aquarium, Tiff and Duane headed out on their own and Brett, Sherilyn and Baylee hung out with us.

Ashley has been wanting to ride the Tampa Streetcar for some time now. She yells "trolley!" evertime she see it. Once Baylee saw it today, we knew we had to take them. The kids rode for free and it cost the adults $5 each for an all day pass. Well worth it since it's a great way to get around downtown Tampa and Ybor city and the kids loved it.

The weather was beautiful. I guess January is one of those times you're glad you live in Florida! We took the trolley from Channelside down into Ybor City and got off at the Centro Ybor stop. By then we were all hungry, so we walked a block down to MeMa's Alaskan Tacos for some yummy, one of a kind tacos. I love their refried black beans and Alaskan Chicken tacos! Everything there is so fresh and tasty!

After a quick bite, we hopped the streetcar back to downtown and got off at the Dick Greco station to grab some Starbucks. It's such a lovely area of downtown Tampa. The kids got out some energy and played around in the landscaping while we sipped on our chai.

We hopped back on the streetcar to go back to the parking garage where we said goodbye to Brett, Sherilyn and Baylee before heading to the airport to let Ashley see the planes.

We went to the top of the parking garage right beside the runway where we watched planes landing and taking off to Ashley's amazement!

I think everyone had a great time and I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend the day with some of my family. I only wish Alana and Chuck could have come with us and brought Scott and Petyon. Maybe next time.

Silly girl!

Ashley is so funny sometimes. You never know what's gonna come out of her mouth. We always chat on our drive home from daycare. I ask her how her day was, what she did that day, point out things out the window, stuff like that. In our random chatter one day last week, I told Ashley I loved her. She responded, "I love....my ponies!" She's so rotten sometimes!

Officially Potty Trained!

Hooray! As of December 31st, 2008, Ashley was declared offically potty trained by her daycare! Not only will we now be saving money on diapers, we'll save $20 a week on tuition fees! Woo hoo! LOL

She's been wearing panties almost all day everyday for the last few weeks with minimal accidents. We're still doing the pull ups overnight and at gymnastics, just to be safe. We've ventured out into public, done grocery shopping, etc and haven't had any public accidents.

Ashley has had a couple of accidents at home. One was last night while she was watching Dora on TV in the living room. I think she was too interested in the show to go to the potty. But, of course, once she peed down her leg, she freaked and yelled for help. After cleaning her and the floor up, she told me not to worry and that "Santa Claus will bring you a new rug". I totally melted and forgot about being upset that she peed on the floor! It was so cute, she said it so seriously!

We took her out tonight and bought her some Dora panties for doing so well!

Beasley Farm

Ashley running around the farm!

We took Ashley and drove out to Beasley Farm this morning to check out their produce barn. While I shopped for produce, Mike and Ashley wandered off to see the chickens and Katie, the farm horse. Ashley loved the chickens!

It's great to know that we have a place so close to home where we can go to support a local farm and get naturally grown, pesticide free produce. The produce at the farm is better and cheaper than what we normally find at the supermarket.

It was a little too cold today to explore much (about 51 degrees), but we're looking forward to going back again. We can't wait to take Ashley in the spring when you can go out into the fields and pick your own beans and explore more of the farm!

Disney on Ice

Ashley waiting for the show to start.

In October, Mike and I decided it was time to try to take Ashley to a show. Disney on Ice was at the St. Pete Time forum and we were pretty sure that Mickey Mouse and TinkerBell were enough to keep her attention, and man were we right!

The Disney on Ice show this year featured Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy as travelers visiting different parts of the world and was further broken down into four segments: The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Lilo and Stitch, and Peter Pan.

Ashley has not seen the Lion King yet, but she loves Lions, so she enjoyed most of the Lion King but it seemed to lose her attention early.

The Little Mermaid was great and totally kept her attention for the whole thing. She loves Ariel! Ashley recognized her as soon as she hit the stage and got a huge smile on her face. The costumes were great! Disney really did a great job!

None of us had seen Lilo and Stitch before, but Ashley seemed to enjoy it and sat still for most of it. After Lilo, there was an intermission, and then came the longest part of the show, Peter Pan.

Ashley waiting for TinkerBell!

Ashley has not seen Peter Pan either, but she is very familiar with TinkerBell of course, so she LOVED it! She was so excited when Tinkerbell came on stage, she got a huge smile on her face and started yelling "Hi! Tinkybell! There she is!" It was so cute and it was so worth the expense. It was a great day and I can't wait to take her to another show!

Gymnastics

Ashley started gymnastics almost two months ago. So far, she is loving it (and so am I)! We go for an hour on Saturday mornings. She is in a class with other 2 and 3 year olds.

Until she is 3, Mike or I have to be out on the floor with her. Usually I go with her while Mike watches from the observation deck.

Sometimes she's a little fussy at first, but once she gets going, she has a blast. The instructor does a little warm up with the kids, then moves them on to three or four different obstacle courses using balance beams, a trampoline, cart wheel mats, wedges, a toddler sized bar, and sometimes even the rings!
She loves to do forward rolls and can already do them on the floor by herself without the use of the wedge mat! Sometimes, when she does them on the mat, she gets to excited and goes too fast. Last week she hopped up on the wedge and immediately went into a forward roll but didn't realize she was not in the center of the mat and she did her roll off the side of the mat and was about an inch away from hitting another mother standing there!
She also loves to go on the rings and the bars. She can't wait to get through the obstacle course for her turn at the bars again!
The balance beam is another of her favorites, I think we're gonna get her a beam for christmas so she can practice at home. The gym has a really cute pink one that sits on the floor and folds when not in use so it's easier to store.

Since we've been going, we've noticed she listens to us better and follows directions a little more, so that's an added bonus to getting her involved in being physically active. I try to practice with her at home a few nights a week after dinner. I got her a Cabbage Patch Kids hopscotch mat that she uses to practice her bunny and frog hops. It helps me get moving too, lol!

Ashley's Carnival!

more pics coming soon!

So, for Ashley's 2nd birthday we had a carnival party. Ashley's Carnival. It started with a simple idea that spiraled out of control!

We started with theperfectyardparty.com package which included a bounce house, cotton candy machine, bottle ring toss, bean bag toss, Plinko, sack racing, tug of war, and spin art.

Then, I added a duck pond which ended up being Brennan's personal pool.




I made the invitations to look like tickets (thank GOD for the Cricut) that said Admit One on the front and party details were on the back.

I built a ticket booth and back drops for all the games. Which, tooks several weekends of trying to find time to play with the power tools in the garage and keep my child out of it all.


For food, we had all carnival themed items: Sabrett hot dogs, corn dogs, soft pretzels, popcorn, nacho's, cotton candy, lemonade, sweet tea, bottled water, and sugar free Kool-Aid (lol). Thanks to Mike, Neil, Heather, and anyone else who may have helped get this set up!



I took paper gift bags and made personalized bags for each child to hold their tickets and goodies! I used the cricut to cut out each child's name and some balloon shapes and then glued it to the front of the bag. I used string to dress up the balloons a little. I filled each bag with game tickets and a plastic drink cup with a krazy straw.



The kids had a blast playing games and running in and out of the bounce house. Jason, Chuck, Nathan, and Melissa helped run the games.

The kids collected tons of prize tickets that they later cashed in at the prize table. Thanks to Steve and Heather for managing that for me!

Sunday and Norel brought the bubble machine and DJ equipment and played carnival music for us to enjoy all afternoon!
I rented child sized tables and chairs from Coastal Rental in Pasco so the kids had a comfy place to sit and eat under the tent! Decorations included balloons anchored in popcorn buckets and a pennant banner I made that said "Happy Birthday Ashley".







Chuck volunteered to handle the face painting for me. I was surprised the kids didn't end up looking like ICP. He did a great job painting unicorns, cupcakes, lady bugs, hearts, and spiders!



I even orderd a personalized shirt that had a cake on it and said "Ashely's Carnival" on the front, and the back said STAFF and the date!

The cotton candy was a trip. I was literally up to my elbows in the stuff. It's not as easy as it looks to twirl that stuff on those paper cones!

The cake was awesome, done by my friend Tracy! She did Ashley's first birthday cake and I'm sure she will be doing many many more!

Scotty's spin art!

All in all I think everyone had a great time, especially Ashley. She wandered around playing with her friends with balloons in her hands at all times! Everyone took lots of pictures so when she's older, I can show her what a fun birthday she had!