More vacation pictures from the FLA Keys

so many pictures, I've only posted a few. we found these great little camp chairs at Walmart for $5 and the girls loved sitting in them at the beach. The beach is the one that our condo sat on, called Coco Plum Beach. The pictures in this post are post-storm clean up, you wouldn't believe how much sea grass was there the day before! The sunsets and amazing down there--apparently the sunrises are too but we never saw one of those!

Some pix from the Keys, Marathon Florida

Scott took some great sunset pictures, the middle two pictures are from our balcony--the condo was great--spacious and sat directly oceanfront with beautiful views of the water. You can see the large amount of sea grass that had washed up from the storm (Ike) which really made the beach unusable the first few days we were there. That was the biggest disappointment--I carefully chose our condo for numerous reasons--pool, oceanfront, safety features, etc. and while we used the pool everyday, we had to head a few minutes down the road to use the public portion of Coco Plum beach as the City cleaned it up first. It was still breathtaking, and we have not only decided we are going back, but we are trying to hatch a plan to be able to buy some property in the Keys. The girls got to feed bonefish too! The local fishery that we had dinner at gave the girls all sorts of nasty fish parts and pieces and the could feed the fish from the dock. Yum Yum!

bumblebee and ladybug

yep, that's what the girls are going to be at Halloween. I hope to have enough time to decorate their stroller like a garden so they will (as usual) be too cute for words! I tried to download pix of the costumes I ordered by my connection at work was blocked. Like they think I'm downloading some sexy costumes for grown up use. Anyways, I'll post pix when I get home and can use our own connection.

I am worried that next year, when they are almost 3 they will be telling ME what they want to be so I better start doing and enjoying all those things that will be a battle of wills soon.

P O P P Y!!

It's like a language explosion at our house these days. This morning little Miss Poppy said her name, several times--even for Cici. It's just so cute to hear them verbalize, and pick up words from us, even if it means we need to be more careful with what we say.

They had another fun day at LPSI with mama, Poppy especially LOVED the pasta they served, but Tilly was too tired to even eat. Eating seems to be the one thing these days that they can pass on when they are interested in other things, or overly tired. They have been getting up very early due to the time change, but by today they seemed almost back to normal. With getting up at about 6am yesterday, they were both pretty tired and cranky by school time. And yet they didn't nap.at.all to speak of. Five minutes in the care, 30 minutes in the crib. Poppy had one of her famous fits--which almost only happen when she is extremely tired and really used to scare me as I thought she was having a seizure. But no, I think it's just our Poppy--who has always been very very verbal, or a big complainer depending on how we want to frame her behavior.

They are just too darling though, temper tantrums and all!

More beach photos--Vero Beach, Florida

We saw several cute little crabs that the girls were DYING to play with, and just to show how deserted the beach was I included a pix of how private it was during our stay....but we still had a great time with the ladies!

Some pix from Vero Beach

Tilly is just painfully pretty!


Look at Pretty Poppy's stork legs--she's so very tall right now!

What a funny place! It was a completely empty upscale beach community, with everyone gone for the season. We had the beach to ourselves, except the occassional crab! Will post more from Marathon, but we spent Sun-Thursday at our neighbor Marcia's house in Sea Oaks.

Overall we had a great time, and are really lucky to have such a generous neighbor who has a wonderful beach house. We even got to have a few beers with our friend Rich from New York while in Vero!

uncle!

really. we are just trying to go on vacation. our very first family vacation and our girls are almost 2 years old--not too much to ask I would think. hmph. we are scheduled to fly out tomorrow night to Miami and head on for a nice week in the middle Keys. problem is, the Keys are being evacuated beginning tomorrow. rain rain go away......

this is a photo of the beach we are staying at--Coco Plum Beach, one of the longest beaches in the keys I believe.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/index.shtml?

the twin cuteness just never ends

who knew a ikea bag could be so much fun?

Hurricane Fay strikes

So one of our houses was the only one in the hood to have trees fall, of course. My brother--our new hero--spent several days dealing with the tree trimmers, electricians, City of Orlando Planning, Zoning, Permitting and Inspecting, and all sorts of other nasty side effects of having a couple huge trees fall on your pad. Sigh.

first day at Spazio Gioco!

Poppy & Tilly did so well at LPSI, except looking confused when Elisa and Federica spoke to them in Italian. The day went smoothly, and started with outside playtime and painting, then booktime inside, handwashing, then a lovely lunch which is prepared by Virna and Giovanni, the 2 cooks at LPSI. They end the day with a little more playtime and then promptly fell asleep on the 5 minute car ride home. A little information on the Reggio Emilia approach which I don't know that much about: it is play based similar to Montessori--and allows the child to experience and discover things for themselves. They don't even put bibs on the kids when they eat--messes are fine at LPSI! They also don't really intervene much between the kids unless there is a beat down coming--they like the kids to work things out themselves. So no intervention from mom to share toys or play nice.

I'm actually really glad we enrolled the girls even though we really can't afford it, because they are almost the oldest in the class so I think they will get alot out of it. Even just being around other kids will be really good for them, maybe help loosen up that twin bond. We can't believe our itty bitty baby girls are growing up.