Recovering from the Mouse





They have all sorts of activities for adults and kids at the condos we stayed at.  The last morning they brought down ice cubes with little plastic bugs frozen in them and released them in the kids pool.  Stella had a great time trying to catch them.  What a great idea and I'm going to copy it, well probably NEXT summer! They filled up water balloons and then put the bugs in the balloons and froze them. After they were frozen they took the balloon off the ice cube which left a ball of ice with the bug frozen inside.  The ice cubes floated around and melted fairly quickly but the kids had a great time finding the "bugs"!

Stella loves the beach chair Nana got her! Perfect size!

We were wiped out after Disney and spend the last 2 days at the Beach and Pool!  Lots of relaxing going on and recovering from our Disney hangover.

There was an air show that weekend so we got to see them practicing out over the water most of the afternoon. Other then being a tad loud at times it was so cool to watch!

Stella surprised us the last night, as she figured out how to get out the pack and play.  She has yet to try with her crib at home but the only place we could put it in the room was right next to the bed. She had been "asleep" or quiet for about half an hour and we were sitting watching TV in the living room.  She got out of the pack and play, opened the door and walked right out into the living room. She was quite proud of herself.  This led to a 3 hour stand off between her and I. I tried laying down with her and she just wanted to play.  I put her in the pack and play and she would just get in and out. She thought it was a game. Finally I just had to put her in and sit there on the bed Super Nanny style, putting her back in if she tried to get out. She even outlasted her Dad who fell asleep on the couch while all the fun was going on in the bedroom. Poor girl was probably funned out and overtired but Mom was pooped after she finally was out.  There went our last relaxing evening from 8-11.  Phew.

There was a lot of fun to be had by all on this trip but not a lot of sleep.  Mario is a morning person and would get up at 6ish every morning. He does this at home on weekends. Are you kidding me? Anyways, I have a hard time sleeping once I'm woken up so up with the sun it was.  The plus side was getting to see some amazing sunrises.

Seriously breathtaking...

All in all a great trip to end the summer.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming shortly...

Disney World!

OK, this is probably going to be a tad long. Like I had said we took a ton of pictures! I grew up going to Disneyland and I was excited to get to finally go to Disney World. It was the first time for both of us (Stella & I)! Mario, of course, had been there before but it had been quite a while since he had been to the Magic Kingdom park.  It was similar but different compared to Disneyland. I can't wait to check out the other parks sometime down the road.  It is a HUGE area that encompasses Disney, Universal, Sea World & a few others.  We're talking probably 7-8 exits off the Freeway. Disney World was all decorated for Fall/Halloween. Of course they do everything over the top and it was beautiful and SO colorful. 

You have to take the tram then monorail to get to the parks.  Stella didn't seem to excited until we walked into the park.  Her eyes lit up and were as big as saucers. She was just looking all around at everything. It was so cute.

The longest line we waited in all day was for the Fairies.  There was no way we were going to miss that though so we waited in the hour long line.  Luckily since it was a weekday in off season there wasn't much of a wait for anything.  I think the most we waited for a ride was 15 min and some had no wait at all. 

The second we walked into "Pixie Hollow" Stella tried to run up to Tinky.  Mario had to stop her and she was yelling, "Tinky, Tinky" across the room! Although when we got up to talk to her I explained to Tinkerbell that Stella called her "Tinky".  She told me that she preferred Tink or Tinker. Oh, oops. OK, Sorry Tinky. :)

After the Fairies we visited Mickey and Minnie's houses.

It's a Small World & the Teacups were closed temporarily so we missed those. Stunk because those were two I was looking forward to. The Teacups was always my sisters favorite.  It's OK though, I think we did more then enough rides for her. We went on about 4 or 5.  She enjoyed looking at everything more.  I think her favorite rides were Aladdin's carpet ride and the Winnie the Pooh ride. We saw a parade and a show and she LOVED those!

I have some great video of them dancing I may post later. SO cute!

Aladdin's Carpet Ride!

Stella was really good all day.  We kept seeing kids crying and screaming and she didn't have a meltdown once.  All in all it was a GREAT day! Very special & so many great memories.  She's still talking about it. :)

We took the rest of the time just relaxing.  I'll finish up the trip soon but right now I need to corral the toddler and catch up around here!

Daytona Beach!

This was the view from our balcony! Ahhhh!

I didn't really know what to expect from Daytona Beach. I of course knew that it was popular for spring break and the races but other then that I wasn't sure. It was beautiful.  We got off the freeway a few hours before Daytona at St Augustine and took A1A up the coast.  It was a pretty drive and even though it took about 2 hours longer it was worth it.  It usually is about 4 hours from here to Daytona but it took us about 6 going the longer way.  I want to thank Mario's mom and step-dad for letting us use the time share.  They weren't able to use the whole week so they graciously gave us the 2nd half.  The view was beautiful and right on the beach.  At night we would sit out on the patio and listen to the waves.  Stella is such a beach baby.  If we are inside she says, "Mama...I wanna go beach, I wanna go poo! (Pool)" :)
She loves chasing birds, playing in the sand or just running around. The first day we took a long walk, built a "sandcastle", ate dinner in and crashed early. 

We had planned on driving over to Orlando to check out the area but right before we left Mario threw out the idea of Disney.  So he told me we would have to choose. Duh! That's an easy one! We've been thinking about a Disney trip off and on for the last few months and this just seemed to be the perfect opportunity.  We were only 45-60 min away from Orlando.  Aubrey couldn't make this trip because it was in the middle of the week so we wouldn't have to juggle teen vs toddler rides etc and could just enjoy Stella's first Disney experience.  Aubrey gets pretty annoyed doing "little kid" stuff and Stella loses her patience doing "big kid" stuff.  Sometimes it gets tiring trying to juggle.  We are still talking about doing a family trip but it would be longer and multiple parks.  So we called the Disney Vacation Line the night before to get our Florida resident tickets.  I didn't think I was going to be able to sleep I was so excited...I love the memories I have of Disneyland from when I was a kid.  Mario said it was like going with two 2 year olds!  Part 2/Disney World pics to come!

We're Baaaaack!

We're back! What a fun trip! We had such a great time & we even fit in a "surprise"! We managed to fill up a whole memory card which fits something like 500 pictures or so.  Needless to say, it's gonna take me a bit to go through them all. I think I'm going to have to post by day since there are so many. Can you guess what the surprise was??? ;)

What's for dinner? The BEST Lasagna. Ever!

I LOVE the Pioneer Woman's website. She has so many great recipes and I've blogged about her before.  I found the link to the cake pops on her site also. 

A while back I made her Lasagna recipe.  She called it "The best Lasagna recipe ever". I had to try it because pretty much anything I've made from her site has been awesome. So if she was saying it was the best Lasagna recipe ever it had to be at the least good! Of course it lived up to it's name. It rocks! It is now the recipe for Lasagna I keep in my recipe box.  Mario is half Italian.  I would make this for his family and be confident that they would love it! Try it, you won't be disappointed!

Check her out here www.thepioneerwoman.com

The. Best Lasagna. Ever!

Ingredients:

1-½ pound Ground Beef

1 pound Hot Breakfast Sausage

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cans (14.5 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes

2 cans (6 Ounce) Tomato Paste

2 Tablespoons Dried Parsley

2 Tablespoons Basil

1 Teaspoon Salt

3 Cups Lowfat Cottage Cheese

2 whole Beaten Eggs

1/2 cups Grated (not shredded) Parmesan Cheese

2 Tablespoons Dried Parsley

1 Teaspoon Salt

1 pound Sliced Mozzarella Cheese

1 package (10 Ounce) Lasagna Noodles

*add 1/2 Teaspoon Salt and 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil to Pasta Water

Preparation:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet or saucepan, combine ground beef, sausage, and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat until browned. Drain half the fat; less if you’re feeling naughty. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, 2 tablespoons parsley, basil and salt. After adding the tomatoes, the sauce mixture should simmer for 45 minutes while you are working on the other steps.

In a medium bowl, mix cottage cheese, beaten eggs, grated Parmesan, 2 more tablespoons parsley, and 1 more teaspoon salt. Stir together well. Set aside. Cook lasagna until “al dente” (not overly cooked).

To assemble:

Arrange 4 cooked lasagna noodles in the bottom of a baking pan, overlapping if necessary. Spoon half the cottage cheese mixture over the noodles. Spread evenly. Cover cottage cheese with a layer of mozzarella cheese. Spoon a little less than half the meat/sauce mixture over the top.


Repeat, ending with meat/sauce mixture. Sprinkle top generously with extra Parmesan.


Either freeze, refrigerate for up to two days, or bake immediately: 350-degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes, or until top is hot and bubbly.

Here's a link to the recipe on PW where you can print out a index card.

Best Lasagna, Ever!

Vegetable Co-op

So, we recently joined a Vegetable Co-op in our area.  We love it! We paid less then we would for regular grocery store produce but it's all organic and much better produce.  This one is every other week and we only started out at $20.  I don't think you would want to account for all your fruits and vegetables this way since there are certain things you want for certain recipes but it accounts for a good amount.  There were 9 other people that contributed and they buy in bulk.  They send out a list a few days before ordering and you tell them what your likes/wants or dislikes are.  I think we will do $30. next time but were really happy with what we got. One person picks up all the produce from the trucks then divides it up.  Then you pick it up from them.  People take turns sorting and you get a credit for doing so. This time we got Green Beans, Grapes, Green Squash, Yellow Squash, Oranges, a bag of Apples, Lettuce, Tomatoes, half a Watermelon, Starfruit & Bananas.  If you have the option in your area to get into one I highly recommend it!!!

We've been spending a lot of time outside lately. The other day Stella and I took a walk at a local park to look for pine cones.  The humidity is pretty much gone and it is one of my favorite times of the year.  It never used to be growing up in Seattle.   I hated Fall, living in Seattle it meant Summer was over.  I love Summer.  It's different in Florida.  It warms up to about 80 during the days and 50's to 60's in the evenings.  You can turn your AC off and don't need the heat yet.  I've been putting on jeans and a long sleeve in the morning but by 10 or 11ish I'm sweating. October also means the holidays are just around the corner.  The holidays are better after you have your own kids.  It's so fun to see it all again through a child's eyes.  Show her all the little things I looked forward to about the holidays and make memories that she will want to share with her kids someday. 

Around our house it certainly feels like Fall though.  I got all of our Halloween/Fall decorations out last week and decorated.  Lot's of the color Orange and pumpkins around here!  I stocked up on my scented candles...warm apple pie, pumpkin, evergreen, mulled cider & cinnamon roll. It feels so cozy in the evenings and smells so good in here. I may even bust out an actual Apple Pie with our apples from the co-op!

Yesterday Mario went into Stella's room where she was playing. She had an Easter basket from her closet and was putting things in it.  When he walked in she held it up and said "Trick or Treat Daddy".  Neither of us have taught her that so I think she picked it up from one of her Halloween books we've been reading. It was so cute.

Next week we are taking one last Summer beach trip.  Instead of Panama we are going to Daytona Beach.  We are so ready for a few days of pool, beach, rest & relaxation. 

Bye bye Summer, see ya next year! :)