A Disney princess in training...

If we thought Di enjoyed her first trip to Disney at 10 months old, we were even more excited by how much our little girl reacted to her 2nd official trip to see Minnie and Mickey! This was just a quick overnight trip due to our busy schedules but we definitely packed in the fun!

Alex shows Di the monkeys

Uncle Robbie ready to catch

                        We arrived Friday around lunchtime and met our Orlando family - Uncle Rob, Aunt Caryn and cousin Alex - at the Animal Kingdom. We had a great time seeing the Festival of the Lion King show and then headed over to the Dinoland section. Diana, Danny, Alex and I went on a mini roller coaster type of ride where you sit in a dinosaur and go around and around and up and down. Needless to say, our little daredevil loved it. After some running around at the big dinosaur-themed playground, we saw Di's favorite animal - MONKEYS!- and then headed to the hotel to freshen up before an early dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. We all slept well that night!

Di in full princess mode

Smiling for Daddy on the merry-go-round

The next day we headed over to Downtown Disney which is kind of like a theme park in itself! They were having a sidewalk chalk art festival and also had tons of life size Legos on display (everything from dogs to dinosaurs to trains) outside the Legoland store. We then headed into the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique where little girls can get princess makeovers complete with hair and makeup! Di is a bit too young to have her makeup done (maybe next trip!) but walked right over to the dozens of princess outfits and picked out a beautiful yellow tutu and some bracelets to match! She insisted on wearing the tutu throughout the entire day - we definitely have a mini princess in training on our hands! Downtown Disney also had a carousel and a little train for toddlers and Di had such a blast. She kept kissing her horse on the merry-go-round!

In front of the Epcot ball

Di gets a lift from her Daddy

                            From there, we went to Epcot to enjoy the rest of our day. Diana could have seriously watched the monorail speed by the entrance all afternoon but we finally pulled her away to meet the characters. We really underestimated how excited she would be to meet Mickey and Minnie. She almost jumped out of my arms to kiss each character and I could tell when we met Minnie that she was just in awe of her and her beautiful polka dot dress. I remember feeling the same way meeting Minnie as a kid and to watch my own daughter make the same memories is pretty amazing. After the characters we headed for the rides including The Living Seas with Nemo, The Land, and Journey Into Imagination. I also went to see Captain EO - I couldn't believe they brought back the Michael Jackson film from the 80s - very cool!

Minnie Mouse!

We headed home around dinnertime and although we could have spent another few days at the parks, it was really nice to wake up Sunday morning in our own bed and have the day to regroup and unpack.  You really don't realize how tiring a Disney vacation with a toddler is until you get home!

So excited to meet Mickey!

Our Disney trip was yet another wonderful memory and we can't wait to get back again!
Click here to view all of our Disney pictures.

November pics

Hi all!

No time to write a whole entry this morning. We leave for our 2nd Disney trip with the little lady tomorrow morning so lots of packing to do!

Just wanted to share some pics from the past two weeks:

Grandma Ann turned 80 years young last week and we had a wonderful dinner celebration!

Here are some mixed snapshots of Di at the Mizner Park Green Living Fair, the Parkland Farmer's Market, at dinner with Abuelo and Uncle Alexander and Danny and me celebrating our 3rd anniversary.

More pictures after we visit Mickey and Minnie this weekend!

Halloween!

Last year, Diana was about 3 months old for her first Halloween. She really had no idea what was going on and I think she even fell asleep before we went out to trick or treat! She did look pretty cute in a black onesie with an orange tutu though!

This year, our little lady is going on 16 months and we had a blast this past Halloween weekend! Di has been pointing out all of the Halloween decorations in our neighborhood for weeks now and has tried on her costume and carried her bright pink pumpkin around all month. So in other words, Halloween was MUCH more of an event for her (and for Danny and I) this year.

This past Saturday started off with a car milestone for Di! Thanks to a (very) early Christmas gift from Nonna Linda and Grandpa Gary, we stashed Di's infant car seat in the garage and installed her new "big girl" toddler car seat! She was so excited to be facing forward and sitting up higher. I know it's cheesy but with each new stage or milestone she hits, I get a little misty eyed. As Danny and I looked back at her from the front seat, we just kind of shook our heads in disbelief at how fast she's growing up, how big she looks and how much she's changed just since her 1st birthday this past July.

On Saturday, we met my Grandpa "Rubio" and Aunt Dianita in Pembroke Pines at the always delicious Village Tavern. They come to see us all the way from Miami so the Shops at Pembroke Gardens is a great meeting place. We had a wonderful meal with them as we always do, chatting about our lives and enjoying good food and wine. Diana ate a little bit of everything and had so much fun visiting. She especially loved running around a huge fountain outside the restaurant after dinner. She squealed in delight each time the water splashed up and clapped her hands! Our little girl definitely loves to put on a show and be the center of attention.

Sunday was Halloween! We had the whole gang over including Grandpa Ron and Grandma Susie, Uncle Brandon, Nana and Poppa, Gigi, Aunt Jo, Aunt Alex and Uncle Matthew with Cousin Roman and Nonna and Grandpa. Whew! After some pizza, cupcakes and lots of singing and playing, we got Roman and Di their costumes. Roman was a pro and put his horse getup on right away. Diana took a little more convincing!


After taking a picture or two with her huge fairy tutu, she decided just to go with the wings! Hey, what more do you want out of a toddler?! She then insisted on pushing Abby Caddaby down the street in her doll stroller while wearing her wings. (Click here to watch the video) Every now and then, she stopped to do the pumpkin dance that we taught her - too cute! Thanks to Roman, Di finally seemed to get the hang of knocking on doors and getting candy in her pumpkin. Our group must've been quite a sight - all 10 of us (some holding cocktails and beer!) parading down our neighborhood street watching the kids trick or treat!

                        Di and Roman were troopers but after about two blocks the yawning started. After dumping out her candy and eating a Milky Way mini, Diana was down for the count. I'd say it was a pretty great night for the adults and kids alike!

We've had a pretty wonderful October with lots of fall fun and now we have our 2nd Disney trip to look forward to next weekend - can't wait!

Click here to view all of our Halloween pics.

October Fun

After one HOT and HUMID summer, we stepped outside one early October morning last week and felt a cool breeze. Yay!! Danny and I love a lot of things about South Florida, but the sticky, sweltering summers are not one of them.

Now, autumn here in Florida is not really how you'd picture it up in New York - leaves changing, farmers markets filled with squash, temperatures in the 50s. BUT, we are dipping into the high 60s in the evenings and the humidity has dropped wayyy down. Hey, we'll take what we can get down here!

Slightly cooler weather means a whole new set of outdoor activities we can now enjoy with our little lady! Here's what we've been up to:

My Aunt Janet and Uncle David came down for the weekend from Connecticut at the beginning of the month. They had not yet met Di and we all spent the day at my parents' beach condo. Their new place has a beautiful pool right on the intercoastal so while you swim, you can watch all kinds of boats and yachts drive by. Diana has now learned to say "boat" and I really think she could sit out there all day and wave to everyone on board! After a dip in the pool, we lit up the grill for dinner and the guys even enjoyed a round of cigars as the sun set. I always feel like we're on vacation when we spend the day at my parents' place - it's nice to take advantage of living so close to the ocean.

Danny and I finally took Di back to Butterfly World this past weekend. My mom and I had taken her back in the spring and we'd been waiting for the first cooler weekend to take her back. It was such a nice, relaxing morning! We walked around the butterfly aviaries and then looked at all different kinds of exotic flowers and hummingbirds.

                                                        Di and her Daddy ran across a long suspension bridge with our little girl laughing the entire way - such a mini daredevil! I think we'll have to try and go back again in the next few months - it's only about 10 minutes away and a great way to spend a morning.

And last but definitely not least, we are getting in the Halloween spirit! Diana is going to be an Abby Caddaby-type fairy and she is already practicing wearing her tutu and wings. She also picked out a bright pink pumpkin at Target. I can't wait to see her face on Halloween when she realizes that it gets filled up with candy! Danny and I also took her to a local pumpkin patch here in Boca. She was SO excited to run up and down the aisles of pumpkins. She finally settled on one big one to carve with her Daddy and four little ones to play with.

Click here to see all of our early autumn pics.
Click here to see Di in action at the pumpkin patch : )


Can't wait until we go trick-or-treating in a few weeks!
More soon...

September Snapshots

As much as I dislike just clumping together blog entries, the days kind of get away from me and I find myself having to do just that! So I apologize, but this is going to be a round up of everything that's been going on with us since Labor Day...

Danny had maybe a week of downtime before his third semester started to get busy - now it's well underway with papers due, lectures to watch and conference calls to schedule. We miss him on the weekends when he has to study instead of coming out to do fun things with us, but we know all of this will pay off when he's officially an MBA grad next April! I'm continuing to work 2 days a week and I'm also now contributing to a monthly food blog called DishKebab.

Diana is going on 15 months, I can't even believe it! She is just a bundle of energy and knows exactly what she wants already and is very stubborn about getting it (sounds a lot like someone I know...hint, hint, her Mommy maybe?!) We've gotten very good at keeping her busy so when it's time to sleep, she is ready (and we're usually ready to crash as well!).

Some fun goings on this month:

Aunt Stacey came down from North Carolina for a quick visit a few weekends ago. We all met at my parents' beach condo to swim and have lunch. Such a nice day!

We went to Jump Zone for a friend's 4th birthday party two weekends ago. As a parent, I now get why it's such a good thing to be invited to someone's birthday bash. It's an excuse to play, jump, get LOTS of energy out, have some dinner and come home ready for bed! Diana couldn't jump in the big bounce houses with the older preschoolers, but they had a bounce house just for toddlers 3 and under and she loved it - was laughing and smiling the entire time! Throw in some pizza and a cupcake and what more could you want out of a late Sunday afternoon?

And last, but definitely not least, Danny and I took our little lady to see Sesame Street Live this past Saturday (a belated 1st birthday gift from Mom and Dad). She had the best time! Di is already a budding Sesame Street fan and she can look at a book and point to all of the characters: Elmo, Big Bird, Zoe, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie and her favorite - Abby Caddaby. Her eyes were so wide as she watched the characters come out and dance and sing - it was as if she couldn't believe they were right in front of her instead of on TV! A big Elmo balloon and two hours of dancing later, we headed home. What a fun afternoon! 

 And on a slightly more somber note...I just wanted to mention that it's been a year this month since our beloved poodle "Chloe" passed away. For those of you who don't know Chloe...my stepdad rescued her off the streets of Miami when I was in high school - and she came to New York with me for college, then to Atlanta with Danny and I for two years and finally, back down to SoFla where we started our family and bought our first house. Diana was only two months old when Chloe passed away and I am thankful that we got a picture of them together. Chloe was our first baby and we will never, ever forget her....but don't be too sad for us....we've got Henry, Stanley and now Sophie keeping us very busy in the canine department!

Hope you enjoyed our snapshots of September - another busy month here in the Muzzarelli household. Click here to see all of our September pictures. We're looking forward to October - hopefully some cooler weather will be coming soon and we can do more outdoors with our little girl! We're also starting to get excited for Halloween. Di has a fairy costume all ready to go for trick or treating.

More next month....

Labor Day weekend

Every now and then a long weekend comes along that leaves you feeling productive, relaxed and revived all at the same time. Danny, Di and I were really looking forward to spending the holiday weekend doing the things we love, with the people we love.

Saturday morning started with Danny whipping up some delicious crepe-pancakes, which were just these scrumptious little silver dollar pancakes that tasted like crepes - YUM! We then headed to Deerfield Beach to splash in the morning waves and get Diana's energy out! I think the water was a little choppier than normal from all the tropical activity out there in the Atlantic, but our little lady didn't seem to mind a bit! She splashed with her Dad and they jumped over every wave. She's also started to kick her feet, which is the beginning of learning how to swim I guess. And she now gets up from playing in the sand and runs straight into the water - with mom or dad frantically chasing behind her! We have a little beach bum on our hands for sure - and we plan to keep taking her on beach outings as long as the 90 degree weather keeps up here in SoFla.


We got back from the beach around lunchtime and Di spent most of the afternoon in her new playhouse filled with balls (a birthday gift from cousin Roman that we just got around to setting up).
Then Nonna Linda and Grandpa Gary took Diana for a few hours in the evening while Danny and I got some errands done. Every time Nonna babysits Di comes back with a new trick! She just taught her to put her hands out and shrug her shoulders when we say "where's grandpa?" or "where's the doggie?" Too cute!


Danny snuck out to play golf with his dad early Sunday morning and Aunt Jo came to hang with Diana and I. We watched ducks out back in the lake and then played in Diana's newly redecorated toy area (a big thanks to Grandma Susie for helping us with this project last week).
Sunday night was Vivie's wedding at the Biltmore in Coral Gables. Vivie is like a little sister to me and I've known her since high school, so it was really neat to watch her walk down the aisle. She and Flavio are an adorable couple and it was a beautiful night. Danny and I don't get dressed up to go out much these days so that was a special treat for us too!

Monday was about getting things done around the house: a trip to Home Depot and remulching the garden, vacuuming and cleaning. Around 3pm our families came over for a BBQ. Danny and I have used our grill maybe 4 times since we got it for Christmas and we decided Labor Day would be the perfect time to put it to good use! So nice to have both of our families over to unwind and enjoy the last weekend of summer. It was even more special because my Grandpa Rubio and Aunt Dianita came up from Miami to join us - they hadn't seen Di in a couple months and couldn't believe how much she had grown.


A great weekend and a great way to end the summer!




Click here to see all of our Labor Day pics.

Goodbye August...Hello September

Well that went fast! Seems like we were just celebrating my birthday, Mother's Day and Memorial Day and here we are coming up on Labor Day weekend - the unofficial last weekend of summer.

I haven't been too great about posting these past 2 or 3 weeks because we have been one busy family, as usual! I am VERY proud of Danny for completing the 2nd semester of his MBA. If he hasn't been at work these past 3 weeks, he's been studying and studying some more. He just got back from a whirlwind weekend of finals and orientation for his 3rd semester this past Sunday night. April will be here before we know it and Danny will be officially DONE with school!

Meanwhile, I've been juggling writing, my part time job, our very busy little girl (who's going on 14 months!), our house and 3 dogs. Yep, we're now a three dog family! When my parents moved into their new beach condo, they couldn't take all of the dogs, so Sophie has come to stay with us - not sure for how long. She's a sweet, older girl and not too much trouble. Just one more leash on our evening walks I guess!

A few late summer pics!

To all you moms and dad's out there, IKEA is a GREAT summer outing. It's all indoors, you can browse the huge display areas and marketplace downstairs, the kids section has a little play area and the food is delicious and inexpensive. We've brought Di twice in the past week - she has a ball and slept very well after all the running around!


My mom's birthday was August 16th and I wanted to give her a little break from unpacking their new place. We had everyone over to eat mac & cheese, cake and just hang out. Diana is still in celebration mode from her 1st birthday this summer so whenever anyone sings "Happy Birthday" she thinks it's her big day all over again and smiles and claps her hands!

Danny and I have been wanting to eat at Michael's Genuine Food & Drink in Miami after seeing it featured on the Food Network show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate." We finally did a "date night" two weeks ago with our friends Charlie and Nicole. The food was good, but the dessert was TO DIE FOR! I really haven't stopped thinking about the banana toffee panini with caramel ice cream and homemade peanut brittle...yum.

And last but not least, Diana was a little bundle of smiles and energy when Daddy got home from Gainesville on Sunday night and gave her a stuffed Gator the next morning!





So summer is winding down... Between the beach, big family dinners, Diana's first birthday celebration and Danny finishing his 2nd semester, I'd say we've had a pretty good couple of months. We didn't take any big trips, but really just enjoyed spending time with friends and family and watching our little girl grow up.

So goodbye August...and hello September!