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.