Hello 2011! Family, playground, zoo and more...

Hi all!

Don't have a whole lot of time to "blog" about life these days but here are pics from the past month since we rang in the New Year. Besides being busy busy busy with work, school and life in general, we've had some great times at the playground, with family and especially at the Palm Beach Zoo last week!

Check out our latest pics:

Hello 2011: Mixed Snapshots

Lions and Tigers and Bears, on my!

xoxo
Sash, Danny and Di

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.

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.

Wrapping up year one...

As Diana nears her first birthday this July 16th, we are enjoying every minute of month 11! Sure, our house is filled with lots of great toys and our backyard always has a duck or squirrel to point at, but when you're on the go like Di is now, you want new adventures and new experiences! Lately, we've noticed that our newly mobile little girl needs outlets for her energy, so we've been having fun getting out and about as June ends and July begins.

First up: My Gym in Coral Springs - Aunt Jo and I took her to her first "Tiny Tykes" class last Wednesday and she had an absolute ball during circle time and even went in a swing that the teachers pushed her back and forth across the room in! We'll be going every week to learn new things and play with other energetic toddlers.

Diana has been to the beach a few times now and we've started to take advantage of living only 10 minutes away. Last Thursday we met Matthew, Alex and cousin Roman right down the street at Deerfield Beach for a morning of sun, sand and splashing in the waves. Diana was so tired she fell asleep with sand all over her in the car on the way home - uh oh! Right into the bath when she woke up later that afternoon!
We also went to visit my good friend Rach at her grandpa's beach condo in Delray this past Monday afternoon - she was in for a quick visit from New York and it was SO good to see her! We managed to sneak in some beach time in between rain drops.

And last but not least, we spent some wonderful downtime with both sides of the family for 4th of July - Di's first! Danny had to work and study Saturday, so we packed up the diaper bag and headed to Weston to spend the day with Grandpa Ron, Grandma Susie, Uncle Brandon, Aunt Jo, Great Grandma Ann and Great Grandpa Manny. We had a nice, relaxing day swimming in the jacuzzi and watching old family videos (including MY first birthday party in 1983!) Here's a video of Di hanging with the fam in Weston, hamming it up as usual!

On Sunday, we had the Muzzarellis over our place for a BBQ to celebrate Linda's birthday. We gave Danny's mom a break from cooking and fired up our grill with everything from corn on the cob to hamburgers to vegan Tofurky sausage. After dinner and cake, I brought Diana outside to see fireworks from the back porch. As we expected, she wasn't scared in the least and even made little popping noises to imitate the fireworks!

We've really been having a great time this summer seeing the world through Diana's eyes and introducing her to new things almost every day. Preparations are underway for her 1st birthday party next weekend and we really can't wait!

Summertime, and the livin' is easy...

May was a pretty busy month for us here in the Muzzarelli household with a wedding, Mother's Day, my birthday and Danny's 1st semester finals. Oh yeah, and an exhausting but wonderful trip to Disney. Whew! I think Danny and I were both pretty happy that we had no major events planned for the beginning of summer, other than spending time with our families and watching Di enjoy the pool. Last summer, Diana was a newborn so we spent most of July and August holed up in the house. This summer, we are looking forward to splashing around in the pool and at the beach with our little girl!

We've taken the last couple of weeks since my birthday to catch up on (a little) sleep, recharge our batteries and just hang out with people we love. Here are some pictures!

Diana and Danny went to dinner at Nonna Linda and Grandpa Gary's a couple weekends ago and gave mom some time to nap (thank you!!). As usual, Diana had a great time with the Muzzarelli clan, especially cousin Roman and his giant Legos! We also finally went down to Plantation last Wednesday to see Matthew, Alex & Roman's new townhouse. It was so good to see them settled into their own place.

We also have had two nice dinners with the Hafler side of the family! Diana had a total blast in the pool at Grandma and Grandpa's yesterday afternoon. She is definitely a Florida baby.

Here are two videos of Little Miss Di enjoying the pool!

Di in the pool
More Di in the pool

We FINALLY spent some time with my aunt Dianita and Grandpa Rubio - they came up from Miami this past Saturday and after playing with Diana at our place, we all had a delicious dinner at PF Chang's. They hadn't seen Diana in a few months and couldn't believe how big she's gotten and how she's walking all over the house.

I even managed to sneak in some girl time! Danny hung with Diana while Aunt Jo and I went to Cheesecake Factory and then to see Sex and the City 2 last week. It's so fun to get dressed up and go out every once in a while. That doesn't happen a lot these days!

So that's the start of our summer...even though we've got three months of hot, humid weather and hurricane season ahead of us, I think the next few months will be filled with fun as Diana enjoys the beach and the pool...and her family!