Sweaty November

I know, I know, it is supposed to be hot in South Florida.  But come on!  This is ridiculous!!  Just a little relief from the constant 80 degrees would be nice.  I feel like I have moved to the Equator!!  It even gets darker here later because we are so much closer to the equator.  Jim questioned this so I looked it up and of course I was right.  In Jamestown, RI, the sun sets at 4:15 and in Pembroke Pines on the same day the sun sets after 5:00pm.  So not only it is hot down here, it is also hotter LONGER every day!  

But enough of my complaining.  Let's get down to recapping the month...

We are deep into our soccer season and the kids are progressing nicely. I still need to work on some basic skills with each of them, but all in all we are proud of the work they are putting in.  The most important thing is that they all enjoy it, but I am sure that won't last much longer.  

Lilly's 9th birthday is next!  It is mind-blowing to me that she is already 9! Where has the time gone?  I could never understand adults when they would say things like that when I was a child.  The days/weeks/months seemed to creep by.  Where was I? Oh yes, birthday.  Of course our tradition is to totally go over-the-top and cram as much birthday fun in a weekend and then extend it over the course of an entire week!  Ha ha ha, not exactly "tradition," it just seems to always happen that way.

First up was a trip to Fort Lauderdale to have lunch at a really old-school restaurant that also just happens to be an incredible ice cream parlor.  Jim had really done his research on this one.  

Then we drove to the other side of Broward County to get Lilly's ears pierced.  She had been bugging us and bugging us for well over a year to let her do this and FINALLY we relented.  Actually Daddy relented, I was on board from the beginning!  We told Lucy that she could get hers done too, but after watching Lilly go through this savagery, she decided to wait a bit.

As if that wasn't enough fun to last an entire year, Jim had one more surprise up his sleeve:  an air boat ride to see some alligators!  We live extremely close to where the "Gator Boys" film their TV show and we went to a similar place called Sawgrass -- it was the right call.  Not only did they have air boat rides, they also had an area where you could hold a baby gator and also see some other endangered Florida wildlife.  It was awesome and the kids had a ball!  The actual air boat ride was incredible.  Of course there was the nature conservation speech and then the "I don't know if we will see any gators" speech and of course we did.  I guess they have to say those things just in case you don't see one, but I am pretty sure they always see one.

Are you ready for this? It isn't even her actual birthday yet! How will we top this?  Well, one thing we aren't doing is having a birthday party.  This is one of the downfalls of having a fall birthday when you have just moved to town, Lilly is still making friends, and folks in South Florida aren't exactly the friendliest we've met.  Oh well.  I personally like to do a party every other year so maybe next year will be Lilly's.  I decided to surprise her on the morning of her birthday with a mountain of balloons on her bed, but my grand plans were stymied when I couldn't find my stash of balloons, so I had to resort to just 9 with one to grow on.  Even this almost didn't happen.  While I was blowing up the balloons one popped and the balloon that burst hit me in my eye.  MY EYE!!!  The pain was unbelievable and it took me several minutes to recover but, it is Lilly's birthday and the show must go on!

Lilly helped me decorate her cake.  We had a plan to save all the M&M's and Kit Kats from Halloween but we ran a little short.  I asked Jim to pick up a few on his way home from work since we would be at gymnastics until after 6pm.  Jim, being the wonderful husband and father he is, did indeed pick up the Kit Kats. Unfortunately he just grabbed the candy bars and didn't really check for breaks, or at least that is his story, because 3 of the 4 bars he brought home were broken!  Oh well, we put them towards the back and "glued" them together as best we could with frosting.  We were just going to eat it after all. 

So finally we are onto the next item on our list - Nanny coming to visit!!! YEAH!!!!  She wanted to come for Thanksgiving, but that wasn't meant to be, so she came down the week after Lilly's birthday.  We showed her a good time, dragging her all over Broward and Dade County. I am sure it took her over a week to recover from the week she spent with us.  The kids somehow talked her into having a slumber party in her room EVERY NIGHT.  Silly Nanny.

While Nanny was here she got to attend a short Honor Roll ceremony for Lilly at the school.  Lilly has really been working hard this year and so far, so good.  She was so proud, as are we!

All too quickly the week ended and Nanny had to leave.  Hopefully she will come back in January and bring Popa Dub.  I would love to get him on that airboat ride!

We had a few additional adventures before Thanksgiving.  We drove down to check out an International Book Fair in downtown Miami.  It was interesting, both the actual event as well as the attendees.  The kids had a blast running from exhibit to exhibit and of course face painting and cotton candy!  Lucy really does look like a werewolf!

We also took in an NFL football game, the Dolphins vs. the Panthers.  I know I should be a better Panthers fan, but I am sorry to say I am not.  I did however, pull for them that day.  I might have been the only Panthers fan in our section of the stadium!  Lucy decided she would not pull for the Dolphins, but Ben and Lilly are total converts now.  Even though the Panthers eked out the win, the Dolphins fight song was sung loud and proud in our house for days after.  OK, I'll be honest here - we are still singing it.  It is catchy, even I am singing it.  Last year all three were hard core Patriots and Red Sox fans.  Now we have a house full of Dolphin fans.  I am not sure if their loyalty will sway with the other sports but I have a feeling it will.

Next up is Thanksgiving!  We signed the kids up for a fun-run thinking that would be a great way to burn off some of the calories we would be consuming later in the day at our friends' house.  Boy oh boy what a fun-run.  It was part of one of the largest Turkey Trots in the state.  Several thousand people signed up for the 5K and 10K and in the children's fun-run alone there were 500 children participating. 500!!! It was a ZOO.  Jim and I decided earlier we would just run in our neighborhood and only the kids would do the organized run. That turned out to be one of the best decisions we have made ALL YEAR!

Here they are pre-run.  Why yes, they are wearing a fleece under those extremely large yellow shirts.  It was a brisk 70 degrees.  Yes, I wrote 70 degrees.  Ahhh, heaven.  Unfortunately, it didn't last.  It was back up in the lower 80's by mid afternoon.

The kids did really well despite the crowds.  Once we were able to get them to the front of the pack that is.  I am sorry, if you are a parent and are planning to run WITH your child, then you need to get in the back.  But maybe that is just me.  Oh wait, no, it is just common sense.  Sorry.  

Ben finished 1st, Lucy and Lilly in the top 10.  So the Wellons running domination continues, at least for another race.  Lilly says she wants to run a 5K next.  Hopefully she isn't just saying that.  I have a feeling that after the first training run she will change her mind.  Three miles is a lot different than 400 yards - HA!

We hurried home and got ready to go to the Monclova's for a potluck Thanksgiving dinner.  There were several families that weren't celebrating with family so we all decided to join forces and celebrate together.  I love these types of celebrations.  It makes it so much easier on everyone or maybe just easier for me.  Either way - I am good!  The kids wanted to make some kid friendly desserts like we did last year, so we jumped on Pinterest and here is what we came up with.  Some were tastier than others, but all in all they turned out nicely.  Very few complaints!

Since the temperature climbed back up into the 80's the kids decided to take advantage of the pool.

I told Lucy this was not a good idea, and I was right.  Shortly after this picture was taken, there were several loud splashes.  Mommy wins!  Lucky for me, it wasn't any of mine that got wet.  Unlucky for me, mine were the ones causing the splashes.  Oops!

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.  Stand by for all the Christmas crazy!!!