February, or otherwise known as Benuary

We've all been there right?  A nice leisurely morning, just humming along and then out of nowhere - BAM! Something happens and throws everything into chaos. Well, that isn't exactly what happened, but what passes for "leisurely and humming along" in our house is more likely what others would consider a three ring circus.  BAMs are standard around here, but they usually don't result in this:

Lucy was running around and somehow slipped and tried to eat the tile floor.  Of course the baby tooth was fine.  It had to be the GIANT permanent tooth that got chipped.  SIGH.  Do we have a dentist here in Pembroke Pines? Nope.  But we did have a lead on one that was open on Saturday morning.  Did I mention it was Saturday?  No, well of course it was!  So I started on the phone trying to get into this particular dentist.  I knew they weren't going to be able to fix it immediately, but I just wanted someone to see it.  No one at the office responded to my numerous calls and emails, however.  The "After hours" number was messed up and I couldn't leave a message.  Was any of this a surprise?  Not really -- so Jim packed the other two off to soccer and I took "Toothy" in the car with me on a "wild goose chase" to find an open dentist office somewhere.  No luck.  So, back to square one.  Fortunately I found another dentist who accepted our insurance and actually answered the after- hours phone!  WHAT?!  She said she could meet us at her office shortly if we wanted, but nothing could really be done until Monday anyway (the tooth needed time to recover from the shock of the injury).  So with nothing to be done for the time being, we carried on to the soccer field.  After a few minutes, Lucy donned her cleats and played the second half of her game -- what a trooper!  Her coach was so impressed he gave her a special medal for sportsmanship.  HA!  I spoke with not one, but two of my dentists from Swansboro (land of good dentists) and they basically talked me through exactly what would happen.  We will be home this summer, so if needed, they will be able to fix whatever shoddy work was done here in South Florida. WHEW!

So you would think after all the excitement from the morning, we would take it easy.  Where is the fun in that, people?  Jim found out there was a free outdoor performance by the New World Symphony in South Beach, so we all piled in the car and headed down for a bit of culture!  We had dinner on the grass with about a thousand "high-brow" individuals and settled in for a nice evening of Tchaichovsky.  The kids highly enjoyed it, which isn't a huge shock -- they love music, and this is as good as it gets.

So Monday morning, Lucy and were off to get a new tooth!!  The Dentist was awesome!  We walked in and they immediately got to work.  Thirty minutes later we were back in the car with a brand new smile!  

Ben had a big day in February.  Not only was he honored by his school because he is participating at the state level for the "Reflections" contest, but he was selected as Student of the month from his class on the same day!  The principal interviewed him on the morning "news" program and even asked him to show the school some of his winning dance moves.  He stood up and danced without any music whatsoever!  I will spare you the video - HA!

He is super proud of his blue ribbon

The American Bald Eagle is not the first bird I think of when I think of South Florida.  Ibis, Flamingos, Herons, Cranes, and seagulls sure ... but eagles?  Well, according to every birding source on the internet, South Florida is indeed part of the Bald Eagle habitat.  In fact, there is a nest about a 1/2 mile from our house where two adults are raising two eaglets in a nest that is easily the size of a 4-man jacuzzi!  I had read about them in the paper, since apparently this is the 7th or 8th year that there has been an eagle nest in Pembroke Pines!  The nest to about 150 yards south of a busy street and you can clearly see it with the naked eye.  The town has set up barriers and signs to keep people back, but that hasn't stopped an almost daily barrage of people parking on the side of the road with some paparazzi-worthy equipment to "spy" on the birds.  Of course we too have gone down there and checked it out.  Jim even broke out our telescope to get a better look.  It is IMPRESSIVE to say the least.  Occasionally the adults will sit in some barren trees about 200 yards away from the nest to the delight of everyone.  I guess even eagles get tired of hearing the babies squawk and need a break. 

We are all looking forward to the babies taking flight which should be in late March/early April.

Next up is the Boat Show.  Jim started talking this up about a week out.  My initial reaction was No.  Why do we need to go to the boat show?  In my mind's eye I could see how the kids act when we go to a Bass Pro Shop and crawl over the pontoon boats.  Why on earth would we subject ourselves and the Boat Show people to that?  Not to mention the boats we were likely to see would be much, much more expensive!  Nope, pass.  As the week went on, I began to soften on my stance.  After he PROMISED he would not even bring up the slightest hint of wanting to buy a boat I agreed to go.  He decided we should ride on the Metro mover.  For those of you who don't live in Miami/Dade, the Metro mover is a fully-automated FREE people mover system downtown.  We, of course, parked in a LESS THAN DESIRABLE section of town and said goodbye to our car/tires/hubcaps and hopped aboard the train.  
Now I have grown up hearing about the Miami Boat Show, spoken in almost mystical reverence from the boaters and suppliers that frequented the marina so I had pretty big idea of what we were going to see.  I wouldn't say I was disappointed, but maybe underwhelmed. 

The in-water display we attended was little more than a way for the observers to see a boat in the water and perhaps get a ride.  There were some useful demonstrations going on (like how to dock and secure the boat), but mostly we saw some pretty high-dollar boats just sitting in the water.  I would have rather seen more of the equipment side of the boating industry.  Where are the dockside things you need to have at a marina?  Maybe that was at another site. Jim said only me and possibly my Dad would come to the boat show to see that.  He is probably right.  So we took a "free" bus to travel to the main hall to see everything else.  The children were being surprisingly good until we got inside and they saw the food vendors.  Suddenly everyone was DYING of thirst and hunger.  When will that stage end?  Jim and I are soo over it.  As expected the Civic Center was packed with boats and everything you needed to go with it.  Also as expected the children (and Jim) touched and toured everything they could.  Then we walked outside and saw all the heavy equipment.  FINALLY something I wanted to see!  At this point we were getting dangerously close to the end of the children's attention span.  So we hopped on another bus to get dropped off where we started, or so we thought.  The driver spoke a language other than English but we had been told all the buses drove around the same loop and we would be dropped off where we had boarded at the in-water display.  Unfortunately, no one told the driver.  After driving past two stops and many Metro mover stations we ended up in gridlock traffic in the middle of a "Save Venezuela" demonstration when we finally told the driver to let us off.  Everyone got off except a few unlucky people who were under the impression that this bus was still on the Boat Show route.  We ended up near a park that had this huge sculpture.

Not sure if this was the intended purpose, but the kids had a good time!  We hustled back to where we left our car hoping praying that it was still there.  Saw some interesting characters as we departed the train, then we sprinted to the car clutching the kids' hands and drove off!  Whew!!
 

VALENTINES DAY!

Ben was so excited to celebrate his birthday he could barely contain himself! It has been a daily count down since the beginning of January, and he said he expected to be "treated like a king" for the entire month.  Fat chance!  Finally the big day arrived!  

Balloon Wake up call!!

A Green Machine!!

He decided he wanted a Miami Dolphins birthday cake AND cupcakes to take to school.  I didn't have to make the cupcakes since they had to come from a bakery (per school rules).  So I concentrated my efforts on the cake.  He was pretty pleased.  I was happy that the Dolphins had changed their logo recently -- this one was much much easier than the original! 

The weekend after Ben's birthday we went to an art fair in Coconut Grove.  Yet another excuse to see the cultural side of Miami.  There was of course a lot of art for sale but it also had a kids area where the little ones could brush up on their graffiti skills in addition to playing on bouncy houses, zip line trampolines and bungee jumps.  Of course then the kids quickly switched from art show mode into "carnival" mode and the mood of the group changed rather quickly.  So we left quickly!

Gosh, does it seem like we have crammed more days in February then the actual month has?  Another BIG thing that happened was that after a half-hearted attempt to get the girls signed up for Brownies when school started in August, I re-attacked with the help of two other moms and we were successful in getting linked up with a local troop!!  I am not kidding, getting someone our girls into this organization was like signing up for the Secret Service ... much harder than it should have been.  I had emails/calls into several people and it took a "chance" meeting at a cookie sale for me to finally get some traction!  It is a good group of girls and the troop has some pretty neat activities and badges planned for the rest of the spring.  So stand by for serious girl scouting!