American Girl!

We got up this morning, packed up, said good-bye to Nan, Big, and Grandma and hit the road. 

We stopped at the American Girl store in Orlando. We had reservations at the AG Bistro last Saturday, but had to cancel when we rearranged our plans. We weren't able to get another reservation that worked with our time frame but we still stopped to shop. I had hoped there would be some availability but the bistro was packed at there was a 2 hour wait for the salon!

The girls each picked out something. Charlotte wanted "a sparkly outfit for me and Grace." The ONLY outfit that they had in Charlotte's size and for a doll was a pair of Christmas PJ's. Thankfully they had a sparkly polar bear on them. There were a couple of really fancy, sparkly dresses that she really wanted them but they didn't have them to match.

Julia almost had a meltdown trying to pick something out. It was just a little overwhelming. You could hardly move in there! She couldn't decide which pet she wanted or if she wanted a chair for her doll to sit at the table with her. She finally decided on a chocolate lab that she named Flash.

We left the AG store and went to get some lunch in the food court in the mall. Big mistake. It was PACKED. If it was this packed 4 days after Christmas I can only imagine what it was like before Christmas. We left and got lunch at the Orlando Ale House which is owned by the same company that owned Stuart Ale House which was one of our favorite restaurants in Florida.

We were expecting to have to drive through some rough weather, but it didn't start raining on us until we got to Enterprise. We always enjoy our time in Stuart, but thankful to be our home in our own beds tonight!

Florida Fun

 This morning the girls and Nan picked lemons off her lemon tree and delivered them to the neighbors.

 After our morning fruit delivery we headed to downtown Stuart to do a little shopping and then to Jensen Beach for lunch at Michael's favorite place, Conchy Joe's.

We headed to the pool this evening to let the girls swim a little. At 89 degrees the water was much too cold for me, but they insisted it was fine!

  

Tonight Nan and Big kept the girls and let Michael and I got out to dinner. We went to The Dolphin Bar in Jensen Beach.  It was nice to have a kid free dinner out. Tomorrow we head back to Alabama and (hopefully) colder temperatures!

Sea Turtle Hospital

We woke up to beautiful, South Florida heat today! This afternoon Michael, Julia, Charlotte, Nan and I went to the Loggerhead Marine Life Center, also known as the Sea Turtle Hospital, today. It was no surprise that Charlotte loved the place and wanted everything in the gift shop! 

Tonight was spent with dinner at Duffy's and hanging out at Nan and Big's. We're staying at the condo this trip and the girls have really enjoyed being there at night. Charlotte thinks it's especially cool that she has her own big girl bed. It's so fun to be back in South Florida!

The Tooth Fairy Came!

We got up this morning to discover that the tooth fairy came! She left Julia a note, a special book to keep her teeth in, and $10! Her note said that she got extra money this time because it was her first tooth. She was so excited about her $10!

We left this morning and headed to Stuart. Traffic was TERRIBLE and it took us about 2 hours longer than it should have, but the girls were great in the car. Now we're ready for a few days of fun in the sun with Nan, Big, and Grandma!

The Tooth Fairy

We woke up this morning thinking that we were heading to South Florida to see Nan, Big, and Grandma. Unfortunately, Charlotte got sick twice this morning while we were getting ready to leave so we decided to delay our trip until tomorrow just to be safe. 

In other news, Julia lost her first tooth today! It's been loose for a while and barely hanging on for a couple days. She finally let Michael pull it this afternoon. She didn't even realize that he had pulled it. She is so excited about the tooth fairy coming tonight! Thank goodness her grandmothers had her prepared with a tooth fairy box and pillow! 

 

She's all snuggled in bed now waiting on the tooth fairy! I'm curious to see what the going rate is for a tooth these days!

Candyland Christmas

Today we continued celebrating our Christmas vacation by going to Candyland Christmas in Andalusia. We've been talking about going all month but haven't been able to get over there until today. They have little gingerbread houses that local business sponsor and decorate. They also had train rides and the girls favorite, an "ice" skating rink. It wasn't actually ice, but some kind of material that snapped together. They did wear ice skates and skate on it like real ice though. The girls had a blast and actually did much better skating than I anticipated. They didn't want to leave!

 

Showing off her ice skating moves

 And, just for documentation purpose, Tinsel & Jingle were hanging from the ceiling fan this morning!