Saturday, February 26, 2011

Washy solves a puzzle

Listen to Washy as she puts together this puzzle of baby animals.

Winter in Florida

Except for a few cold spells, the weather in Florida during the winter tends to be fairly mild. We have been really busy with the grandkids outdoors, as you can see from the photos in this blog.

The first weekend in January, almost the whole family drove out to Apollo Beach to the TECO plant to see the manatee reserve. It's free, fun and educational. The manatee reserve celebrated its 25th year the weekend after we visited.

Grandson Manpants and granddaughter Diddles check out the manatees from the watch platform.

Here is what they saw ... lots of manatees enjoying the warm water from the power plant.

A natural born teacher (like his mom), Jeff talks to Diddles about the habitat.

My dad, my daughter and grandson JT enjoying the sunny weather.

Seeing her parents occupied, granddaughter Washy makes a break for it.

Baby granddaughter Cupcake and her mom sport hats against the cooler weather.

Daughter in law is flanked by her kids, Manpants and Diddles, and holds niece Cupcake while everyone else goes to the gift shop. It is during this time that Washy tosses her new manatee doll into the water.

JT shows off his new toys while his cousin Da looks on amused.


On February 12, I took a trip with Jess and Lenny to Sea World in Orlando (teachers can get in free). While there we enjoyed a concert by Huey Lewis and the News. In the meantime, Grandson Tank became a star!

Tank was chosen from the audience to be part of the sea lion show! Here he is jumping up and down with Clyde, one of the stars of the show.

Cupcake gives a big smile when her mom takes her out of the stroller.


On February 13, Washy turned two. We celebrated her birthday at a nearby park. Her pull apart cake was a Sesame Street theme.

Here Washy gets a look at her cake while the rest of the crew sings Happy Birthday. Her sister Diddles is on the left and her cousin JT is on the right. Daddy helps her, and her great grandma, Gee Gee, is behind (in the sunglasses).


On February 19, two of the families joined us at the State Fair in Tampa. The weather was beautiful, and surprisingly, there weren't many people there at the start of the day.

JT learns how to make orange juice at the Agricultural Center.

Diddles was fascinated by this turkey in the poultry and rabbit exhibit.

Washy gets to hold a baby chick. Another chick hatched while we watched, and once it got out of its shell, the grandkids sang "Happy Birthday" to it.

The usually big and brave Manpants went hysterical when he got to the top of the giant slide and his momma had to force him onto the carpet to ride down. The usually timid Diddles loved riding down the slide with her Nee Nee.


Spring is in the air. Baseball has begun! We have five birthdays to celebrate in March -- Manpants, J-Rod; Diddles, Da, and Nee Nee! Catch ya later.