Christmas/Winter in FL

We had a great holiday season despite the ongoing pandemic trying to ruin our traditions! 

We got a tree. Always fun to get a real one.

Thomas working on his letter to Santa. Can you see the reindeer and all their antlers?

We still made our traditional hot fudge sauce. These two had fun eating the leftovers afterward.

Ricardo had a birthday in December! He spent it coaching a soccer game and then we went downtown and met up with some friends there and did some sightseeing. It was a fun day!

The kids have been enjoying many Sunday afternoons at Ricardo's parents' farm. There are always fun activities like cousin time, tractor rides...

Also, making sugar cane juice! The kids enjoyed sucking on the leftover sugar cane.

We had an early Christmas party with Ricardo's family. His dad always dresses up as Santa and the older cousins dress up as elves. My kids loved it.

Caroline got this stroller for her baby which she has loved pushing around the neighborhood.

We went to a fun drive-thru Christmas light show. The kids absolutely loved watching through the sunroof.

Thomas'  preschool had a fun week of dressing up before Christmas. He loved the day he spent as the Grinch.

Russell also still got to participate in some fun Christmas activities at school. He is obsessed with gingerbread houses and had fun making this one.

We also had fun making our own gingerbread men at home!

I love this letter to Santa that Thomas made at preschool. I was amused that he was realistic about his behavior and recognizes that he hasn't been very, very good. Haha!

My siblings all came in town for Christmas. It was definitely tricky this year with covid but we all tried to quarantine before getting together. Having all the cousins together made it all worth it. 

After Christmas, we went down to Ft. Myers beach with my siblings and parents. It was surprisingly warm and the kids had a blast playing on the beach with their cousins.

My dad broke his chair, we had a good laugh over that.

We took some family photos on the beach which are still being edited, but look at this cute girl.

Henry Ford and Thomas Edison had a shared winter estate in Fort Myers. We went on a tour one night to see all the Christmas lights there. It was so beautiful and was a really fun outing!

We also went on a fun outing to a county park where we saw dozens of manatees! I was too busy watching the manatees to get any good photos of them but we did get the cousins together for at least one photo-op.

After south Florida my sister and her family came to stay with us for a few days. The kids had a blast playing and hanging out poolside.

I always say this, but we love living in FL because we get to see so many friends pass through on their Disney and beach trips! We loved seeing this great family from Washington even if we had to get creative on how we got together this year.

Ricardo's parents loaned us a baby chick and duck in January. They meant for us to keep them for a day or two, but the kids adored them so much, we ended up keeping them for almost 2 weeks! They lived in a cardboard box and the kids would take them for walks outside and set up a tiny swimming pool for the baby duck. Our house was definitely a lot cleaner and quieter when they left, but it was so fun while it lasted.

Silly Caroline wanted to go for a ride in the underside of the stroller one day.

We had a fun Saturday in January doing some orange picking. We have been missing Yakima and all the fruit, so we all thoroughly enjoyed picking oranges. The kids especially enjoying using the special clippers to clip them off the trees. It was a beautiful winter day followed by strawberry shortcake since it's strawberry season here.

Thomas and Caroline painting one afternoon. She is getting too big!

These two both enjoy dressing up and Caroline is always up for being a superhero.

We have actually had some cold days this winter, but you couldn't tell that with my photo reel. We've also had several warm ones and spent the kids' day off in January at the beach. The water is definitely too freezing for me, but not for them!

Thomas discovered brussels sprouts and loves them. Russell, not so much, despite my best efforts to convince him since there's a resemblance to his name.

Russell really wanted this photo taken of his under the sea playdough creation. His favorite subject in school this year is art, which is a big change over the past year.

Thomas turned 5 in January! He was so excited to plan all the meals he wanted for his birthday. He had very detailed requests. Donuts and chocolate milk for breakfast were a hit.

All Thomas wanted for his birthday was an aquatic frog. He had seen them at the pet store recently while getting crickets for his tree frog pets. So, we got him 2 of these little swimming frogs for his birthday. Unfortunately, we put them in the new aquarium too fast and both the frogs and our beta fish were dead when I woke up the morning of his birthday. So, luckily I got rid of them before he woke up and we told him that the gift was the aquarium and that he got to pick out the frogs (and a new fish) himself. Luckily, he was none the wiser and had fun picking out his pets with his BFF from preschool who came over to play. To add to the saga, one of the new frogs escaped, but the remaining frog and fish have been alive for almost a month now, so we are feeling rather successful!

We spent the rest of his bday eating all the rest of his favorite foods and spending time at the park. Can't believe this boy is 5! 

We had to visit dad at Ricardo's office one day for checkups and he took the kids out for ice cream afterward. I don't think he usually recommends ice cream after the dentist to all of his other patients...but..who knows?

Caroline loves her little pearls and sunglasses. Such a girly girl despite the boys' influences.

The weekend after Thomas' birthday we went camping with cousins for his birthday party. It was pretty cold that night and we did not sleep well (except the birthday boy who was in the middle and stayed warm). But, we had a fun time anyway!

Sweet cousins.

Caroline likes Ricardo's motorcycle a little too much.

Another week, another full schedule of dressing up for Thomas at school. Since the Bucs were in the Super Bowl he had fun dressing up as a pirate and in red all week (his favorite color). 

Russell's 100th day of school celebration. He was so excited about his 100 bandaids.

Ricardo's parents' cow had a baby and the kids had a blast going to see it the day it was born.

It has been a busy couple of weeks lately because I went back to work and have been temporarily working full-time for training. My kind brother came in town and helped with the kids during this crazy time, which was so nice of him. I am loving my new job but am looking forward to working part-time again! I don't know how all my full-time working mom friends do it!!

So, it was nice to have a relaxing Valentine's weekend last weekend. We had a group date Saturday night with Ricardo's family and then on Sunday we had our traditional fondue. The kids were excited to have a candlelight dinner.

Oh also on Saturday, we explored this amazing park by our house with these beautiful trees! 

Of course, Caroline was right behind the boys.

We had fun exploring a new park on Monday since they didn't have school. We went early and had the place to ourselves.

The statue boy is playing with a frog. :)

I think that finally gets me up to date on the last few months! All the remaining hours unaccounted for have been spent building countless Lego creations. :)