Today we headed over to the Allianz Championship golf tournament in Boca Raton, FL.
Our friends Matt & Brooke invited us and had VIP passes waiting for us! I am so happy that we all met up. We had a blast seeing them both on a pretty south Florida Sunday.
Here are some pictures from our Sunday...
Kappa Sigma Big brother Mark & little brother Matt
Such a daddy's girl
Goof nugget
Me & my hub hub
Thank you, Matt&Brooke for the invite! We had a great day with you.
And since "someone" didn't want to nap before the tournament...she's pooped. Early bedtime for her tonight.
Last Wednesday morning my mother in law and I met up at the toy store to introduce Ava to her main man, Elmo!
She had a great time getting to know him. As there were a ton of kids and parents there for the weekly story time, I had a hard time getting through the crowd to carry her over to Elmo.
Since Ava was not waiting to wait any longer, I put her down and she made her way through the crowd just fine by climbing and crawling all over adults and kids that were sitting around the area.. My mother in law and I just stayed back and watched from afar with cameras ready.
I must say, from what I could tell, Ava was one of the least afraid, shy, or quiet child. She went right up to him and played with his nose, gave him a hug, and "talked" to him.
So happy that she can hold her own. That's our girl! ;)
And I finally made my way through the crowd to share in the meeting Elmo experience...
And she found a miniature version of "Boo" the Palmeranian pup that she has in her crib. Her Grandma McGuire bought her Boo. It's been love ever since.
(This is the world famous: Boo)
So there you have it. Ava finally met Elmo and loved him. She also got see her friends, Sophia, Max, and Mya, that were there meeting Elmo as well.
I am excited for tonight because my friend, Jessica (Mark's former co-worker's wife), invited me a couple weeks ago to go listen to Rip Esselstyn speak tonight at the Whole Foods in Coral Springs.
When she said Rip Esselstyn, I instantly thought of Dr. Esselstyn from the documentary, Forks Over Knives. I watched about a year ago and absolutely loved it! (A friend of mine from college had messaged me on Facebook and recommended I watch the documentary. He and his family watched it and he told me that it changed their outlook on this way of eating and improved their overall health - especially their cholesterol levels! He saw on Facebook that I was becoming interested in what is really in our US food supply now and how our health in this country is awful because of it...I am happy he thought to share it with me!)
Well, Rip is Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's son. Rip is a former firefighter and talks about the importance of a more plant based diet. After watching this documentary I seriously talked to Mark about my interest in going vegan. "Vega the vegan," I joked...
I made it about 2 days and then had to travel to Jacksonville for a wedding. Traveling and doing the vegan thing is tough!
I applaud all the vegans out there.
Anyways, although I am not a vegan, I do see the importance in eating more of a plant based diet and less of an animal based diet.
The documentary explains it very well from a surgeon's point of view - Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn.
Tonight, I will be listening to his son and former fire fighter, Rip Esselstyn, speak for free at the Whole Foods in Coral Springs from 7-9PM with my friend Jessica.
Thursday, February 6th
7-9pm
Whole Foods Market
810 University Dr. Coral Springs, FL
33071
If you're interested or want some motivation to start your "Meatless Mondays" New Years Resolution... you can come sit with me ;)
The Forks Over Knives official trailer is posted below (from YouTube) in case any of you are interested in watching the documentary that his father worked on. I watched for free on our Hulu Plus account. (Let me know if you need it)
It is great!!! Mark watched it with me and agreed that it was eye opening and that he learned a lot. Although we are not vegan, we both took a lot of useful information about what we do eat now, how much of it we eat a week, and the quality of it. Overall, I highly recommend it to every single person - vegan or not. You WILL learn something. I promise.
Forks Over Knives
Official Trailer
And last but not least... Today's daily green smoothie.
(I am a college football girl myself so the NFL really does nothing for me. But since I just felt the amazing feeling of being National Champions when my Seminoles won, I get understand the excitement of the Seahawks fans.)
Hooray.
Anyways...
On Friday, I drove to Miami to surprise my grandparents with a 5 hour house deep clean while my mother in law watched Ava for the day. Thank you, Debbie!
Since my grandmother's back surgery which didn't help one bit for her chronic back pain, she has never been able to clean the way she did for her whole life. My grandmother was always a stay at home mom and cleaned her house unlike anyone I know. (Actually, Mark's grandmother in North Dakota cleans like her as well.) I am talking "eat off the floors" type of clean.
So, since my grandfather refuses to "have a stranger come in a clean" and he claims he cleans just fine....
I thought I'd go in and try my best to give him a break and clean like my grandmother.
Needless to say, I came home and was happy to relax the rest of the night with my red wine.
Mark works SUPER late on the last day of the month - every month. People in sales know what I am talking about...
So I basically did that ^ by myself.
The next morning while Mark slept in (usually he is the one that gets up before me and gives Ava her bottle at 8, walks the dog, and makes breakfast.)
I knew he was exhausted so I did all that :)
I made us waffles with bananas and cinnamon. They were delishhh! Ava approved.
When Ava and Mark went down for a nap, I got some sun by the pool...
Sorry, I had to.
That night my mom came over as Ava was being put to bed so that Mark and I could go out for a date night.
Mark took me to this tiny little sushi place in Mizer Park {Boca Raton, FL for my non-locals}
It was delicious! We sat on their little patio and could hear the live music from across the street at Jazziz Nightlife.
So after dinner, we headed over there to relax with some cocktails and music. They also had 3 large humidors for a ton of cigars which was great for Mark. He enjoys the occasional cigar with drinks.
We opted to sit outside as usual.
Inside.
This woman...
made me want Ava to learn the violin. She was amazing. She told me that she started playing when she was 7.
On Sunday morning around 11 we headed over to Las Olas for the Riverwalk Jazz Brunch. I am so happy that my friend AJ reminded me about it. I always remember these jazz bunches the day after they happen! They are the 1st Sunday of every month from 11AM-2PM.
Basically, people show up and set up camp for the free live music. You bring your blankets, chairs, food, mimosas :)
etc. and have a gorgeous, relaxing Sunday afternoon with your friends. There are multiple bands so you hear music wherever you get a spot.
Thanks, AJ!
He is also the one who created these homemade, super fancy dancy desserts for all of us. We had extras so he made friends and handed them out to our neighbors. We already know they will setting up camp next to our spot next month for these delicious almond baskets (They told us... ha )
They had raspberry sorbet, vanilla ice cream, whip cream, and mixed berries to top it all. I am drooling thinking about them. If you come out next month, these will make your day. (Sorry AJ, I just volunteered you to make these every month.)
^That is CALLAHAN WALTERS ^ refusing to be in my picture. LAME.
Zach and Nicole joined us :)
Cal eventually came around... Cheese! (I've known him sine Kindergarten so I can tease him)
AJ, Me, Cal, Griffin
We got in around 4 from the jazz brunch and since Ava had just gone down for her 2nd nap, we also took a nap...
Well, 3 hours later Mark and I woke up and realized that we overslept and our daughter was STILL asleep.
(It almost scares me to think about even having another child because my daughter has been a rockstar sleeper since she was about 7 weeks old. The girl can sleep and I love it because so can I... If we had another child, I feel like my luck would run out, they would be up all night, and be horrible nappers. We may just stick to Ava and spoil her rotten...
:)
So after a late dinner for Ava, we played with Ava's princess castle that my friend Chelsea bought her when she tuned 1 while Mark made us Mahi sliders for dinner. He blended mango and cilantro together to top them - delicious.
And now Ava is asleep for the night and we are on the porch. We are on our rocking chairs, enjoying our cocktails, Mark is smoking a cigar and working from his laptop, and I am blogging away and planning a bachelorette party weekend in Charleston, SC for my friend Sarah. Can't wait until March! I've never been to Charleston.
How was your weekend?
Hope you had a great one.
Also, don't forget...
National Signing Day is Wednesday! WooHoo!
Florida State University:
"Five-star wide receivers Malachi Dupre (River Ridge, La./John Curtis) and Ermon Lane (Homestead, Fla.), five-star defensive lineman Malik McDowell (Southfield, Mich.), four-star offensive tackle Roderick Johnson (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) and four-star defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi (Virginia Beach, Va./Ocean Lakes) are some of the top uncommitted prospects who could end up signing with the Noles. On top of that, FSU could flip four-star athlete Javon Harrison (Lakeland, Fla./Kathleen) from a long-standing pledge to Virginia Tech."
