Great Strides

GREAT STRIDES: Taking Steps to Cure Cystic Fibrosis is the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's largest national fund-raising event. Tens of thousands of co-workers, friends and family come together each year as one community for one cause…to help find a cure for CF. In 2007, more than $34 million was raised to support vital CF programs.

Today Lauren and I took great strides around Cranes Roost Park in Altamonte Springs. We were accompanied by two co-workers from Mommy's school. It was a nice 2 miles! Together the foundation raised $ 110,000 dollars!

Thank you for all of the generous contributions that were made! Together, we can make a difference in the lives of those with CF! Thank you for supporting the mission of the CF Foundation and GREAT STRIDES!

http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/dsp_DonationPage.cfm?walkid=5080&idUser=250726

A Meeting with Goofy

This was a picture of Lauren in line to meet Goofy. All smiles!
Our turn!

I don't know who was more scared... Lauren or Goofy?

My New Shoes

Take a look at Lauren's new flip flops. Many of you know that Lauren really hasn't been able to wear 'fun' shoes because she turns her feet inward to walk. Don't get me wrong, her shoes are always cute but supportive. She has gotten much better with her feet! Lauren loves her new flip flops so much that she asks to sleep with them. She definitely is a shoe lover, like Mommy!

Go Team Midland

What a busy night!

On Thursday we attended Daddy's first baseball game. And.........they WON! Thank goodness there was a playground near by. After the game we went to Chuck E. Cheese for a birthday party. Check out Lauren's Chuck E. Cheese cards.

Nice Diva face!

Caught Ya!

Oh, Bailey!

I don't think that chair is your size?

Easter

Happy Easter!

Easter was such a fun past time for me. I always remember waking up to an Egg Hunt and a special basket from the Easter Bunny. That's pretty good for a 1/2 Jewish kid! I have the best memories to hold on to from my Dad.

(Sorry, Renee...I had to post this!) Renee and Aimee Easter Egg hunting.
My Dad sticking out his tongue at my Mom's camera, while I found some eggs. I will share some great memories with Lauren about her Grandpa!

I want Lauren to have the same special memories on Holidays, too! Today Lauren woke up to an Easter Basket filled with everything she liked! Daddy cooked us breakfast and we enjoyed eating together as a family. After nap time, we headed down to Disney's Celebration Town to meet Bubbie, Abuela, Abuelo, and Titi Mariel. We walked around and then ate at a wonderful restaurant named, Columbia. The food was fantastic. Lauren survived the dinner. She enjoyed the food of course. Any restaurant who serves chicken fingers and fries knows what they are doing! It is very hard to have a two year old sit through an adult meal. We took two walks during dinner. One in the middle and one at the end. Crayons and an MP3 Player only buy you so much time. (Thanks for the player Renee!) She did seem very well behaved, Mommy was just exhausted. We all strolled over to an Ice Cream Parlor afterwards. That was so yummy. Ice Cream always makes the evening special!

My little goof ball trying to carry Mommy's purse.

Easter Weekend

Today Auntee Neh-Neh, Bubbie, Lauren and Mommy went to Disney. We were excited to see the Easter Bunny. Lauren sure wanted to see the Easter Bunny from far away. When it was our turn to take a picture, she started to get scared. For some laughs.....look closely at what Lauren is doing with her finger! Hmmm......

~ It's a Small World Ride with Auntee Neh-Neh (Renee) ~ It was hard to get Lauren to stay still for the picture!

Cuddle Time

Lauren loves to cuddle on the couch and watch movies. Bailey gets her fair share of cuddles, too! What a great pillow.

American Idol

American Idol.....here comes your next contestant.

(minus the bedhead) yikes!

School Spring Photos

Twice a year Lauren's school has picture day. I always wonder how they will come out. She usually is hard to photograph because of her quick 'cheese' pose. Not long enough to capture on film. It looks as if she is thinking about her pose in the first picture.

Picture One: "What do you want me to do?"

Picture Two: "Hurry, and take the picture already. I can't hold this pose forever!"

Build-A-Bear

On this cold, windy weekend we took Lauren to Build-A-Bear Workshop. We've walked through the store before and 'window shopped', but never actually bought anything. She loved going through the whole process. We picked a bear. She gave the bear to the lady and waited patiently to get the bear stuffed. She gave the Bear's heart lots of love and stuffed it inside. After taking the bear to the bathing station, we shopped around for an outfit. She picked out a Disney Cinderella dress. We looked at everything and that was the only one she wanted. While we sat at the computer to make the Bear's birth certificate, we tried to get Lauren to name the bear. Finally at home, she named the bear.....drum roll please............Bluh-blick. Interesting, isn't it?

The last picture is Lauren and Bluh-blick reading a book before bed. Bluh-blick is wearing Lauren's matching night-shirt.

ESPN Weekend ~ Hollywood Studios

This past weekend, Lauren, Daddy, and Mommy went to ESPN Weekend at Hollywood Studios. (AKA~ MGM) This was Daddy's special sports day treat! Of course, Lauren was able to do the specials things she loved. We got to see the 'updated' show for Playhouse Disney. She loved seeing Mickey!
For Daddy's sake, we saw a taping of a Baseball ESPN show. Lauren munched on snacks during the show. If it was any longer she would not have lasted!

I saw many cute baseball players!

They also were taping ESPN radio, with famous people that I didn't know, of course.As you can see, Lauren is wiped out. At the end of the day we finally saw Fantasmic! Wow...what a great fireworks/show it is. I can't believe I just saw it. Lauren loved it!

My Little Pony

Lauren and Mommy saw "My Little Pony Live!" with our best friends! Lauren was spoiled so much by her friend's grandmother. She came home with a My Little Pony T-Shirts (yes, two!), a coloring book, and a balloon. During the intermission of the show the audience filled with pink, as all the little girls put on their new shirts and ate their pink cotton candy. Don't worry Lauren didn't get all sugared up. Mommy prepared a snack ahead of time! The show was very cute. Lauren danced in the aisle during the show. At one point there was a Lady Bug character coming down the aisle and Lauren dashed away. She jumped into Mommy's arms. I didn't have any bug repellent ~ I explained that Lady Bug's are nice. After all, they are Mommy's school mascot! Lauren completely enjoyed the show and we still have our balloon hanging in her room. It must be super, strength helium!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Lauren enjoyed passing out her homemade, heart-shaped brownies to her classmates today. She came home SO hyper! Thanks a lot, teachers....wink, wink.

Show and Tell

Last week Lauren's class learned all about different turtles. At the end of the week they had a 'Show and Tell' for the students. Here is a pic of Lauren and her turtle named, Yertle.

Lauren loves to 'read' to him.

Super Bowl Party

Lauren and Mommy baked a cake together for our 'stay-home' Super Bowl Party.

Lauren helped every step of the way.

Quick Fix

We bought Lauren a toddler bed to solve our crib issue! It is a quick fix for now. Here is a picture of the bed. I hope you don't mind the unmade bed. We are working on that!

She likes to play on it. She loves to invite Bailey in her bed!
Lauren's first morning in her bed. Wake Up!

Lauren sound asleep. zzzzz...

The Plunge!

(Above Lauren is sleeping on the floor with her crib mattress.)

Lauren took the plunge last weekend. During what should have been nap time I heard a loud thump! Yet, I didn't hear Lauren. I ran straight to her room and found her laying on the floor (not in her crib!) I knew she was hurt because she was doing the 'silent cry.' For Lauren the silent cry is the worst. She cut the inside of her lip pretty bad. That was the last night of her crib. My big girl is growing up!

The Bee Incident

Lauren has been a very busy bee lately! She recently had her first bee sting. We were at Disney (of course) and a HUGE bumble bee flew in her hand. I gasped and tried to get it out but she closed her fist. I assume she got stung when she suffocated the bumble bee. She then let go of the bee and I continued to brush it away. When the coast looks clear we found it again on her pant leg. At that point I am frantically pulling her (still strapped in) body out of the stroller. The bee just loved her and then landed in the back of her diaper/pants! Poor Lauren. I got it out and finally on the ground. We stamped and squashed that bumble bee! At least she didn't have any allergies!

This incident happened at the beginning of this month. To this day she still talks about the bumble bee that stung her. If something bothers her, she blames it on the bumble bee.

The Circus

I highly recommend going to the circus. We had so much fun!
Our seats were great.

The show was very entertaining. It kept Lauren's interest the whole time.
And, she just loved munching on popcorn.

What a great time at the Big Top!