memorial day.

hope everyone had a great weekend! no bbq for us this year. booo. but instead we spent the whole day at a butterfly sanctuary. i don't know if it's just us but it looks like everyone spent their memorial day at the beach because the place was not packed at all. we were expecting craziness just like the seaquarium trip. i guess that's the new yorker in us. maybe everyone is at the beach like every weekend. what am i talking about this is miami after all. i know this sound crazy but ever since we moved here we haven't gone to the beach! or the pool in our community! gotta do something about that! like asap. more photos at a+s.

lunch at the liberty.

courtesy of my hubby's company, we had lunch at the carnival liberty and we got to tour the whole ship before it sailed. check out the view from the deck! sunny south beach! 

and our table was right across star island. where a lot of the celebs live.

liberty weighs a good 110,000 tons! like 110,000 tons!!!!!!!!!! compared to titanic which only weighed around 46,000 tons. whoah! btw, this was my first time on a cruise ship so bear with my enthusiasm here.

here's j and sophie being cute. bored before board. (har har)

here's one with dad...

here's sophie playing with a slot machine while we were having drinks at the bar. that doesn't sound right. ahaha. don''t worry the machines were all disabled and we had water and soda.

 

then we drove around south beach. what a day! 

photo op i can't miss.

sophie was so cute while she was on this train ride. i just had to take a pic. i was literally running after the train thinking i could catch up and take a shot. man these things are fast! just imagine me running around the fence thingie screaming "smile sophie!! oh wait!!! now! now! oh wait!" like a crazy person. ahahaha things i gotta go through with. what can i do she's so damn cute! more adventures of ayan+sophie here.

things that make me smile.

1. my salt cup with the little bird thingie.

2. remember this post? well j got it for me last christmas and i'm finally using it. turns out everyone's cutting down on the sugar (well everyone but me) so it's the perfect size.

3. i finished making all 60 of our moving cards! handmade with love baby! cutting all those tiny houses and assembling them is like therapy for me.

4. this new shade of nail polish i got. sally hansen 160 gentle blossom

5. my orchid.

6. good weather. south beach.

7. seriously, how can you not smile?

preppy outfit challenge.

so i decided to join pretty, shiny, sparkly's blogger do it better movement. and this month's challenge is the preppy look. i have to admit i was so excited to do this just because i love a good preppy look. i discovered that i own a lot of preppy clothing. and i've been borrowing my hubby's to siders lately. remember those? i do! my brothers love those things! i wanted to wear nerdy glasses too but i didn't want to go overboard. ahahha. thanks papa for taking my pix. so funny: i told him to take some candid shots and he's like "then stop looking at the camera" ahaha. check pretty, shiny, sparkly's blog to see everyone's prep school version.

a&a.

maxie, after a long day with sophie

awkward
- sophie accidentally hit my face with her toy mic. i know right?! so i have a big bruise on my cheek!
- bought the where's waldo app and it's almost a gig and for a good 3 hours now it's slowing down my ipad. i also happen to update 14 of my apps. at the same time. make that 4 hours.
- our internet sucks. i miss fios.
- i am not used to an electric stove. the food just doesn't come out the same. 
- max barking really earlyyyyyyy in the morning for a walk and me deciding to take him in my sleeping clothes. trying to cover up with an oversized bright purple cardi. so much for being subtle. and oh yeah cardi on a 90 degree day.

awesome
- hot chewy brownies for dessert. yummmm
- our fishie, blu is still alive!
- tomorrow's preppy look challenge. so excited for that.
- organizing our office including cleaning out my mailbox. as in unsubscribing to all my junk mail.
- getting our first official mail!

meet blu.

remember this little guy, ponyo? yes, she's still alive (i hope so) but due to transpo issues, we had to leave her in ny. so we went for a quick drive yesterday to the pet store. and i mean 5 mins. (i can't get over how close everything is to our new place, i love it!) they have tons of fish, sophie had so much fun. check out some amazing photos we took. so meet blu, as in the blue spix's macaw in the rio movie.

random thoughts.

1. back at the dolphin mall today. excited much? because we were the first ones at the playground. so cute!  breakfast themed playground!
2. why i always crop my pictures that way. i wish i could tell you that it's for artistic purposes. i guess sometimes. but it's because my dad took the picture and oh how he loves the date stamp on the lower right hand side of the photo.
3. i seriously need a haircut.
4. i love this song right now.
5. blogger problems. if you really think about it, it's kinda scary. if it happens to online banking. unless of course if it's my last two purchases of household items. what problems?
6. i'm addicted to hipstamatic on my ipad. jay: why do you do that to the photos, you're not from the seventies. ahahaha. because i also happen to love wide leg jeans and vintage stuff. just mechanical stuffs though (cameras, telephones, typewriters).
7. there's so much clothes at the mall. well duh? i mean cute ones and it's like all the stores are on sale. it's madness. but i've been very good - haven't bought one piece of clothing since i got here. just my hat and bag.
8. this bag by the sak is like the best bag ever. it's fits everything including my slr. what's in my bag anyway? water bottle, juice box for sophie, wallet, baby wipes, house keys, cellphone, rice crispy treats, lollipop, small camera, ipad, extra hair tie, new winn-dixie card that i have to register still, new sun pass that needs to be registered as well.
9. today was a goooood day on so many levels including sophie's excellent behavior.

a day at the aquarium.

 

so today we took sophie to miami seaquarium in key biscayne. and i had a blast. i mean sophie had a blast. ahahah. it was surprisingly relaxing. i mean we were expecting amusement park madness. i even told j at breakfast "are you ready for this?". the drive was unbelievable and traffic free considering it's a saturdya. i can't believe we live 20 mins away. i think jay's right, we are on a permanent vacation.

miami seaquarium is like a smaller version of seaworld. but man the shows were awesome! aside from all the marine animals, they have flamingos, crocs, lizards and exotic birds. i'm not a big fan of aquariums and zoo for the matter because you know of all the "captives". but having a curious toddler, how can i say no. it's ironic that when it comes to kids up close and personal experience with animals and nature spark up their interest to them - at the zoo where animals are held captives. anyway just to get it out there, they clip off the flight feather of the birds so that we can be really close to them and not fly off. cruel i know. and don't get me started on the dolphins.

now that i got that out of my chest, i really appreciate how smart the animals were. naturally ah-mazing! esp. the killer whale, lolita swimming with the dolphins - in the same tank people! that's crazy!

sophie's excitement was priceless...

we were crazy enough to sit in third row - the get wet section. and my dad was the only one who got really wet. ahaha.

water lilies and lotus were everywhere...

 this is me with sophie at the parking lot...

 this is sophie and j waiting for food...

 and this is us cooling off with mist...

 photo op at the the whale tale...

 sea urchin...

 and a hydrant pic of course. what a day!