Monkey Subs!

I may never have mentioned this before, but one of my favorite weekly (or almost weekly) treats is going out to dinner at the Monkey Sub Place. I call it Monkey Sub Place because there's this HUGE monkey in there!

We've been coming here since I was little and didn't know the word for gorilla, so I called ol' Kong "monkey" or "mono" - and that's the name that stuck. Now Lela's calling him a monkey too, even though she's a little timid around him still. (I was too at first.)

(Sure, the restaurant has a real name, it's called "Larry's Giant Subs,", but who is Larry? I don't know any Larry.)
Not only do we like it there because of the monkey, but they happen to have pretty darn good sandwiches too.

Lela and I love their turkey subs!

Tonight, we had a special treat: my friend David came with his parents to eat dinner with us!
He showed me a neat trick with a straw that his mom taught him.

And I think he liked his sandwich too, although he wouldn't go over and see the monkey with me. Maybe next time.

Dressing for dinner

We went out to dinner the other night to a restaurant I hadn't been to in a long time - Leonardo's. There were two important things about this outing.
1. The importance of always dressing for dinner; i.e., wearing your earrings and your tiara when in a public dining establishment.
2. They had a dry erase board / word search right at our table! It was so amazingly fun!

I think I see R-E-S-L-I in here somewhere!

Pajama party!

There was this really neat party at our school tonight - it was a PJ Party! I got to take a bath as soon as I got home from school and put my pajamas on and then go back out - how weird is that!?!? Look, here I am in the school, all dressed as if I were going to bed!

We all sat on the floor in a circle and had cookies and milk (before dinner, another crazy thing!).

And then they read us stories! This one was about animal sounds, and Lela and I did very well.

I got a little bored and did some rolling and dancing. (And it was right about this time that I ran in to the center of the circle and yelled, "OK, can everyone focus on ME for a minute now?" No, Mami wasn't totally mortified...)

Then we did the hokey pokey!

And then we even got to do a craft activity. We made trees, because Tu B'Shevat is coming up soon.

Then I kind of got tired and overwhelmed and sat in the corner for some quiet time.

But was immediately rejuvenated by the opportunity to take pictures with the special guest, The Cat in the Hat!

That's my friend Jennie on the left, then Riley, then me, and then Raquel.

We had a fun time, but boy was I ready for bed when I got home! Lela was too - we get kind of weird when our schedules get thrown out of whack.

Eeew, GROSS!

We went to the Florida Museum of Natural History this afternoon. There's an exhibit there called Grossology and it's all about the gross things our bodies can do. We spent a while in there because it was all hands-on and very geared towards kids.

My favorite part was playing in the digestive tract. Here I am heading in the mouth;

sliding down the esophagus (sure, I'm making a funny face - wouldn't you if were sliding down the inside of someone's throat?!?);

chillin' in the stomach;

and finally coming out as, well, you know what.

I tried to get Lela to go digestive with me, but she wasn't that in to it.

She preferred this snot monster guy (who totally freaked me out),

and she spent a while with some big kids learning about burps. She liked the noise they made!

The exhibit closes tomorrow, so I'm glad we got to go today. Fun AND educational! :)

The Butterfly Rainforest

We also stopped by the Butterfly Rainforest while we were at the museum. I continue to be scared of butterflies and prefer to hide behind someone whenever possible.

Lela, on the other hand, loves them and kept wanting to reach out and touch one.

We were there for a "release", where they let the recently hatched/grown butterflies fly out of their boxes for the first time.

It was pretty cool. (They were mostly Monarchs and Blue Morphos, but lots of other kinds too. Can you see the Monarch flying away in front of the box?)
When you leave, you have to stop in front of this big mirror and make sure there are no "hitchhiker" butterflies on you trying to sneak inside. I just liked the mirror.

I keep telling Mami and Daddy that I'll be cured of my lepidopterophobia by the next time. They say we'll keep going to the rainforest until I am. Which is fine with Lela, she can't seem to get enough of them!

Dance lessons

I started a new program at my school this week - dance lessons! I have two books about ballet that I just love - Angelina Ballerina and Todos los tutús deberían ser rosas (thanks, Tammy!) - so I've been interested in dance for a while. To do these classes, I need to wear real dance clothes, which you know I just love!
I got a pink leotard, pink tights, and pink shoes. I'm all set to dance!



I had a blast during class today, I can't wait to learn more!

I see your true colors

One of the neat things Santa gave me in my stocking this year was a tub of color tablets to make our baths all kinds of fun colors.
This is the blue one - I think it looks just like the Little Mermaid's sea!

We also tried pink one night - Lela liked that too!

The yellow and the orange didn't turn out so well, I think we need more color tablets for them. But it's fun to experiment with all the different options, and I'm learning about what colors combine to form new colors.

Mm, Mm, Milkshakes

Lela and I have discovered our new favorite afternoon snack: banana milkshakes!

Mami makes them with two old bananas, a cup of milk, a few ice cubes and a little vanilla. We think they're great. Best when consumed atop Daddy's lap, of course.

Rockin' the Gator Nation: Resli Style ...

This morning Mami had some work to do and Lela had to get some work done at Grandma's house, so Daddy and I had a little time on our hands.  We figured it had been a while since we visited campus, so off we went.

Many of you may not realize this, but my Daddy is a little style-challenged.  He didn't think it was necessary to wear one of my crowns and Mami's boots to campus.  

I relented and gave up the extra fashion accessories, and look! Here we are on the north lawn of the Reitz Union!  Look closely - that's the seal of the University of Florida I'm doing my touchdown dance on.

It's so intimidating being on campus - I'm already worried what my major will be ...

Perhaps botany.  I like flowers and plants, you know ...

Then again, I like Journalism and Communications.  I am, after all, one of Media's People ...

Daddy says this is how people used to "blog" in the old days ...

And in the even older days ...

OK, maybe print journalism isn't for me  - what about TV?  I love TV, you know.  And I've never seen so many TV's in one place in all my life as in master control at Daddy's TV station!

By this time, I needed a break so we went to see Daddy's friend Ms. Debbie - she works across the hall from him and she's a grandma, so she knows how to give good hugs.

Later we headed over to the Physics building.  They have cool stuff there as well ...

 But frankly it can all be a bit much.  Sometimes a girl just needs to sit down and contemplate things under a palm tree, you know?

Whew!  What a morning!  Off to meet Mami for lunch ...

BOY did I miss you Mami!