Florida- Part 1!

This past month, we embarked on our first family vacation as a family of 4! We have wanted to take Bella to the beach and decided that the younger Grace is, the easier it would actually be. And that proved to be quite true! Some may think us crazy for taking a 2 year old and a not even 6 month old baby on a vacation, but it was actually a wonderful vacation. We went to Clearwater Beach in Florida as that met our requirements of a beach and direct flight. :) Neither of us had been there before, but we will definitely be going back as it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. 

We left on a Wednesday morning and got to Clearwater in the early afternoon. Our flight there went perfect- Grace slept almost the entire way, and Bella played games on the ipad. :) When we got to the hotel, Bella was pumped to hit up the pool and the beach right away! Gracie was quite intrigued by her new surroundings!

We picked a hotel that had the beach directly on it, which was perfect. Bella could go back and forth between the pool and beach as she pleased! She wasn't too thrilled with the ocean however. The water was still pretty chilly, and the waves kind of freaked her out. But she adored the sand and pool.

Daddy and Bella spent lots of time the first afternoon exploring in the sand while Grace took a nap on Mommy.

And there she is up!

The next morning, we ate breakfast at our hotel before heading out to explore our surroundings. 

Gracie took a little nap in the stroller- she is such a laidback little girl!

And Bella is crazy- dancing on the chairs. :)

We walked down to Pier 60, which is a pier where the marina is located along with other water activities and such. There was also a park that Bella played in for quite some time!

Always a fan of the big slides. :)

Once we got back to our hotel after the park, Bella of course wanted to go swimming in the pool!

We tested Grace in the pool as well, but she was not a fan. The water was probably around 80 degrees, but that is still a little too chilly for her.  She is used to warm bathwater!

With two little girls, we of course had to have some down time in the room so they didn't get completely exhausted- particularly Bella! She was spoiled on vacation and got to play lots and lots of games on the ipad. 

But some of her princesses made the trip with her, and they got played with as well. :) 

Gracie practiced her new sitting skills on vacation and perfected them! 

We all slept together in one room, which I was a little nervous about. But the website we did our booking through only had standard rooms available, and no suites were open when we got there. However, it actually went really well. We put Grace's crib in the bathroom, and she slept every night without a problem. Bella was a little more difficult, particularly the first night. She wanted to go sleep in her bed own. :) I slept with her so she wouldn't get scared in the night, but that did not go well at all as she was laying on top of me the whole time! The following nights went better, but she is a pretty noisy sleeper! 

We had a beautiful view of the ocean and beach from our room.

Definitely didn't mind waking up to that every morning. :)

Mommy and Bella chilling out on the balcony.

That afternoon, we went to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, which is actually like a rescue aquarium. It is also home to Winter the dolphin, which is the dolphin with the mechanical tail. Bella loved seeing all the dolphins, although you can't tell by her expression in this picture. She wanted to touch them and was quite distraught by the fact that she couldn't. :) Well, at least not for free!

I think this dolphin was Winter- never knew for sure. :) 

There were also turtles, fish, sea otters, sting rays, and a few other animals to see. You could touch the sting rays, but naturally Bella didn't want to touch those!

Gracie got carted around in the Moby wrap. :) Her favorite thing to do!

Giving the turtle a big hug!

Mommy and the girlies!

Bella's Activities!

Bella had a pretty exciting month in March with lots of fun things for her to do! First, and probably the favorite, she got to see her favorite person again...

A Big Dora! :)

We went to Kids Fest in Des Moines again just so that Bella and Dora could reunite. Bella was obviously quite excited and talked about it for weeks beforehand. She was curious where Boots was this year though!

Bella also got to meet Jasmine- too bad it wasn't Cinderella or Belle, then she would've been really pumped. :)

Naturally, Bella had to take a couple rides down the big inflatable slide.

Squealing with delight the whole time!

Another absolute favorite for Bella, and a first, was getting her face painted! This was possibly the cutest thing in the world to watch. She sat so still and concentrated so hard- it was adorable. :)

Getting her little mouth painted in to look like a....

Kitty! Big surprise there. :) She looked so stinkin cute; I hated to wash it off her face that night!

Bella loved jumping around in the bouncy house! Although when it was time to get out, she didn't exactly listen, and Daddy had to climb in to go retrieve her... Oops!

Chilling with Elmo and Big Bird. :)

Taking a ride on the train- she is saying chugga chugga choo choo here I believe. :) It was a very fun outing for her!

A few days after Kids Fest, we left for our vacation to Florida! More pictures to come on that later. :) It wasn't even bad to come home because we returned to beautiful beautiful weather. So we have spent lots of time playing outside! But naturally Bella needs some inside play too with her beloved princesses.

She loves her imaginative play!

Bella also enjoys lining up all her dolls for some reason. She sets every single one up (and there is a lot!). And beware the person who tries to pick them up!

I'm not sure what they were doing on this particular day- I think maybe listening to Bella do a concert or some such thing. :) Another weird thing Bella has been doing with her toys has been to take ALL the food and dishes out of her toy kitchen and line them up on the floor or table. One day she said she was cooking sugar, and another time she was having a Christmas party for Santa. Quite the imagination! 

I wanted her to take a picture by our pretty purple bush. Nice smile huh. :) 

The next fun for Bella was starting swimming lessons again! Her last time for doing the parent-child lessons- then off to the group or private lessons!

She has been doing a really good job thus far. However, Mommy may be stuck going in the pool the rest of the sessions. She doesn't exactly like to listen to Daddy

Practicing the back float, every child's favorite!

The majority of our outside time has been spent doing this: drawing pictures all over the driveway!

Bella has seriously been obsessed with sidewalk chalk lately. Mommy doesn't really mind it though, as evidenced by my giant Easter bunny above. :) I like to draw too!

And that makes for some very messy hands and clothes, since she likes to sit on all of the pictures. :)

Such a little goofball!

We experienced something very unpleasant for about a week as well- some major temper tantrums occurring. Not exactly sure what they were caused from, but they were definitely the worst Bella has had- as in screaming and crying for 20 minutes straight! We experimented with some new discipline ideas and reward charts, and that seemed to help. Oh the joys of an almost 3 year old. :)

Gracie got introduced to the big bath this month, so Bella now has a little playmate! :) She actually really likes having her in there. Gracie may feel otherwise as Bella likes to help wash her, and water often gets poured on her face before Mommy can stop it. Poor second child!

We also went to Pella's Easter egg hunt for the first time!

This was Bella's first egg hunt of the year, and she knew exactly what to do.

She was very meticulous about picking up every last piece of candy, even if it was buried in grass- as evidenced by the handful of grass getting thrown in the bucket.

Posing with all her earnings! Easter candy was much more thrilling this year as Bella now loves her chocolate. :)

Gracie chilled in the stroller. :) Next year!

On our way to our car, Bella saw some "beautiful pink flowers" and actually WANTED to have her picture taken! Shocking!
And our funny sayings of the month:
-"I wanna stay up early!" Spoken on the way home from somewhere when we told her she had to go to bed when we got home. Right concept, messed up the words a little bit. :)
-"That's not good!" That has been said a LOT this month. As little sister gets more and more mobile, she has been getting into Miss Bella's toys- aka chewing on them. Bella is not a fan!
-"You're making me cry Mommy!" This was during temper tantrum week. :)
-"That's not nice." We now get told that if we say something deemed naughty since part of our discipline techniques has been to talk about what is nice behavior or words and what is naughty. She apparently caught on to that quick, and now Mommy and Daddy are getting scolded as well!