Spring Happenings

We finally have some decent weather here. It's going to be short lived, but we are certainly enjoying it while we have it.

Life in the Garonzik home continues on as busy as ever. March 1st was Sydney girl's 3rd birthday. We had a couple celebrations for her. Her "kid" birthday party was at the Super Jump Party Zone. The theme was Tinkerbell. She had a blast and so did all the other kids and as far as we can tell there were very minimal, if any, injuries. Sydney really loved opening her presents and eating her cake. She even loved having all the attention when we sang Happy Birthday to her. On her actual birthday we made a special dinner and more cupcakes and more gifts. She, again, loved the attention. We can't believe that she is 3 already and absolutely the apple of our eyes.

In other fun and exciting news we signed Sydney up for swimming lessons. The girl loves the water and since we like to vacation in places that have pools and oceans, we thought it was probably time for her to learn to swim. Well, group lessons were...um, challenging. Our child has no fear of the water and wanted to be in it all the time and was having a hard time waiting her turn. With 4 other 3 and 4 year olds in her class it just wasn't working and in protest, during her 2nd lesson, our child decided to take off her bathing suit. OIY...Jed sat in the stands and said, "We don't know her." :) While I moved as quickly as possible to get to Sydney because her poor 17 year old instructor had no clue what to do. So...group swimming lessons aren't for Sydney. We always knew she was special. Private lessons were next and although the private lesson went MUCH better than the group lesson, on the advice of the instructor, we think we will wait a few months in the hopes that Sydney's attention span will grow a bit. The instructor did say that it is a good thing that she has no fear of the water...but right now there is no focus and she is not retaining the skills...so we will continue to work with her in the pool ourselves and try private lessons again in the fall when she starts pre-school.

Over the last weekend we made some significant changes to Sydney's room. She has made this shift into being a little more independant and wanting to play in her room more and more...so we moved her kitchen set and her table and chairs into her room. It's nice having those items out of the family room and really quite sweet to hear the chatter of a 3 year old playing house with her dolls. She loves it.

Here is hoping that there is more warm spring weather coming soon...we love it and we need the vitamin D!

Maui 2009 Fun in the Sun!

We just returned from our 4th trip to Maui. It was incredible. We had such a good time. The weather was perfect...the food was excellent and spending time with family, making memories is what we love the most about Maui. Sydney had a great time and is already asking to go back. Her favorite spot was the Maui Toy Store at Whaler's Village...and good thing for us she could never choose which toy she wanted to buy. She just wanted to hang out in the store and play with all the toys. We spent hours and hours in the pool and on the beach with her. She loved the little slide in the pool and we would have a parent or teenager at one end and another at the other end and she would go down that slide over and over and over. We also discovered that our dear daughter is not much of a morning person. Several days in a row she would inform us that she was still "sweepin" and wanted us to leave her alone in bed...it was hard because we wanted to "Go-Go-Go" early and the (nearly) 3 year old set the schedule on most days. She ran hard every day and took awesome naps (usually 2-3 hours a day) and was asking to go to bed by 8 or 8:30 every night. Poor thing did get a little virus while we were gone and threw-up in the rental car twice...(thank God it's a rental), but it didn't keep her down for very long and soon enough we were off and running again. Jed, mom (Grandma Judy), Jami, Mike, Zach and Madison got to do the Zip-Line this year...(I took one for the team and stayed back with Sydney). Apparently it was really a great adventure and the guides were incredible. They really took a liking to my mom and took care of her. What a trooper mom was...nervous, but she said she had a wonderful time. Next time I get a turn and someone else can stay back with the kiddo! 11 days goes by quick when you are in paradise...and although I was ready for the comforts of home, I was not ready to leave that weather...the drive to the airport is beautiful and sad as you just don't want to leave Maui. I hope you enjoy our photos...we took lots of them. i will post more pictures and stories soon!


Sydney waiting to get in the pool.

Mom and Ang at the Hula Grill...one of our favorite eatin' spots! mmmmm...Mango-colada's!

On the beach at Ka'anapali!

An early dinner in Lahaina at the Cool Cat Cafe after taking some pictures by the Banyan Tree.

I don't recall what restaurant we were at when this picture was taken...but this was Sydney's "Hip-Hop" pose, taught to her by her cousins Madison and Zach. She loves the camera and she loves her Zachy and Madison!